Double Reflection Concept Applied to Rear Lamps Design 2001-01-0458

When designing new rear lamps the hardest effort is to create something that satisfies the sake of novelty of the car maker. Main tasks of rear lamps are as follows: they must fulfil photometrical requirements, be as cheaper as possible, fit into the vehicle body and appear “interesting” under the stylistic point of view. This is the case of “second reflection rear lamps”: the light of the lamp is collected by a primary reflector that deviates it on a secondary segmented reflector, the conjunction of the first and second reflector gives the needed angular deviation. These devices offer the novelty of a hidden source and of an innovative outer aspect when compared to the “single reflection rear lamps” due to the fact that some sectors appear brilliant and some dark.

In this paper different mathematical concepts of the double reflection reflectors for rear lighting are explained as well as the different approaches used to calculate them and the SW tools used. The wide range of style results are illustrated by means of concrete examples.