Windshields have remained unchanged for the past several decades. Meanwhile, the problem of headlight glare is getting worse with the advent of the brighter headlights. A novel approach is presented in this paper by doping the windshield glass with Neodymium Oxide, a rare earth compound. Neodymium Oxide, as a component of glass, filters out a portion of the yellow in the spectrum, increasing black white contrast, as well as increasing the color saturation of reds, greens, and blues. For instance the light transmission of a piece of Neodymium Oxide doped glass with a total transmittance of 70 percent, with .0453 lbs./sq.ft. (.0221 Kgs./sq. meter) of Neodymium oxide is shown. Light sources can be evaluated by the ratio of the Scotopic content (so called 'night vision') in lumens divided by the Photopic content (so called 'day vision') in lumens. The D65 Illuminant (standard daylight) has an S/P ratio of 2.46. lf one filters D65 by Neodymium Oxide containing glass with a total transmittance of 70 percent, the resultant S/P ratio is 2.86. Thus, adding Neodymium Oxide to glass appears to increase the S/P ratio by 16.3 percent. The reduction in transmittance in going from 75 percent to 70 percent is 7.14 percent. Thus, it appears that on a theoretical basis, Neodymium Oxide doped windshields appear to improve the visual contrast by greater amount that exceeds the reduction in total light transmission. As many accidents are near misses, even a small improvement in vision should have a substantial effect on motor vehicle safety. Research results indicate that 0.742 lbs./sq. ft. (0.362 Kgs/sq. meter) maximizes glare reduction while minimizing the amount of Neodymium Oxide necessary. This value optimizes the performances of a Neodymium Oxide doped windshield in that glare is reduced as much as possible while limiting the amount of Neodymium Oxide as adding more to the glass would not improve performance. Neodymium Oxide doping of the motor vehicle windshield solves the problem of glare in a cost effective and straight forward manner. It is simple to implement, and will require no changes to the light duty vehicle or heavy duty vehicle other than to add Neodymium Oxide to the glass at the glass furnace.
Neodymium oxide doped windshields
Neodymoxid-dotierte Windschutzscheiben
2002
6 Seiten, 2 Bilder, 3 Quellen
Conference paper
English
Neodymium oxide doped windshields
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