JP2011070877A - Lamp for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a lamp for a vehicle which prevents a viewer from feeling glare while securing necessary visibility. <P>SOLUTION: The lamp for a vehicle 1 is configured by housing a plurality of LEDs 6 arranged in the vehicle width direction, cylindrical cup-shaped transparent lenses 11 for covering the respective LEDs 6, and a reflector 9 for reflecting light emitted from the respective LEDs 6 in a lamp chamber 4 defined by a housing 2 and an outer lens 3 for covering an opening of the housing 2. A plurality of cubic spaces S arrayed by forming a step on the reflector 9 in the vehicle width direction are formed. Each of the cubic spaces S is structured of two side surfaces 9a, 9b and upper and lower surfaces. Each of the LEDs 6 is arranged on the one side surface 9a. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicular lamp that uses a plurality of LEDs arranged in the vehicle width direction as a light source.

  In a vehicular lamp such as a tail lamp or a stop lamp, a plurality of LEDs serving as a light source, a lens covering each LED, and each LED are emitted from a lamp chamber defined by an outer lens that covers a housing and its opening. Some are configured to accommodate a reflector that reflects light.

  By the way, in a vehicular lamp designed for a vehicle body whose front end or rear end is narrowed down, the outer lens has a complicated three-dimensional curved surface. In such a case, a plurality of LEDs are connected to the inner surface of the outer lens. It is necessary to arrange the LED in a three-dimensional manner, and in practice, the reflector is formed in a step shape along the inner surface shape of the outer lens, and each LED is arranged on the step portion (flat portion). (For example, refer to Patent Document 1).

JP 2000-260206 A

  However, in the above conventional vehicle lamp, the light emitted from each LED is reflected only once by the reflector and passes through the outer lens as it is, so that the irradiation range is narrow and the viewer is dazzled. was there.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a vehicular lamp that does not give a viewer a dazzling feeling while ensuring necessary visibility.

  In order to achieve the above object, a first aspect of the present invention is directed to a plurality of LEDs arranged in a vehicle width direction in a lamp chamber defined by a housing and an outer lens covering an opening thereof, and a cylindrical cup covering each LED. In a vehicular lamp configured to contain a transparent lens having a shape and a reflector that reflects light emitted from each LED, a plurality of cubic spaces arranged in a step in the vehicle width direction are formed on the reflector. Each cube space is composed of two side surfaces and upper and lower surfaces, and each LED is arranged on one side surface.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, a side surface on which each LED of each cubic space of the reflector is disposed is a paraboloid, and each LED is located at a position other than the focal point of the paraboloid. It is characterized by arranging.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect of the present invention, two side surfaces and upper and lower surfaces of each cubic space constitute a reflecting surface, and light passing through the periphery of the transparent lens It is characterized in that it is reflected by a reflecting surface and irradiated.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the third aspect of the present invention, the light passing through the periphery of the transparent lens utilizes a light flux in a range of 40 to 50% of a light flux emitted from each LED. And

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, the reflector is formed with a plurality of cubic spaces arranged with steps in the vehicle width direction, and each cubic space is constituted by two side surfaces and upper and lower surfaces, and on one side surface. Since each LED is arranged, the light emitted from each LED is subjected to multiple reflections between the side surface and the upper and lower surfaces forming each cubic space, so that the central region with high brightness formed by the light irradiated without multiple reflection A light distribution region having a relatively low luminance and formed by multiple reflection is formed around the periphery of the light source. Accordingly, the irradiation area is widened, the necessary visibility is ensured by the narrow central area having high brightness, and the dazzling feeling given to the viewer by the light distribution area having relatively low brightness spreading around the area is suppressed.

  According to invention of Claim 2 and 3, since each LED was arrange | positioned in positions other than the focus of this paraboloid, the side surface where each LED of each cube space of a reflector was made into a paraboloid, and each LED was arrange | positioned, each LED is It functions as a multiple reflection point light source for multiple reflections, and multiple reflection of light emitted from each LED is promoted.

    According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to efficiently form a light distribution pattern with light having high luminance, and it is possible to simultaneously irradiate light with relatively low luminance spreading to the surroundings. It becomes possible to improve visibility.

1 is a front view of a vehicular lamp according to the present invention. It is the sectional view on the AA line of FIG. It is the BB sectional view taken on the line of FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a vehicular lamp according to the present invention. FIG. 5 is an enlarged detail view of a C part in FIG. 4. It is a figure which shows the light distribution pattern of the vehicle lamp which concerns on this invention.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  1 is a front view of a vehicular lamp according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along line AA of FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along line BB of FIG. 5 is an enlarged detail view of a portion C in FIG. 4, and FIG. 6 is a view showing a light distribution pattern of the vehicular lamp. In each figure, the front direction (X direction) indicates the rear of the vehicle (light irradiation direction of the vehicle lamp) in a state in which the vehicle lamp is attached to the rear of the vehicle, and the left direction (Y direction) indicates the vehicle. When viewed from the front, the left direction is indicated, and the upward direction (Z direction) indicates the upper side of the vehicle.

  A vehicular lamp 1 according to the present invention is a rear combination lamp, and as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, a light source is provided in a lamp chamber 4 defined by a housing 2 and an outer lens 3 covering an opening thereof. In order to reflect light emitted from the bulb 5, a plurality of (14 pieces) bullet-type LEDs 6 arranged in a vehicle width direction across a certain bulb 5 and two upper and lower stages, a bracket 7 holding these LEDs 6, and the bulb 5. The reflector 8, the reflector 9 for reflecting the light emitted from the plurality of LEDs 6, and the inner lens 10 covering the emission side of the reflector 9 are accommodated. The vehicular lamps 1 are arranged on the left and right sides of the rear part of the vehicle, respectively, but these vehicular lamps 1 are symmetric and have the same basic configuration. Only lamp 1 will be described.

  The vehicular lamp 1 according to the present embodiment is assembled at the rear left end of the vehicle body with the rear end narrowed down. The plurality of LEDs 6, the bracket 7, the reflector 9, and the inner lens 10 constitute a tail & stop lamp.

    As shown in FIG. 2, a cylindrical cup-shaped transparent lens 11 that covers each LED 6 is integrally formed on the bracket 7, and a hole 11 a is formed on the optical axis of the LED 6 at the top of the transparent lens 11. Is formed. The hole 11a is an elliptical opening, and the major axis direction of the ellipse is set to the horizontal direction and the minor axis direction is set to the vertical direction so as to be horizontally long in the horizontal direction. As a result, the light emitted from each LED 6 and passing through the hole 11 a of the transparent lens 11 irradiates the rear of the vehicle through the outer lens 3. Accordingly, it is possible to form a main light distribution pattern that is wide in the horizontal direction by using light having the highest luminance among the light emitted from each LED 6.

  Further, a light distribution pattern forming cut 12 is formed around the hole 11a on the top surface of each transparent lens 11, and the outer peripheral surface 11b of each transparent lens 11 is a rough surface diffusing surface or smooth surface without cutting. It is said that. Here, the cut 12 formed on the top surface of each transparent lens 11 cooperates with the light passing through the holes 11a to form a light distribution pattern. And among the light radiate | emitted from LED6, the light around the hole 11a has an intensity | strength following the light intensity of the hole 11a. Therefore, the cut 12 is a refraction cut, and light having a relatively high light intensity is irradiated over a wide range that overlaps the irradiation range by the light that passes through the hole 11a and irradiates the back, thereby providing a light distribution pattern. Can be irradiated with light with reduced brightness and unevenness.

  In addition, light having a light intensity that is lower than light incident on the cut 12 out of the light from each LED 6 is incident on the outer peripheral surface 11 b of each transparent lens 11. And some of these lights irradiate the vicinity of the said vehicle lamp 1 widely toward the reflector 9 through the diffusion surface or smooth surface of the outer peripheral surface 11b of the transparent lens 11. FIG.

  The housing 2 is integrally formed of resin, and its opening is covered with the outer lens 3 having a three-dimensional curved surface. Here, the outer lens 3 is formed of a transparent translucent resin and constitutes a part of the vehicle body. In FIG. 3, reference numeral 13 denotes a reflex reflector (retroreflector) formed of a red translucent resin.

  As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the reflector 9 is formed with a plurality of cubic spaces S arranged in steps of two in the vertical direction. Here, as shown in detail in FIG. 5, each cubic space S formed in the reflector 9 is composed of two side surfaces 9a, 9b and upper and lower surfaces 9c, 9d, and the side surface 9a facing the front is free. Each LED 6 is arranged at a position other than the focal point of the paraboloid. For example, an aluminum reflective film is deposited on each surface (reflective surface) of the reflectors 8 and 9 to improve the reflection efficiency.

  FIG. 6 schematically shows an intensity distribution when the light emitted from each LED 6 is viewed in the optical axis direction, that is, from the top of the bullet-type LED 6. As shown in FIG. The brightness is high, and the surrounding field R2 has a relatively low brightness. The region R1 indicates a range from the optical axis to an angle of 29 °, and the region R2 indicates a range from the optical axis to the angle of 64 ° outside the region R1. Note that the area outside the area R2 has a lower luminance and is not shown in FIG.

  Thus, light emitted from each LED 6 in the direction of the optical axis with high luminance passes through the elliptical hole 11 a of the transparent lens 11 and the cut 12 formed in the transparent lens 11 to distribute the light. Be controlled. Specifically, the light in the region R1 shown in FIG. 6 is irradiated to the rear of the vehicle through the hole 11a and the cut 12 of the transparent lens 11. The light in the region R1 bears 56% of the light flux emitted from the LED 6. Accordingly, the light distribution pattern formed by the vehicular lamp 1 composed of a plurality of LEDs 6 is formed in a main shape for satisfying predetermined legal requirements by using about 60% of the total luminous flux of the LEDs 6.

  Other part of the light emitted from each LED passes through the outer peripheral surface 11b of each transparent lens 11 and is reflected on any one of the side surfaces 9a, 9b and the upper and lower surfaces 9c-9d of the cubic space S or multiple reflections on a plurality of surfaces. After that, the light passes through the outer lens 3 and is irradiated toward the rear of the vehicle. In this case, the light passing through the outer peripheral surface 11b of the transparent lens 11 uses light corresponding to the region R2 shown in FIG. 6 and bears 41% of the light emitted from the LED. As a result, it is possible to form a diffused light distribution pattern that is wider than a light distribution pattern using the region R1 by using light having relatively low luminance compared to the region R1. At this time, since light having relatively low luminance is diffused, it is possible to suppress glare and improve visibility from a wide range.

  Therefore, while the irradiation area of the vehicular lamp 1 is widened, the necessary visibility is ensured by the light of the narrow central area R1 having high luminance, and the viewer is viewed by the light of the relatively low luminance area R2 spreading around the area. The dazzling feeling given is kept low.

  In the present embodiment, the installation position of the bullet-type LED 6 is set on the reflecting surface of the side surface 9a that is the paraboloid of the reflector 9 or slightly forward. Therefore, light emitted from the bullet-type LED 6 and having lower brightness outside the region R2 shown in FIG. 6 can be captured by the side surface 9a or the side surface 9b and the upper and lower surfaces 9c and 9d of the reflector 9. As a result, light outside the region R2 (corresponding to a luminous flux utilization rate of 3% or less) is also utilized, and the luminous flux utilization efficiency can be further increased.

  Further, the side surfaces 9a, 9b and the upper and lower surfaces 9c, 9d of the cubic space S are observed from various directions as light emitting points of the LEDs 6 due to multiple reflection even when the angle at which the vehicular lamp 1 is viewed changes. For this reason, the effect of giving the impression that the number of LEDs 6 are used more than the actual number (14 in this embodiment) to the viewer is obtained.

  Further, of the light emitted from each LED 6, 60% of the total luminous flux is utilized as the reflecting surface composed of the side surfaces 9 a and 9 b and the upper and lower surfaces 9 c and 9 d of the cubic space S by utilizing the light at the center including the optical axis. The main light distribution pattern of the vehicular lamp 1 is formed without actively using the light, and 40% of the total luminous flux is used for the side surfaces 9a and 9b and the upper and lower surfaces 9c of the cubic space S by using the light around the center. , 9d is actively used for irradiation. By setting the ratio of [the ratio of the luminous flux not actively using the reflecting surface in the cubic space S] / [the luminous flux actively used] to approximately 60%: 40%, it is possible to efficiently use the light with high luminance. It is excellent in the distribution that forms a light distribution pattern and simultaneously irradiates light with relatively low brightness spreading around, and it is possible to improve both brightness and visibility. According to the study by the present inventors, when the ratio is set to 70%: 30%, an impression that the visibility from the surroundings is inferior becomes strong, and when the ratio is set to 40%: 60%, the visibility is increased in the surroundings. The necessary main light distribution pattern is dark, which is not preferable. Accordingly, it is considered that the ratio is set to approximately 50%: 50% to 60%: 40% as a suitable range for the tail and stop lamp.

  In the above description, the embodiment in which the present invention is applied to the rear combination lamp has been described. However, the present invention is similarly applied to any other vehicle lamp such as a headlamp, a fog lamp, a backup lamp, and a vehicle width lamp. Of course, it is applicable to.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Vehicle lamp 2 Housing 3 Outer lens 4 Light chamber 5 Bulb 6 LED
7 Bracket 8, 9 Reflector 9a, 9b Reflector side surface 9c Reflector upper surface 9d Reflector lower surface 10 Inner lens 11 Transparent lens 11a Transparent lens hole 11b Transparent lens outer peripheral surface 12 Cut 13 Reflex reflector R1, R2 Light distribution area S Cubic space

Claims (4)

A plurality of LEDs arranged in the vehicle width direction, a cylindrical cup-shaped transparent lens covering each LED, and light emitted from each LED are reflected in a lamp chamber defined by an outer lens covering the housing and its opening. In a vehicle lamp configured to accommodate a reflector to be
A plurality of cubic spaces arranged with steps in the vehicle width direction are formed on the reflector, each cubic space is composed of two side surfaces and upper and lower surfaces, and each LED is arranged on one side surface. A vehicular lamp.   2. The vehicular lamp according to claim 1, wherein a side surface of each reflector in which each LED is disposed is a parabolic surface, and each LED is disposed at a position other than the focal point of the parabolic surface. .   The two side surfaces and upper and lower surfaces of each cubic space constitute a reflecting surface, and light passing through the periphery of the transparent lens is reflected and irradiated by the reflecting surface of the cubic space. The vehicle lamp according to 2. 4. The vehicular lamp according to claim 3, wherein the light passing through the transparent lens uses a light flux in a range of 40 to 50% of a light flux emitted from each LED.

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