Legislation requires the presence of reflex reflectors in automotive rear lamps, to guarantee the visibility of a vehicle even if the active illumination is defective or switched off. The physical principle of reflex reflectors is well known for decades. Since styling aspects become more and more important for rear lamps and the styling changes towards a brilliant and technical appearance, setmakers are challenged to find new ways to realize the function of reflex reflectors. Reflex reflectors have to correspond to the styling of the rear lamp, but simultaneously to fulfil the legal requirements for worldwide homologation. Reflex reflectors in automotive use are made of plastic materials, processed usually in an injection molding process. The optical quality of a reflex reflector depends strongly on the molding process and its tolerances. The paper deals with reflex reflectors made of plastic materials. There are several possibilities to solve the problems posed by new design requests for the reflex reflector function. A compromise between styling demands and photometric requirements has to be found. There are various parameters which can be used to this purpose. Special chosen pin orientation can be used to optimize the light distribution for the specific application. With an adjustment of the pin size it is possible to reach smaller tolerances. The optimization of the molding process is more difficult and exact machining is necessary. Dedicated solutions for each application have to be found. Further emphasis has to be put on the optimization of the production process in order to get the best possible photometric results. However, during the design process, the teamwork between OEMs, setmakers and toolmakers has to be intensified to find the best solution as close to the designers idea as possible.


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    Title :

    Impact of styling and design on reflex reflectors


    Additional title:

    Wirkung von Styling und Design auf Fahrzeugrückstrahler


    Contributors:


    Publication date :

    2005


    Size :

    8 Seiten, 6 Bilder



    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Print


    Language :

    English




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