Car headlights diagram Daquan headlight type and development history

Kerosene lamp: 1886-1904

When the car was first born, there was almost no function, let alone the lights. It is said that in 1887, when a driver lost his way in the dark wilderness, he was led by a civilian lantern. This is also known as the earliest lighting tool on the car.

However, the kerosene lamp's luminous intensity is too low to meet the requirements of illuminating the road far enough before the vehicle. Therefore, in order to improve the illumination of the road ahead, the method adopted by people is to place the Klupin reflector behind the kerosene lamp, so that the kerosene lamp becomes the world's first spotlight, which is also the earliest prototype of the lamp.

Acetylene lamp: 1905-1925

However, due to the low luminous efficiency, the kerosene lamp was quickly replaced by an acetylene lamp. Some people may question that as early as 1879, incandescent lamps have been invented why acetylene lamps will be used in cars first. This is because the filament of the vacuum incandescent bulb at that time was made of carbon wire, and the too fragile filament could not withstand the bumps on the road and could not be applied to the lamp. At the time, the brightness of the acetylene lamp was almost twice as bright as that of the electric lamp, so the acetylene lamp became the first choice for the car at that time. After that, other high-light sources appeared, but they were unsuccessful for various reasons. Only the acetylene lamp became the stable light source of the early lights, and it was used until around 1925.

Of course, with the development of automobiles, the shortcomings of acetylene lamps are gradually exposed. First of all, the acetylene lamp relies on burning light, which is easily destroyed by the rain on the road. It is a nightmare for the drivers to go down in bad weather. Secondly, the durability of the acetylene lamp is not as strong as that of the incandescent lamp that has just been introduced. In addition, the acetylene after combustion produces a large amount of soda lime (Ca(OH)2), which is harmful to the protein. It is strongly irritating and corrosive on the skin, which can lead to adverse reactions such as shock and gastric perforation.

The working principle of acetylene lamp:

Acetylene is produced by the chemical reaction of calcium carbide and water using a portable acetylene generator on a car's foot pedal or frame. In the process of driving, the shaking body just provides convenience for the production of acetylene, but the disadvantage is that once you stop the car, the reaction is not so strong, and as the acetylene is reduced, the lights will gradually darken. .

Incandescent, halogen:

Therefore, with the development of electric lights and the improvement of durability, the acetylene lamp gradually withdrew from the stage of the history of the lamp with its shortcomings. Instead, it is an increasingly mature incandescent lamp. The spiral tungsten incandescent lamp has an increase in illumination intensity of 50% compared to the original carbon filament incandescent lamp. The emergence of spiral tungsten incandescent lamps can be said to be a real history of the development of automotive lighting electrification. The previous kerosene lamps and acetylenes are a wild history.

Although as early as 1898, Columbia Electric Company introduced an electric vehicle equipped with a tungsten lamp. But as mentioned above, the slender filament is easily broken on bumpy roads, and without the focus device, the first show of the electric light is not a success, which is why acetylene lamps can be used until 1925.

However, the efficiency of ordinary incandescent lamps is not high, so the more energy-efficient halogen lamps were born. The halogen lamps used in the early days were born in the 1960s, and the manufacturers were later famous Haila.

What is a halogen lamp:

Halogen lamps are actually an upgraded version of our use of incandescent lamps in life. The application of halogen elements can increase the brightness of incandescent lamps by 1.5 times and the service life is 2-3 times that of ordinary incandescent lamps. In order to improve the luminous efficiency of the incandescent lamp, firstly, the temperature of the tungsten wire must be increased, but the sublimation of the tungsten is caused correspondingly, and the blackening is performed on the glass casing. The incandescent lamp is filled with a halogen element or a halide, and the principle of the tungsten halogen cycle can eliminate the blackening of the bulb of the incandescent lamp, which is the reason for the halogen lamp.

Xenon headlights:

With the change of traffic environment and the improvement of automobile safety and environmental protection, incandescent lamps can no longer meet the needs. Firstly, the incandescent lamp series is not bright enough. Due to the faster speed, nighttime and low visibility environment, the brightness is not directly affected. The safety of vehicles and pedestrians. Secondly, it is not environmentally friendly. The power of a halogen lamp reaches 50W~70W, and the energy consumption is relatively large. And because the incandescent lamp is based on the tungsten wire, the tungsten wire will have a loss of high-temperature illumination, although 200~300 hours. The lifespan is much larger than that of fuel lamps, but the life of the incandescent series is still too short compared to the overall life of the car.

In response to the lack of brightness, power consumption and short life of the incandescent lamp series, in the 1990s, professional lamp manufacturer Hella brought the mature Xenon lamp to the market. The xenon lamp broke the principle of tungsten filament light invented by Edison. The quartz tube was filled with high-pressure inert gas instead of the traditional filament. The high-voltage current of 23000 volts stimulated the xenon luminescence, forming a perfect white arc between the two poles. Xenon lights are three times brighter than halogen lamps, with half the energy consumption and seven times the life of halogen lamps. Simply put, as long as there is no human damage, the vehicle does not need to change lights during the service life of more than ten years.

However, the Xenon headlights that were first applied will cause glare to the driver on the opposite side. This is a hidden danger to safety. The height adjustment of the automatic headlights began to be applied and solved the problem.

LED headlights:

After the Xenon headlights, LED headlights are not yet widely available. Although they have been seen on many concept cars before, due to the relationship between technology, cost and regulations, LED headlights are only installed in recent years. thing.

Laser headlights:

Following the LED headlights, the laser headlights are called "reasonable next steps". The principle is that the blue light of the laser light-emitting diode will pass through the fluorescent phosphor material in the headlight unit and convert it into a diffused white light. It is more energy efficient and more fuel efficient.

Summary: As an important automotive technology, the history of the lights is almost in sync with the car. Not only are there various technological breakthroughs, but they are also closely related to the design of the car. With the advancement of technology, the story of the car lights will continue.