Think Today's Headlights Are Brighter? Well, They Are

Don't think that it's only age or something catching up with you when you see cars with superbright headlights blinding you on two-lane country roads, because it's not. Cars with very bright headlights are taking the roads in increasing numbers and about the only result for oncoming drivers is a case of pink spots in front of your eyes.

What you are seeing is the result of lots of research that has been going on here and overseas. The result, admittedly, is a safer vehicle for the driver and passengers of that vehicle. For others on the road, the result is a vehicle with very bright, often-blinding headlights.

It began about 25 years ago with the introduction of the first halogen headlamps. At the time, U.S. regulations mandated (Standard 208 or something like that) that all headlights be sealed-beam units. In other words, the headlight reflector, bulb and lens all had to be one unit that was closed from the weather and that could withstand weather.

Of course, that mandated some very interesting design challenges to the auto industry, not the least of which was that there were only so many ways you could present the standard sealed beam unit. They could be round, they could be square; they could be side-by-side; or up-and-down. But, that was about it. Front fenders had to account for them and that meant that fenders had also to be squared units that were semi-separate from the chassis. In other words, they were just kind of hung there in the design and designers had to design around them.

About 1985 or 1986, an interesting change happened. Under intense lobbying from the auto industry, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration changed the ruling on headlights. They no longer had to be sealed beams, but they did have to be integral units. In other words, they had to fit together somehow and be weatherproof. That freed the auto designers to begin to integrate headlights into the overall design of the vehicle and it also made headlights prime areas of research because now they could be used as real safety tools.

Yes, people thought they were safe with old-fashioned sealed beam headlamps, however, just the simple addition of a concave bright reflector with a bulb in the middle and a clear lens at the front, made headlights much brighter, even though the basic ingredients used, halogen and electrodes remained pretty much the same. The key change in headlight technology came in the late 1970s when the first amendment to the sealed beam regulation allowed halogen gas to be inserted into sealed beam headlight bulbs. They immediately, in themselves, became brighter; the bulbs in which they came remained pretty much the same.

By the late 1980s, car markers were experimenting with all sorts of designs and including in those designs headlights that were nicely fared into the overall designs (Faring means fitting in).

The problem that began to arise here is that some of the early headlight designs began to rust out and that was a problem that the industry promised wouldn't happen, but it did and it did cost them lots of money to fix it.

Still, the research on lighting continued until someone came up with the bright idea of including xenon gas as the exciter in the headlight. It was about 1994 or 1995 and it was only at the very high end of lines like BMS where these very expensive headlights could be tried (they aren't much less expensive today, but they are more widespread).

At the time, you could see headlights becoming more and more brilliant, but they still weren't the blinding blue-white lights you see today. That development is much more recent and it coincides with the invention of the high-intensity display (HID).

The technology hasn't changed that much. Car headlights still employ a set of electrodes that excite a gas to produce light and that light is then reflected off a very bright concave reflector and through lenses to produce light. The key change in the last half-dozen years with the HID is the design itself.

Older designs often used lamps that were not unlike the fat bulbs that everyone was used to. You simply had to twist a connector at the rear of the headlight, if you could access the rear of the headlight assembly in the front fender, and use a quarter-turn and pull. The headlight bulb came out with the assembly.

Today, that technology hasn't changed too much for most vehicles. What has changed is the bulb itself. The bulb today looks more like candlelight with a pointed tip, slim body, and long chromed bottom with two brass electrodes on the bottom. Designers have found that when they took they basic xenon technology they developed about 1995 or so and moved the plates the electrodes inside the bulbs closer together, they achieved brighter, whiter, bluer light. That's the type of light bulb you see today when you are hit with the superbrights.

Many times they also take advantage of the changes in the Federal Motor Vehicle Standard Statutes (FMVSS) and they include a headlight assembly within a magnifying lens assembly that fits inside the headlight assembly itself.

Thus, you have a headlight that is designed to be part of the front fender itself and that is a designed-in piece of the fender assembly that has inside of it a second assembly that is the real light itself. Sometimes, you will see a second lamp that is part of the assembly and that will serve as a "low-beam" or standard light that provides normal illumination at night, while the light with the lens (pencil light as some call it) serves as the laser for very low-light situations.

In other vehicles, though, you'll find the only nighttime lighting is the high-intensity display which is something that is moving its way through the automotive world and if things work as they usually do in this world it won't be too many years before you find them on the car sitting in your driveway, too. It'll be great for you on the inside but for those who are coming up on you from the front - be ready for that white flash ahead.