Hella plans to launch new LED products at the Frankfurt Motor Show (IAA) in Germany later this month. The firm’s exhibit will feature a new LED headlamp with dynamic LED cornering lights, an electronic parking-assist system, a concealed rain-and-light sensor, inductive-switching interior lamps, and rear-lighting technologies such as an LED light curtain and 3-D light guides.
The prototype LED headlamp includes a dynamic cornering light that has no mechanical components. The lamp's LEDs are triggered electronically and scatter light with the aid of specially designed Cartoval plastic lenses, according to the company.
The cornering light is housed in the headlamp as a separate module in the lower part of the front bumper. Four Cartoval plastic lenses arranged next to one another are aligned in different directions, and different switch-on algorithms can be realized using electronic controls. Each of the four elements can be switched on or dimmed depending upon speed and steering angle.
The prototype uses standard LEDs and LED assemblies developed for automotive applications in cooperation with Stanley Electric Co. (www.stanley.co.jp/e/). The LED arrays direct light onto the road with the aid of different optical systems. Five plastic-lens modules arranged next to one another in the upper part of the headlamp produce the low beam, two additional modules positioned vertically on the outside of the headlamp form the high beam, and two standard LEDs together with dimmed high-beam modules produce a daytime running light. The new LED headlamps being developed by Hella and Stanley are expected to provide light output equal to Xenon headlamps when they become available in 2008.