Headlight glare has been a hot topic in recent months and automotive lighting supplier has been using its Leeds laboratory to try to identify the causes. 

A common theme is to blame LED lights, but as Ring point out, non replaceable LED light units that are fitted to vehicles at the point of manufacture comply with the legal regulations around light output. However, Ring is aware that LED retrofit bulbs, that are for off road use only are being used on the road in headlamps that were designed for halogen bulbs. It is these LEDs that are more likely to be a contributor to glare. The headlamp unit was not designed to work with the light output from LED bulbs. 

A second worrying trend from Ring’s findings is that the market is seeing an influx of poor quality halogen bulbs that do not meet necessary standards and as a result could be causing glare.

Ring is the only UK lighting supplier with its own test lab and lighting laboratory. The laboratory team test Ring and OSRAM’s own products regularly to ensure consistent quality.  It also tests products from other automotive lighting companies to see how the quality compares and if it meets the legal standards. Recently, the company has found some worrying trends that some bulbs being sold are not road legal.

Vehicle bulbs used on the exterior of a vehicle have to comply to ECE Regulation 37 that details exact specifications such as: light output, minimum and maximum levels, so drivers can see safely, and other road users are not dazzled. 

When testing bulbs in the lab, the laboratory team use multiple bulbs of the same type from the same brand, to ensure their performance or any issues that occur, are constant, and not just a one off. Included in the testing were bulbs supplied by one company which all exceeded the maximum wattage and lumens levels by a considerable margin, another was more than 26% above maximum lumen output, and the wattage was 49% above maximum. At this level, the bulbs could cause overheating to a vehicle‘s wiring, as well as dazzling other road users. In another instance, one of the bulbs was switched on and, after only a few minutes, the chrome end cap showed signs of deterioration. 

Ring also conducts photometry tests, and from one bulb supplier, four of the ten samples failed photometry on the 5W filament, which was too high. In other instances, bulbs didn’t meet the amber colour requirement, and many had a poor beam pattern, which will cause glare.

Managing Director at Ring Automotive, a subsidiary of ams-OSRAM, Andy Gratton, commented: “Our findings identified through testing at our quality facilities in the UK and Germany represent a real challenge for the independent automotive aftermarket. Whilst bulbs are low cost relative to other ‘hard parts’, they remain a safety critical component of a vehicle and should be considered as such. There really is no excuse, given the relative cost, for road users to be subjected to a non-compliant product. We remain committed to improving road user safety in the UK and Ireland and will ensure that the issues identified follow the correct reporting procedure.”