Title: Generating exterior surface for headlamps of passenger cars from car body profiles

Authors: Haris Naduthodi, Prakasan Kalakkath

Addresses: Department of Production Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu 641 004, India. ' Department of Production Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu 641 004, India

Abstract: This paper reports a study that aims at the development of a design procedure for supporting headlamp design process as needed in the development of passenger cars. Headlamps can introduce an important styling attribute to a vehicle especially for passenger cars. The shape of headlamp has to be integral with the external shape changes, which necessitates frequent redesign of headlamps while making changes on the body by the stylist or designer. The exterior of headlamp lens/cover has to be visually continuous to the external profile which is an assemblage of three or more surfaces. This work proposes a design methodology for the design of headlamp lens enabling the generation of headlamp exterior surface from the input containing information about the associated external surfaces. In addition, surface interrogation with reflection lines and highlight lines for global evaluation has been carried out. A method to determine principal curvatures at any point on the surface for local evaluation of surface is also proposed.

Keywords: automotive styling; passenger cars; headlamps; surface modelling; aesthetic shapes; freeform surface; focal surfaces; surface interrogation; automobile industry; car body profiles; headlight design; headlamp lens.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCAET.2009.026980

International Journal of Computer Aided Engineering and Technology, 2009 Vol.1 No.3, pp.368 - 387

Published online: 12 Jul 2009 *

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