JP2009074281A - Door handle device for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve the rigidity of a door handle formed of a light transmitting material in a door handle device. <P>SOLUTION: The surface of a core material 11 formed of resin with high rigidity and chemical resistance such as polyamide-based resin (PA6) is coated with a surface layer material 12 formed of a transparent resin material such as acrylic or polycarbonate resin, to carry out two-color molding of the door handle 3. Rigidity is thereby enhanced in comparison with a door handle formed of a single body of acrylic or polycarbonate resin. Furthermore, when light is introduced into the surface layer material 12, the door handle 3 can be put in such a state as to emit light. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicle door handle device.

  A door handle device is attached to an inner panel on the indoor side of a door of a vehicle (for example, an automobile). This door handle device has a box-like case body whose front side on the indoor side is opened, and a door handle that is rotatably supported at either end of the case body in the left-right direction.

  At night, when a vehicle occupant (hereinafter referred to as a driver) is about to get off, the driver may get off by opening the door after removing the ignition key. When the ignition key is removed, all the lamps in the vehicle are turned off. In this state, the driver looks for the door handle of the door handle device and raises the door handle to the near side (inside the room) to unlock the door. That is, the driver must look for the door handle with all the lamps in the vehicle turned off. As a result, the driver may not be able to accurately operate the door handle. In particular, the passenger on the passenger seat side does not insert / remove the ignition key by himself / herself, and this tendency is remarkable.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, an invention is disclosed in which the door handle device is illuminated for a predetermined time by a timer even after the ignition key is removed (see Patent Document 1). In the invention disclosed in this document, illumination is applied to a door handle made of a transparent member to make the door handle shine.

Here, in order to make the door handle transparent, it is assumed that the door handle is made of a light-transmitting resin material (for example, acrylic or polycarbonate). However, acrylic has a problem that rigidity is low and polycarbonate has low chemical resistance.
JP 2007-63981 A

  This invention makes it a subject to improve the rigidity of the door handle which consists of material which has translucency in a door handle apparatus in view of an above-described situation.

Means and effects for solving the problems

The present invention for solving the above problems is as follows.
A door handle device for door opening operation provided on an inner surface of a vehicle door,
A door handle formed on a surface of a core material made of a material having low or no light transmissivity, a surface layer material made of a material with high light transmissivity, and capable of guiding light to the surface layer material and radiating from an outer surface;
A light source that is provided in the vicinity of the door handle, introduces light into the surface layer material of the door handle, diffuses in the surface layer material and diverges from the outer surface, and
The light introduced into the surface material of the door handle from the light source is diverged from the outer surface, so that the door handle emits light.

  The present invention is configured as described above, and the door handle is formed from a core material made of a material with low or no light transmission and a surface layer material made of a material with high light transmission. As a result, the rigidity of the door handle is increased as compared with a door handle made of only a material with high translucency (for example, acrylic and polycarbonate), and it is difficult to damage even when used for a long period of time. Further, the light incident on the door handle is diffused to the outside while being reflected and diffused inside the core material. As a result, since the entire door handle (outline) is in a light-emitting state, the vehicle occupant can reliably see the door handle even at night.

The surface layer material is formed on a front portion exposed at least on the vehicle interior side of the door handle,
The light from the light source is introduced into the surface layer material formed at least on the front surface of the door handle and diffused inside the surface layer material, and the diffused light is diffused to the outside from the surface layer material. At least a portion exposed to the inside of the vehicle may emit light.

  Even in this case, the rigidity of the door handle is enhanced by the core material, and the surface layer material portion emits light, and the same effect as described above is achieved.

  The core material is preferably made of an opaque material having higher rigidity than the surface layer material.

  As a result, the rigidity of the door handle can be reliably increased, and the protrusions formed on the back surface of the door handle and the like are difficult to visually recognize, so that the appearance is improved.

  The door handle can be formed by two-color molding of a surface layer material made of a material having a high light-transmitting property on the surface of a core material made of a material having a low or no light-transmitting property.

  In addition, the door handle may be formed by injecting a surface layer material made of a material with high translucency into a core material made of a material with low or no translucency inserted in a mold (insert molding). it can.

  Examples of the present invention will be described. 1 is a front view of a door handle device 101 according to a first embodiment, FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line XX of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line YY of FIG.

  A door handle device 101 according to a first embodiment of the present invention will be described. As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, a door handle device 101 is attached to an inner door panel 1 of a vehicle door. The door handle device 101 includes a box-shaped case body 2 having an open front on the indoor side, a door handle 3 that is rotatably supported at an end in the left-right direction of the case body 2, and a lock knob 4. is doing. The door handle 3 and the lock knob 4 are arranged in an overlapping state in the height direction. The door handle 3 and the lock knob 4 are rotatable about a rotation shaft 5 provided at an end portion in the left-right direction of the case body 2 (the right end portion in the drawing in the case of FIG. 1).

  The door handle 3 includes a rotation support portion 3a supported by a rotation shaft 5 provided in the height direction of the case body 2, and an operation portion 3b on which a driver puts his / her finger when the door is opened. Have. In the case of the door handle 3 of the present embodiment, the operation portion 3b is larger than the rotation support portion 3a in order to improve operability. The length of the door handle 3 in the left-right direction is longer than that of the lock knob 4 by the amount of the operation unit 3b. Further, the thickness (length in the depth direction) of the operation portion 3b is thinner than that of the rotation support portion 3a, and the operation portion 3b is operated with the rear portion of the case body 2 in a state where the door handle 3 is accommodated in the case body 2. A space 6 is formed between the portion 3b. The driver causes a finger (not shown) to enter the space 6 in the closed state of the door, and causes the door handle 3 to move toward the front side (inside the room) (the door handle 3 is turned around the rotation shaft 5). The door is unlocked by rotating in a clockwise direction. Then, when the driver pushes the door toward the outside as it is, the door is opened. Further, when the door is closed, the lock knob 4 is pushed toward the inside of the case body 2 (the lock knob 4 is rotated in the clockwise direction around the rotation shaft 5), thereby causing the door handle 3 to be raised. The unlocking operation of the door 1 can be invalidated.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, a light guide plate 7 is attached to the bottom surface of the case body 2. When the door handle 3 is accommodated in the case body 2, the light guide plate 7 is disposed so as to face a portion immediately below the rotation support portion 3 a and the operation portion 3 b of the door handle 3. Further, a light source is attached to one end portion of the light guide plate 7 in the door panel 1 (in the case of the door handle device 101 of the present embodiment, the left end portion in the drawing view of FIG. 1). In the case of the door handle device 101 according to the first embodiment, the light source is the LED 8 and is disposed to face the left end surface of the light guide plate 7. When the LED 8 emits light, the light enters the light guide plate 7. The light incident on the light guide plate 7 is reflected and diffused inside the light guide plate 7 and emitted from the surface of the light guide plate 7. The light emitted from the light guide plate 7 is indicated by an arrow 9. Thereby, the surface of the light guide plate 7 is in a state as if light is emitted (surface light emission). 1 to 3, reference numeral 10 denotes a support member for the case body 2.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the door handle 3 of the present embodiment has a surface layer material 12 made of a resin material with high translucency on the surface of a core material 11 made of a resin material with low or no translucency. Is formed by two-color molding. Here, examples of the resin material used as the surface layer material 12 include acrylic and polycarbonate. All of these resin materials have extremely high transparency. However, since acrylic has low rigidity and low impact resistance, molding the transparent door handle 3 from acrylic alone reduces its rigidity and also makes it difficult to use for a long period of time. There is a fear. Moreover, in the case of polycarbonate, chemical resistance is low and there is a similar risk. However, in the door handle 3 of the present embodiment, a resin material having higher rigidity than acrylic is embedded as the core material 11 therein. Examples of the core material 11 include high-rigidity and chemical-resistant resins such as polyamide-based resin (PA6).

  Thereby, compared with the case where the door handle 3 consists of an acryl single-piece | unit, the rigidity of the door handle 3 whole can be improved. The core material 11 is preferably an opaque member. This is because if a certain protrusion is formed on the back surface of the door handle 3 and the entire door handle 3 is transparent, the driver may be caused to visually recognize the protrusion. However, if the core member 11 is an opaque member, the protrusion on the back surface of the door handle 3 is difficult to visually recognize from the outside, and the appearance is good. Moreover, since a normal polyamide-type resin is opaque, there also exists an advantage that it can be used as it is.

  The operation of the door handle device 101 of the first embodiment will be described. At night, the driver turns on the lamp switch of the vehicle. The LED 8 emits light, and the light enters the inside of the surface layer material 12 of the door handle 3 from the lower side portion of the door handle 3 through the light guide plate 7. This light is emitted from the surface of the surface layer material 12 while being reflected and diffused inside the surface layer material 12. As a result, the entire door handle 3 is in a light-emitting state. As a result, the driver can easily visually recognize the position of the door handle 3 even at night.

  When the driver intends to get off the vehicle, his / her finger is inserted into the space 6 in the case body 2 of the door handle device 101 and hooked on the operation part 3b of the door handle 3 to bring the door handle 3 to the near side (inside the room). Rotate to cause. Even in the state where the door handle 3 is raised, since the rotation support portion 3a of the door handle 3 is hung on the light guide plate 7, the state where the door handle 3 emits light continues. As a result, the driver can cause the door handle 3 smoothly even at night. When the door handle 3 is rotated by a predetermined angle or more, the door is unlocked and can be opened.

  In the door handle device 101 of the first embodiment described above, the entire surface of the door handle 3 is covered with the surface material 12. However, like the door handle device 102 of the second embodiment shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the front portion, the upper side portion, and the lower side portion of the door handle 3 are covered with the surface layer material 12, and the core portion 11 is covered on the back side portion. It may be exposed. Even in this case, since the front portion of the door handle 3 emits light, the same effect as the door handle device 101 of the first embodiment can be obtained.

  In the door handle 3 of the door handle devices 101 and 102 of this embodiment, the core material 11 and the surface layer material 12 are integrally formed by two-color molding. However, the surface layer material 12 may be formed on the core material 11 in a state where the preformed core material 11 is inserted into a mold (insert molding).

  In the door handle devices 101 and 102 of the first and second embodiments described above, light emitted from one LED 8 is incident on the door handle 3 through the light guide plate 7. However, a plurality of LEDs 8 may be juxtaposed on the inner bottom surface of the case body 2 (the portion where the light guide plate 7 is disposed). In the case of the door handle device 103 of this embodiment, since the light 9 emitted from the plurality of LEDs 8 is directly incident on the door handle 3, there is an advantage that the light guide plate 7 becomes unnecessary. Further, the same effect can be obtained by attaching a strip-shaped single light source instead of the plurality of LEDs 8.

  In each of the above-described embodiments, light is incident from the lower side of the door handle 3. However, light may be incident from the upper side or the back side of the door handle 3.

  The door handle devices 101 and 102 according to the first and second embodiments described above can be lit at night and used as illumination. Thereby, the effect that a high-class feeling is produced in the vehicle is produced.

It is a front view of the door handle apparatus 101 of 1st Example. It is the XX sectional view taken on the line of FIG. It is the YY sectional view taken on the line of FIG. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the vicinity of a rotation support portion 3a of the door handle 3 in which a surface layer material 12 is formed on the surface portion, upper side portion, and lower side portion of the door handle 3. It is a sectional view of operation part 3b similarly.

Explanation of symbols

101, 102 Door handle device 1 Door panel (door inner surface)
3 Door handle 7 Light guide plate (light guide member)
8 LED (light source)
9 Light (light introduced into the surface material)
11 Core material 12 Surface material

Claims (5)

A door handle device for door opening operation provided on an inner surface of a vehicle door,
A door handle formed on a surface of a core material made of a material having low or no light transmissivity, a surface layer material made of a material with high light transmissivity, and capable of guiding light to the surface layer material and radiating from an outer surface;
A light source that is provided in the vicinity of the door handle, introduces light into the surface layer material of the door handle, diffuses in the surface layer material and diverges from the outer surface, and
The vehicle door handle device according to claim 1, wherein the light introduced from the light source to the surface layer of the door handle is diverged from the outer surface of the door handle so that the door handle emits light. The surface layer material is formed on a front portion exposed at least on the vehicle interior side of the door handle,
The light from the light source is introduced into the surface layer material formed at least on the front surface of the door handle and diffused inside the surface layer material, and the diffused light is diffused to the outside from the surface layer material. The vehicle door handle device according to claim 1, wherein at least a portion exposed to the inside of the vehicle emits light.   The vehicle door handle device according to claim 1, wherein the core member is higher in rigidity than the surface layer member and is made of an opaque material.   4. The door handle according to claim 1, wherein a surface layer material made of a material having a high light-transmitting property is formed by two-color molding on a surface of a core material made of a material having a low or no light-transmitting property. Vehicle door handle device.   4. The door handle according to claim 1, wherein the door handle is formed by injecting a surface layer material made of a material with high translucency onto a core material made of a material with low or no translucency inserted in a mold. The vehicle door handle device according to claim 1.

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