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Never-seen-before system features
setting new standards |
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The electrotransparent panorama roof of the new Maybach
62 is one of the most ambitious projects Webasto, as a supplier
of vehicle roof systems, has ever completed.
Over just under three years of intensive collaboration with DaimlerChrysler,
we have developed a high-tech car roof. This roof incorporates technical
features that have never been seen before in the automotive industry.
The remit was to satisfy the highest of all demands for comfort
and quality. The Maybach roof comprises two fixed glass elements
on the skin of the vehicle. Mounted at the front end of the roof
is a panel made of safety glass with integral solar generator. At
the rear there’s a panel made of safety glass under which there
is a sliding headlining and an electrically switchable glass panel.
A coffered structure is made of precious wood. It is fitted to the
underside of the electrotransparent panel bestows a particularly
noble ambience to the rear passenger compartment.
Those clients who the "Chauffeur" version of the Maybach
62, purchase a luxury car with a difference: the glass that extends
the entire length and width of the roof.
We have succeeded in implementing a totally new and fascinating
concept for the lighting of a car's interior. Its main features:
switchable transparency and an illuminated sliding headlining.
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Transparency at the press of a button
Any time they wish, the rear passengers of the Maybach can decide
whether they want to let the sun shine in through the thick
safety panes of the panoramic glass roof or whether it should
turn opaque. In the latter state, only some 76% of the ambient
daylight finds its way into the car's interior. This feature
is achieved with the aid of a liquid crystal film. This film
comprises an electroconductive polymer plastic and is connected
to a control unit that generates an alternating voltage. As
long as current flows, the liquid crystals are oriented so that
they let light through. When the current flow is interrupted,
the crystals lose this orientation and the light that hits the
panel is scattered in a random manner and the transparency of
the film is greatly reduced to offer true privacy. |
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Customised lighting of the interior took absolute
priority during the development of this panorama roof, and it
wasn't just to be limited to sunny conditions.
The passengers in a Maybach can also enjoy unrivalled comfort
when the weather is dull or during night-time journeys. Thanks
to the electric sliding headlining that can be traversed between
the electrotransparent panel and the outer panorama panel, this
requirement has also been fulfilled. When closed, it prevents
the passengers from looking out overhead. At the press of a
button, the headlining produces pleasant lighting conditions
over the entire area of the rear compartment, which the passengers
can dim through 16 levels.
This total-comfort feature is made possible by an electroluminescent
film built into the sliding headlining. Similar to
the electrotransparent panel, special luminescent pigments,
which are located in extremely thin layers of the film, light
up when an alternating voltage is applied at the touch of a
button. An easy-on-the-eye white light ensures pleasant lighting
conditions. |
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| Electrotransparency at the press of a button and an
illuminated sliding headlining guarantee appropriate lighting
conditions at all times |
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Light as an energy source
With the Maybach's panorama roof, the crucial importance of
light isn't just restricted to ensuring the happiness and well-being
of the passengers. The roughly 1.1-m2 front safety glass panel
is masked from inside the car by the headlining. Integrated
on the underside of this panel is technology already familiar
from the Mercedes E class: 30 silicon solar cells that begin
to function as soon as the car is parked. The monocrystaline
photovoltaic elements convert sunlight into electric energy.
This energy is then used to keep the ventilation fan of the
front compartment's air conditioning running constantly. The
benefits: a hot interior heated by the summer sun can be cooled
down and the moisture brought into the car by passengers during
rainy or snowy weather is expelled again.
The Maybach's panorama roof is pure quality right down
to the last detail. At our plant in Utting, situated
on the Ammersee to the south-west of Munich, the "line" on which
the Maybach's roof is hand made outputs just one roof a day.
Every roof is put through the most stringent testing, including
being subjected to tropical rain storms and extreme heat and
cold, before the complete roof system is transported to DaimlerChrysler's
plant at Sindelfingen, south of Stuttgart. Lifting gear specially
developed by Webasto then helps install the system in precisely
the right position in the Maybach. |
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