JP2000021211A - Light for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the number of components of an bulb socket and connectors in the light for vehicle, and to reduce the man-hour of the work assembling the bulb socket and the connectors into a light bodies, also to simplify the assembling work and realize automatization. SOLUTION: A conductive material (or conductive pattern film) 6 made of an insert-molded strip metal plate, etc., is formed along the reverse side of a light body 1. A socket body 31 of a bulb socket 3B is formed integrally with the light body 1, and an electric wiring is constituted by the conductive material 6, further parts 61 of the conductive material 6 are constituted as contacts 33 in order to electrically connect with a bulb 5B in the socket body 31. The socket body 31 and the contacts 33 constituting the bulb socket 3B are respectively formed integrally with the light body 1, which dispenses with components constituting the bulb socket 3B, and reduces the number of assembling processes of the bulb socket 3B drastically.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicular lamp mounted on a vehicle such as an automobile, and more particularly, to integrating a light bulb socket and a connector into a lamp body, reducing the number of assembling steps of the lamp, and simplifying and assembling the lamp. The present invention relates to a vehicular lamp realizing the above.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A lamp mounted on an automobile basically includes a lamp body, a lens mounted on a front opening of the lamp body, and a light bulb as a light source mounted on a rear opening of the lamp body. And a light bulb socket for holding the light bulb socket, an electric cord for supplying electric power to the light bulb socket is connected, and a connector for electrically connecting the electric cord to a power cord on the vehicle power supply side is provided. .
Since the light bulb socket is required to electrically connect an electrode of the light bulb and an electric cord while holding the light bulb, conventionally, conductive contacts are provided inside a resin socket body. The electrode of the electric bulb is brought into contact with the contact, and the electric cord is electrically connected. Similarly, in the connector,
A conductive contact is contained in a resin connector body, and when a power supply connector connected to a power cord of the vehicle-mounted power supply is fitted, the contact contained in the power supply connector is provided. And the power supply is supplied to the electric cord.

[0005] As described above, in the conventional vehicle lamp, in assembling the light bulb socket, it is necessary to connect the electric cord to the contact and insert the contact into the socket body. Also, in assembling the connector, it is necessary to connect an electric cord to the contact and insert the contact into the connector body. In particular, in the case of a combination-type lamp in which a plurality of bulb sockets are provided, the above-mentioned work is required for the number of bulb sockets. There is a problem. Therefore, the present applicant first extends the electric cord along the back surface of the lamp body and arranges a connection piece electrically connected to the electric cord at a place where the electric light bulb socket is attached, and the electric light bulb socket Has been proposed in which a contact in a light bulb socket is brought into contact with the connection piece when the light source is mounted on a lamp body, and an electric cord and a contact are automatically electrically connected via the connection piece. According to this technology, if the light bulb socket in which the contact is mounted is attached to the lamp body,
Since the electrical connection between the contact and the electrical cord is automatically performed, at least the step of connecting the contact and the electrical cord is not required, and the operation for electrical connection can be omitted. In addition, the work for electrical connection can be omitted in the connector.

[0004]

However, in such an improved technique, although the work of electrically connecting the electric bulb socket and the connector to the electric cord can be reduced, the electric socket and the connector are separated from the lamp body. Therefore, there is a limit in reducing the number of parts of the entire lamp. In addition, since the light bulb socket is composed of a socket body made of an insulating material and a contact made of a conductive material, the reduction in the number of components is limited in this respect as well. In addition, since the socket body and the contacts are sub-assembled to form a light bulb socket and the work of attaching the light bulb socket to the lamp body is at a minimum, there is a limit in reducing the number of assembly steps. is there. Such a problem occurs not only in a light bulb socket but also in a connector.

An object of the present invention is to reduce the number of components of the light bulb socket and the connector as described above and to reduce the number of assembling steps of the lamp when the light bulb socket and the connector are attached to the lamp body and connected to the electric cord. Reduce,
It is another object of the present invention to provide a vehicular lamp capable of simplifying and automating an assembling operation.

[0006]

According to the present invention, a conductive material or a conductive pattern film integrally formed along a back surface of a lamp body is formed, and a socket body of a light bulb socket is integrally formed with the lamp body. In addition, the conductive material or the conductive pattern film forms an electrical wiring, and a part of the conductive material or the conductive pattern film is configured as a contact for making an electrical connection with the light bulb in the socket body. Also, in the present invention, the connector body of the connector is formed integrally with the lamp body, and a part of the conductive material or the conductive pattern film is configured to contact inside the connector body.

In the present invention, since the socket body and the contact constituting the light bulb socket are formed integrally with the lamp body, the components constituting the light bulb socket become unnecessary, and the assembling process of the light bulb socket is greatly reduced. be able to. Further, by forming the connector body and the contacts constituting the connector integrally with the lamp body, the components constituting the connector become unnecessary, and the assembling process can be reduced.

[0008]

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a part of a rear portion of a first embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a rear combination lamp RCL of an automobile. The rear combination lamp RCL has a tail & stop lamp T &
SL and the backup lamps BUL are arranged in a horizontal row, and the interior of the resin molded lamp body 1 is partitioned and formed in a lamp chamber of each lamp. A lens 2 is attached to the front opening of the lamp body 1 so as to cover the lamp chambers. Here, the lens 2 is attached to the lamp body 1 via a gasket (not shown), whereby the lens 2 is configured to be detachable from the lamp body. On the inner surface of the lamp body 1 on the side of each lamp chamber, light bulb sockets 3A and 3B are resin-molded integrally with the lamp body 1 to hold the light bulbs 5A and 5B. Further, on the back surface of the lamp body 1, a connector 4 fitted to the power supply side connector 7 and electrically connected to the power supply side connector 7 is resin-molded integrally with the lamp body 1.

In the lamp body 1, a conductive material 6 having a small electric resistance, in this case, a copper plate formed in a strip shape is embedded by insert molding along the back surface of the lamp body 1. The conductive material 6 is provided in an extended state so as to connect each of the bulb sockets 3A and 3B of each of the lamps and the connector 4.
A, 3B and the connector 4 are configured as electric wiring for electrically connecting each other.

As for the light bulb sockets 3A and 3B, FIG. 2 is a perspective view in which a part of the light bulb socket 3B for the backup lamp is cut away, and FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line AA in FIG. 5B, in this embodiment, a so-called wedge in which a base portion 52 is formed integrally with a glass bulb 51 containing a filament and an electrode 53 made of a conductive member integral with the filament is provided on the base portion 52. It is configured as a light bulb socket for a light bulb called a base bulb. The socket body 31 of the light bulb socket 3B is formed in a rectangular cylindrical shape into which the base 52 of the light bulb 5B can be inserted, and is molded integrally with the lamp body 1. On both sides of the opposing inner surface of the socket main body 31, hook pieces 32 for integrally engaging with the concave portions 54 provided in the base portion 52 of the light bulb 5B and preventing the light bulb 5B from dropping are provided integrally. Have been. Further, at the adjacent positions on the opposite side of the hook pieces 32, the respective end portions 61 of the plurality of conductive materials 6 insert-molded in the lamp body 1 are arranged.
The contact 33 is formed by being bent toward the inside of the socket main body 32. Here, the number of the contacts 33 is two in the case of the one-filament bulb 5B used in the backup lamp BUL, and in the case of the two-filament bulb 5A used in the tail & stop lamp T & SL. Are configured as three.

The configuration of the connector 4 is shown in a partially cutaway perspective view of FIG. 4 and a cross section of FIG. The connector 4 includes the connector main body 41 integrally formed with the lamp body 1 as described above.
Is formed in a rectangular tube shape with an open end, and has a configuration in which the power supply side connector 7 can be fitted. In the connector main body 41, each end 62 of the conductive material 6 is terminated, and each end 62 is exposed from inside the lamp body 1 and substantially extends in the cylinder axis direction of the connector main body 41. It is bent and raised at a right angle to form a male contact 42 of the connector. The power supply side connector 7 is provided with a female contact 71 fitted to the male contact 42 of the connector 4 as described later. The upper side wall of the connector body 41 has an engaging window 4.
3 is provided, and a protrusion 7
2 are formed.

In the rear combination lamp RCL configured as described above, the light bulb socket 3B is formed by the socket body 31 and the contact 33 formed at the end 61 of the conductive material 6. Therefore, as shown in FIG.
When the base portion 52 of the electric bulb 5B is inserted into the socket main body 31 from the front side of the lamp body 1, that is, from the inside of each lamp chamber, the hook pieces 32 of the socket main body 31 engage with the concave portions 54 of the base portion 52, and the electric bulb 5B Is the socket body 31
Is held within. At the same time, the contact 33 made of the conductive material 6 is connected to the base 5 by its own elastic force.
The contact 33 is in contact with the second electrode 53, and the contact 33 and the electrode 53 are electrically connected. This is a bulb socket 3A
Therefore, since the conductive material 6 integral with the contact 33 in each of the light bulb sockets is extended inside the lamp body 1 as an electrical wiring member, a plurality of the light bulb sockets 3A and 3B are eventually connected to the conductive material. The members 6 are electrically connected to each other.

The same applies to the connector 4,
As shown in FIG. 5, when the power supply connector 7 is fitted into the connector 4, the projection 72 on the upper surface of the power supply connector engages with the engagement window 43, and the power supply connector 7 is held in the connector main body 41. You. At the same time, the female contact 71 provided on the power supply side connector 7 is fitted to the male contact 42 formed by the end 62 of the conductive material 6 of the connector 4, and both are electrically connected. As a result, the connector 4 is electrically connected to the bulb sockets 3A and 3B via the conductive material 6.

As described above, in the first embodiment, the socket body 31 of the bulb sockets 3A and 3B, the connector 4
Are formed integrally with the lamp body 1 and the contacts 33 and 42 are formed using a part of the conductive material 6 insert-molded into the lamp body 1, respectively.
In addition, it is possible to integrally form an electric wiring for electrically connecting them to each other by using a conductive material. Therefore,
It is not necessary to configure the lamp socket or connector as a separate part from the lamp body to compose the lamp.This reduces the number of parts, eliminates the need to sub-assemble the lamp socket and connector, and replaces the contacts by electrical wiring. The work for electrical connection is also unnecessary,
The man-hours for assembling the lamp can be greatly reduced, and the assembling can be automated.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described.
In the second embodiment, although the illustration is omitted because it has the same appearance as the configuration in FIG. 1, a metal plate is provided on the back surface of the lamp body 1 instead of the strip-shaped copper plate of the first embodiment. A metal plating film 6A (see FIG. 6) is formed by plating in a required pattern, and this metal plating film extends as an electric wiring member between the lamp portions. As a method for forming the metal plating film, an electroless plating method is employed. In the lamp body, a lamp socket is formed in each of the lamp chambers, and one connector is formed on the back surface. The light bulb socket and the connector are electrically connected to each other via the metal plating film. Configuration.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a light bulb socket 3B 'according to the second embodiment, and FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line BB of the light bulb socket 3B'.
Reference numeral 1 is resin-molded integrally with the lamp body 1 as in the first embodiment, and is formed in a rectangular cylindrical shape into which the base portion 52 of the bulb 5B can be inserted. The socket body 3
A hook piece 32 for engaging with the concave portion 54 provided in the base portion 52 of the inserted light bulb 5B to prevent the light bulb from dropping is integrally provided on the opposed inner surfaces of the light bulb 5B. At the adjacent positions of the hook pieces 32 opposite to each other, contact pieces 34 each having a tongue-like shape and an inner surface bulging inward in an arc shape are formed similarly to the hook pieces 32. A part 63 of the metal plating film 6A is formed in an extended state on the inner surface of the contact piece 34, whereby a contact 35 is formed by the contact piece 34 and the metal plating film 63. .

The configuration of the connector 4 'in the second embodiment is shown in a perspective view of FIG. 8 and a sectional view of FIG. The connector 4 'is connected to the lamp body 1 as in the first embodiment.
And a connector body 41 in the shape of a square tube having an engagement window 43. In the connector main body 41, a plurality of elongated stems 44 formed integrally with the lamp body 1 are erected, and a portion 64 of the metal plating film 6A is extended on one side of the stems 44. Accordingly, the stem 44 and the metal plating film 64 constitute a male contact 45 of the connector 4 '. The power connector 7 has the same configuration as that of the first embodiment except that the shape and dimensions of the female contact 71 are different.

Also in the second embodiment, when the base 52 of the bulb 5B is inserted into the bulb socket 3B 'from the front side of the lamp body 1, that is, from the interior side of each lamp chamber, as shown in FIG. The bulb 5B is held in the socket body 31 by the hook pieces 32 of the socket body 31. At the same time, the contact 35 constituted by the contact piece 34 and the metal plating film 63 is brought into contact with the electrode 53 of the base portion 52 by the elastic force of the contact piece 34, and the contact 35 and the electrode 53 are connected. It will be electrically connected. Since the metal plating film 6A extends along the surface of the lamp body 1 as electric wiring, the plurality of bulb sockets are connected to the metal plating film 6 similarly to the first embodiment.
They are electrically connected to each other via A.

The same applies to the connector 4 '. When the power supply side connector 7 is fitted into the connector 4' as shown in FIG. By the engagement, the power supply side connector 7 is held by the connector 4 '. At the same time, the female contacts 71 provided on the power supply side connector 7 are provided.
Is fitted into the male contact 45 composed of the stem 44 of the connector 4 'and the metal plating film 64, and both are electrically connected. Therefore, the connector 4 ′ has the metal plating film 6.
It will be electrically connected to a plurality of bulb sockets via A.

Therefore, also in the second embodiment,
Socket body 31 of light bulb socket 3B ', connector 4'
The connector body 41 is integrally formed with the lamp body 1, and the bulb socket and the contacts 35 and 45 of the connector are respectively formed by using a part of the metal plating film 6A provided integrally with the lamp body 1. Therefore, the contacts 35 and 45 of the light bulb socket and the connector, and the electric wiring for electrically connecting them can be integrally formed by the metal plating film 6A. Therefore, the bulb socket and connector for constituting the lamp are not formed as a separate part from the lamp body, so that the number of parts can be reduced, and the work of sub-assembling the bulb socket and the connector becomes unnecessary, and the contacts are not required. The work for electrical connection by electric wiring is also unnecessary, so that the number of assembling steps of the lamp can be greatly reduced, and the assembling can be automated.

In the lamps according to the above-described embodiments of the present invention, the bulb socket cannot be attached to or detached from the lamp body. Therefore, when replacing the bulbs 5A and 5B, the lens 2 is removed from the lamp body 1 and the lamp body 1 is replaced. Through the front opening.

Here, in each of the above embodiments, an example is shown in which a wedge-based light bulb is used, but it goes without saying that the light bulb socket may be configured to hold a light bulb having a base. Further, instead of the metal plating film,
It is also possible to employ a conductive film using various thin film technologies such as a metallizing method, a selective vapor deposition method, and a selective sputtering method. Since the conductive material and the metal plating film are formed on the back surface of the lamp body, even when an aluminum film for reflection is formed on the inner surface of the lamp body, there is no electrical short circuit with the aluminum film.

[0023]

As described above, according to the present invention, the socket body of the light bulb socket and the connector body of the connector are each integrally formed with the lamp body, and the contacts of the light bulb socket and the connector are respectively insert-molded into the lamp body. Of the light bulb socket and the connector, and the electric wiring for electrically connecting them to each other. Alternatively, the conductive pattern film can be integrally formed. Therefore, it is not necessary to configure a light bulb socket or a connector for configuring the lamp as a separate component from the lamp body, and the number of components configuring the lamp can be reduced. In particular,
With a combination lamp having a plurality of bulb sockets as described above, the effect of reducing the number of parts of the bulb socket is extremely large. This also eliminates the need for sub-assembly of light bulb sockets and connectors, and also eliminates the need for electrical connection of contacts by electrical wiring, greatly reducing the number of lamp assembly steps and increasing the automation of assembly. It becomes feasible.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partially exploded perspective view of a first embodiment of a vehicle lamp according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of the light bulb socket of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the light bulb socket of FIG. 2 taken along the line AA.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged sectional view of the connector of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the connector of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a light bulb socket according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of the light bulb socket of FIG. 6 taken along line BB.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a connector according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a sectional view of the connector of FIG. 8;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Lamp body 2 Lens 3A, 3B, 3B 'Light bulb socket 4, 4' connector 5A, 5B Light bulb 6 Conductive material 6A Metal plating film 7 Power supply side connector 31 Socket main body 33 Contact 34 Contact piece 35 Contact 41 Connector main body 42 Contact 44 Stem 45 contacts

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A lamp body, a bulb disposed in the lamp body, a lens disposed to cover a front opening of the lamp body, and supported by the lamp body to hold the bulb. The lamp body includes a lamp body, and a conductive material is integrally formed with the lamp body. The light bulb socket includes a socket body that is resin-molded integrally with the lamp body, and is disposed in the socket body and includes one of the conductive materials. A lighting device for a vehicle, comprising: a contact configured by a part. 2. A connector is provided on a back surface of the lamp body. The connector includes a connector body integrally molded with the lamp body, a connector body provided in the connector body, and the conductive material. The vehicular lamp according to claim 1, wherein the vehicular lamp is configured to include a contact configured as a part of the vehicle lamp. 3. The vehicular lamp according to claim 1, wherein the conductive material is formed of a metal plate processed into a strip shape. 4. The vehicular lamp according to claim 3, wherein the metal plate is insert-molded in the lamp body. 5. The vehicular lamp according to claim 1, wherein the conductive material is formed of a conductive pattern film formed in a required pattern on the surface of the lamp body.