Lighting the way
In the recent times, there has been an increasing awareness amongst people with regards to automobile safety and security. In addition, stringent regulations and legislations set up by the government of various countries have shifted the focus of automotive lighting manufacturers from obsolete inefficient automotive lamps to smart and efficient automotive lighting. Technologies such as LED, HID/Xenon and halogen have brought a transition in the recent trend of automotive lighting. Advanced front lighting system (AFS) and active intelligent lighting system (AILS) are certain technologies that use the navigation system of the vehicle to ensure automatic visibility to the driver of the vehicle.
The increase in the demand for advanced automotive lighting technologies such as LED, HID/Xenon and halogen lamps is due to the low consumption of energy and longevity of such lamps. Among the above mentioned technologies, halogen lamps are widely preferred because of its low cost and efficiency. LED and HID/Xenon lamps are relatively expensive but much more efficient as compared to halogen lamps. During the forecast period, the preference of the consumers is expected to partly shift from halogen technology to LED and HID/Xenon, due to the rising technology and disposable income of the people across the globe. The market is on a clear transition path from traditional lighting technologies to LED.
In a bid to promote safety, two-wheelers and all other types of vehicles are set to get 2 new safety features to reduce fatalities. Bikes and scooters will carry with it the Automatic Headlamp On (AHO) similar to Daytime Running Lamps (DRL) in cars, from April 2017. The road transport ministry is also working on a plan to fit a sound device that can alert the passerby and people in the accident prone zones.
The current edition focuses on the Automotive Lighting industry, where the experts from different companies said that LED is going to be the future of automotive industry. In India, LEDs are not penetrated much due to high cost. But now the LED prices have eroded more aggressively, pulling forward the payback time of LED lighting. Hitherto the LEDs are imported from China and Taiwan, but after sensing the importance of LED and its future, the light manufacturers have started making it locally in India which narrows down the price-equation theorem of LEDs. To have comprehensive idea of how the automotive lights are manufactured, we recently visited the Fiem Industries Sonepat facility. The Shopfloor section features the detailed manufacturing process on how the automotive lights are manufactured.
Wish you all a very happy and safe diwali. Pls do send us your feedback.
Bhargav TS
Executive Editor
s.bhargav@nextgenpublishing.net
