CASES STUDIES

Cas ERNI Licht Technik AG - Aero - www.airlight.erni.com

How the need for optical simulation guided Erni Licht-

Technik AG’s choice of CAD program.

Cas ERNI Licht Technik AG - Aero - www.airlight.erni.com

Airport runway lighting

The strips of lighting found on the edge of runways are not only aimed at pointing out the runway
limits, they also indicate to the pilot the optimal angle of approach for the landing

In this last case, the lit information given by four white or red points is a crucial piece of
information for the safety of the landing. The accuracy of the angle of emission for these light
sources is thus particularly important, as is their type and intensity: the emitted colors, and the
way in which they are perceived, must correspond to ICAO Standards (International Civil Aviation
Organisation).

These constraints make designing runway lighting a complex

operation, taking into account two types of parameter:

Mechanical - caused by airplanes and all ground traffic on airfields

including snow ploughs.

Optical - the need to meet aeronautical lighting standards as

much in the perception of colors as in the accuracy of the emission
angle.

This level of accuracy requires numerous reflectors to be placed, and several geometric
modifications before arriving at the final prototype.

OPTIS (Headquarters) Page 1/4

ZE La Farlède - CS 40275 - 83078 Toulon cedex 9 - France
Tel : +33 494 086 690 Fax : +33 494 086 694
 CASES STUDIES
Cas ERNI Licht Technik AG - Aero - www.airlight.erni.com

Simulating the emission angle is an essential element in designing an

inset light
Apart from the design phase, other constraints must be applied to these airport lights : the
maintenance of these light sources and their energy consumption constitute for the user company
two important areas of expense, which can affect choice of supplier.

The Swiss company Erni Licht-Technik AG, part of the group Erni (www.erni.com) supplier of
airport lighting systems since 1959 was wondering for a long time how to lengthen the life of the
lamps, while reducing their energy consumption. Replacing them by LEDs is a promising solution
and intensive work is being done on this. One point which must be taken into consideration is
finding the best optical solution to reach ICAO specifications.

To make sure of this, it was necessary to acquire a software for optical simulation. This time the
company wished to renew its design tools, of which its 2D AutoCAD design no longer allowed
them to work in optimal conditions in terms of safety and speed. Initially the choice was for the 3D
software Inventor from Autodesk, and to this was going to be added an optical simulation
software called Light modeling tool.

“We soon became aware that this double choice would have meant us re-entering data each time
we went from one software to another. This operation is unrewarding for engineers, costly in
time, and also a source of errors” points out Mr. Aeschlimann, the engineer in charge of the
project at Erni Licht-Technik AG.

"Designing Airport Light Fittings means solving many different kind of problems, mechanical,
electrical as well as optical design. Our optical components very often have mechanical functions
too. Therefore optical design is just one of many things our engineers have to do; they can not be
specialists just doing nothing but optical design. That is the main reason that we need a optical
design tool that is easy to get familiar with and that is easy to handle also for engineers who do
not optical design every day."

OPTIS (Headquarters) Page 2/4

ZE La Farlède - CS 40275 - 83078 Toulon cedex 9 - France
Tel : +33 494 086 690 Fax : +33 494 086 694
 CASES STUDIES
Cas ERNI Licht Technik AG - Aero - www.airlight.erni.com

An integrated solution was preferable

It was during a presentation seminar by company OPTIS that Mr. Aeschlimann became aware of
OptisWorks, the only software for lighting simulation to be integrated in a CAD software – in
this case SolidWorks.

So naturally the need for an integrated solution led Erni Licht-Technik AG to the immediate and
simultaneous adoption of SolidWorks and of its Gold Partner OptisWorks.

“We have about twelve projects per year, and the integration of OptisWorks on the CAD
platform SolidWorks has enabled us to save a considerable amount of time” says M.
Aeschlimann, adding “ One of the most interesting technical elements for us was the possibility
of analyzing the tolerancing offered by OptisWorks : one can modify very accurately the
dimension and position of an element, and quickly observe the photometric result. This will
allow us to optimize our optical designs much better and already define the tolerances before
we make the first prototype.”

OPTIS (Headquarters) Page 3/4

ZE La Farlède - CS 40275 - 83078 Toulon cedex 9 - France
Tel : +33 494 086 690 Fax : +33 494 086 694
 CASES STUDIES
Cas ERNI Licht Technik AG - Aero - www.airlight.erni.com

Photometric results in real time.

Photo-realistic simulation by day …and by night

The results of simulations carried out by Erni Licht-Technik AG are evidence of the
performance of the Optisworks software

OPTIS (Headquarters) Page 4/4

ZE La Farlède - CS 40275 - 83078 Toulon cedex 9 - France
Tel : +33 494 086 690 Fax : +33 494 086 694