March 4, 2004 -- Hella KG Hueck and Company, a global supplier of automotive lighting and electronics, has received the AutoMoto Leader award for innovations in dynamic bend lighting.

The award was given by the Polish magazine AutoMoto, whose readers voted the Hella system number one among 16 technical innovations submitted. Dynamic bend lighting improves safety by providing drivers with more illumination on curves and adapting to vehicle speed.

Vehicle headlamps are installed into frames that move on a vertical axis and provide more light by swiveling low-beam light depending on the radius of a turn. Light distribution corresponds to specific steering angles, helping drivers to quickly recognize the severity of a curve and make necessary adjustments. On a curve with a radius of 620 feet, for example, illumination on the road is only about 98 feet. Dynamic bend lighting nearly doubles the illumination range to about 190 feet.

Dynamic bend lighting also adjusts to vehicle speed. Headlamps swivel more quickly at higher speeds and slower at lower speeds in order to distribute light where the driver needs it. The headlamps use bi-xenon reactors, which work in low beam as well as high beam.

Hella has developed bend lighting systems for the Audi A8 and A6, Mercedes Benz E-class, BMW 5-series and X5 and Opel's Signum, Vectra and Astra models.

Hella's dynamic bend lighting is based on a versatile modular system that employs a variety of pivoting halogen or xenon lamps. The advanced VarioXenon module provides up to five different distribution patterns from the same module and meets the requirements for future adaptive front-lighting systems. The technology is expected to be in use on a production vehicle by 2006.

This AutoMoto award is the third for Hella's innovative dynamic bend lighting systems. In 2003, Hella received the "Trophy of Excellence" award from GIPA (the Group of Interprofessionals for Products and Services for Automobiles), an automotive research company based in Italy. The lighting system also won an innovation award last year at the Barcelona Auto Show from the Spanish engineering association (STA), which supports the development of the automotive industry in Spain.

Lighting, electronics, complete vehicle modules, air conditioning systems, vehicle wiring systems and signal processing for the automobile industry, as well as parts suppliers to the aftermarket, are the core competence fields of automotive supplier Hella KG Hueck & Co. Sales for the Hella Group are approximately $3.8 billion, placing Hella among the top 100 German industrial companies.

With its corporate headquarters in Lippstadt, Germany, the company employs more than 22,800 people at 61 manufacturing facilities, production subsidiaries and joint-venture companies in 18 countries. Over 1,800 engineers and technicians work in research and development. All of the world's leading automobile and systems manufacturers are Hella customers as well as the automotive components aftermarket.

Additional information is available on the Internet at www.hella.com.

Company Contacts
Dan Saar
Hella North America
Phone: 734.414.0960
E-Mail: dan.saar@hna.hella.com

Ulrich Koester
Hella KG Hueck & Company
Phone: ++49 29 41 38 7566
E-Mail: ulrich.koester@hella.de

Media Contact
Laura Oliveto
AutoCom Associates
Phone: 248.647.8621
E-Mail: loliveto@usautocom.com                       




This article courtesy of http://www.dynalighting.com.
You may freely reprint this article on your website or in
your newsletter provided this courtesy notice and the author
name and URL remain intact.

Submit Your Article