To create an eye-catching taillight, in addition to a novel design, the interplay between material properties, material quality and processing is also very important. The taillights provided by odelo, a well-known automotive lighting supplier, for Audi A6 use ROHM PLEXIGLAS® molding compound to achieve stable welding and fixation of highly creative high-slope taillights with a simpler welding structure.
The Audi A6 taillight is assembled by welding two complex structural parts, and the iconic arrow-shaped light guide adds to its dynamic shape. The light guide part is made of PLEXIGLAS® Satinice light diffusing material, which not only efficiently covers the strong light hot spots of the LED lamp beads, but also ensures a very high transmittance, and finally achieves a uniform luminous effect. Made of PLEXIGLAS® Signal Red.
Innovative welding process creates elegant taillights
Advanced machining technology takes modern automotive lighting design to a whole new level, reducing the difficulty of manufacturing taillights with complex shapes. Taillights usually consist of several components welded together – for example, the taillights of the A6 consist of a housing made of ABS plastic and an outer lens made of PLEXIGLAS®.
During the development phase, Oudliang used comprehensive optical simulations to determine how to achieve uniform transmission of the laser output while avoiding local overheating of parts and insufficient weld strength. In addition, the injection molding process of each taillight assembly is required to maintain the highest precision to ensure a high degree of accuracy of the assembly in the junction area.
Muhammet Yildiz, Chief Executive Officer of Oudliang Group, said: "The main features of the A6 taillight are its welding technology, as well as its crystal-like exterior design and highly sloping structural components. This innovative combination enables a high degree of design freedom and provides end customers with A continuous optical effect independent of viewing angle is achieved.”
"PLEXIGLAS® unleashes innovative thinking"
This processing method further expands the enormous creative possibilities of PLEXIGLAS® for automotive design. ROHM polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) is completely colorless and enables precise coloration, which is especially important for standardized signal colors used in the automotive industry. The PMMA material has excellent UV and weather resistance and is always color stable. PLEXIGLAS® also has well-balanced performance characteristics, great creative potential and good machinability. Arne Schmidt, Head of Technical Marketing at ROHM's Moulding Compounds business unit, said: "PLEXIGLAS® gives customers the freedom to think freely".