JP2000097733A - Indicating instrument for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To secure the luminous visibility of a pointer by forming a groove part with a filament bottom part in a pointer from the side of its bottom surface. SOLUTION: When a cold cathode tube 40 is lighted up, light from it becomes incident into a dial 20 from its peripheral flange part 21. The incident light is reflected in the dial 20 and emitted to the surface side of the dial 20 to illuminate a scale part 22 and to illuminate the bottom surface 32 of a pointer 30. A v-shaped groove part 31 is formed in the pointer 30 from the side of its bottom surface 32. Therefore, light illuminating the bottom surface 32 of the pointer 30 also becomes incident into the groove part 31. The light incident into the groove part 31 is condensed to the bottom part 31a of the groove part 31 as being mutually reflected by both inner walls of the groove part 31. Therefore, when the pointer 30 is viewed from its surface, the surface looks luminous at its filament part corresponding to the bottom part 31a of the groove part 31.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an indicating instrument for a vehicle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as this type of indicating instrument, there is one shown in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 7-42099, for example. The indicating instrument includes a dial, a pointer supported to rotate along the surface of the dial, and a light source that emits light to the dial from the side.

[0003] In such an indicating instrument,
When the light from the light source enters the dial from its side,
The dial is illuminated by the light at its scale and the hands are illuminated at its bottom by light emitted from the scale.

[0004]

By the way, in the indicating instrument described above, the cross-sectional shape of the pointer is usually a simple square shape. For this reason, even if the pointer is illuminated on its bottom surface as described above, the visibility of the pointer when viewed from its surface does not have such a feature. Therefore, the present invention
In order to cope with such a problem, it is an object of the present invention to improve the vertical cross-sectional shape of the pointer in the indicating instrument for a vehicle to secure novel visibility of the pointer.

[0005]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, according to the first and second aspects of the present invention, a vehicle indicating instrument includes a dial (20), and a dial attached to the dial from an end thereof. A light source (40) for injecting light, and a light guide pointer (30) rotatably supported along the dial on its surface side and illuminated from the light source through the dial.

[0006] In the indicating instrument for a vehicle, the pointer is a groove formed along the longitudinal direction from the bottom surface (32) side thereof and has a linear bottom portion (31) along the longitudinal direction.
a, 33a). Thus, when light from the light source enters from the end of the dial, the incident light illuminates the bottom surface of the hands through the dial.

Here, as described above, the pointer is formed with a groove having a linear bottom from the bottom side. For this reason, the light illuminating the bottom surface of the pointer also enters the groove, and is condensed on the bottom of the groove while being mutually reflected by both inner walls of the groove. Therefore, when the pointer is viewed from the surface, the surface looks brighter at the linear portion corresponding to the bottom of the groove than at the other portion. Thereby, the novel visibility of the pointer can be secured.

Here, as in the second aspect of the present invention,
The cross-sectional shape of the groove may be triangular. According to this, the operation and effect of the invention described in claim 1 can be further improved.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a vehicle indicating instrument according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. The indicating instrument is used as a combination meter as shown in FIGS.

This indicating instrument includes a speedometer S, a tachometer R, and an indicator D. The speedometer S, the tachometer R, and the indicator D are housed in a casing 10. Speedometer S is
A dial 20, a pointer 30, and a cold cathode tube 40 are provided.
The dial 20 is located in the opening of the casing 10, and the dial 20 is
It is attached to the opening 51 of the return plate 50 from below.

The dial 20 is formed of a transparent resin material. The dial 20 has an arc-shaped region along the inner periphery of the opening 51a of the bottom wall 51 of the annular dial plate 50 on the surface of the dial 20. Has a scale portion 22 formed therein. The dial 20 receives light from a cold-cathode tube 40 described later, is illuminated by the scale 22, and emits light from the surface to the hands 30. In addition, the facing plate 5
Numeral 0 is attached to the opening of the casing 10 at its bottom wall 51.

The pointer 30 is supported at its base by a distal end of a pointer shaft (not shown) extending through a central through hole of the dial 20.
Turn along the surface of the vehicle to indicate the vehicle speed. As shown in FIGS. 2 to 4, the pointer 30 has a groove 31. The groove 31 extends in the longitudinal direction of the pointer 30, and is formed into a V-shaped cross section from the bottom surface 32 side toward the pointer 30. It is formed so that it becomes. Here, the width of the opening surface on the bottom surface 32 side of the groove portion 31 is formed to be narrow. Therefore, the bottom 31a of the groove 31 has an apparent linear shape along the longitudinal direction of the groove 31 (see FIG. 3). In addition, the above-mentioned pointer shaft is a casing 10
A drive device (not shown) mounted inside the dial extends through the central through hole of the dial 20.

The cold cathode tube 40 has a U-shape. The cold cathode tube 40 is disposed below the bottom wall 51 of the dial plate 50 and along the outer surface of the outer peripheral flange 21 of the dial 20. ing. Thereby, the cold-cathode tube 40 is turned on,
Light enters the dial 20 via the outer peripheral flange 21. In FIGS. 1 and 2, reference numeral 60 denotes the facing plate 5.
0 shows the front panel attached to the upper end opening of No. 0.

The tachometer R has substantially the same configuration as the speedometer S. That is, the tachometer R
Is provided with a dial 70, a pointer 80 and a cold cathode tube 90 respectively corresponding to the dial 20, the hands 30 and the cold cathode tubes 40 of the speedometer S. The dial 70 is a dial 5
0 is attached to the opening 51b of the bottom wall 51 from below.

The cold cathode tube 90 has an arc shape. The cold cathode tube 90 is disposed below the bottom wall 51 of the dial plate 50 and along the outer surface of the outer peripheral flange of the dial 70. . Thereby, the cold cathode tube 90 emits light into the dial 70 through the outer peripheral flange portion by the lighting thereof.
The indicator D indicates a shift operation position of the automatic transmission of the vehicle.

In this embodiment configured as above,
When the cold cathode tube 40 is turned on by the speedometer S, the light from the cold cathode tube 40 enters the dial 20 from the outer peripheral flange 21 thereof. Then, the light thus incident is reflected in the dial 20 and exits to the front side of the dial 20 to illuminate the scale 22 and to display the hands 3
0 illuminates the bottom surface 32.

Here, as described above, the V-shaped groove 31 is formed in the pointer 30 from the bottom surface 32 side. Therefore, the light illuminating the bottom surface 32 of the pointer 30 also enters the groove 31. Accordingly, the light incident into the groove 31 is
The groove 3 is interreflected by both inner walls of the groove 31.
The light is condensed on the bottom 31a. Therefore, when the pointer 30 is viewed from the surface, the surface is the bottom 31 of the groove 31.
In the linear portion corresponding to “a”, it looks higher than the remaining portion.

As a result, novel visibility of the pointer 30 can be ensured. 5 to 8 show modifications of the above embodiment. In this modification, the scale portion 22 of the dial 20 is
However, unlike the above embodiment, the bottom wall 51 of the return plate 50
Is formed as a scale 52 along the outer periphery of the opening 51a. However, the bottom wall 51 is formed of a transparent material.

In this modification, the pointer 30A is supported similarly to the pointer 30 in place of the pointer 30 described in the above embodiment. The pointer 30A is, in the pointer 30,
It has a configuration in which a groove 33 is provided instead of the groove 31.
The groove 33 extends along the longitudinal direction of the pointer 30A, and
The groove 33 is formed so as to have a V-shaped cross section from the bottom surface 32 side toward the inside of 0A, and the width of the opening surface on the bottom surface 32 side of the groove portion 33 is the same as the bottom surface 32 of the groove portion 31 described in the above embodiment.
It is formed wider than the width of the side opening surface. Also in this case, the bottom 33a of the groove 33 has an apparent linear shape along the longitudinal direction of the groove 33 (see FIG. 7).

Other configurations are the same as those of the above embodiment. In this modified example configured as described above, as described above, the width of the opening surface on the bottom surface 32 side of the groove portion 33 of the pointer 30A is formed wider than the width of the opening surface on the bottom surface 32 side of the groove portion 31 described in the above embodiment. The only difference is that Therefore, when the bottom surface 32 of the pointer 30A is illuminated by the light emitted from the surface of the dial 20, the illumination light
3 also enters. Accordingly, the light incident into the groove 33 is converged on the bottom 33a of the groove 33 while being mutually reflected by both inner walls of the groove 33, as in the above embodiment.

As a result, when the pointer 30A is viewed from the front side, the same novel visibility as in the above embodiment can be secured. Note that, as described above, the scale portion 52 is provided with the return plate 5.
Since it is provided along the outer peripheral portion of the opening 51 on the surface of the bottom wall 51, the depth direction of the scale 52 and the pointer 30A is the same. In practicing the present invention, the cross-sectional shapes of the grooves 31 and 33 of the hands are not limited to the shapes described in the above-described embodiments and modified examples, and any shape that can secure a linear luminance is sufficient.

In implementing the present invention, the dial 20
Alternatively, a light guide plate may be provided on the back surface of the dial, and the light of the cold cathode tube 40 may be introduced into the dial 20 via the light guide plate. In practicing the present invention, the dial 20
The scale portion 22 may be formed on the back surface of the dial 20 by printing, hot stamping, or the like, unlike the above embodiment.

In implementing the present invention, the cold cathode fluorescent lamp 4
The shape of 0 may be appropriately changed, and a lamp or a light emitting diode may be used instead of the cold cathode tube 40. In practicing the present invention, the front panel 60 may be formed of a smoke material having a transmittance of about 20%. In practicing the present invention, the present invention may be applied to a pointer of a speedometer S or a tachometer R alone, instead of an indicator as a combination meter.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partially broken front view of an embodiment of an indicating instrument according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partially enlarged sectional view taken along line 2-2 in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a partially enlarged plan view of the pointer 30 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line 3-3 in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a partial plan view showing a modification of the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a partial sectional view taken along line 6-6 in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a plan view of the pointer of FIG. 5;

FIG. 8 is a sectional view taken along line 8-8 in FIG. 7;

[Description of Signs] 20: Dial, 30, 30A: Hand, 31, 33: Groove, 31a, 33a: Bottom, 32: Bottom, 40: Light source.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A dial (20), and a light source (40) for emitting light to the dial from an end thereof.
A vehicle indicating instrument comprising: a light guide pointer (30) rotatably supported on the dial along the dial and illuminated from the light source via the dial, The indicating instrument for a vehicle, comprising a groove (31, 33) formed along the longitudinal direction from the bottom surface (32) of the pointer and having a linear bottom (31a, 33a) along the longitudinal direction. 2. The indicating instrument for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the groove has a triangular cross-sectional shape.