JP2006193096A - Light-emitting ornament - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a light-emitting ornament improving flexibility in forming an image indicated while emitting light in transparent material, and having further attractive appearance. <P>SOLUTION: The light-emitting ornament 1 equipped to an exterior component 80 of a vehicle, comprises translucent portion 10 formed of transparent or semitransparent material; a in-material image portion 14 provided inside separated from a surface portion of the translucent portion 10, and formed to have a reflecting factor different from other parts; and lighting portions 30, 50 lighting inside of the translucent portion 10. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a light-emitting ornament provided in the exterior of a vehicle such as an automobile.

A vehicle such as an automobile is provided with an ornament to decorate its exterior and the like. Such an ornament is mounted on, for example, a sheet metal portion of a vehicle body such as an engine hood, a trunk lid, or a pillar, or a front grill.
Ornaments with a built-in light-emitting portion are known in order to enhance the visual appeal and improve the impression of the vehicle, particularly during night driving. The light-emitting ornament enhances the visibility of the vehicle at night, etc., and thus contributes to the improvement of safety. Also, it is turned on (answerback) according to the operation of the remote control locking device, etc. It is also useful for information transmission.

As the above-described light-emitting ornament, those in which a predetermined pattern can be emitted and displayed in a transparent material such as resin are known.
For example, a light-emitting ornament is known in which a pattern is engraved on the back side of a transparent decorative plate, and the pattern is illuminated by a light-emitting body incorporated in a frame provided around the decorative plate (for example, Patent Document 1).
In addition, the light-emitting ornament is known in which the back surface of the transparent resin cover is recessed to form a predetermined pattern, and a light guide plate is disposed on the back surface side to emit the pattern (for example, Patent Document 2).
Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 5-91988 Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 5-238325

However, the light-emitting ornament according to the above-described prior art is limited to a two-dimensional shape of an image such as a displayable pattern, and further, the position is limited to the back side of the transparent member. There were significant design constraints.
In view of the above-described problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a light-emitting ornament that improves the degree of freedom of modeling of a displayed image and has a more attractive appearance.

The present invention solves the above-described problems by the following means.
The invention according to claim 1 is provided in a light emitting ornament that is mounted on an exterior part of a vehicle, and is provided inside a light transmitting part formed of a transparent or translucent material and spaced from a surface part of the light transmitting part. It is a light emission type ornament provided with the image part in a material formed by making reflectance different from another part, and the illumination part which illuminates the inside of the said translucent part.

The invention of claim 2 is the light emitting ornament according to claim 1, wherein the in-material image portion is formed by laser processing the light transmitting portion. .
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the light-emitting ornament according to the first or second aspect, the illuminating unit includes a light guide unit facing a partial range of a surface portion of the light transmitting unit, and the light guide. It is a light emission type ornament provided with the light emission part which irradiates the inside.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the light emitting ornament according to the third aspect, the light emitting portion is disposed adjacent to a peripheral portion of a surface portion of the light guide portion that faces the light transmitting portion. It is a light-emitting ornament.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the light-emitting ornament according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, at least one of the translucent portion and the illumination portion is a cushion formed of an elastic material. A light-emitting ornament that is attached to an exterior part of the vehicle via a member.
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the light-emitting ornament according to any one of the first to fifth aspects, at least a part of the illumination section is inserted into an opening formed in an exterior member of the vehicle. It is the light emission type ornament characterized by being arrange | positioned.

According to the present invention, the following effects can be obtained.
(1) Since the translucent part is provided with the in-material image part in the interior separated from the surface part, the shape of the image is not limited to a two-dimensional one, and the position thereof can be freely set, The appearance can be improved.
(2) Since the in-material image is formed by laser processing, the design can be easily changed by changing the irradiation pattern of the laser beam. For example, a two-dimensional pattern is formed by a mold or the like. Compared to the prior art, it is easy to produce many kinds of ornaments with different images.
(3) Since the light guide part faces a part of the surface part of the light transmitting part and is illuminated by the light emitting part, the inside of the light guiding part functions as a surface light source, so the appearance of the light emitting ornament is observed. When this is done, it is possible to prevent the point light source from conspicuous and to improve the appearance without giving a shallow impression.
(4) Since the light emitting part is disposed adjacent to the peripheral part of the surface part facing the light transmitting part of the light guide part, it is more effective that the point light source is conspicuous when the appearance of the light emitting ornament is observed. It can be prevented, and the external appearance can be further improved by providing an angle to the light beam applied to the in-material image portion. Furthermore, by providing the light emitting part with being shifted from the central part of the light emitting ornament, this central part can be used as an adhesive surface, and when the light emitting ornament is adhered to the exterior part of the vehicle, it is easy to secure the adhesion area. .
(5) Since at least one of the translucent part and the illuminating part is attached to the vehicle side via the cushion member, it is possible to absorb an installation error caused by the shape of the exterior part of the vehicle, and different vehicle types. The light emission ornament can be shared between the two.
(6) Since at least a part of the illumination part is inserted into the opening formed in the exterior member of the vehicle, the portion provided on the vehicle exterior side of the light emitting ornament can be formed thinly, and the design freedom The degree is improved. In addition, when the light emitting ornament is mounted, the opening of the exterior member of the vehicle is used as a guide, thereby facilitating the alignment.

  The object of the present invention is to provide a light-emitting ornament with a more attractive appearance by improving the degree of freedom of modeling of the displayed image, and to create an in-material image by laser processing in an acrylic resin lens. This was realized by illuminating with LED through the light guide base from below.

Hereinafter, Example 1 of the light emission ornament to which the present invention is applied will be described.
The light emission ornament of Example 1 is attached to the front end portion of an engine hood provided in front of a vehicle such as a passenger car, for example.
FIG. 1 is an external view of a light emitting ornament viewed from a direction substantially perpendicular to the engine hood, and the left side of the drawing shows the front side of the vehicle. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line II-II in FIG.

  The light emitting ornament 1 includes a lens 10, a color plate 20, a light guide base 30, a cushion rubber 40, a valve 50, a grommet 60, and a nut 70, and is mounted on a hood panel 80 of an engine hood. .

The lens 10 is a light-transmitting portion that is solidly formed of a transparent or translucent material such as an acrylic resin. In the lens 10, the surface portion 11 on the hood panel 80 side is formed in a substantially planar shape, and the opposite surface portion 12 (upper surface portion) is formed in a convex shape.
The lens 10 is formed in a substantially water droplet shape in which a planar shape viewed from a direction substantially perpendicular to the hood panel 80 is disposed in parallel with the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, and the surface portion 12 has a vehicle width. A ridge line 12a is formed at the center in the direction, which is arranged in parallel with the longitudinal direction of the vehicle body.
Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the lens 10 is formed so that the thickness in the direction substantially orthogonal to the hood panel 80 is maximum at the center in the front-rear direction of the vehicle body, and the thickness gradually decreases before and after that. Has been.

In addition, the lens 10 has a plurality of dots 13 having a higher reflectance than the other portions inside the lens 10 spaced apart from the outer surface. The dots 13 are formed by performing 3D laser processing on the lens 10 and constitute an in-material image 14 by the arrangement.
In this 3D laser processing, for example, a pulse wave of a laser beam is focused on a desired point in the lens 10 and irradiated to form a fine crack in the material in the vicinity of the focus, thereby forming the dot 13 described above. Is. Such 3D laser processing is capable of forming a two-dimensional or three-dimensional in-material image 14 composed of a plurality of dots 13 groups by linking a laser beam irradiation device with CAD or the like. .

  The color plate 20 is a flat plate member obtained by performing a color treatment on a transparent or translucent material such as an acrylic resin, and is colored, for example, dark blue.

The light guide base 30 is formed of, for example, a colorless transparent or translucent acrylic resin, and includes a flat plate portion 31 and a cylindrical portion 32.
The flat plate portion 31 extends along the color plate 20, and the cylindrical portion 32 is formed so as to protrude from the substantially central portion of the flat plate portion 31 to the hood panel 80 side substantially vertically. The cylindrical portion 32 is inserted into an opening 81 formed in the hood panel 80 and is disposed so as to protrude to the inner surface side. The cylindrical portion 32 is provided with a screw portion 32a that is screwed to a nut 70, which will be described later, on a part of the outer peripheral surface thereof.
The joint portion between the flat plate portion 31 and the outer peripheral surface of the cylindrical portion 32 is formed so as to be in smooth contact via a concave surface with an R.
Further, the outer peripheral portion of the flat plate portion 31 of the light guide base 30 and the contact surface portion 15 of the outer peripheral portion of the lens 10 are joined by being melted and welded. The color plate 20 is sandwiched between the two. The color plate 20 may be omitted depending on the design.

The cushion rubber 40 is formed of an elastic rubber material and includes a flat plate portion 41 and a lip portion 42.
The flat plate portion 41 is provided between the flat plate portion 31 of the light guide base 30 and the hood panel 80 so as to cover substantially the entire surface of the flat plate portion 31, and the cylindrical portion 32 of the light guide base 30 is provided at the center portion thereof. An opening 41a to be inserted is formed.
The flat portion 41 is fixed to the flat plate portion 31 and the hood panel 80 of the light guide base 30 and the entire surface thereof by a double-sided adhesive tape 90 (not shown).
The lip portion 42 is formed continuously from the outer peripheral edge portion of the flat portion 41, and is an edge-shaped portion that covers the flat plate portion 31 of the light guide base 30 and the outer peripheral edge portion of the lens 10, and its end portion Is folded back to the surface 12 side of the lens 10.
The lip portion 42 is provided with a decorative ring 100 (not shown) made of resin or metal having a surface decoration such as chrome plating for improving the appearance quality.

The bulb 50 includes a light emitting element such as a light emitting diode (LED), for example, and the light emitting portion thereof is inserted into the cylindrical portion 32 of the light guide base 30 and is disposed on substantially the same plane as the surface of the hood panel 80. . The bulb 50 is connected to a harness 51 that supplies power to the LED. Note that the position of the valve 50 is appropriately set according to the in-material image. The valve 50 is joined to the cylindrical portion 32 by melting and welding the material of the cylindrical portion 32, or by being bonded with another solvent, and the waterproof property is ensured.
The bulb 50 is lit in conjunction with lighting of an arbitrary lamp such as a small lamp (vehicle width lamp) of a vehicle, for example, and a known answering machine is operated in response to an operation of a remote control type door lock device, for example. Back lighting can also be performed.

The grommet 60 is formed of, for example, synthetic rubber, and a tip end portion thereof is inserted into a protruding end portion of the cylindrical portion 32 of the light guide base 30 to support the valve 50.
The harness 51 described above is disposed so as to penetrate the grommet 60 in the axial direction.
The nut 70 is a so-called wing nut formed of, for example, polypropylene (PP) resin and having a tab portion that is manually pinched by an operator and rotated. The nut 70 is provided on the inner side (downward side) of the engine room with respect to the hood panel 80, and has a screw portion (not shown) that is screwed to the screw portion 32a of the cylindrical portion 32 of the light guide base 30 on the inner diameter side thereof. By fastening these, the cylindrical portion 32 is attracted downward, and the light-emitting ornament 1 is pressed against the hood panel 80.
The hood panel 80 is formed by, for example, pressing a steel plate and constitutes a part of the exterior of the vehicle.

  In the light emitting ornament 1 of the first embodiment, when the bulb 50 emits light, the light propagates through the light guide base 30 and enters the color plate 20 and is colored blue. The colored light enters the lens 10, and a part of the colored light is reflected and scattered by each dot 13 constituting the in-material image 14. When the observer sees the light emission ornament, the in-material image 14 is emitted into the lens 10 by the scattered light and appears to float.

As described above, according to the first embodiment, the following effects can be obtained.
(1) Since the in-material image 14 is formed in the interior separated from the surface portion of the lens 10, the shape of the image is not limited to a two-dimensional shape, and the position of the image 10 is arbitrarily determined from the surface. It is possible to obtain a light emitting ornament with a good appearance.
(2) Since the in-material image 14 is formed by 3D laser processing, for example, various types of light emission having different images as compared to the conventional technique in which an image is formed by using a mold or the like on the back surface of the translucent portion or the like. It is easy to manufacture a type ornament.
(3) Since the light guide base 30 facing the lower surface portion 11 of the lens 10 is formed of a transparent material having a light guide function and the inside thereof is irradiated by the bulb 50, when the light emitting ornament 1 is observed In addition, it looks like a surface light source and can prevent the point light source from being noticeable.
(4) Since the lens 10 and the light guide base 30 are fixed to the hood panel 80 via the cushion rubber 40, the surface shape of the hood panel 80 and the shape of the surface portion of the light guide base 30 facing the hood panel 80 Can be absorbed, and the light-emitting ornament 1 can be used in common among a plurality of vehicle types having slightly different shapes such as a hood panel. Further, the painted surface of the hood panel 80 can be protected.
(5) When mounting the light emitting ornament 1 on the hood panel 80, positioning can be easily performed by using the opening 81 as a reference, and deviation from the center line in the vehicle width direction of the vehicle can be prevented. . Moreover, the direction which fixes the light emission type ornament 1 can be easily match | combined by making the ridgeline 12a into a reference | standard.
(6) Since the light-emitting ornament 1 is provided on the hood panel 80 of the engine hood, a marker function that indicates the front end position of the hood to the driver is obtained.

Next, a second embodiment of the light emitting ornament to which the present invention is applied will be described.
About the same part as Example 1 mentioned above, the same code | symbol is attached | subjected and description is abbreviate | omitted and a difference is mainly demonstrated.
FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the light emitting ornament 2 of the second embodiment.
In the light-emitting ornament 2 according to the second embodiment, the bulb 50 is disposed adjacent to the end portion on the vehicle front side in the contact surface portion with the lens 10 of the ornament base 25, and the light emission direction is inclined backward. . In addition, the light emitting portion of the bulb 50 is provided with a space between the surface portion 11 of the lens 10 and the flat portion 26 of the ornament base 25 so that the light is incident obliquely into the space.
Such a rearward tilting arrangement of the valve 50 extends from the outer peripheral edge to the front side of the flat plate portion 26 of the ornament base 25 before the valve 50 is mounted, and the rearward tilt of the valve 50 on the groove bottom surface. A U-shaped groove (not shown) having an inclined portion for regulating the angle is formed in advance, and a valve 50 is disposed therein and filled with a material in which the material of the ornament base 25 and an easily meltable resin are melted. Thus, by filling the melted acrylic resin, the U-shaped groove is filled and fixed, and the periphery of the lens 10, the ornament base 25, and the valve 50 is sealed. Note that the outer peripheral portion 15 of the lens 10 and the outer peripheral portion 27 of the ornament base 25 are joined and sealed all around by welding or bonding.

According to the second embodiment described above, in addition to the effects of the first embodiment described above, the bulb 50 is arranged offset to the front side of the vehicle, so that the light beam emitted from here changes from the thick part of the lens 10 to the thin part. Since the light rays propagating toward the light and entering the in-material image 14 are angled and light is easily dispersed throughout the lens 10, the reflected light of the dots 13 becomes clear when observed from the outside. There is an effect that a deep and luxurious appearance can be obtained.
Furthermore, since a gap is made between the surface portion 11 of the lens 10 and the flat portion 26 of the ornament base 25 and the bulb 50 is held obliquely inside to emit light, in addition to direct light into the lens 10 In addition, since the reflected light is repeatedly reflected by the surface portion 11 and the flat portion 26, the luminance is improved and the lens 10 can be emitted with uniform light.
Further, since the bulb 50 is hidden behind the decorative ring 100 and is difficult to see directly, it is possible to prevent the point light source from being directly seen and giving a shallow bottom impression. Further, since the portion through which the harness 51 is passed is removed from the central portion of the light emitting ornament 1, it is difficult to see the inner work, the appearance can be improved, and the adhesion surface between the members can be easily secured. Even when using the tape, the use of a specially shaped tape can be avoided, and the cost can be reduced.

(Modification)
The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and various modifications and changes can be made, and these are also within the equivalent scope of the present invention.
(1) Each of the embodiments described above is mounted on the engine hood of a vehicle. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and sheet metal parts such as trunk lids, pillars, and fenders, radiator grills, aero parts, etc. The present invention can also be applied to ornaments mounted on the resin parts.
(2) Although each Example mentioned above uses LED for a light emission part, not only this but organic EL, inorganic EL, a light bulb, a luminous body, etc. can be used. Further, the position and number of these light emitting units are not particularly limited.
(3) Although the above-described embodiment includes a lens formed as a light-transmitting part, the light-transmitting part may be a mascot image having a three-dimensional shape. . Further, the material of the light transmitting part is not limited to the acrylic resin of the embodiment, and any transparent or translucent material such as crystal glass, polycarbonate resin, ABS resin, or the like can be applied.

It is the external view which looked at Example 1 of the light emission type ornament to which this invention was applied from the direction substantially perpendicular | vertical with respect to the engine hood. It is II-II part arrow sectional drawing of the light emission type ornament of FIG. It is sectional drawing of Example 2 of the light emission type ornament to which this invention is applied.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Light emission type ornament 10 Lens 13 Dot 14 In-material image 20 Color plate 30 Light guide base 40 Cushion rubber 50 Valve 60 Grommet 70 Nut 80 Food panel

Claims (6)

In the light-emitting ornament that is mounted on the exterior parts of the vehicle,
A translucent part formed of a transparent or translucent material;
In-material image portion provided in the interior separated from the surface portion of the translucent portion, and formed with different reflectance from other portions,
A light emitting ornament comprising: an illuminating unit that illuminates the light transmitting unit. The light-emitting ornament according to claim 1,
The in-material image portion is formed by subjecting the light transmitting portion to laser processing. The light-emitting ornament according to claim 1 or 2,
The illuminating unit includes a light guide unit facing a partial range of a surface portion of the light transmitting unit, and a light emitting unit that irradiates the inside of the light guide unit. The light-emitting ornament according to claim 3,
The light emitting part is disposed adjacent to a peripheral part of a surface part of the light guide part that faces the light transmitting part. In the light emission type ornament according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
At least one of the translucent part and the illuminating part is attached to the exterior part of the vehicle via a cushion member formed of an elastic material. In the light emission type ornament according to any one of claims 1 to 5,
At least a part of the illuminating unit is inserted and arranged in an opening formed in an exterior member of the vehicle.

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