Marcin Gorzkowski has been working for the Canadian Federal Government in Transport Canada’s Road Safety and Motor Vehicle Regulation Directorate since 1982 as a professional engineer. Since 2002, he is the Chairman of the United Nations’ Working Party on Lighting and Light Signalling (GRE). This week, we present the second part of our exclusive interview:
DVN: Last month, thanks to your diplomatic skill and the great job of Geoff Draper, GRE accepted Xenon 25W. What made this particular light source adoption particularly complicated?
M.G.: I am sure that it was not my diplomatic skill – not too many people who know me would accuse me of being a “diplomat”. The success of the adoption of the 25W HID light source should be attributed, as you have noted, to the great work of Geoff Draper the chairman of Group de Travail Bruxelles 1952 (GTB), to Ad De Visser, representing in GRE the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), and to several of their colleagues, who were able to persuade GRE and its chairman of the merits of the new light source.
The 25W HID light source in itself may be a good idea – simpler, lighter construction replaceable light source – lowering the cost of the replacement of a non-functioning headlamp; better than the conventional light bulb, yet not as good as the original HID light source.
What really delayed the adoption of the Xenon 25W was the story that accompanied the proposal. From its technical description and some introductions by the designers, it looked like this light source was invented to circumvent the requirement for headlamp automatic levelling and washing, mandatory on headlamps with light sources having luminous flux over 2000 lumens. This new light source was designed exactly for