75 Jahre Sonceboz 75 years Sonceboz

75 Jahre Sonceboz
Light in motion
Dark, unlit, curvy roads, the glare of oncoming headlights, reducing visibility even further
– it’s no wonder that many people find driving at night so stressful. But that shouldn’t
be the case. Modern driver assistance systems in cars now help to reduce the danger and
to improve driving comfort significantly. These functions are achieved through mechanical
movements of the light beam, controlled by actuators built into the more and more compact
headlights. These actuators operate reliably throughout the long service life of the
headlight units.
Challenges in lighting
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In headlights developed and manufactured
by Sonceboz customers, design
and technology are paramount. Design,
because this influences the style of the
vehicle, and technology, because this
contributes to comfort and driving
safety. In addition to the various light
sources – halogen, xenon and LED, tier
one suppliers also offer a range of Advanced
Front-Lighting Systems (AFS)
❶. These include simple automatic
headlight leveling (vertical movement
of the light to adjust to the horizontal
position of the vehicle), bending lights,
and more complex systems, which use
sensors, cameras or GPS to project the
beam onto the road. The AFS functions
provide an optimum illumination of the
road, such as the glare-free high beam,
which automatically eliminates the
glare effect to other road users, and so
in addition reduces the risk of accidents.
Poorly lit and winding roads are
indeed particularly dangerous. The use
of adaptive headlights in front-lighting
systems improves driving safety and
comfort. Bending lights follow the direction
in which the driver is steering,
swiveling horizontally to provide a
much better illumination of the road
ahead.
Compact linear drive
Precise and accurate light distribution
requires compact positioning drives,
which can fit into the confined space inside
the headlight unit ❷. To satisfy the
dynamic requirements for swiveling
headlights, the light module should
move in a range of +/– 17° at a speed
of 25°/second ❸. For control and integration
into a LIN bus system, the control
electronics, including a Hall-effect
sensor for referencing, also have to be
incorporated into the unit.
Various drive technologies could be
used to generate the movement: a twoor
three-phase stepper motor, or a BLDC
motor. However, customers’ existing
control architectures require the use of
two-phase stepper motors. Sonceboz
has designed a linear actuator based on
a tin can stepper motor with rotary to
linear motion transformation through a
lead screw-nut technology.
Herbert Trummer
Mechatronics Division Director
Christophe Habegger
R&D Manager
„Linear Actuators“
Hervé Baour
Key Account Manager
„Linear Actuators“