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Automakers Strive to Add Content Without Clutter
As New Driver-Assist Features Fight for Space on the Windscreen, Gentex Carves a Niche by Providing Custom Sensor Clusters
| Source: Gentex
ZEELAND, MI--(Marketwire - May 18, 2009) - Gentex Corporation (NASDAQ : GNTX ) -- Increased
demand for new and emerging driver-assist safety features is creating an
engineering dilemma for automakers. How do you effectively integrate these
features into the vehicle when collectively they require a myriad of
sensors, imagers and vision systems -- all of which need to be affixed on
or near the windscreen?
Complicating this issue is the fact that for any given vehicle in
development there are multiple suppliers providing multiple sensors that
often need to meet multiple performance specifications. In addition, all
of these sensors need to fit on the same windscreen without impeding driver
vision.
This growing windscreen management challenge has been quite beneficial for
Gentex Corporation, the U.S.-based supplier of automatic-dimming mirrors
and advanced electronic products for the worldwide auto industry.
Gentex knows windscreens. For over 25 years, nearly every product and
feature the Company has shipped has been affixed to the windscreen,
integrated into high-tech automatic-dimming rearview mirrors that come
packaged with technology like displays, hands-free microphones, compass
transducers, garage door openers, telematics components, rain sensors --
even vision systems that control your headlamps.
Over the past few years, however, Gentex has found itself assisting
multiple automakers integrate various features into their vehicles not only
via the rearview mirror, but also by developing custom sensor clusters that
reside on or near the windscreen and are typically affixed to the rearview
mirror.
"It's not uncommon for a single Gentex-designed cluster to house separate
cameras for features like lane departure warning and/or collision
avoidance, as well as individual sensors that operate the vehicle's
headlamps, door locks, wipers, defroster, compass, interior climate control
and built-in garage door openers," said Enoch Jen, Gentex's senior vice
president.
Take the case of the XC60, a new crossover vehicle from Volvo. Gentex
helped Volvo Car Corporation engineer a custom windscreen- and
mirror-integrated sensor cluster that houses rain, infrared and humidity
sensors, a multipurpose camera, and components related to Volvo's City
Safety collision avoidance system. In addition, Gentex supplies an
interior
auto-dimming mirror with compass and humidity sensor features. The vehicle
is available in Europe and the U.S.
All of these advanced components need to reside on or near the windscreen
so that they're protected from the elements yet have a clear, unobstructed,
wiper-swept view of the road and/or sky.
For another European automaker, Gentex help create a custom package for
integrating rain, light and humidity sensors with a multipurpose camera,
automatic-dimming mirror and Gentex's SmartBeam® High-Beam Assist, which
uses a miniature camera and complex algorithms to automate and optimize
high-beam usage.
"It's a complex engineering task because each sensor cluster is
vehicle-specific and comprised of multiple brackets, covers, mounts and
wire harnesses," continued Jen. "Gentex also works to manage the different
suppliers of the various sensors and components to ensure that the system
not only functions properly but also meets relevant legal, styling,
ergonomic and manufacturing concerns."
Founded in 1974, Gentex Corporation (NASDAQ : GNTX ) is an international
company that provides high-quality products to the worldwide automotive
industry and North American fire protection market. Based in Zeeland,
Michigan, the Company develops, manufactures and markets interior and
exterior automatic-dimming automotive rearview mirrors that utilize
proprietary electrochromic technology to dim in proportion to the amount of
headlight glare from trailing vehicle headlamps. Many of the mirrors are
sold with advanced electronic features, and more than 96 percent of the
Company's revenues are derived from the sale of auto-dimming mirrors to
nearly every major automaker in the world.