ABSTRACT
The exterior lighting of vehicles can be conveniently divided into two types, forward lighting and signal lighting. Forward lighting is lighting designed to enable the driver to see after dark. Signal lighting is lighting designed to indicate the presence of or give information about the movement of a vehicle, by night and day. Forward lighting includes headlamps and fog lamps. Often, these are of such a high luminous intensity that they cause glare to approaching vehicles. Signal lighting includes front, side, and rear position lamps; turn lamps; stop lamps; rear fog lamps; reversing lamps; daytime running lamps; hazard flashers; and license plate lamps. These are usually small in size and of limited luminous intensity. Forward lighting is there to see by. Signal lighting is there to be seen. One exception to this crude classification is reversing lamps. Reversing lamps provide both visibility to the rear and a signal to others around the vehicle. This chapter is concerned with the forward lighting fitted to all vehicles, i.e., headlamps. Fog lamps are dealt with in Section 11.5. Forward lighting is now an essential part of vehicle design, serving functional, aesthetic, and marketing demands. This chapter is concerned only with the functional aspects.
