Karolina Daniel Dacheva

Tutor:Raf Theunissen
Aerospace Engineering Department
STM2 Materials Selection Course Work
Summary
The following report is on material selection for automotive headlight lens. The functions of
the lens to protect the bulb and reflector and to focus the light where it is most needed drove
the selection process. On the basis of several requirements the material that fit best was
chosen using the E! software. This was soda"lime glass.
1 Introduction
The ob#ectives of the material selection included:
Transparenc$ and optical qualit$
%oldabilit$
&ardness
'resh and salt water resistance
() light resistance
*ow cost
2 Method
(sing the E! software the following procedure too+ place:
Edu *evel , with Eco and durabilit$ properties was chosen from the Database-'ig../
A *imit stage was created
0n 1eneral properties: 2rice was limited from 34.3 1526+g-ver$ cheap/-'ig.,/
0n 2rocessabilit$: %oldabilit$ was limited from ,47-eas$ to mould/-'ig.8/
0n Optical properties Transparent and Optical 9ualit$ were chec+ed-'ig.:/
0n %echanical properties &ardness was limited from ;34.333&)-ver$ hard/-'ig.7/
0n Durabilit$: built environments () radiation-sunlight/" <E=cellent> was
chec+ed-'ig.?/
0n Durabilit$: water and aqueous solutions for both @ater-fresh/ and @ater-salt/
-'ig.A/ <E=cellent> was chec+ed
3 Results
The software produced 8 different material options which matched the criteria:
!oda"lime glass
!ilica glass
5orosilicate glass-soda lime glass with most of the lime replaced b$ bora=/
5 Discussion
On a preliminar$ stageB silica glass was e=cluded as it was the most e=pensive material and
the rest two were compared.
@hile soda"lime glass has been +nown to humanit$ for centuriesB borosilicate glass was first
used relativel$ sooner"in .;C8. That could #ustif$ the fact that it is not as widel$ spread used
and has a specific t$pe of usage" especiall$ in laborator$ equipment. 0t is also more e=pensive
b$ a factor of ,"8B compared to soda"lime glass. The later is largel$ used for windowsB
bottlesB light bulbs.
Karolina Daniel Dacheva
Tutor:Raf Theunissen
Aerospace Engineering Department
The reason wh$ borosilicate is good for laborator$ equipment is its low thermal e=pansion
coefficient -8., strain6D/. EeverthelessB e=posed to drastic temperature variationB a sudden
crac+ could occur and the material would brea+ into big pieces instead of shatter. 0t is also not
as prone to moldabilit$ as soda"lime glassB less denseB has poorer optical qualit$ and its
hardness onl$ varies between ;8.A and C,.7&)-compared to :8C":;:&) for soda"lime
glass/.
6 Conclusions
On the basis of the comparison between the three materialsB the better #udgement was in
favour of soda"lime glass since it was cost effectiveB harderB easier to manufacture and
possessed better transparenc$ which are the material qualities that were loo+ed for.
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Karolina Daniel Dacheva
Tutor:Raf Theunissen
Aerospace Engineering Department
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