In fact, lens headlights are not a statement about light sources, but a way of concentrating headlights. Before the emergence of lens headlights, the traditional headlights we saw were all a light bulb, and then there was a shiny silver "bowl" around it, which was what we called a condenser cup, which gathered divergent light into fan-shaped light and lit up the road ahead. The lens headlight adopts a small condenser cup with smaller volume and more compact structure, which condenses the light into a beam of parallel light, and then diverges into fan-shaped light through the convex lens.
Figure: In this picture, you can compare the appearance difference between lens headlights and traditional headlights.
Photo: Lens headlights are produced by a third-party spare parts supplier, so the "water" inside is very deep. Brand, generation and origin will affect the performance of lens headlights.
The main components of lens headlight are: bulb mounting frame, condenser cup, convex lens, far-near light switching electromagnetic coil and baffle. Compared with the traditional focusing method, the lens is small in size and can be easily integrated into large lampshades with different shapes, which provides innate convenience for designers to realize headlights with sharp shapes and rich expressions. Moreover, the lens itself is like an eyeball, which makes the headlights "dignified" instantly. In addition, from a practical point of view, the lens condenser cup and lens lose less light energy, and the convex lens in front, as the total exit of light, scatters more light beams than traditional headlights, so its light shape and lighting effect are also ideal. In addition, the far-near light conversion of lens headlights is also simpler. A pair of baffles are installed between the condenser cup and the convex lens, and the electromagnetic coil controls the lifting of the baffle push rod. When the baffle descends, it is a low beam, and when the baffle rises, it is a high beam, which can quickly switch between the low beam and the high beam, and even extend to the left and right deflection of the headlight, so that the headlight light can illuminate more areas on both sides with the direction of the front of the car, and realize follow-up steering, which is also impossible for ordinary headlights.
Figure: This is one of the key parts of the lens. The quality of condenser cup and electroplating layer determines the service life of lens headlights.
Figure: bulb mounting seat.
Figure: The orange one in the picture is the coil that controls the switching between far and near light. The middle iron core is controlled by Lenz's law, and the baffle is pushed and pulled to realize far-near optical conversion.
Figure: The shape of the low beam is determined by the baffle.
Figure: The baffle rises, which is the effect of the high beam.
Lens headlights are a relatively mature new generation technology in the field of automobile lighting, and the knowledge inside cannot be underestimated. Generally speaking, we think that the light bulb is the primary factor that determines whether the headlight group is bright or not and the life span is long, but at present, the light bulb technology is quite mature, whether it is halogen lamp or xenon lamp bulb. The bulbs produced by famous lighting factories such as OSRAM and Philips are not the bottleneck of the life of lens headlights. For lens headlights, the electroplating quality of the condenser cup, the heat dissipation performance of the condenser cup itself and the lens transmittance are the primary reasons for the brightness of the left and right lens headlights. The quality of electroplating on the inner surface of the condenser cup is not up to standard, or the electroplated layer is oxidized and blackened due to poor heat dissipation, which will make the lens headlight "lose its life". According to Mr. Ren, the person in charge of Hengguang Headlights, the inner plating surface of Bosch first-generation lens headlamps is black because the outer surface of the lens is too smooth and the heat dissipation performance is not good. The life span is about 3 years, and the brightness will soon run out. The first batch of Audi Q7 was equipped with this batch of Bosch lenses. Coincidentally, after the warranty period, the problem of brightness exhaustion began to appear. You know why. Of course, Bosch also realized this problem, and the second generation solved the problem of poor heat dissipation of condenser cup shell. Another problem is the light transmittance of the lens. Because the light emitted by the bulb can only pass through the lens, the formula and processing accuracy of the lens glass directly affect the quality of the light beam.
Figure: These are three products of OSRAM, the latest one is 5500K high color temperature series, the left one is mercury-free environmental protection series, and the right one is ordinary series, which can be distinguished from the color of insulating tube of lamp electrode.
Figure: The base under the bulb is mainly a transformer, which converts the vehicle-mounted voltage of 14V into a high voltage to arouse the light emission of the inert gas xenon.
Figure: On the left is the mercury-free environmental protection series, which will be the mainstream direction of light bulbs in the future.
At present, there are three major lens suppliers in the world: Hella, Bosch and Otaru. Haila is the most famous, and Bosch, an electronic system giant, and Otaru, a famous Japanese lamp factory, are also standard parts of many original cars. Just as other parts suppliers will cross-use within the same automobile brand, even the same automobile brand will use the products of several lens suppliers at the same time. From the point of view of structure and design, there is not much difference between the three brands, but their popularity in the aftermarket depends on the circulation channels of these parts. Because some auto parts suppliers and automobile manufacturers have mostly signed so-called exclusive supply treaties to protect the interests of automobile manufacturers and their distributors, the price of lens assemblies circulating in the aftermarket naturally rises. For example, the market price of Tiida Nissan's high-end lens assembly reached 7,000 yuan, and the car price of the high-end version was only 1.2 million higher than the standard version. Of course, this high-priced holy product will inevitably lead to China characteristics, high-quality imitations flooding the market. Therefore, if you want to modify the lens headlight assembly, you must choose a merchant with proper channels, and it is best to provide relevant customs documents.
Photo: A Bentley lens as big as a bull's-eye is really worth a penny.
Figure: Compared with ordinary lens size.
Figure: The voltage regulators matched with different brands of lenses are also the components that are easy to generate "moisture" in lens headlights.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.