Motor Vehicle Headlamp Secondary Optical Unit with Segmented Refractive Sections
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing headlamps struggle to efficiently shape light distribution for both high beam and low beam functions using simple means, often resulting in a high installation height and limited flexibility in light output.
Innovation Solution
The use of a primary optical unit with multiple light conductors and a secondary optical unit featuring sections with varying refractive powers, including cylindrical and planar lenses, allows for targeted light shaping, enabling collimation or focusing in specific directions and contributing to both range and wide illumination, while maintaining a low installation height.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a headlamp uses a secondary optical unit with uniform optical design to shape light distribution, then the light shaping function is simple, but the ability to provide both high beam and low beam functions with different light distributions is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The secondary optical unit is divided into multiple sections (first section, second section, third section) with different optical functions. Each section has specific optical characteristics: the first section has positive refractive power for collimating high beam light, the second section is planar for wide illumination, and the third section has negative refractive power. This segmentation allows a single optical unit to provide both high beam and low beam functions with different light distributions, resolving the contradiction between versatility and complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the secondary optical unit are assigned different optical properties tailored to specific light distribution requirements. The first section (for high beam) has positive refractive power to collimate light, the second section (for wide illumination) has planar design, and the third section has negative refractive power. This local differentiation enables the headlamp to achieve multiple beam patterns without requiring separate optical units for each function.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the headlamp uses multiple separate optical units for high beam and low beam, then the light distribution can be optimized for each function, but the installation height increases
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple optical functions (high beam collimation, low beam wide illumination) are merged into a single secondary optical unit with multiple sections. The first section handles high beam light with positive refractive power, while the second section provides wide illumination with planar design. This merging eliminates the need for separate optical units stacked vertically, thereby reducing installation height while maintaining versatile beam functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The secondary optical unit is designed as a multi-functional component that simultaneously performs high beam collimation and low beam wide illumination through its different sections. This universal design allows one optical unit to replace what would traditionally require multiple separate units, reducing the overall height of the headlamp assembly while providing both beam functions.
3Length of stationary object
If the headlamp uses a compact design with low installation height, then the vehicle integration is improved, but the light distribution shaping capability is limited
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of achieving light distribution optimization through vertical stacking of multiple optical units (increasing height), the invention transitions to horizontal differentiation by dividing the secondary optical unit into multiple sections arranged side-by-side. Each section (first, second, third sections) has different optical properties for different beam functions. This dimensional shift from vertical to horizontal arrangement maintains compact height while providing versatile light distribution shaping capability.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This configuration optimizes light distribution for motor vehicle headlamps, providing effective high beam and low beam functionality with a compact design, enhancing visibility and reducing the headlamp's height, and allowing for modular expansion of optical units.
Implementation Method 1
at least one first section is designed as a lens having a positive refractive power, at least with respect to a first direction, which corresponds to the horizontal direction
Implementation Method 2
The light emanating from the primary optical unit may be shaped by this cylindrical lens on the second boundary surface
Implementation Method 3
The light emanating from the primary optical unit may be shaped by this cylindrical lens on the second boundary surface, in particular, with respect to a different direction than by the at least one section of the first boundary surface acting, in particular, as a cylindrical lens
Data Source
AI summary
A headlamp having a plurality of light sources which emit light during the operation of the headlamp, a primary optical unit, which at least partially shapes the light emanating from the light sources, a secondary optical unit, which includes a first optically functional boundary surface having at least one first section and at least one second section. A first portion of the light emanating from the primary optical unit passing through the at least one first section, and a second portion passing through the at least one second section. The at least one first section having a positive refractive power at least with respect to a first direction and the second section having a lower refractive power than the first section or as a lens having a negative refractive power at least with respect to the first direction.