CN110588504B

CN110588504B - Lighting device for a foot region of a vehicle occupant, vehicle seat and vehicle

Info

Publication number: CN110588504B
Application number: CN201810604147.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: C·雷瑟特; F·阿尔庭格; R·伊泽勒
Original assignee: Bayerische Motoren Werke AG
Current assignee: Bayerische Motoren Werke AG
Priority date: 2018-06-13
Filing date: 2018-06-13
Publication date: 2023-05-12
Anticipated expiration: 2038-06-13
Also published as: CN110588504A

Abstract

The invention relates to a lighting device for the foot region of a vehicle occupant, comprising at least one LED unit, characterized in that the LED unit is designed as a separate semiconductor element and the semiconductor element is mounted on and at least partially contacts a metal part of the vehicle seat. The invention also relates to a seat for a vehicle and a vehicle comprising a seat.

Description

Lighting device for a foot region of a vehicle occupant, vehicle seat and vehicle

Technical Field

The invention relates to a lighting device for the foot region of a vehicle occupant, and to a corresponding vehicle seat having such a lighting device, and to a corresponding vehicle having such a seat.

Background

As industry standards for automotive companies, functional white light lamps and ambient light lamps are generally installed in the foot region of passengers. Functional white light lamps, such as white light LEDs, are used to illuminate the foot area for the passenger when the interior light is activated, such as when the door is open. Ambient lights, such as RGB LEDs, for example, are used to create a relaxed atmosphere or modern designs, which can be combined with other ambient light elements in the vehicle (e.g., in a door panel or cockpit).

In order to illuminate the foot area of a vehicle occupant, in particular a rear passenger, a lighting device is generally used which comprises an LED unit, a printed circuit board and a housing. The LED unit is mounted on a printed circuit board, and the printed circuit board is mounted in the housing. The printed circuit board is thereby enclosed by the housing together with the LED units.

Typically, the LED units comprise white LEDs, RGB LEDs and electronic components for driving these LEDs, such as LIN (local interconnect network) transceivers and PWM (pulse width modulation) generators. There are quite a few components in the LED unit and thus cumbersome wiring requirements are caused, so that the LED unit generates a lot of heat when in use. This not only results in a high cost of such a lighting device, but also requires a large heat dissipation space for it. Accordingly, the printed circuit board and the housing must have a substantial size for heat dissipation. For example, the size of a printed circuit board is typically about 3cm ² . Meanwhile, since the lighting device includes a large number of components, the lighting device also has a large weight.

Due to the large size and the large weight of the lighting device, the lighting device is mounted on an additional bracket of the vehicle seat so as to support the lighting device by using the additional bracket and provide a sufficiently large mounting space and a heat dissipation space for the lighting device.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a lighting device for the foot region of a vehicle occupant, which obviates at least one of the disadvantages of the prior art, in particular which has a particularly simple structure.

The object is achieved by a lighting device for the foot region of a vehicle occupant, comprising at least one LED unit, wherein the LED unit is formed as a separate semiconductor element and the semiconductor element is mounted on and at least partially in contact with a metal part of a vehicle seat.

The lighting device according to the invention thus uses LED units which are formed as individual semiconductor elements, without the need for a printed circuit board as in the prior art. This also means that no additional electronic components are required and that the plug of the wiring harness can be integrated next to the chip. Such an LED unit, which is configured as a separate semiconductor element, has fewer components and simpler wiring, so that the temperature rise which occurs when it is used is significantly reduced in comparison with the prior art. Thus, according to the present invention, the LED unit can be mounted on a metal part of a vehicle seat without a housing. This is because such an LED unit can generate less heat, and it is sufficient to discharge the heat generated by the LED unit using the good heat conductive property of the metal member, without requiring a case to provide a heat dissipation space. The lighting device according to the invention therefore has significantly fewer components and significantly less weight and volume than the prior art, and thus has a particularly simple structure.

According to a preferred embodiment, at least one, preferably all, semiconductor elements can be connected to the metal part with their non-illuminated surface in contact. It may be particularly advantageous if at least one, preferably all, of the semiconductor elements are connected with their non-illuminated surface in contact to the frame of the vehicle seat. This makes it possible to achieve a particularly simple installation without the lighting device having to be mounted on an additional support of the vehicle seat as in the prior art. Since the LED unit of the lighting device according to the invention has a small size, for example the semiconductor element may be a 3mm chip, and the lighting device according to the invention has a small weight due to the omission of a printed circuit board and a housing as in the prior art, the lighting device according to the invention may be mounted directly on the frame of the vehicle seat without being mounted on an additional bracket of the vehicle seat. Also, the frame of the vehicle seat is typically made of solid metal in order to ensure stability of the seat, so it can be advantageous to radiate heat generated by the LED unit.

According to a preferred embodiment, at least one of said semiconductor elements is mountable on a front seat for a front passenger. Since the frame of the front seat of the vehicle is closer to the foot area of the rear passenger, it is more advantageous to illuminate the foot area of the rear passenger of the vehicle and to install and adjust the illumination device for the foot area of the rear passenger of the vehicle. Typically, for a vehicle seat, the frame of the seat may include a vertical section for the back of the occupant and a horizontal section for the buttocks of the occupant. In this case, it is preferable that the at least one semiconductor element is mounted on a rear bar of the horizontal section of the seat frame, which is close to the back of the passenger in use.

At this time, when the lighting device includes only one LED unit, according to a preferred embodiment, the semiconductor element of the LED unit is centrally mounted on the rear bar of the horizontal section of the seat frame, which is in use close to the back of the passenger. A particularly simple lighting device and a particularly simple installation of the lighting device are thereby achieved.

According to a preferred embodiment, the semiconductor element may comprise a plurality of monochromatic LEDs of different colors and a microcontroller for controlling the monochromatic LEDs. Here, the LED unit according to the present invention does not use a white LED anymore, but generates bright white light using a plurality of monochromatic LEDs of different colors, thereby combining a functional white light lamp and an ambient light. Thereby also reducing the heat dissipated by the LED unit when in use.

As an example, the lighting device according to the invention may be implemented as a lighting device commonly known by Inova semiconductor devicesCo-developed by BMW Co

In addition, the lighting device according to the present invention using the LED units constituted as individual semiconductor elements can be seen as lighting devices known in WO 2017/190979A1, WO 2017/190980A1, WO 2017/190981A1, WO 2017/190982A1, which are incorporated herein by reference.

According to the invention there is also provided a seat for a vehicle, on which seat the lighting device as described above is arranged. In this regard, the seat is preferably a front seat for a front passenger.

There is also provided according to the present invention a vehicle comprising a seat configured as described above for a vehicle or provided with a lighting device as described above. In this regard, the lighting device is preferably mounted on a front seat for a front passenger.

Drawings

The invention is explained in detail below with reference to an embodiment shown in the drawings. Wherein:

fig. 1 shows a perspective view of an embodiment of a vehicle seat from the front side;

fig. 2 shows a perspective view of the vehicle seat of fig. 1 from the rear side;

FIG. 3 illustrates a rear view of the vehicle seat of FIG. 1;

fig. 4 shows an illumination device according to the invention for the foot region of a vehicle passenger.

Detailed Description

Fig. 1 to 3 show an embodiment of a vehicle seat. The seat comprises a frame 1 for supporting the seat facing and an additional bracket 2 for providing additional support to the seat facing. The frame 1 may be made of metal and the additional support 2 may be made of metal or non-metal such as plastic.

The frame 1 may comprise a substantially rectangular vertical section 11 for the back of the passenger and a substantially rectangular horizontal section 12 for the buttocks of the passenger. In this embodiment, the horizontal section 12 further comprises a connecting section 13 for connecting with the vertical section 11. Of course, it is also conceivable that the connecting section 13 may also be comprised in the vertical section 11 for connection with the horizontal section 12, or that the connecting section 13 is a separate component for connecting the horizontal section 12 with the vertical section.

The horizontal section 12 includes a front bar 122 that is adjacent to the legs of the occupant when in use and a rear bar 121 that is adjacent to the back of the occupant when in use, and two side bars 123 that connect the front bar 122 and the rear bar 121. In this embodiment, the rear rod 121 is configured in a cylindrical shape. It is also conceivable to construct the rear rod 121 in other shapes, such as a rectangular parallelepiped shape.

In this embodiment, an additional bracket 2 is mounted between the front and

rear bars

122, 121 of the horizontal section 12 of the seat to provide additional support for the seat facing.

As described in the background section, lighting devices for vehicle occupants, in particular for the rear passenger foot area, according to the prior art generally comprise an LED unit, a printed circuit board and a housing. The LED unit is mounted on a printed circuit board, and the printed circuit board is mounted in the housing. The printed circuit board is thereby enclosed by the housing together with the LED units.

The housing of the lighting device according to the prior art is generally mounted on an additional support 2 (see fig. 1) of the seat due to its large size and large weight. In particular, the housing of the lighting device with the LED unit and the printed circuit board may be mounted on a front seat for a front passenger and thus in an area of the additional bracket 2 adjacent to the rear bar 121 of the horizontal section 12 of the frame 1 to facilitate the illumination of the foot area of the rear passenger.

According to the invention, the lighting device for the foot region of the vehicle occupant may comprise only at least one LED unit, which is embodied as a separate semiconductor element 300 (see fig. 4). The lighting device according to the invention therefore does not comprise a housing and a printed circuit board of the lighting device as in the prior art.

According to the embodiment of fig. 4, the semiconductor element 300 may comprise a plurality of monochromatic LEDs 301 of different colors and a microcontroller 302 for controlling the monochromatic LEDs. Here, the LED unit according to the present invention may include only a single color LED, and no longer include a white LED exclusively used as a functional white light lamp. White LEDs are a major source of heat generated by lighting devices according to the prior art. Thus, a lighting device according to the present invention that does not include a white LED may generate significantly less heat.

The lighting device according to the invention can be mounted partly or completely in contact on a metal part of a vehicle seat. The lighting device for the foot region of a vehicle occupant according to the invention can generate less heat since it no longer comprises a printed circuit board, a housing and/or white LEDs or the like, so that it is sufficient to use the metal parts of the vehicle seat to remove the heat generated by the lighting device according to the invention. When the frame 1 of the vehicle seat is made of metal, the lighting device according to the invention can be directly connected to the frame 1 of the seat made of metal. In particular, the semiconductor element of the lighting device according to the invention can be connected with its non-illuminated surface to the frame of the vehicle seat.

In order to facilitate the illumination of the illumination device and to facilitate the installation and adjustment of the illumination device, in an advantageous embodiment the illumination device for the foot region of a vehicle occupant according to the invention can be mounted on the rear rod 121 of the horizontal section 12 of the seat frame. When the lighting device according to the present invention comprises only one LED unit, the semiconductor element of the LED unit may be centrally mounted on the rear bar 121 of the horizontal section 12 of the seat frame (see position a in fig. 2 and 3).

Since the lighting device according to the present invention uses the LED unit configured as a separate semiconductor element and mounts the semiconductor element on the metal part of the vehicle seat, the cost of the entire system will be reduced. Since there is no printed circuit board and no housing as in the prior art, the LED unit can be directly mounted on the metal frame of the seat. The weight of the lighting device according to the invention will be smaller than before. A heat dissipation space for suppressing the temperature generated by the LED unit will also be saved. Thus, the lighting device according to the invention achieves the same function and provides a more durable and efficient lighting compared to the prior art.

Although the invention has been described by way of example and with reference to specific embodiments, it will be appreciated that modifications and/or improvements may be made without departing from the scope of the appended claims. If the whole or device cited in the above description has known equivalents, such equivalents are also incorporated herein.

Claims

1. Lighting device for the foot region of a vehicle occupant, comprising at least one LED unit, characterized in that the LED unit is constructed as a separate semiconductor element and that the semiconductor element is mounted on and at least partially in contact with a metal part of a vehicle seat.

2. A lighting device as recited in claim 1, wherein at least one of said semiconductor elements is connected to said metal member in contact with a non-lighting surface thereof.

3. A lighting device as recited in claim 2, wherein all of said semiconductor elements are connected to said metal member in contact with their non-lighting surfaces.

4. A lighting device as recited in claim 1, wherein at least one of said semiconductor elements is connected in contact with its non-lighting surface to a frame of a vehicle seat.

5. A lighting device as recited in claim 4, wherein all of said semiconductor elements are connected in contact with their non-lighting surfaces to the frame of the vehicle seat.

6. A lighting device as claimed in claim 4, characterized in that the frame comprises a vertical section (11) for the back of the passenger and a horizontal section (12) for the buttocks of the passenger, and in that the at least one semiconductor element is mounted on a rear bar (121) of the horizontal section (12) which, in use, is close to the back of the passenger.

7. A lighting device as claimed in claim 5, characterized in that the frame comprises a vertical section (11) for the back of the passenger and a horizontal section (12) for the buttocks of the passenger, and in that the at least one semiconductor element is mounted on a rear bar (121) of the horizontal section (12) which, in use, is close to the back of the passenger.

8. A lighting device as claimed in claim 6, characterized in that the lighting device comprises only one LED unit, and the semiconductor elements of the LED unit are centrally mounted on a rear bar (121) of said horizontal section (12) which is in use close to the back of the passenger.

9. A lighting device according to claim 7, characterized in that the lighting device comprises only one LED unit, and that the semiconductor elements of the LED unit are centrally mounted on the rear bar (121) of said horizontal section (12) which, in use, is close to the back of the passenger.

10. A lighting device as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that the semiconductor element (300) comprises a plurality of differently colored monochromatic LEDs (301) and a microcontroller (302) for controlling the monochromatic LEDs.

11. A seat for a vehicle, characterized in that a lighting device as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 10 is provided on the seat.

12. A seat as claimed in claim 11, wherein the seat is a front seat for a front passenger.

13. Vehicle comprising a seat, characterized in that the seat is configured as a seat for a vehicle as claimed in claim 11 or 12, or in that a lighting device as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 10 is provided on the seat.

14. The vehicle of claim 13, wherein the lighting device is mounted on a front seat for a front passenger.