It is said that "eyes are the windows to the soul", a pair of bright eyes can easily touch more people's hearts. So for cars, the burden of "expressing emotions with eyebrows" naturally falls on the car headlights. However, you must know that when the automobile was first born, the component of headlights did not exist. It is said that it was not until one late night in the wilderness in 1887 that a lost driver brought him home with the help of a lantern. It also became the first combination of lights and vehicles at night. Today we will talk to you about things about car lights.
What did headlights look like before the 20th century?
In 1898, 11 years after the "historical first" night-light driving, car lights in the strict sense were truly launched. An electric car named Columbia used electricity for headlights and taillights, marking another "historical first". "born. Although the original headlights could not be dimmed, in order to reduce the dazzling situation when passing cars and pedestrians, a luminance adjuster was later added to realize the vertical movement of the headlights, although this operation required driving This can only be completed if the driver gets out of the car and moves the corresponding device. But today's "high beam party" please see what our ancestors did a hundred years ago in order not to affect oncoming vehicles and pedestrians, and quickly change to turn on the high beam at night. It’s a bad habit to ignore the light.
And before this Columbia car used electricity for driving lighting, what did people use to explore the road when traveling at night? This is the kerosene lamp that can still be found in some poor areas. At that time, in order to increase the brightness of lighting, people generally placed Krupin reflectors behind kerosene lamps, which became the prototype of the original car lights.
20 years of acetylene lamps
When the time came to 1905, acetylene gas headlights began to become popular on cars due to the need for higher outline brightness of vehicle headlights.
Although the acetylene lamp needs to burn to emit light, and once it is extinguished in rainy and snowy weather, it cannot provide lighting. In addition, after burning acetylene, it will produce soda lime that is irritating to the skin. However, the brightness of the acetylene gas flame is much brighter than that of the time. The brightness of any electric light source must be high, so the use of acetylene lamps continued until 1925.
Incandescent lamps that must be mentioned
During the two decades when acetylene lamps dominated the world of automotive lighting, engineers have never slowed down their research into brighter, longer-lasting light sources.
Although the stability and durability of incandescent lamps and acetylene lamps were not much different when they first came out, with the development of technology, because incandescent lamps need to be energized to emit light, the brightness and life of the lights have been qualitatively improved. The incandescent lamp made of spiral tungsten filament is nearly 50% brighter than the original carbon filament incandescent lamp. It should be said that the spiral tungsten filament incandescent lamp has opened the era of real electrification of automobile lighting.
As incandescent lamps became more popular in all aspects of people's lives, their prices continued to fall, and their dominance in car lights lasted until the 1960s.
Halogen lamps are dying out
If incandescent lamps created the history of electrification of automotive lighting, then halogen lamps evolved from incandescent lamps and have fully spread their popularity.
Due to its own physical characteristics, the luminous efficiency of incandescent lamps is not high. The brightness is very low at fast speeds, at night and under special weather conditions, which directly affects the safety of itself, pedestrians and other vehicles. And with the changes in the road traffic environment, the gradual popularization of vehicles and people's increasing requirements for vehicle safety, this has also directly given rise to the birth of halogen lamps. The halogen lamp actually adds halogen elements to the incandescent lamp, thereby increasing the brightness of the light by 1.5 times, and increasing the service life by 2-3 times compared with the incandescent lamp, and the chlorine and iodine in the bulb are also neutralized. The tungsten element in the bulb no longer causes the lampshade to turn black.
So what are the characteristics of halogen lamps that were once standard equipment on many vehicles?
1. After years of development, halogen lamps have simple structures, low manufacturing costs, and low overall prices.
2. The light of halogen lamps is yellowish, has good focusing effect, relatively low color temperature, and good penetration, making it more suitable for driving in rainy and foggy days.
3. The service life is 500 hours. If you don’t often burn the midnight oil, you will often need to change the bulb more than once a year.
4. The brightness is average, and your eyes may get tired easily when driving at night.
5. The power is relatively large, and the loss will increase accordingly.
With the continuous advancement of science and technology, the disadvantages of halogen lamps with average brightness and high loss are becoming more and more obvious. Xenon lamps and LED lamps with higher brightness and lower loss have gradually begun to replace halogen lamps.
Modification of large household xenon lamps
Although the emergence of halogen lamps has improved some of the disadvantages of the original incandescent lamps, their short lifespan, high energy consumption, and insufficient brightness still cannot meet people's growing needs for vehicle safety, practicality, and aesthetics.
Xenon lamps were developed by Philips for five years and were first used in industrial and architectural lighting. The car lamp manufacturer Hella has completely introduced xenon lamps to the market. In 1991, the BMW 7 Series was the first to use xenon headlights, and this became an important moment in the history of automotive lighting.
The voltage of automobile xenon lamps is 12V, the wattage is 35W and 55W, and most of them are 35W. The technical principle is to fill the quartz lamp tube with high-voltage inert gas to replace the traditional filament, and stimulate the xenon gas through the transformed 23,000 volt high-voltage current. , the xenon electrons dissociate and form a strong arc between the two poles.
Xenon lamps have the characteristics of high brightness, high color temperature and long life, making the BMW 7 Series the first model to be equipped with them. The trend of vehicle modification lighting should be said to have gradually started after the advent of xenon lamps. Among the various modification services in auto parts stores, changing xenon lamps is also one of the projects that many car owners enjoy.
LED headlights have become a trend
LED is actually a light-emitting diode, which often appears in lamps at home and in many advertising displays on the roadside. But it was only in 2004 that LEDs were actually used in cars as headlights. The Lexus LS600h is the first model to be equipped with LED headlights. In 2008, the Audi R8 V10 also used full LED light sets for the first time.
It can be seen from the car models that were the first to use LED headlights. Its origin is really unusual, and its high cost and high price are definitely one of its characteristics. However, high brightness, small size, fast start-up response, safety and energy saving, and a lifespan of up to 100,000 hours are also important advantages that cannot be ignored.
With the continuous development of technology and the advancement of mass production, LED headlights are no longer a unique feature of luxury brand models. For example, Toyota Corolla, Ralink's dual-engine series, Buick GL6, Chevrolet Transcendence, etc., which cost more than 100,000 cars, have also begun to assemble LED headlights into their vehicles. With the improvement of production technology and the continuous reduction of costs, LED headlights have now become the preferred light set configuration in vehicles.
Laser headlights lead the future
When it comes to the word "laser", it feels very futuristic and forward-looking. This is indeed the case. As a replacement for xenon lamps and LED headlights, the principle of laser headlights is that the blue light of laser light-emitting diodes penetrates the front headlights. There is fluorescent phosphor material inside the lamp unit, which converts it into a diffused white light. In addition to inheriting the advantages of all the above-mentioned lights, the illumination distance reaches 400-600 meters, while the energy consumption is less than half of LED headlights. The energy-saving effect and brightness have risen to a new level. .
In 2014, the BMW i8 was the first to use laser headlights. But at this stage, high cost is the biggest barrier restricting its development and popularization. Therefore, laser headlights are leading the development trend of future car lights, but it will still take some time before they can enter thousands of households.
