Ford Motor Corp. is outfitting its refreshed F-150 with a new LED headlamp assembly that should last the life of the truck -- five times longer than standard halogen lamps.
To get there, Osram is manufacturing the LEDs and integrating them into standalone LED projectors in the headlamp, Osram engineer Jonathan Dunlap told us in a recent email exchange. "Both the low beam and high beam use a single chip based on OSRAM Opto Semiconductors headlamp pro device," he said. Specifically, each LED comprises a 1x4 array packaged into a single high-power LED design, Dunlap said.
But to make the upgrade to "Ford Tough" standards, the company said the new LEDs had to undergo a battery of torture tests. They endured saltwater baths, survived extreme heat and ice, and lasted through pummelling with rocks. Finally Ford was convinced and gave the LEDs its "Tough Truck" stamp of approval.
Ford's John Teodecki, a 29-year-old automotive lighting veteran and a University of Michigan graduate, with LED module and complete headlight system.
(Source: Ford Motor Corp.)
The ruggedized front illumination system weighs in at a whopping 11 pounds. The Osram LEDs are combined with a unique lens technology developed by the group led by Ford's lighting expert John Teodecki. According to Teodecki, they used "special machines to carve out 16 precision optical surfaces and 80 facets on the lens face." This works to spread the light evenly in the optical cavity. Its innovative design magnifies the light, so that just a single high-brightness LED is required.
Design flexibility
Ford said its lighting design team had much more flexibility because the overall LED lighting package is remarkably small, compared to the halogens they were used to working with. Ford's Teodecki and team developed the unit with help from both Osram and Flex-n-Gate, an automotive OEM design house. The group created a team of 30 members for the project and used cutting-edge technology including CAE for optical development, finite element analysis prototyping and simulation, and rapid prototyping of lit-mockup. The work was based out of Osram's Hillsboro, NH facility. Teodecki said the LED headlamp unit's control (driver) electronics are simpler than what halogen or HID required, and this "helps make LED lights more durable and therefore longer-lasting."
The result is a superior lamp illumination system that finally moves tough truck lighting beyond the age of thin filaments inside a bulb, with a 40K mile lifetime, and vulnerable to temperature extremes and vibrations. With its new LEDs, Ford expects to get up to 200K miles of life out of the single lamp system. Teodecki notes that while many F-150s have reached that mileage mark, few ever did so with a single set of halogen or HID lamps.
Longing for dusk
Ford didn't resist the light-tube trend found in other high-end vehicles. Ford added an LED headlamp outline with a thin LED tube to create the new F-150's signature appearance. Teodecki concluded, "It reminds me of the craze in the 1980s with truck light bars. This LED light tube is going to be the next big thing. Our new F-150 owners will be longing for dusk every day, just to show off their trucks in dramatic lighting."
Osram's Dunlap sees growth in LED adoption for automotive applications due to "a culmination of factors" including volume increases, price reductions, and performance increases as the technology matures. But perhaps more important, he points to how LEDs "enable studios to create new, brand-identifying designs not possible with traditional technologies." These are the forces that drive industry growth, he said, and that's just what Ford and Teodecki's team have done.
We have to say it's pretty cool to see a 29-year-old lighting expert get so excited about a new technology, one that can withstand the toughest treatment that Ford's storied F-150 can dish out.
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