“AL will be able to deliver any LED headlamps from city cars to luxury car.”
After studying Physics, Michael Hamm joined the Darmstadt Institute for Lighting Technology, making research in Vehicle Lighting and Human Factors.
He joined Bosch Lighting Division in 1996.
After being section manager for Advanced Development, in 1998, he took the responsibility for R&D Lighting Technology in Automotive Lighting.
In his current position at AL, he is responsible for Lighting Development Dept. ,
Innovation Dept. and Technical Marketing.
DVN : Let us start with LED technology. Automotive Lighting were the first to develop and produce Full LED with a lot of innovations and new concepts. What is your feedback on the new Audi A8 headlamp from Hella, considering styling and performances?
Michael Hamm: I had no product to benchmark. The only information I have, comes out of publications. My first feedback is that the LED A8 headlamp transports the very strong message of new possibilities on styling.
About A8 lighting innovations, the mechanical adjustment and the multitude of contributing elements might have been quite difficult.
Due to that, if I compare with the R8, the new A8 headlamp seems bearing new and different challenges. R8 was also one-of-a-kind, dominated by using at the beginning unexplored technologies, extreme time pressure, a strange and complex design with an existing outer lens and environment without chance to have more space in any area.
Finally: Sincere congratulations to Hella and Audi for this excellent job which shows the progress of high technology in exciting headlamps. Chapeau.
DVN: Koito is optimizing its LED concept by reducing from “3 projectors and 1 reflector” to “2 projectors and one reflector”. Do you believe in this concept for the future?