CN110469817B

CN110469817B - Optical assembly for a vehicle lamp, vehicle lamp and motor vehicle

Info

Publication number: CN110469817B
Application number: CN201810445803.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 高亚贵; 李驿林; 刘鸿; 叶军; 陈林
Original assignee: Shenyang Valeo Auto Lighting Co Ltd
Current assignee: Shenyang Valeo Auto Lighting Co Ltd
Priority date: 2018-05-10
Filing date: 2018-05-10
Publication date: 2023-03-24
Anticipated expiration: 2038-05-10
Also published as: CN110469817A

Abstract

The invention provides an optical assembly for a vehicle lamp, a vehicle lamp and a motor vehicle. The optical assembly includes: a light source module; and a transparent light guide block, the transparent light guide block comprising: a light incident surface for receiving an incident light beam emitted from the light source module; and a plurality of light exit faces for outputting an exit light beam; wherein, a plurality of light emergence faces including arrange with the light incident face opposite one side the positive emergence face with the light incident face with the side emergence face that extends between the positive emergence face, and wherein, at least one surface in light incident face, positive emergence face and the side emergence face is provided with a plurality of optical protrusion and/or sunken, wherein, every optical protrusion or sunken surface is formed by a plurality of face concatenations, a plurality of faces are not on the coplanar.

Description

Optical assembly for a vehicle lamp, vehicle lamp and motor vehicle

Technical Field

The invention relates to the field of motor vehicle illumination and signal indication, in particular to an optical assembly for a vehicle lamp, the vehicle lamp and a motor vehicle.

Background

Vehicle lamps are important components of motor vehicles. The vehicle lamp can provide lighting functions for the motor vehicle, such as low beam light, high beam light, fog light and the like, and also can provide signal indication functions for the motor vehicle, such as clearance light, brake light, sign light and the like.

In order to meet the road safety regulations, the irradiation range, intensity and light intensity distribution of the light beam of the vehicle lamp are required to meet the mandatory regulations of traffic regulations. Furthermore, as technology advances and the demand for individualization of motor vehicles continues to increase, the vehicle lights need to take into account visual effects in addition to meeting the requirements of traffic regulations. For example, the exit beam of a vehicle light may display some pattern to represent certain information or symbols, or the vehicle light may enhance the attention of the pedestrian or vehicle driver by some special display effect (e.g., a dynamic pattern or a specific regular pattern).

Disclosure of Invention

An object of the present invention is to provide an optical assembly for a vehicle lamp, which can improve a display effect of the vehicle lamp using a combination of a transparent light guide block having a rugged surface and an optical module.

The invention also aims to provide a vehicle lamp and a motor vehicle comprising the optical assembly.

The present invention provides an optical assembly for a vehicle lamp, comprising: a light source module; and a transparent light guide block, the transparent light guide block comprising: a light incident surface for receiving an incident light beam emitted from the light source module; and a plurality of light exit faces for outputting an exit light beam; wherein, a plurality of light emergence faces including arrange with the light incident face opposite one side the positive emergence face with the light incident face with the side emergence face that extends between the positive emergence face, and wherein, at least one surface in light incident face, positive emergence face and the side emergence face is provided with a plurality of optical protrusion and/or sunken, wherein, every optical protrusion or sunken surface is formed by a plurality of face concatenations, a plurality of faces are not on the coplanar.

The terms "convex" and "concave" can be understood in this way: a reference surface is assumed on which the exit surface with "elevations" and/or "depressions" is formed by providing structures above and/or below the reference surface.

In some embodiments, the plurality of faces include a flat face and/or a curved face.

In some embodiments, different optical convex or concave surfaces are tiled with a different number of facets.

In some embodiments, a height difference between a top and a bottom of the plurality of optical protrusions or depressions is less than 5 millimeters.

In some embodiments, the light incident surface, the front exit surface and the side exit surface of the transparent light guide block are provided with the optical protrusions or depressions.

In some embodiments, the light source module comprises: a light source; and a reflector positioned between the light source and the transparent light guide block and configured to reciprocally reflect the light beam emitted from the light source and output the reciprocally reflected light beam to the light incident surface of the transparent light guide block.

In some embodiments, the reflector has a smaller dimension at one end near the light source than at the other end near the transparent light guide block.

In some embodiments, the light source module further comprises: a light guide member having a light guide incident surface for receiving the light beam from the light source and a light guide exit surface for directing the light beam in the light guide member toward the reflector.

In some embodiments, the light guide entrance surface is located at an end of the light guide member, and the light guide exit surface is located at an outer circumferential side of the light guide member.

In some embodiments, the light guide entrance face is located on a side of the light guide member facing away from the reflector and the light guide exit face is located on another side of the light guide member facing the reflector.

In some embodiments, the light source module includes: a light source; and an optical diffuser located between the light source and the transparent light guide block and used for homogenizing the light beam emitted from the light source.

In some embodiments, the light source module comprises: a light source; and the light-transmitting screen is positioned between the light source and the transparent light guide block, wherein a light distribution pattern is arranged on the surface of one side, facing the light source, of the light-transmitting screen, and the light distribution pattern is arranged to be used for adjusting the light intensity distribution of the light beam emitted from the light source.

In some embodiments, the height of the light distribution pattern in a direction perpendicular to the surface of the light-transmitting screen is less than 5 millimeters.

An embodiment of the present invention also provides a vehicle lamp, including: an optical assembly for a vehicle lamp as described above.

Embodiments of the present invention also provide a motor vehicle comprising an optical assembly for a vehicle lamp as described above or a vehicle lamp as described above.

According to the optical assembly for the vehicle lamp of the present invention, the outgoing light beam is adjusted by providing the transparent light guide block provided with the optical protrusion or recess, so that the outgoing light beam can exhibit a special visual effect such as "diamond fragment".

Drawings

FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a side view of an optical assembly according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 schematically illustrates a perspective view of the optical assembly shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 schematically illustrates a side cross-sectional view of an exemplary transparent light guide block;

FIG. 4 schematically illustrates an example of optical protrusions on a surface of an exemplary transparent light guide block;

FIG. 5 schematically illustrates a top view of an optical assembly according to another embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 and 7 schematically show a top view and a side view, respectively, of an optical assembly according to a further embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 8 schematically illustrates an optical assembly according to yet another embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 9 schematically illustrates an optical assembly according to yet another embodiment of the invention; and

fig. 10 schematically illustrates an exemplary visual effect of an optical assembly according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The technical scheme of the invention is further specifically described by the following embodiments and the accompanying drawings. In the description, the same reference numerals indicate the same or similar components. The following description of the embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings is intended to explain the general inventive concept of the present invention and should not be construed as limiting the invention.

Furthermore, in the following detailed description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments of the disclosure. It may be evident, however, that one or more embodiments may be practiced without these specific details.

Fig. 1 and 2 schematically illustrate an optical assembly 100 for a vehicle lamp. As shown in fig. 1, the optical assembly 100 includes a light source module 1 and a transparent light guide block 2. The light source module 1 is used for emitting an incident light beam 3 to the transparent light guide block 2. The transparent light guide block 2 includes: a light entrance face 10 and a plurality of light exit faces. The light incident surface 10 is used to receive an incident light beam 3 emitted from the light source module 1. The plurality of light exit faces serves for outputting an exit light beam 4. The plurality of light exit surfaces comprises a front exit surface 20 and a side exit surface 30. The positive exit surface 20 and the light incident surface 10 are respectively disposed on opposite sides of the transparent light guide block 2. And the side exit surface 30 extends between the light entrance surface 10 and the front exit surface 20. As can be seen from fig. 2, a plurality of optical protrusions 21 are provided on the light incident surface 10, the front emission surface 20, and the side emission surface 30. The optical protrusion 21 may be used to create a specific effect in the outgoing light beam 4 of the optical component 100. In the embodiment of the present invention, the case where the plurality of optical protrusions 21 are provided on each of the light incident surface 10, the front emission surface 20, and the side emission surface 30 is not limited, and for example, the plurality of optical protrusions 21 may be provided on at least one surface of the light incident surface 10, the front emission surface 20, and the side emission surface 30. By way of example, there may be one, two, four, or more side exit faces 30.

Due to the plurality of optical protrusions 21 provided on the light incident surface 10 and/or the light emitting surface, some special effects, such as a texture-like visual effect like "diamond chips" as shown in fig. 10, may be generated in the light beam emitted from the transparent light guide block 2. Since the transparent light guide block 2 itself is transparent, the optical assembly 100 can present a transparent appearance when the vehicle lamp is not lit (i.e., neither the incident light beam nor the emergent light beam), and can present special visual effects such as "diamond fragments" after the vehicle lamp is lit.

In order to clearly present special visual effects such as "diamond fragments", the surface of each optical protrusion 21 may be composed of a plurality of facets that are not in the same plane. By way of example, the plurality of faces may include planar and/or curved faces. Fig. 4 shows an example of several optical protrusions 21. For example, the surface of the leftmost optical protrusion 21a in fig. 4 may be constituted by the

planes

211, 212, and 213; and the surface of the optical protrusion 21b second from the left in fig. 4 may be constituted by the

flat surfaces

214, 215, and 216. The multi-facet structure is beneficial to improving special visual effects such as 'diamond fragments'. However, the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto, and for example, the shape of the optical protrusion 21 may be various shapes such as a stripe shape, a circle (partial circle), a triangle (triangular pyramid), a quadrangle (tetrahedron), a polygon (polyhedron), and the like as shown in fig. 2. By way of example, the surfaces of different optical protrusions 21 may be tiled by a different number of facets (e.g., flat or curved). For example, in the example of fig. 4, the surfaces of the two optical protrusions on the leftmost side are spliced by three planes, and the surfaces of the third and fourth optical protrusions from the left are spliced by two planes. Such a structure can make the pattern in the outgoing beam more colorful.

The embodiments of the present invention have been described in the above embodiments by taking the optical protrusion as an example, however, the embodiments of the present invention are not limited to this, and for example, the optical protrusion in any of the above embodiments may be replaced by the optical recess, or the optical protrusion and the optical recess may be used in combination, and a similar effect may be obtained. By way of example, the surface of the optical recess may also be formed by a plurality of surfaces (e.g., flat or curved surfaces) that are not in the same plane.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the optical protrusions 21 and/or depressions 22 may be provided on any of the light incident surface 10, the front exit surface 20, and the side exit surface 30, and may even be located on all of these surfaces.

As an example, the height difference H between the top and the bottom of the optical protrusion 21 or the recess 22 (or the height of the optical protrusion 21) may be less than 5 mm. The heights of the different optical protrusions 21 or depressions 22 may be the same or different on the light incident surface and the light exit surface. Likewise, the shape of the different optical protrusions 21 may be the same or different. The difference in the shape and height of the optical protrusions 21 can also improve the richness of the pattern in the outgoing light beam.

In the example of fig. 1, the side exit surface 30 is inclined with respect to the light incident surface 10. However, embodiments of the present invention are not limited thereto, and for example, the side exit surface 30 may be perpendicular to the light incident surface 10.

In one example, as shown in fig. 1, the light source module 1 may include a light source 11 and a reflector 12. The reflector 12 is located between the light source 11 and the transparent light guide block 2 and serves to reciprocally reflect the light beam emitted from the light source 11 and output the reciprocally reflected light beam to the light incident surface 10 of the transparent light guide block 2. By way of example, the reflector 12 may be a flat reflector box. With the reciprocal reflection by the reflector 12, the light emitting area and efficiency can be enlarged, and even an effect similar to that of a plurality of point light sources can be achieved with a combination of a single point light source and the reflector 12. As an example, the size of one end (e.g., the left end in the example of fig. 1) of the reflector 12 near the light source is smaller than the size of the other end (e.g., the right end in the example of fig. 1) near the transparent light guide block 2. For example, the reflector 12 may be horn shaped. The small opening (the smaller end) of the reflector 12 faces the light source and the large opening (the larger end) faces the transparent light guide block 2, which helps to maintain a uniform light intensity distribution while enlarging the light exit area.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the reflector 12 may be a hollow reflector formed by a thin reflecting wall, or may be, for example, a light guide block, the outer surface of which may reflect the light beam back and forth by total reflection.

As an example, as shown in fig. 5 to 7, the light source module 1 may further include a light guide member 16. The light guide member is a light guide member that transmits light mainly by total reflection. It may have various shapes, such as a cylindrical shape (which may be referred to as a light guide bar), an elongated shape (which may be referred to as a light guide bar, a light bar), a plate shape (which may be referred to as a light guide plate), a ring shape (which may be referred to as a light guide ring), and the like. The light guide device has high optical efficiency and small light loss because the light guide device mainly adopts a total reflection mode for transmission. The light guide member 16 may have a light guide entrance face 17 and a light guide exit face 18. The light guide entrance face 17 is for receiving the light beam from the light source 11. The light guide exit surface 18 is used to direct the light beam in the light guide member 16 towards the reflector 12. In the optical module 100a shown in fig. 5, the light guide entrance surface 17 is located at the end of the light guide member 16, and the light guide exit surface 15 is located on the outer peripheral side of the light guide member 16 (the side facing the reflector 12 on the outer peripheral side of the light guide member 16 in fig. 5). That is, the light guide member 16 is in an end incident form. The light source 11 may be arranged to face the light guide incident surface 17 of the end of the light guide member 16. This approach allows a uniform illumination with a small number of point sources. As for how the light beams in the light guide member 16 are caused to exit from the specified positions of the light guide exit surface 18, it is possible to break the total reflection condition of the light beams at the light guide exit surface 18 by providing an inclined reflection surface 19 on the side of the light guide member 16 opposite to the light guide exit surface 18, for example. The arrangement of such inclined reflecting surfaces 19 is well known to those skilled in the art and will not be described in detail here.

In the optical assembly 100b shown in fig. 6 and 7, the light guide entrance surface 17 is located on the side of the light guide member 16 facing away from the reflector 12 (the lower side in fig. 6), and the light guide exit surface 15 is located on the other side of the light guide member 16 facing the reflector 12 (the upper side in fig. 6). In this example, the light beam emitted by the light source 11 passes through the light guide member 16 from a side of the light guide member 16 facing away from the reflector 12 to the other side of the light guide member 16 facing the reflector 12. This approach is suitable in the case of bar-shaped light sources (e.g. LED light bars).

Fig. 8 shows an optical assembly 100c according to yet another embodiment of the invention. In this optical assembly 100c, the light source module 1 includes a light source 11 and an optical diffuser (e.g., an optical diffusion plate) 13 for homogenizing a light beam emitted from the light source 11. The optical diffuser 13 is located between the light source 11 and the transparent light guiding block 2. The optical diffuser 13 may, for example, have a structure such as a projection, a depression or a texture (e.g., a dermatoglyph) that scatters light so that light passing through the optical diffuser 13 is directed relatively uniformly in all directions. A dermatoglyph is a texture (e.g., ring-like or other shape, even randomly distributed) disposed on a surface that scatters light passing through the surface on which it is disposed to expand the divergence angle of the light beam transmitted or reflected off the surface. As an example, the dermatoglyph may consist of a multitude of protrusions or recesses of different sizes (and of course of uniform size), for example, the height of these protrusions or the depth of the recesses may be between 0.01mm and 0.37mm, such as 0.2mm. By means of the dermatoglyph, the exit beam of the optical diffuser 13 can have a larger divergence angle, contributing to a more uniform light intensity distribution. In another example, the optical diffuser 13 may also have a smooth surface, while scattering particles are distributed in the material of the optical diffuser 13. These scattering particles can be mixed into the material from which the optical diffuser 13 is made during the preparation of the optical diffuser 13. With the optical diffuser 13, the incident light intensity distribution of the transparent light guide block 2 can be made more uniform.

Fig. 9 shows an optical assembly 100d according to yet another embodiment of the invention. In this optical assembly 100d, the light source module 1 includes a light source 11 and a light-transmitting screen 14. The light-transmitting screen 14 is located between the light source 11 and the transparent light guide block 2. A light distribution pattern 15 is provided on a surface of the translucent screen 14 on a side facing the light source 11. The light distribution pattern 15 may be arranged to adjust the light intensity distribution of the light beam emitted from the light source 11. As an example, the light distribution pattern 15 may include light distribution protrusions or recesses of various shapes, for example, light distribution protrusions or recesses of various shapes having a circular cross section (including a semicircular shape or a partial circular shape), a polygonal shape (such as a triangular shape, a quadrangular shape, a pentagonal shape, a hexagonal shape, and the like), and the like. Such a light-transmitting screen 14 may make the incident light beam of the transparent light guiding block 2 more uniform or obtain a desired intensity distribution. As an example, the height of the light distribution pattern in a direction perpendicular to the surface of the light-transmitting panel is less than 5 mm. For example, the height difference of the light distribution projections or depressions in the light distribution pattern 15 is less than 5 mm.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the transparent light guide block 2 may be, for example, a solid structure, and may be made of, for example, a light-transmitting material such as resin, plastic, etc., for example, polycarbonate or polymethyl methacrylate, but the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto.

It should be noted that although the transparent light guide block 2 is shown as a trapezoid in many of the drawings of the present invention, it should be understood that this is for convenience of illustration only. At least one surface of the actual transparent light guiding block 2 is rugged with optical protrusions and/or indentations, as shown in fig. 3, for example.

In embodiments of the present invention, the light source may comprise a light emitting diode light source or other light sources known in the art. In case a plurality of light sources is employed, the plurality of light sources may also be arranged in an array.

The embodiment of the invention also provides the vehicle lamp. The vehicular lamp may include the

optical assemblies

100, 100a, 100b, 100c, and 100d as described in any of the above embodiments. A vehicle light according to an embodiment of the present invention may include, for example, any type of motor vehicle illumination light and/or signal light, such as a head lamp, fog light, center high mount stop light, turn signal light, position light, tail stop light, and the like, and may also include lights in a cabin, and the like.

Embodiments of the present invention also provide a motor vehicle. The motor vehicle may comprise an

optical assembly

100, 100a, 100b, 100c and 100d for a vehicle lamp as described in any of the embodiments above or a vehicle lamp as described above.

Although the present invention has been described in connection with the accompanying drawings, the embodiments disclosed in the drawings are intended to be illustrative of preferred embodiments of the present invention and should not be construed as limiting the invention. The dimensional proportions in the figures are merely schematic and are not to be understood as limiting the invention.

Although a few embodiments of the present general inventive concept have been shown and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the general inventive concept, the scope of which is defined in the claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. An optical assembly (100, 100a, 100b, 100c, 100 d) for a vehicle lamp, comprising:

a light source module (1); and

a transparent light guide block (2), the transparent light guide block (2) comprising:

a light incident surface (10) for receiving an incident light beam (3) emitted from the light source module (1); and

a plurality of light exit faces for outputting an exit light beam (4);

wherein the plurality of light exit surfaces include a positive exit surface (20) arranged on the side opposite to the light incident surface (10) and a side exit surface (30) extending between the light incident surface (10) and the positive exit surface (20), and wherein at least one surface of the light incident surface (10), the positive exit surface (20) and the side exit surface (30) is provided with a plurality of optical protrusions (21) and/or depressions (22), wherein the surface of each optical protrusion (21) or depression (22) is formed by splicing a plurality of surfaces, which are not on the same plane.

2. The optical assembly (100, 100a, 100b, 100c, 100 d) for a vehicle lamp according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of faces comprise a flat face and/or a curved face.

3. The optical assembly (100, 100a, 100b, 100c, 100 d) for a vehicle lamp according to claim 1, wherein the surfaces of different optical protrusions (21) or recesses (22) are spliced by a different number of faces.

4. The optical assembly (100, 100a, 100b, 100c, 100 d) for a vehicle lamp according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein a difference in height between a top and a bottom of the plurality of optical protrusions (21) or recesses (22) is less than 5 mm.

5. The optical assembly (100, 100a, 100b, 100c, 100 d) for a vehicle lamp according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the light entrance face (10), the front exit face (20) and the side exit face (30) of the transparent light guide block (2) are each provided with the optical protrusion (21) or depression (22).

6. The optical assembly (100, 100a, 100 b) for a vehicle lamp according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the light source module (1) comprises:

a light source (11); and

a reflector (12), the reflector (12) being located between the light source (11) and the transparent light guide block (2) and being configured to reflect light beams emitted from the light source (11) back and forth and output the light beams reflected back and forth to the light incident surface (10) of the transparent light guide block (2).

7. The optical assembly (100, 100a, 100 b) for a vehicle lamp according to claim 6, wherein one end of the reflector (12) near the light source (11) is smaller in size than the other end near the transparent light guide block (2).

8. The optical assembly (100 a, 100 b) for a vehicle lamp according to claim 6, wherein the light source module (1) further comprises:

a light guide member (16), the light guide member (16) having a light guide entrance surface (17) and a light guide exit surface (18), the light guide entrance surface (17) being for receiving a light beam from the light source (11), the light guide exit surface (18) being for directing the light beam in the light guide member (16) toward the reflector (12).

9. The optical assembly (100 a) for a vehicle lamp according to claim 8, wherein the light guide entrance surface (17) is located at an end of the light guide member (16), and the light guide exit surface (18) is located on an outer peripheral side of the light guide member (16).

10. The optical component (100 b) for a vehicle lamp according to claim 8, wherein the light guide entrance surface (17) is located on a side of the light guide member (16) facing away from the reflector (12), and the light guide exit surface (18) is located on another side of the light guide member (16) facing the reflector (12).

11. The optical assembly (100 c) for a vehicle lamp according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the light source module (1) comprises:

a light source (11); and

an optical diffuser (13), said optical diffuser (13) being located between a light source (11) and said transparent light guide block (2) and being adapted to homogenize a light beam emitted from said light source (11).

12. The optical assembly (100 d) for a vehicle lamp according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the light source module (1) comprises:

a light source (11); and

the light guide block comprises a light transmission screen (14), wherein the light transmission screen (14) is located between a light source (11) and the transparent light guide block (2), a light distribution pattern (15) is arranged on the surface of the light transmission screen (14) facing one side of the light source (11), and the light distribution pattern (15) is arranged to be used for adjusting the light intensity distribution of a light beam emitted from the light source (11).

13. The optical assembly (100 d) for a vehicle lamp according to claim 12, wherein a height of the light distribution pattern (15) in a direction perpendicular to the surface of the light-transmitting screen (14) is less than 5 mm.

14. A vehicle lamp, comprising:

optical assembly (100, 100a, 100b, 100c, 100 d) for a vehicle lamp according to any one of claims 1 to 13.

15. A motor vehicle comprising an optical assembly (100, 100a, 100b, 100c, 100 d) for a vehicle lamp according to any one of claims 1 to 13 or a vehicle lamp according to claim 14.