JP2009214635A - Headlamp cleaner - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a headlamp cleaner capable of covering a wide cleaning region and cleaning an entire lighting section of a headlamp. <P>SOLUTION: The headlamp cleaner 1 is equipped with a nozzle head 6 having a flow passage 5 for a cleaning liquid and a pillow ball 8 rotatably accommodated at a tail end of the flow passage 5 in the nozzle head 6. wherein the pillow ball 8 has a screwing flow passage communicating with the flow passage 5 for the cleaning liquid and spirally formed along a rotation axis 11 and an injection port 17 communicating with the screwing flow passage and formed at a position deviated from the rotation axis 11. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a headlamp cleaner that performs cleaning by spraying a cleaning liquid onto a headlamp of an automobile.

  In general, a car is provided with a headlamp at the front of the vehicle so that the front of the vehicle can be illuminated. The headlamp includes a light source device, a reflector that surrounds the rear surface of the light source device and reflects backward light emitted from the light source device to the front of the vehicle, and a light transmission that is disposed in front of the light source device and covers the light source device. It consists of a sex lens. Since the headlamp is disposed with the lens body exposed at the front of the vehicle, when the vehicle is running, the lens body has fine particles such as exhaust gas, dust drifting in the air, or insects that collect in the light of the headlamp. Or the like adheres to the surface of the lens body, and the illuminance and brightness are reduced.

  Therefore, automobiles equipped with a headlamp cleaner for cleaning by spraying a cleaning liquid onto the lens body surface of the headlamp are also widespread. From the viewpoint of illuminance, lightness, or driving safety with respect to the illumination area, the light distribution recovery rate of the illumination part of the headlamp by the cleaning of the headlamp cleaner is desirably 70% or more.

  As shown in FIGS. 7 to 9, the conventional headlamp cleaner 201 is a lens body that is a recovery-necessary area where transparency needs to be restored for a certain time from the ejection ports 217, 217 of the fixed pillow balls 208, 208. The cleaning liquid is sprayed radially onto the illumination unit 203 on 204, and 70% light distribution is achieved by a cleaning area including an injection area where the cleaning liquid is directly applied, a splash area around the area, and a dripping area where the cleaning liquid is dripping. Designed to achieve recovery rate.

  However, the areas of the conventional cleaning regions 218 and 218, particularly the injection region, are only narrower than the area of the illumination unit 203 of the lens body 204 as shown in FIG. 9, and thus the position of the injection region on the illumination unit 203 is small. In some cases, even if all of the injection region, the scattering region, and the liquid dripping region are added together, it is not often possible to achieve a light distribution recovery rate of 70%, and it is very difficult to select the target position of the injection region. In addition, since the injection conditions change greatly when the automobile is running, a conventional headlamp cleaner that does not cover the entire illumination area on the lens body as the entire injection area achieves a light distribution recovery rate of 70%. It was very difficult.

  The present invention has been created in view of the above-described problems, and is configured to rotate the spray position of the cleaning liquid by the head lamp cleaner to make the cleaning area wider and to clean the entire illumination part of the head lamp. It is an object to provide a headlamp cleaner.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is a headlamp cleaner for injecting a cleaning liquid onto a headlamp of an automobile and cleaning the nozzle head having a cleaning liquid flow path, and rotating at the end of the flow path in the nozzle head. The pillow ball is freely accommodated, and the pillow ball communicates with the flow path of the cleaning liquid and spirally forms along the rotation axis. The pillow ball communicates with the screw-shaped flow path. And an ejection port formed at a shifted position.

The screw-shaped flow path desirably has a cross shape perpendicular to the rotation axis.

  The nozzle head is formed with a branch path branched from a single flow path into a plurality of flow paths, and at each end of the branch path, a terminal end of the flow path is provided, and at each end, a pillow ball housing portion is defined, It is desirable that the pillow ball is rotatably accommodated in each of the pillow ball accommodating portions.

  According to the present invention, in the headlamp cleaner, a pillow ball having an ejection port at a position shifted from the rotation axis is rotatably mounted on the nozzle head of the headlamp cleaner, and the jet ball is caused to be ejected by this ejection force when the cleaning liquid is ejected. By being configured to rotate, the ejection port rotates during ejection, so that the ejection area can cover the illumination part of the headlamp widely, and the light distribution recovery rate can be increased.

  Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. The headlamp cleaner 1 of this embodiment injects a cleaning liquid 2 onto an outer surface of a lens body 4 centering on an illumination unit 3 formed in a substantially circular shape, such as a headlamp (not shown) of an automobile. This is for removing the dirt on the surface of the body 4 to improve the translucency of the lens body 4.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the headlamp cleaner 1 includes a nozzle head 6 formed in a substantially L-shaped pipe having a flow path 5 through which the cleaning liquid 2 flows, and a tip portion of the nozzle head 6. And a pillow ball 8 that is rotatably arranged via a bearing 7.

  The nozzle head 6 has a substantially L-shaped pipe shape as a whole, and has a flow path 5 through which the cleaning liquid flows substantially vertically upward from below. The flow path 5 communicates with a pillow ball accommodating portion 9 which is defined by extending from the end to the substantially horizontal direction with the upper end of the flow path 5 as the end. The pillow ball storage unit 9 surrounds substantially the entire back surface of the pillow ball 8, and the pillow ball 8 is rotatably stored, and the cleaning liquid that has passed through the flow path 5 leaks from the gap between the pillow ball 8 and the pillow ball storage unit 9. To prevent this, the pillow ball 8 is configured to be sealed. The rotatable property and the sealing property are ensured by the bearing 7 interposed when the pillow ball 8 is accommodated in the pillow ball accommodating portion 9 and the joining structure of the rear end portion 10 of the pillow ball 8 and the end portion of the flow path 5. The

  The pillow ball 8 is housed in the pillow ball housing portion 9 via the bearing 7 and is configured to be rotatable about the rotation shaft 11. The outer shape of the pillow ball 8 is rotationally symmetric about the rotation axis 11 and has a rear end having a relatively small radius and a front end having a larger radius than the rear end, that is, the rear end. It is formed in a substantially trumpet shape in which the radius is appropriately increased from the front end to the front end. Further, a concentric bearing mounting portion 12 having a radius once narrowed is provided at a substantially central portion on the outer shape in the axial direction of the pillow ball 8.

  At the rear end of the pillow ball 8, a screw-like flow path 13 for allowing the cleaning liquid 2 to flow down spirally is provided, and an inclined flow path 14 extending from the end of the screw-like flow path 13 to the front end of the pillow ball 8 is formed. . The screw-shaped flow path 13 is composed of a screw member accommodating portion 15 formed in a cylindrical shape at the rear end portion 10 of the pillow ball 8 and a screw member 16 accommodated in the screw member accommodating portion 15. The screw member 16 has a cross section perpendicular to the axial direction as shown in FIG. 3, and a cross-shaped column having a cross shape as shown in FIG. It is formed in a shape and is attached to the pillow ball 8 integrally. However, the twisting axis of the screw member 16 is set so as to be coaxial with the rotating shaft 11 of the pillow ball 8.

  The inclined flow path 14 extending from the terminal end of the screw-shaped flow path 13 to the injection port 17 formed at the front end of the pillow ball 8 is formed so as to incline radially outward from the rotating shaft 11 of the pillow ball 8. The That is, the injection port 17 that is formed at the front end of the pillow ball 8 and from which the cleaning liquid is sprayed is formed at a position shifted from the rotating shaft 11 of the pillow ball 8.

  In the above description, the nozzle head 6 of the headlamp cleaner 1 is based on the embodiment provided with one flow path 5 for the cleaning liquid 2 and one pillow ball 8 for one nozzle head 6 as shown in FIG. As described above, the number of the flow paths 5 and the pillow balls 8 for one nozzle head 6 does not necessarily have to be one. For example, as shown in FIG. The formed substantially vertically extending flow path 5 is branched left and right at the upper end thereof to define pillow ball accommodating portions 9 and 9 at the respective ends, and the pillow balls 8a and 9a are respectively formed in the left and right pillow ball accommodating portions 9 and 9. 8b may be provided rotatably.

  When the headlamp cleaner 101 configured with two pillow balls 8 a and 8 b is operated, the cleaning liquid 2 that has flowed substantially vertically upward in the flow path 5 of the nozzle head 6 is at the upper end of the flow path 5. The current is diverted to the left and right at the branch point and flows into the pillow balls 8a and 8b arranged at the respective ends. At this time, the cleaning liquid 2 passes through spiral screw-like flow passages 13 and 13 provided integrally with the rear end portions 10 and 10 of the pillow balls 8a and 8b. As shown in FIG. 4, when the cleaning liquid 2 flows down the screw-shaped flow paths 13 and 13, the path of the cleaning liquid 2 is bent around this axis about the axial direction of the pillow balls 8a and 8b as indicated by broken line arrows. Therefore, due to this reaction, a couple in the reverse rotation direction acts on the screw members 16 and 16 as indicated by arrows. As a result, the pillow balls 8a and 8b that are integrated with the screw members 16 and 16 and are rotatably accommodated with respect to the nozzle head 6 rotate about their rotation axes.

  Since the left and right pillow balls 8a and 8b rotate as shown in FIG. 5, the trajectories of the injection ports 17a and 17b formed at positions shifted from the rotation shafts 11a and 11b at the front ends of the pillow balls 8a and 8b are circular orbits. . From the spray ports 17a and 17b at the front ends of the rotating pillow balls 8a and 8b, the cleaning liquid 2 spreads in a conical shape toward the front on the extension line of the inclined channels 14 and 14 formed inside the front ends of the pillow balls 8a and 8b. It is injected while. Therefore, in the injection regions 18a and 18b discharged from the injection ports 17a and 17b through which the cleaning liquid 2 is injected while drawing a circular orbit, the cleaning liquid 2 that is continuously sprayed conically in three dimensions is further continuous. By forming a circular orbit, a larger cone or hollow cone is formed, and in a two-dimensional manner, as shown continuously in FIGS. Or it becomes a larger area compared with the past, which is a perforated oval shape. In other words, the entire injection region that is injected from the injection ports 17a and 17b of the left and right pillow balls 8a and 8b is from the injection region 18a that is emitted from the injection port 17a of the left pillow ball 8a and the injection port 17b of the right pillow ball 8b. It becomes what overlap | superposed with the injection | emission area | region 18b to be released.

  Here, the entire injection region is an outer circle 19a drawn by a substantially circular injection region 18a emitted from the injection port 17a of the left pillow ball 8a, and a substantially circular injection region emitted from the injection port 17b of the right pillow ball 8b. The outer circle 19b drawn by 18b overlaps with two intersections 20a and 20b, and the distance between the two intersections 20a and 20b is set to be equal to or larger than the diameter of the substantially circular illumination unit 3 provided in the lens body 4 of the headlamp. Is done. By configuring the headlamp cleaner 1 so that the entire ejection region is in such a state, the cleaning liquid 2 is spread over the entire illumination unit 3 of the headlamp, and the light distribution recovery rate can be increased. For example, it is possible to sufficiently achieve a light distribution recovery rate of 70%.

  As described above, the headlamp cleaner and the nozzle head structure of the present invention are configured to eject the cleaning liquid while rotating the rotatable pillow ball having the injection port at a position shifted from the rotation axis by the flow of the cleaning liquid. Accordingly, the cleaning liquid can be efficiently sprayed over a larger area, and can be implemented in various forms without departing from the spirit of the invention.

It is a disassembled perspective view of the headlamp cleaner which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is sectional drawing which shows the cross section of the nozzle head in the assembly state of the headlamp cleaner shown in FIG. It is sectional drawing which shows the AA cross section of the rear-end part of the pillow ball in FIG. FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of the screw member shown in FIG. 1, and is a perspective view showing a spiral flow of a cleaning liquid and a state of rotation of the screw member. It is a conceptual diagram which shows the structure of the headlamp cleaner of another embodiment. It is a conceptual diagram which shows the use condition of the headlamp cleaner of FIG. It is a conceptual diagram which shows the structure of the conventional headlamp cleaner. It is sectional drawing which shows the BB cross section in FIG. It is a conceptual diagram which shows the use condition of the headlamp cleaner of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1,101 Head lamp cleaner 2 Cleaning liquid 3 Illumination part 4 Lens body 5 Flow path 6 Nozzle head 7 Bearing 8 Pillow ball 8a Pillow ball 8b Pillow ball 9 Pillow ball accommodating part 10 Rear end part 11 Rotating shaft 11a Rotating shaft 11b Rotating shaft 12 Bearing mounting part 13 Screw-shaped channel 14 Inclined channel 15 Screw member accommodating portion 16 Screw member 17 Injection port 17a Injection port 17b Injection port 18a Injection region 18b Injection region 19a Outer circle 19b Outer circle 20a Intersection 20b Intersection

Claims (3)

A headlamp cleaner that injects cleaning liquid onto a headlamp of an automobile,
A nozzle head having a flow path for cleaning liquid, and a pillow ball that is rotatably accommodated at the end of the flow path in the nozzle head,
The pillow ball communicated with the flow path of the cleaning liquid and formed in a screw-shaped flow path spirally formed along the rotation axis, and communicated with the screw-shaped flow path and shifted from the rotation axis. A headlamp cleaner comprising: an ejection port.   2. The headlamp cleaner according to claim 1, wherein the screw-shaped flow path has a cross-shaped cross section perpendicular to the rotation axis.   The nozzle head is formed with a branch path branched from a single flow path into a plurality of flow paths, and the end of the flow path is provided at the end of each branch path, and a pillow ball housing portion is defined at each end. The headlamp cleaner according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the pillow balls are rotatably accommodated in the pillow ball accommodating portions.