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One of the puzzles in automotive lighting that is not really visible on prime stage, by marketing actions or by innovation award ceremonies is the job of photometry and testing. During the process of homologation, no OEM or suppliers can avoid to verify and document that the products meet the technical standards in the world.
Since we have many slightly varying regulation frameworks like ECE, CCC, FMVSS, CMVSS etc. any worldwide product application needs to be developed and verified according to the national rules. For ECE and CCC, type approval processes are established. Even though USA’s FMVSS requires self certification without official approval, no setmaker and no OEM can avoid to have documents that show their products are following the legal specifications.
This is the field of testhouses where they are offering their competences and services. There is no vehicle on the road without a fixed process concerning lamps and retroreflective devices. And before a vehicle can be homologated by one of the ECE contracting parties, the certified test labs have to supply the testing and photometry reports that are the base of any homologation. Photometry is a high tech laboratory job and needs qualified testing equipment like precise goniophotometers and qualified people.
And by nature, the experts from the test houses are active members in the rulemaking process. They are in their national GTB delegations, support the national administrations in GRE and participate in many photometry working groups trying to harmonize the regulations and to adopt all regulations to the ongoing technical innovation process. See the analysis for coming activities from DEKRA’s Wilfried van Laarhoven in the report.
Modern applications like ADB are unfortunately not similar. The ECE/China world and U.S. are different, even when the final experience for the driver looks quite similar. So new outdoor measurements have to be designed and the infrastructure has to be installed. And – because outdoor means more potential measurement errors, error-minimizing actions have to be addressed.
So – let’s have a look to some of the hidden champions.
The presented report shows some activities of DEKRA, one of the world’s biggest players in safety and testing for a multitude of applications in the technical world, automotive world and lighting world. In the first section this report covers the lab section with the photometry team in DEKRA Certification Arnheim/NL. The second section covers the new activities in DEKRA Automobil Klettwitz/ D.
Enjoy the reports, pictures and interviews.