JP2007085858A - Pointer instrument for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a pointer instrument for a vehicle, having a devised constitution of a dial plate and a light guide, rich in three-dimensional effects and has novel appearance. <P>SOLUTION: A scale part 32, formed protrusively on the light guide 3 arranged on the back side of the dial plate 2, is projected to the front side of the dial plate 2 via a scale hole 21 of the dial plate 2. In addition, a recessed part 33 is provided corresponding to the scale part 32 on the back of the light guide 3, and the light from a light-emitting diode 4 entering the light guide 3 is reflected by the recessed part 33 toward the scale part 32, and thereby, the scale part 32 is projected from the surface of the dial plate 2 to the viewer side in the viewing direction and is displayed luminously. Hereby, the appearance of a tachometer 1 can have fine three-dimensional effects and can have a novel appearance, by differentiating each view distance from a viewer's eye to the dial plate 2 surface and the scale part 32. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicular pointer instrument suitable for use in an automobile or the like.

  2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, various methods have been adopted in order to ensure a beautiful and novel visibility in a pointer instrument for a vehicle installed in an automobile or the like. For example, the light from the light source is incident on the light guide made of a translucent material disposed on the dial, and the light guide is provided with a reflecting portion that reflects the light from the light source toward the driver. There is a pointer instrument for a vehicle configured to visually recognize the reflecting portion as a scale of the instrument (see Patent Document 1).

This vehicle pointer instrument is intended to obtain a novel appearance by forming scales and numbers as the display design of the instrument on separate members, that is, a light guide and a dial.
JP 2003-302262 A

  However, in the above-described pointer instrument for a vehicle, although the light guide is overlaid on the dial plate, the scale and the numbers are visually recognized to be substantially on the same plane, and the three-dimensional appearance is poor. there were.

  The present invention has been made in view of such problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a vehicular pointer instrument that has a novel three-dimensional appearance and a novel appearance by elaborating the configurations of the dial and the light guide. That is.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention employs the following technical means.

  A pointer instrument for a vehicle according to claim 1 of the present invention includes a light guide formed in a substantially ring shape from a light-transmitting material, a light source disposed so that light can enter the light guide, and a light guide. A plurality of graduation portions protruding from the surface of the light guide, a reflection portion formed on the back surface of the light guide so as to reflect light from the light source traveling in the light guide toward the graduation portion, and a light guide And a scale portion that protrudes to the front side of the dial plate through a through hole provided in the dial plate corresponding to each scale portion, and the scale portion is a reflective portion. It is characterized by being transmitted and illuminated by the reflected light.

  According to such a configuration, since the scale portion protrudes from the surface of the dial toward the viewer side in the viewing direction, the visual distance from the viewer's eyes to the end surface of the scale portion and the dial from the viewer's eyes. The viewing distance to the surface is different. Thereby, the appearance of the pointer instrument for a vehicle can be rich in three-dimensional effect.

  In addition, the light from the light source that travels in the light guide is reflected by the reflecting part, and the scale part is transmitted and illuminated by this reflected light, making the appearance of the scale part three-dimensional and more innovative. It can be.

  As described above, it is possible to provide a vehicular pointer instrument having a three-dimensional effect and a novel appearance.

  The pointer instrument for a vehicle according to claim 2 of the present invention is characterized in that the reflecting portion is arranged so as to overlap the scale portion in the viewing direction.

  According to such a structure, the reflected light from a reflection part can be reliably radiate | emitted toward a viewer's eyes from the end surface of a scale part. Therefore, the light emission luminance of the scale part can be increased, and the visibility and appearance of the scale part can be improved.

  The pointer instrument for a vehicle according to claim 3 of the present invention is characterized in that the reflection portion is a recess formed on the back surface of the light guide.

  According to such a configuration, the reflecting portion protrudes inside the light guide, in other words, since the wall surface of the reflecting portion exists inside the light guide, it is emitted from the light source that travels in the light guide. The incident light can surely enter and be reflected by the reflecting portion. Therefore, the light emission luminance of the scale part can be increased, and the visibility and appearance of the scale part can be improved.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the light guide is formed in a substantially C shape, and light from the light source is incident from at least one end of both ends of the light guide.

  According to such a configuration, the light from the light source travels along the circumferential direction inside the substantially ring-shaped light guide, so that the light is incident almost uniformly on all the reflecting portions corresponding to the scale portions. be able to. Therefore, the light emission luminance of the plurality of scale portions can be made substantially uniform.

  Hereinafter, an example in which the vehicular pointer instrument according to the present invention is applied to a tachometer 1 mounted on an automobile combination meter will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a front view of a tachometer 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  2 is a cross-sectional view taken along line II-II in FIG.

  FIG. 3 is a perspective external view of the light guide 3 of the tachometer 1 according to one embodiment of the present invention.

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

  FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram for explaining an electric circuit configuration of the tachometer 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  The combination meter 100 is disposed at a position visible from the driver in front of the driver's seat of the automobile, and displays various information related to the automobile. The combination meter 100 includes a tachometer 1 as a vehicle pointer instrument. The tachometer 1 indicates the rotation speed of the engine of the automobile by the rotation angle of the pointer 10.

  Below, the structure of the tachometer 1 by one Embodiment of this invention is demonstrated.

  The dial 2 is formed into a thin plate shape from a light transmitting material, for example, a transparent acrylic resin. The dial 2 includes a scale hole 21, numerals 22, and characters 23, which are display designs for instructing the rotational speed of the engine together with a pointer 10 described later. That is, the scale hole 21 is formed by providing a through-hole in the dial 2 as shown in FIG. The numbers 22 and the characters 23 are formed by printing or hot stamping the dial 2 as shown in FIG. That is, on the dial 2, only the numerals 22 and 23 are in a state where light can be transmitted (for example, milky white), and the other background portions are in an opaque state (for example, matte black, white, or metallic silver). Therefore, the numbers 22 and the characters 23 are transmitted and illuminated by the light emitted from the light emitting diodes 6 arranged on the back side (the right side in FIG. 2) of the dial plate 2.

  The scale hole 21 is formed in substantially the same shape as the scale part 32 provided in the light guide 3 described later, that is, in a shape through which the scale part 32 can be inserted. Therefore, the scale part 32 protrudes from the scale hole 21 to the front side (left side in FIG. 2) of the dial 2 as shown in FIG. The scale hole 21 is formed in an oval shape as shown in FIG. 1, and each scale part 21 is along a circular arc coaxial with the shaft 91 of the movement 9, which is the rotation center of the pointer 10 described later, and is centered on the shaft 91. They are arranged radially.

  The dial 2 is provided with a through hole 24 through which a shaft 91 of a movement 9 described later is inserted into the front side of the dial 2 (left side in FIG. 2).

  On the back side of the dial plate 2, a light guide 3 is tightly fixed to the back side of the dial plate 2 as shown in FIG. 2.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the light guide 3 is formed in a substantially ring shape from a translucent material such as a transparent acrylic resin or polycarbonate resin. As illustrated in FIG. 3, the light guide 3 includes a substantially ring-shaped base portion 31 and a plurality of scale portions 32 that are formed to protrude from the surface 31 a of the base portion 31. As shown in FIG. 4, incident surfaces 34 are formed at both ends of the light guide 3. Opposite to the incident surface 34, the light emitting diode 4 as a light source is arranged so that light can enter the light guide 3 from the incident surface 34 as shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 4, a concave portion 33 that is a reflective portion is provided on the surface 31 b of the base portion 31 of the light guide 3 at a position corresponding to each scale portion 32. As shown in FIG. 4, the recess 33 is formed in a substantially V-shaped groove shape, and two reflecting surfaces 33 a are formed corresponding to the two sides of the V-shape. The concave portion 33, that is, the reflection surface 33 a is set so as to reflect the light from the light emitting diode 4 traveling in the light guide 3 toward the scale portion 32. That is, the light reflected by the reflecting surface 33a travels toward the scale portion 32 and is emitted from the surface of the scale portion 32 in the driver's visual recognition direction.

  Here, the magnitude | size of the scale part 32 of the light guide 3 in the tachometer 1 by one Embodiment of this invention and the scale hole 21 of the dial 2 is demonstrated. The contour shape of the scale hole 21 of the dial 2 is formed so that the scale part 32 fits snugly. In other words, in the assembling process of the tachometer 1, the dial 2 and the light guide 3 can be tightly fixed while fitting both manually by the operator, and after the both are fixed, It is set so that there is almost no gap between the scale portions 32.

  As described above, in the dial 2 of the tachometer 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention, the numbers and letters of the instrument are formed on the dial 2 as a colored layer by printing or hot stamping, while the scale is the dial. It is formed by the scale part 32 of the light guide 3 arranged so as to protrude to the front side from 2. That is, the scale part 32 protrudes to the driver side from the numbers 22 and the characters 23.

  On the back side of the dial 2, a light guide plate 5 is tightly fixed as shown in FIG. 2. The light guide plate 5 is made of a translucent material such as a transparent acrylic resin or polycarbonate resin. Further, as shown in FIG. 2, a light emitting diode 6 is disposed so as to face the light guide plate 5. The light guide plate 5 guides the light emitted from the light emitting diodes 6 to the numbers 22 and 23 of the dial plate 2 to transmit and illuminate them.

  The pointer 10 for instructing the rotational speed of the engine in cooperation with the scale portion 32 and the numeral 22 is formed of a translucent material such as a colorless and transparent polycarbonate resin or acrylic resin. As shown in FIG. 2, the pointer 10 is disposed along the driver's seat side (left side in FIG. 2) of the dial 2. The back surface 10a of the pointer 10 is colored red by printing or hot stamping. As a result, the pointer 10 is illuminated with the light from the light emitting diode 6 described above and is lit and displayed in red. That is, the light emitted from the light emitting diode 6 incident on the pointer 10 is reflected by the reflecting surface 10b of the pointer 10 toward the tip of the pointer 10, and this reflected light is reflected by the back surface 10a in the driver's visual recognition direction. Is done. That is, in the speedometer 1 according to the first embodiment of the present invention, by using a white light emitting diode as the light emitting diode 6, the pointer 10 is lit and displayed in the color of the colored layer applied to the back surface 10a of the pointer 10. . In this case, it is not necessary to limit the color of the colored layer applied to the back surface 10a of the pointer 10 to red, and the color may be colored to other colors such as orange and green. On the other hand, a white colored layer may be provided on the back surface 10 a of the pointer 10, and a light emitting diode having a color other than white may be used as the light emitting diode 6. In this case, the pointer 10 is lit and displayed by the light emission color of the light emitting diode 6. The pointer 10 is fixed to a shaft 91 that is a rotation shaft of the movement 9 disposed on the back side (right side in FIG. 2) of the dial 2. As a result, when the movement 9 is driven and the shaft 91 rotates, the pointer 10 rotates integrally with the shaft 91. As shown in FIG. 2, a light shielding cap 18 is attached to the pointer 10 so as to cover a base for attaching the pointer 10 to the shaft 91. The light shielding cap 18 is formed of a light shielding material, such as a black resin or a metal plate, and light emitted from the light emitting diode 12 for lighting the pointer 10 is directly incident on the driver's eyes, and the driver is dazzled. It prevents that.

  For example, a cross coil actuator or a stepping motor is used as the movement 9 that generates a driving force for rotating the pointer 10. When a voltage is applied from the outside, the movement 9 generates torque and rotates the shaft 91 that is a rotating shaft. As a result, the pointer 10 fixed to the tip of the shaft 91 rotates along the surface of the dial 2.

  The light emitting diode 4, the light emitting diode 6, and the movement 9 described above are mounted on the printed circuit board 8 disposed on the back side (right side in FIG. 2) of the dial 2. The printed board 8 is formed of, for example, a glass epoxy board or the like, and forms an electric circuit portion of the tachometer 1. As shown in FIG. 2, the printed circuit board 8 is mounted with a light emitting diode 12 that is a light source for emitting and displaying the pointer 10. As shown in FIG. 2, the light emitted from the light emitting diode 12 is guided to the pointer 10 by the light guide 11 made of a translucent material. The printed circuit board 8 is mounted with a controller 13 for controlling the turning on / off of the light emitting diodes 4, 6, 60 and the driving control of the movement 9 for rotating the pointer 10. The controller 13 is composed of, for example, a microcomputer.

  The dial 2, the movement 9 and the printed board 8 described above are accommodated and fixed in the case 14.

  On the front side of the dial 2 (left side in FIG. 2), a facing plate 15 is arranged as shown in FIG. The facing plate 15 is made of a resin material in the tachometer 1 according to one embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the facing plate 15 is formed in a substantially frame shape while making the scale portion 32, the numbers 22, and the characters 23, which are display designs on the dial 2, visible, and the contour shape of the tachometer 1 is adjusted. Yes. A transparent cover 13 is attached to the tip of the facing plate 15 as shown in FIG. The transparent cover 13 is formed in a thin plate shape made of colorless and transparent polycarbonate resin or acrylic resin.

  On the other hand, a lower case 17 is attached behind the case 14 (on the right side in FIG. 2). The lower case 17 is made of a resin material.

  Next, the electric circuit configuration of the tachometer 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention described above will be described with reference to FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 5, the controller 13 is constantly supplied with power from the battery 19. An ignition switch 18 is connected to the controller 13 so that its operation state (ON or OFF) can be detected. As shown in FIG. 5, the light emitting diodes 4, 6, 60 and the movement 9 are connected to the controller 13. As shown in FIG. 5, the controller 13 is connected to a rotation sensor 60 that detects the rotational speed of the engine.

  When the ignition switch 18 is turned on by the driver's operation, the controller 13 starts engine rotation speed instruction control. That is, the light emitting diodes 4, 6, 60 are turned on, the engine rotational speed of the automobile is calculated based on the detection signal from the rotation sensor 60, and the pointer 10 indicates the calculated rotational speed on the dial 2. The movement 9 is driven.

  Thereby, the scale part 32, the number 22 and the character 23 of the dial 2, and the pointer 10 are displayed in a light-emitting manner.

  When the ignition switch 18 is turned off, the controller 13 turns off the respective light emitting diodes 4, 6, 60 and drives the movement 9 so that the pointer 10 indicates a rotation speed of 0 rpm on the dial 2. Alternatively, the power supply to the movement 9 is stopped. When the energization of the movement 9 is stopped, the shaft 91 of the movement 9 rotates to an angular position where the pointer 10 indicates a running speed of 0 rpm due to an elastic force of a return spring (not shown).

  Next, the effect of the configuration of the dial 2, particularly the visibility of the dial 2 of the scale portion 32, which is a feature of the tachometer 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention, will be described.

  In a conventional vehicle pointer instrument, light from a light source is incident on a light guide body made of a translucent material disposed on a dial, and light from the light source is reflected on the light guide body toward a driver. The reflective part which performs is set as the structure which makes this reflective part visually recognized as a scale of a meter. However, the vehicular pointer instrument having such a configuration has a problem in that the scale and the numbers are visually recognized as being substantially on the same plane and the three-dimensional appearance is poor.

  On the other hand, in the tachometer 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention, the scale portion 32 formed in a protruding shape on the light guide 3 disposed on the back side of the dial 2 is replaced with the scale hole 21 of the dial 2. Through the front face of the dial 2. Further, a recess 33 is provided on the back surface of the light guide 3 corresponding to the scale portion 32, and light from the light emitting diode 4 incident on the light guide 3 is reflected by the recess 33 toward the scale portion 32.

  According to such a configuration, the scale portion 32 protrudes from the surface of the dial 2 toward the viewer side in the viewing direction, and therefore the viewing distance from the viewer's eyes to the end surface of the scale portion 32 and the viewer's eyes. The viewing distance from the dial 2 to the surface of the dial 2 is different. Thereby, the appearance of the tachometer 1 can be rich in stereoscopic effect. Further, when the driver looks at the scale portion 32, the concave portion 33, that is, the reflection surface 33a is also visually recognized at the back of the end surface on the driver side. For this reason, the appearance of the scale portion becomes a novel with a rich sense of depth.

  Furthermore, since the scale portion 32 is transmitted and illuminated by the light from the light emitting diode 4 reflected by the concave portion 33, the appearance of the scale portion 32 can be made three-dimensional and at the same time more innovative.

  As described above, it is possible to realize the tachometer 1 having a three-dimensional effect and a novel appearance.

  Further, in the tachometer 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention, the light guide 3 is formed in a substantially C shape, and the light emitting diodes 4 are arranged at both ends of the light guide 3. That is, light from the light-emitting diode 4 is incident on the light guide 3 from both ends of the light guide 3.

  Thereby, since light can be incident on all the concave portions 33 almost uniformly, the light emission luminance of all the scale portions 32 can be made substantially uniform. Therefore, the appearance of the tachometer 1 can be improved.

  In the above description of the operation of the tachometer 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention, when the ignition switch 19 is turned on, the light-emitting diodes 4, 6, 12 are turned on, the scale portion 32, the numeral 22 on the dial 2, and Although the characters 23 and the pointer 10 are displayed by light emission, it is not necessary to be limited to such a configuration. For example, if the ignition switch 19 is turned on but the light control switch (not shown) is not turned on, only the movement 9 is driven with the light-emitting diodes 4, 6, 12 turned off to increase the engine speed. When the light control switch (not shown) is operated to the vehicle width lamp position or the headlight position, the light emitting diodes 4, 6, 12 are turned on, the scale portion 32, the numerals 22 and 23 of the dial 2 The pointer 10 may be configured to emit light. In this case, when the light-emitting diodes 4, 6, and 12 are turned off, the dial 2 is irradiated with extraneous light, for example, sunlight. For example, when the dial 2 is colored in a light-opaque light color, the tachometer 1 is visually recognized in black because the scale portion 32, the numbers 22 and the characters 23 are not transmitted and illuminated with the bright dial 2 as a background. In addition, since the scale part 32 is formed with transparent resin, the extraneous light incident on the scale part 32 is reflected by both the surface of the scale part 32 and the reflection surface 33a of the recess 33. By visually recognizing the two reflected lights at the same time, the scale portion 32 is visually recognized with enhanced stereoscopic effect.

  Further, in the tachometer 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention described above, the planar shape of the scale portion 32, that is, the shape of the scale hole 21 of the dial plate 2 is an oval, but it is not necessary to limit the shape to an oval. Other shapes, for example, a circle, an ellipse, a triangle, a rectangle, etc. may be set to zero.

  Further, in the tachometer 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention described above, the concave portion 33 that is the reflecting portion is a groove having a substantially V-shaped cross section, but the concave portion 33 must be limited to a groove having a substantially V-shaped cross section. There may be other shapes, for example, a pyramid shape or a cone shape.

  Further, in the tachometer 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention described above, the dial 2, the scale portion 32, the number 22 and the character 23 are displayed as light-transmitting light by transmissive illumination, and other parts, that is, The background is light-shielding. However, it is not necessary to limit to this configuration. For example, the background portion of the dial 2 may be light-transmitting in a planar shape, and the numbers 22 and 23 may be light-shielded so that the numbers 22 and 23 are visually recognized as black in a light background. In this case, in order to improve the visibility of the scale portion 32, it is necessary to set the light emission color of the scale portion 32 to a color different from the light emission color of the background portion of the dial 2.

  In the tachometer 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention described above, the light emitting diode 4 is used as a light source. However, other types of light sources such as a light bulb, a discharge tube or an EL panel may be used. .

  Moreover, although embodiment described above has demonstrated the case where the pointer instrument for vehicles by this invention is applied to the tachometer 1 of a motor vehicle as an example, it is not necessary to limit an application object to the tachometer 1, and other types of The present invention may be applied to a vehicle pointer instrument, for example, a speedometer that indicates the traveling speed of the automobile, a water temperature gauge that indicates the engine coolant temperature, and the like. Moreover, it is good also as a structure provided with the some pointer meter for vehicles by this invention in one combination meter 100. FIG.

It is a partial front view of the combination meter 1 by one Embodiment of this invention. It is the II-II sectional view taken on the line of FIG. It is a perspective appearance figure of light guide 3 of combination meter 1 by one embodiment of the present invention. It is the IV-IV sectional view taken on the line of FIG. It is a mimetic diagram explaining the electric circuit composition of tachometer 1 by one embodiment of the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

1 Tachometer (Vehicle pointer instrument)
2 Dial 21 Scale hole (through hole)
22 Number 23 Character 24 Through-hole 3 Light guide 31 Base part 31a Front surface 31b Back surface 32 Scale part 33 Recessed part (reflective part)
33a Reflective surface (reflective part)
34 Incident surface (end)
4 Light emitting diode (light source)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 5 Light guide plate 6 Light emitting diode 8 Printed circuit board 9 Movement 91 Shaft 10 Pointer 11 Light guide 12 Light emitting diode 13 Controller 14 Case 15 Turn plate 16 Transparent cover 17 Lower case 18 Light-shielding cap 19 Ignition switch 20 Battery 60 Rotation sensor 100 Combination meter

Claims (4)

A light guide formed in a substantially ring shape with a translucent material;
A light source arranged to allow light to enter the light guide;
A plurality of scale portions formed to protrude from the surface of the light guide;
A reflecting portion formed on the back surface of the light guide so as to reflect light from the light source traveling in the light guide toward the scale portion;
A dial disposed on the surface side of the light guide,
The scale part projects to the front side of the dial through a through hole provided in the dial corresponding to the scale part,
The indicator instrument for a vehicle, wherein the scale portion is transmitted and illuminated by the reflected light from the reflection portion.   2. The vehicular pointer instrument according to claim 1, wherein the reflecting portion is arranged so as to overlap the scale portion in a visual recognition direction.   3. The vehicular pointer instrument according to claim 1, wherein the reflection portion is a recess formed on a back surface of the light guide. 4.   4. The vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the light guide is formed in a substantially C shape, and light from a light source is incident from at least one end of both ends of the light guide. 5. Pointer instrument.

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