Fog Lamps And Their Mode Of Design

By Author: Adrian Brown
Total Articles: 6
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Fog lights are lighting safety features mounted on vehicles such as cars and trucks to help with visibility during bad weather. Apart from vehicle applications they are also used to provide security lights in walled-off installations and properties. They are usually switched on during times of adverse weather conditions such as when it is foggy; such conditions are a hindrance to safe driving thanks to the haziness which usually sets in. These lights are also used at night when visibility is naturally low, and especially on moonless evenings.

These lamps usually consist of halogen bulbs sporting a tungsten filament. Special care should be taken when identifying the kind of light such bulbs produce because light is made up of different colors and when it passes through a drop of rain, which act as a prism, it disperses and gives unclear reflections.

Research has shown that good safety fog lamps should not only produce a light that our eyes are well sensitive to, but of a long enough wavelength such that it does not disperse too much. It should also be noted that fog lights ...
... are not meant to help drivers see through the fog but rather to light up the ground in front and to the sides.

The primary function of these lights is to provide enough light to prevent accidents. They therefore need to have several salient features which will facilitate the production of appreciable light to make driving through poor visibility conditions safe. As the name suggests, fog lights are meant to be used during foggy conditions; this does not mean that they cannot be used in other conditions though. Contrary to common belief, fog lamps cannot `see through’ the fog. If a driver drives with the fog lamps glaring straight onwards the thick wall of fog will throw back the glare to the motorist and thus make it impossible for him or her to see clearly.

As it is, fog lights are designed with the necessary and special features they require for them to be used safely. They are designed so as to throw light forwards and downwards, in effect providing a cutoff of light which makes the upper light stratum less bright than the lower one. The downward orientation is meant to light the road or track immediately in-front and to the periphery appreciably without throwing out a glare that will be blinding to other motorists driving beside them or coming from the opposite lane.

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