JP2000138003A - Vehicular light and its assembly method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve the performance of a vehicular light by mounting LED lamps closely to a lamp mounting surface of a housing and by appropriately setting the shape of the lamp mounting surface so as to allow the irradiation direction of each of the LED lamps to be freely set so that luminance irregularity is prevented from occurring on a lens surface even for a vehicular light employing a lens having a three-dimensional curved surface and a light distribution can freely be set. SOLUTION: This vehicular light 1 is composed by such an assembly method that a pair of leg parts 21, 22 having slits 21b, 22b to catch wires 4 are formed on an LED lamp 2, ribs 3b arranged at an interval at which the LED lamp 2 is fitted by means of the pair of leg parts 21, 22 are formed on a housing 3, the LED lamp 2 is fitted and fixed between the ribs 3b at a predetermined position and in a predetermined polarity, and the wiring to the LED lamp 2 is carried out by catching the wires 4 with the slits of the leg parts 21, 22. Thereby, the LED lamp 2 can be mounted closely to a lamp mounting surface 3a of the housing 3, and the irradiation direction of each of the LED lamps can freely be set by setting the shape of the lamp mounting surface.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicular lamp such as a tail lamp, and more particularly to a method of assembling a vehicular lamp employing a plurality of LED lamps as a light source.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIGS. 9 and 10 show an example of a structure and an assembling process of a conventional vehicle lamp of this type. First, in a vehicle lamp 90 shown in FIG. 9, a power supply circuit is formed. An LED lamp 92 is previously attached to the printed wiring board 91 by soldering, and the printed wiring board 91 is attached to the housing 93 by screwing, heat welding, or the like. It was to be. At this time, when the lens 94 of the vehicle lamp 90 is curved according to the shape of the vehicle body, the printed wiring board 91 is divided into a plurality of pieces so as to conform to the curvature of the lens 94.

A vehicle lamp 80 shown in FIG. 10 is a printed circuit board 9 used in the vehicle lamp 90 described above.
In place of 1, the LED lamp 82 is supported on a bus bar 81 formed of a conductive member such as a metal, and the LED lamp 82 is previously attached by crimping or the like in the same manner as described above, and the same as above. The housing 84 is integrated with the housing 83 by screwing, heat welding, or the like, and thereafter the lens 84 is similarly mounted.

In this vehicular lamp 80, the lens 8
Even when the base 4 is curved, since the bus bar 81 is rich in workability such as bending, a step-like bending process is performed in advance so as to follow the curvature of the housing 83 or the lens 84. As described above, there is no need to perform the division, and the process of attaching to the housing 83 is simplified.

[0005]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional configuration using the printed wiring board 91 shown in FIG. 9, soldering is an indispensable step, but from the standpoint of environmental protection in recent years. This leads to a problem that the demand for restricting the use of lead (heavy metal) cannot be answered.

When the lens 94 is curved, a quadratic curved surface can be handled by dividing the printed wiring board 91 as described above. When the cubic surface 94 is formed by a cubic curved surface, it must be divided vertically and horizontally, which is complicated and practically impossible.

Further, in the case of using the bus bar 81 shown in FIG. 10, soldering is certainly unnecessary and lead-free is advantageous, but the bus bar 81 is bent stepwise as described above. LED lamp 8
For example, the irradiation directions 2 are concentrated in one direction such as the front and the rear of the vehicle, which causes problems such as a decrease in visibility from a lateral direction.

[0008] In each of FIGS. 9 and 10, the printed wiring board 91 and the bus bar 8
1 needs to be specially formed according to the shape of the vehicular lamps 80 and 90, and it is necessary to arrange a mold and the like for each type of vehicle. However, there have been problems that have become complicated, and solving these problems has been an issue.

[0009]

According to the present invention, as a specific means for solving the above-mentioned conventional problems, an LED lamp is provided with a pair of legs having terminals for engaging a wire having a predetermined wire diameter. A plurality of ribs or bosses are provided on the housing or extension at intervals in which the LED lamp is fitted with the pair of legs, and the LED lamp is positioned between the ribs or the boss at a predetermined position and with a predetermined polarity. Wherein the wire is engaged with the terminal portion of the leg portion to form a wire to an LED lamp, and the assembling method. The present invention solves the problem by providing a vehicular lamp assembled by the method described above.

[0010]

Next, the present invention will be described in detail based on an embodiment shown in the drawings. 1 is an LED lamp used in the vehicular lamp 1 according to the present invention. In the present invention, the legs 21 and 22 of the LED lamp 2 have excellent conductivity such as copper, and It is formed of a member that is rich in flexibility, and has a pair of outer dimensions having an appropriate width H1.

At this time, each of the legs 21 and 22 has an appropriate area and shape, and when mounted on the lamp mounting surface 3a of the housing 3 described later, the LED lamp 2 is stable. It has an appropriate area and shape so as to be directed in a predetermined irradiation direction in the state in which it is performed. At this time, the leg portions 21 and 22 may be provided with mounting holes 21c and 22c or the like so as to prepare for mounting to the housing 3.

Each of the legs 21 and 22 has a tongue-shaped rising portion 21a or 22 at an appropriate position.
In the present embodiment, slits 21b and 22b are formed in the rising portions 21a and 22a to serve as terminal portions. And the slits 21b, 2
The slit width D1 of 2b is appropriate for holding the wire 4 used in the wiring process described later.

In this embodiment, the terminal portion is a slit 2
1B and 22b, for example, a rising portion 2 such as pinching by bending and fixing by winding.
Any structure may be used as long as the wire 4 can be engaged with the wires 1a and 22a. An appropriate method can be selected from the reliability of electrical connection and mechanical connection when both are engaged and the work efficiency. It is good.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 3 denotes a housing 3 used for the vehicle lamp 1 according to the present invention, and a lamp mounting surface 3a of the housing 3 is provided with the LED lamp 2 on the lamp mounting surface 3a. When mounted, the irradiation direction is directed to the normal direction of the lens 5, for example, a cubic curved surface, and the curved surface is required for forming light distribution characteristics.

A plurality of ribs 3b are provided on the lamp mounting surface 3a, and a distance H2 between the ribs 3b is determined by a pair of outer widths H1 of the legs 21 and 22 with appropriate strength. Shall be worn. At this time, although the LED lamp 2 will be described later, since the mounting is not performed only by sandwiching between the ribs 3b, the strength of the sandwiching is, for example, until the adhesive is cured. What is so-called temporary fixing, which holds the position, may be used.

The lamp mounting surface 3a has a leg 2
A boss 3c may be provided corresponding to the mounting holes 21c and 22c of the first and second mounting holes. In this case, the LED lamp 2 may be mounted using both the rib 3b and the boss 3c as described above. However, the function of the temporary fixing described above can be sufficiently performed only by the boss 3c. If such a rib is used, the rib 3b can be omitted.

2 to 6 show a method of assembling the vehicular lamp 1 according to the present invention in the order of steps. First, as an initial step, the LED lamp 2 is held between the ribs 3b by, for example, an industrial robot. Thereby, temporary mounting is performed at a predetermined position on the lamp mounting surface 3a. At this time, the leg 2
If the sandwiching is performed with the adhesive applied to the surfaces of the first and second lamp mounting surfaces 3a where the contact is made, the housing 3 and the LED lamp 2 are fixed after an appropriate time.

Further, the boss 3c and the mounting hole 2
The housing 3 and the LED lamp 2 may be fixed by so-called heat welding, in which the boss 3c is melted by heat and then crushed. The housing 3 and the LED lamp 2 may be fixed by being melted by heat and subjected to heat welding. In short, the housing 3 and the LED lamp 2 may be fixed by any means. .

After the housing 3 and the LED lamp 2 are fixed in this way, as shown in FIG.
Wiring for supplying power to the lamp 2 is performed by wires 4. The wire 4 is, for example, a single wire of tin plating, and the wire diameter D2 is appropriately thicker than the width D1 of the slits 21b and 22b, and is pressed into the slits 21b and 22b by an appropriate force. I have.

The clamping of the wire 4 between the slits 21b and 22b is performed by an industrial robot or the like in the same manner as the mounting of the LED lamp 2 described above. This is performed in a so-called one-stroke state in which one wire 4 is drawn and fitted to 22b.

FIG. 4 shows the wiring situation by one-stroke in more detail, in which 20 LED lamps 2 are used, and finally, as shown in FIG. An example in which wiring is performed so as to form a matrix of four parallel × 4 series will be described. At this time, if the vehicle lamp 1 has a shape such as a triangle, the LED lamp 2
Is similarly shaped on the lamp mounting surface 3a, which is also triangular.
It cannot be arranged in a matrix of digits × 4 columns.

Accordingly, the LED lamp 2 is mounted on the lamp mounting surface 3.
For example, 1 digit, 2 digits, 3 digits, 4 digits,
It is arranged in four columns and six columns of six digits.
The D lamp 2 is fixed between the ribs 3b with an appropriate polarity in accordance with the route of the wire 4 to be subsequently carried out.

Then, the clamping of the wire 4 is started from the starting point S in the figure, and reaches the end point T and ends. Thereafter, if the wire 4 is cut at points U, V, W, and X, wiring in a matrix of 5 parallel × 4 series shown in FIG. 5 can be performed. Therefore, according to the present invention, the wire 4
Therefore, it is not necessary to prepare a plurality of pieces cut to a prescribed size, and wiring can be performed.

After the wiring by the wires 4 is performed as described above, an extension (decorative frame) 6 is attached as necessary, and a lens 5 is attached as shown in FIG. The lighting fixture 1 is obtained.
In the process of attaching the lens 5 and the extension 6, the same means as in the conventional example may be used.

If the members forming the legs 21, 22 provided with the slits 21b, 22b are suitably made of a tough material, for example, a steel material, the wires 4 are connected to the wires 4 for vehicle wiring as shown in FIG. When a vinyl-coated electric wire, which is widely used, is used, the slits 21b, 22b
, The slits 21b and 22b break the coating and come into contact with the core wire 4a. Therefore, the insulating properties are secured by covering the portions other than the leg portions 21 and 22, which is advantageous for a short circuit accident or the like.

When the extension 6 is used, a rib or boss similar to that provided on the housing 3 is provided on the extension 6 side.
As shown in the figure, the legs 23, 24 of the LED lamp 2, the rising portions 23a, 24a, the slits 23b, 23b, the mounting holes 2
By appropriately changing the shape of 3c and 24c such as in the opposite direction,
The LED lamp 2 may be held by the extension 6.

Next, the operation and effects of the vehicular lamp 1 of the present invention having the above configuration and assembling method will be described. First, the LED lamp 2 is brought into close contact with the leg portions 21 and 22 on the lamp mounting surface 3a of the housing 3, and the ribs 3b
With the configuration in which the LED lamp 2 is sandwiched between the LED lamps 2, the irradiation direction of the LED lamp 2 is set according to the direction of the lamp mounting surface 3a.

Therefore, by setting the shape of the surface of the lamp mounting surface 3a in accordance with the required characteristics, optimized light distribution characteristics can be obtained, and the vehicular lamp 1 which tends to occur in the conventional example. Not only can uneven brightness on the surface of the lens 5 be reliably eliminated, but also, for example, light can be distributed to the side of the vehicle to improve visibility from the side, and the vehicle can be actively performed. The performance of the lamp 1 can be easily and easily improved.

Secondly, according to the present invention, the LED lamp 2 is directly mounted on the lamp mounting surface 3a of the housing 3 by an appropriate means such as adhesion or welding, and in addition, wiring is performed by the wire 4. Therefore, a member for attaching the LED lamp 2 to the housing 3 such as a printed circuit board and a bus bar and for supplying power is not required, and the number of components can be reduced.

At this time, the above-mentioned printed wiring board,
Busbars and the like are designed and manufactured exclusively for the shape of the housing 3 and the like, so that not only the number of parts is reduced but also there is no need to manufacture a mold for manufacturing them. Changes can also be made quickly and quickly.

[0031]

As described above, according to the present invention, L
The ED lamp is provided with a pair of legs having a terminal portion for engaging a wire having a predetermined wire diameter, and the housing is provided with a plurality of ribs having an interval at which the LED lamp is fitted with the pair of legs. An assembling method in which the LED lamp is fitted between the ribs at a predetermined position and in a predetermined polarity, fixed by appropriate means, and the wire is engaged with the terminal portion of the leg portion to perform wiring to the LED lamp. By adopting the vehicular lamp,
First, the LED lamps should be mounted in close contact with the lamp mounting surface of the housing, and the irradiation direction of each LED lamp can be set freely by appropriately setting the shape of the lamp mounting surface. Even in a vehicle lamp employing a cubic curved lens, it is assumed that there is no luminance unevenness on the lens surface, and furthermore, the light distribution characteristics can be set freely, so that the performance of this type of vehicle lamp can be improved. It is extremely effective for improvement.

Second, with the above-described configuration, a printed wiring board, which has conventionally been provided for holding and supplying power to the LED lamps and must be dedicated to each type of vehicle lamp, or , Bus bars, etc. are unnecessary, making it unnecessary to create dies, reducing the number of parts, and reducing the number of assembly steps, which is extremely effective in reducing costs. It also has an excellent effect that can be handled.

According to the present invention, the wiring can be performed by inserting a commercially available tin-plated single wire into the slit, so that the wiring can be performed in a one-stroke state, and the design of the vehicular lamp has been changed. In some cases, it can be handled by simple means such as changing the program of industrial robots.In this regard, the number of man-hours dedicated to each model such as cutting to a predetermined length in advance is reduced, and the cost is reduced by making it a general-purpose product It has excellent effects.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a main part of a vehicular lamp according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing a mounting process of an LED lamp in the method for assembling a vehicular lamp according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view showing a wiring step in the method for assembling the vehicular lamp according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an arrangement state of LED lamps in a triangular housing.

FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram showing an example of electric wiring of an LED lamp in a vehicle lamp.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory view showing a step of attaching an extension and a lens in the method for assembling a vehicular lamp according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing another embodiment of the method of assembling the vehicular lamp according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing still another embodiment of a method for assembling a vehicular lamp according to the present invention in a main part.

FIG. 9 is a sectional view showing a conventional example.

FIG. 10 is a sectional view showing another conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Vehicle lamp 2 ... LED lamp 21,22,23,24 ... Leg part 21a, 22a, 23a, 24a ... Start-up part 21b, 22b, 23b, 24b ... Slit 21c, 22c, 23c, 24c mounting hole 3 housing 3a lamp mounting surface 3b rib 4 wire 4a core wire 5 lens 6 extension

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Shusaku Sato 2-9-13-1 Nakameguro, Meguro-ku, Tokyo Inside Stanley Electric Co., Ltd. (72) Jun Inventor 2-9-1-13 Nakameguro, Meguro-ku, Tokyo No. F-term in Stanley Electric Co., Ltd. (reference) 3K080 AA01 AB02 AB17 BA07 BB02 BE05 BE11 CC06

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An LED lamp is provided with a pair of legs having terminals for engaging a wire having a predetermined wire diameter, and a housing or an extension is provided at an interval at which the LED lamp is fitted by the pair of legs. A plurality of ribs or bosses are provided, the LED lamp is fitted between the ribs or bosses at a predetermined position and in a direction of a predetermined polarity, fixed by appropriate means, and the wire is engaged with the terminal portion of the leg portion. Let L
A method for assembling a vehicular lamp, wherein wiring is performed to an ED lamp. 2. The connection of the wire to the terminal portion of the leg portion is performed by cutting the wire at a predetermined location after performing the attachment step, and a power supply circuit is formed for all of the LED lamps. The method for assembling a vehicular lamp according to claim 1, wherein the method is performed with one wire. 3. The method for assembling a vehicular lamp according to claim 1, wherein said terminal portion has a slit having an appropriate width, and said wire uses a bare wire or a covered wire. 4. The above-mentioned claim 1, 2 or 3
A lighting device for a vehicle, wherein the lighting device is assembled by the method described in the above.