Visteon Unveils Lighting Research at SAE World Congress

    DEARBORN, Mich., March 14 With driver safety as its
underlying message, three Visteon Corporation engineers presented a
technical paper on lighting last week to the Society of Automotive Engineers
(SAE) World Congress, held at Cobo Center in Detroit.
    
    The paper, titled "Analyses of Bifunctional Systems," analyzed the
mechanical and optical concepts of High Intensity Discharge (HID) bifunctional
headlamps -- meaning low-beam and high-beam lights.  The results of this
lighting could lead to the development of lighting applications that provide a
greater level of safety to vehicle occupants.

    Low-beam HID headlamps utilize xenon gas light sources, a ballast and an
igniter for each lamp that causes an arc to light between the electrodes of
the light source.  They emit a "white" light, which provides better visibility
for all-weather driving, enabling the driver to see more clearly.  They put
2-3 times more light on the road than traditional incandescent light sources.

    "The benefits of HID headlamps are great," said Libor Strambersky,
Research and Development Supervisor for Visteon's European Lighting Technology
Group.  "Vehicles equipped with homogenous headlight distribution that's
visible from far distances are themselves more visible on the road than
vehicles with the traditional halogen bulbs."

    In addition to low-beam lighting, Visteon's engineers explained their
recent efforts to use HID for the high-beam function as well.  Many of today's
lighting systems consist of two filament halogen bulbs placed in either the
low or high position.  In comparison, HID bifunctional lamps involve
mechanical movement of the optical elements that switch between the low and
high-beam functions.

    In their research, Visteon engineers found that bifunctional HID systems,
which use the same reflector and lens and are housed in the same cavity, offer
higher system efficiency, the same "color" temperature for both the low and
high-beam functions and the saving of one light chamber and one light source.
Furthermore, bifunctional headlamps reduce the vehicle's overall power
consumption.