JP2012171442A - Washing device of lighting fixture for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide the washing device of lighting fixture for a vehicle capable of preventing positional deviation between a nozzle holder and an ejection nozzle while freely adjusting the ejection direction of washing liquid and capable of improving positional accuracy between the nozzle holder and a valve case.SOLUTION: The washing device of lighting fixture for vehicle includes: a cylinder to which the washing liquid is supplied; a piston inserted slidably into the cylinder; a valve case 7 attached to the tip of the piston; a nozzle holder 11 supported by the valve case 7; and an ejection nozzle 4 supported by the nozzle holder 11, and in the washing device, the nozzle holder 11 is press-fit to the valve case 7 turnably in the three-dimensional direction by a spherical fitting part 11a and the washing liquid is ejected from the ejection nozzle 4 toward a lighting fixture for vehicle. In the washing device, an abutting rib 7d which abuts on the nozzle holder 11 so as to position the nozzle holder 11 is formed on a part of the valve case 7.

Description

  The present invention relates to a cleaning apparatus for spraying a cleaning liquid onto a vehicle lamp such as a headlamp to clean the surface thereof.

  For example, if the front surface of a vehicle, such as a headlamp, becomes dirty due to adhesion of dust, mud, etc., the amount of light may be insufficient. Therefore, if necessary, the cleaning liquid is sprayed toward the headlamp to clean the surface of the headlamp. The cleaning device is installed behind the front bumper. The cleaning device includes a cylinder to which cleaning liquid is supplied, a piston slidably fitted in the cylinder, a valve case attached to the tip of the piston, and a nozzle holder supported by the valve case. The injection nozzle is supported by the nozzle holder, and the cleaning liquid is injected from the injection nozzle toward the vehicular lamp.

  In such a cleaning apparatus, the nozzle is stored behind the front bumper when not cleaning, and when the headlamp is cleaned, the injection nozzle is moved forward from the opening formed in the front bumper by the pressure of the cleaning liquid. When the pressure of the cleaning liquid rises above the predetermined value, the check valve opens and the cleaning liquid is supplied to the injection nozzle, and the cleaning liquid is injected from the injection port that opens to the injection nozzle toward the headlamp, and is applied to the front surface of the headlamp. Adhered dust and mud are removed. When the cleaning of the headlamp is completed, the spray nozzle is returned to the retracted position on the back side of the front bumper by a biasing means such as a spring.

  By the way, in the type of cleaning device in which the injection nozzle is fixed to the nozzle holder, it is not possible to adjust the injection direction of the cleaning liquid from the injection nozzle. For example, it is necessary to prepare a plurality of cleaning devices having different injection angles for each vehicle type. There is a problem that there is.

  Therefore, Patent Document 1 proposes a cleaning device that can adjust the spray direction of the cleaning liquid sprayed from the spray nozzle.

  However, it is necessary to install a cleaning device at a position where the cleaning liquid reaches in order to spray the cleaning liquid to an area to be cleaned of a lens such as a headlamp. In the cleaning device proposed in Patent Document 1, the injection nozzles are orthogonal to each other. Therefore, the area where the cleaning liquid can be sprayed is small, the mounting position on the vehicle body is limited, and depending on the vehicle model, the distance from other vehicle body components There is a problem that it becomes difficult to ensure sufficient.

  In order to solve the above problem, Patent Document 2 discloses a spherical fitting portion 111a of a nozzle holder 111 to which an injection nozzle 104 is attached as shown in an exploded perspective view of FIG. A cleaning device has been proposed in which the nozzle holder 111 and the injection nozzle 104 attached thereto can be rotated in a three-dimensional direction with respect to the valve case 107 by press-fitting into the valve case 107.

JP 2005-162146 A JP 2010-264891 A

  However, in the cleaning apparatus shown in FIG. 12 proposed in Patent Document 2, since the rotation of the nozzle holder 111 cannot be regulated, the nozzle holder 111 and the nozzle holder 111 are attached to the cleaning apparatus before the cleaning apparatus is attached to the back side of the front bumper. In addition to the possibility that the injection nozzle 104 is displaced from a predetermined set position, there is a problem that the positional accuracy between the nozzle holder 111 and the valve case 107 is not stable.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and the purpose of the present invention is to prevent the positional deviation between the nozzle holder and the spray nozzle while allowing the spray direction of the cleaning liquid to be freely adjusted, and the nozzle holder and the valve case. An object of the present invention is to provide a vehicular lamp cleaning apparatus that can improve the positional accuracy of the lamp.

  In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 includes a cylinder to which cleaning liquid is supplied, a piston slidably fitted in the cylinder, a valve case attached to the tip of the piston, A nozzle holder supported by the valve case; and an injection nozzle supported by the nozzle holder, and the nozzle holder is press-fitted and fitted to the valve case in a three-dimensional direction by a spherical fitting portion. In the vehicular lamp cleaning apparatus that sprays the cleaning liquid from the jet nozzle toward the vehicular lamp, a contact rib for positioning the nozzle holder in contact with the nozzle holder is formed on a part of the valve case. It is characterized by that.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the abutment rib is formed at a part of a peripheral edge of a circular opening portion in which the concave spherical bearing of the valve case opens.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, the rotation of the nozzle holder and the injection nozzle attached thereto is partially restricted by the nozzle holder abutting against a contact rib formed on a part of the valve case. Therefore, the positional deviation between the nozzle holder and the injection nozzle is prevented. Further, when the nozzle holder is assembled to the valve case, the positional accuracy of both is improved by pushing the nozzle holder into contact with the contact rib of the valve case.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the abutment rib is formed on a part of the peripheral edge of the circular opening where the concave spherical bearing of the valve case opens, the nozzle holder is allowed to rotate in the three-dimensional direction, and the nozzle The injection direction of the cleaning liquid from the injection nozzle attached to the holder can be freely adjusted.

It is a side view of the washing | cleaning apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is a top view of the washing | cleaning apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is a top view of the cleaning device tip part concerning the present invention. It is a figure of the arrow A direction of FIG. It is the BB sectional view taken on the line of FIG. It is a figure of the arrow C direction of FIG. It is a top view of the cleaning device tip part concerning the present invention. (A), (b) is a plane sectional view of the front-end | tip part of the washing | cleaning apparatus based on this invention. It is the DD sectional view taken on the line of Fig.8 (a). It is the EE sectional view taken on the line of Fig.8 (a). It is the FF sectional view taken on the line of Fig.8 (a). It is a disassembled perspective view of the conventional cleaning device front-end | tip part.

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

  FIG. 1 is a side view of a cleaning device according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a plan view of the cleaning device. The illustrated cleaning device 1 sprays cleaning liquid toward the front surface of a headlamp (not shown) to cover the front surface. An apparatus for cleaning, which is disposed on the back side of a front bumper (not shown). Although the cleaning device 1 is installed for each of the left and right headlamps, the configuration and operation thereof are the same for the left and right, and therefore only one cleaning device 1 will be described below.

  In the cleaning device 1 according to the present embodiment, a piston (not shown) is slidably fitted into a cylindrical cylinder 2 and a pair of left and right injection nozzles 4 are connected to the tip of the piston via a check valve mechanism 3. It is configured with an attached.

  The cylinder 2 is supplied with cleaning liquid from a washer tank (not shown), and a plug 5 is provided at the rear end thereof. The inside of the cylinder 2 is connected to a pipe (not shown) connected to the plug 5. To the washer tank. A bracket 6 is attached to the outer periphery of the front end of the cylinder 2, and the cleaning device 1 is attached to the back side of a front bumper (not shown) via the bracket 6. Although not shown, a return spring is interposed between the cylinder 2 and a piston that is slidably inserted in the cylinder 2 as a biasing means that biases the piston in a direction in which the piston is pulled into the cylinder 2. ing.

  Next, the details of the structure of the check valve mechanism 3 and the holding structure of the injection nozzle 4 will be described with reference to FIGS.

  3 is a plan view of the tip of the cleaning device according to the present invention, FIG. 4 is a view in the direction of arrow A in FIG. 3, FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along line BB in FIG. FIG. 7 is a plan view of the tip of the cleaning device, FIGS. 8A and 8B are plan sectional views of the tip of the cleaning device, and FIG. 9 is a sectional view taken along the line DD in FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view taken along line EE of FIG. 8A, and FIG. 11 is a cross-sectional view taken along line FF of FIG. 8A.

  As shown in FIG. 8, the check valve mechanism 3 includes a valve 8 inside a valve case 7, a valve guide 9 that slidably holds the valve 8, and a valve spring 10 that urges the valve 8 in the closing direction. The entire cross-sectional shape is an elliptical shape that is flat in the horizontal direction.

  A cylindrical valve seat 7a is formed at the center of the partition wall 7A of the valve case 7. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 5, cylindrical portions 7b are formed on the left and right of the tip of the valve case 7. The nozzle holder 11 is press-fitted and fitted into these cylindrical portions 7b. Here, a spherical fitting portion 11a is formed at the base end portion of each nozzle holder 11, and the inner diameter portion of the cylindrical portion 7b of the valve case 7 to which the spherical fitting portion 11a is fitted is a concave spherical bearing 7c. When the spherical fitting portion 11a of the nozzle holder 11 is press-fitted into the concave spherical bearing 7c, the nozzle holder 11 rotates in the three-dimensional direction (all directions) with respect to the valve case 7. It is held movable.

  Thus, in this embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 5, the flange 11 b is integrally formed at the base of the spherical fitting portion 11 a of each of the left and right nozzle holders 11, and the left and right sides of the valve case 7 are formed. In each cylindrical portion 7b, a contact rib 7d is integrally formed on a part of the periphery (in this embodiment, a half-circumferential portion) of the circular opening where the concave spherical bearing 7c opens, and this contact rib 7d. Each nozzle holder 11 is positioned with respect to the valve case 7 by contacting the flange 11 b of each nozzle holder 11.

  In addition, a cylindrical portion (not shown) is vertically formed at the outer end portion of each nozzle holder 11, and the injection nozzle 4 is press-fitted from above into the cylindrical portion. The nozzle holder 11 is held so as to be horizontally rotatable around an axis (vertical axis) in the press-fitting direction to the nozzle holder 11.

  The valve 8 is composed of a disc-shaped valve body 8a and a valve shaft 8b integrally extending in the direction perpendicular to the axis from the center of the valve body 8a. As shown in FIG. 8, the valve seat of the valve body 8a A ring-shaped seal member 12 is assembled to the portion seated on 7a. As shown in FIG. 11, the valve shaft 8 b is formed in a triangular prism shape, and the ridge line 8 c is in sliding contact with the inner peripheral surface of the cylindrical portion 9 </ b> A of the valve guide 9. The bottom surface of the valve shaft 8b is supported by two guide ribs 9c formed in parallel to the bottom of the valve guide 9 in the cylindrical portion 9A along the longitudinal direction (perpendicular to the plane of FIG. 11).

  The valve guide 9 is composed of a small-diameter cylindrical portion 9A and an elliptical plate-like flange portion 9B integrally formed at the tip thereof, and as shown in FIG. Rectangular fitting grooves 9a are formed at four locations. As shown in FIG. 11, a crescent-shaped opening 9b communicating with the nozzle 4 is formed on the left and right sides of the cylindrical portion 9A of the flange portion 9B of the valve guide 9 as a boundary.

  As shown in FIG. 8, the triangular prismatic valve shaft 8 b of the valve 8 is slidably fitted in the cylindrical portion 9 </ b> A of the valve guide 9. The central portion of the valve 8 is supported so as to be movable in the front-rear direction (left-right direction in FIG. 8), and the valve 8 is urged by the valve spring 10 in the closing direction (direction in which the valve seat 7a is seated). Here, the valve spring 10 is inserted into the outer periphery of the cylindrical portion 9 </ b> A of the valve guide 9 and is compressed between the valve body 8 a of the valve 8 and the flange portion 9 </ b> B of the guide 9. The spring constant of the valve spring 10 is set larger than the spring constant of the return spring (not shown).

  Thus, in the valve case 7, the position of the valve guide 9 is fixed by being pressed against the wall in the valve case 7 by the reaction force of the valve spring 10 as shown in FIG. As described above, the fitting protrusions 7e are provided on the fitting groove 9a formed on the top, bottom, left, and right of the end surface of the flange portion 9B so as to protrude from four locations on the wall in the valve case 7 (location corresponding to the fitting groove 21). The positioning within the valve case 7 is performed by fitting.

  In the cleaning apparatus 1 configured as described above, when the headlamp is not cleaned, a piston (not shown) is drawn into the cylinder 2 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 by the urging force of the return spring. At this time, the valve 8 of the check valve mechanism 3 is pressed against the valve seat 7a by the valve spring 10 as shown in FIG. The injection nozzle 4 is stored on the back side of a front bumper (not shown).

  Thus, when the headlamp is cleaned by the cleaning device 1, a high-pressure cleaning liquid is supplied from a washer tank (not shown) to a cylinder 2 of the cleaning device 1 via a pipe (not shown). Then, the piston slides forward in the cylinder 2 by the pressure of the cleaning liquid, and pushes the injection nozzle 4 provided at the tip of the piston forward from the opening (not shown) formed in the front bumper. In this case, since the spring constant of the valve spring 10 is set larger than the spring constant of the return spring as described above, the valve 8 of the check valve mechanism 3 remains closed as shown in FIG. The cleaning liquid is not supplied to the injection nozzle 4.

  As described above, after the piston moves forward due to the pressure of the cleaning liquid, the pressure of the cleaning liquid rises above a predetermined value, and the force based on the pressure of the cleaning liquid acting on the valve 8 of the check valve mechanism 3 is greater than the biasing force of the valve spring 10. As shown in FIG. 8B, the valve 8 moves forward along the valve guide 9 and moves away from the valve seat 7a as shown in FIG. 8B. ) Flows forward in the valve case 7 as shown by the arrows, passes through the left and right openings 9b formed in the flange portion 9B of the valve guide 9 and branches to the left and right. It is supplied to each injection nozzle 4. The cleaning liquid supplied to the left and right ejection nozzles 4 is ejected from the ejection ports (not shown) toward the left and right headlamps, and the dust, mud, and the like attached to the front surfaces of the headlamps are washed away.

  Here, in the cleaning apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment, as described above, the left and right nozzle holders 11 are connected to the spherical fitting portions 11a in the left and right concave spherical bearings 7c of the valve case 7 in a three-dimensional direction. Since it is press-fitted and fitted so as to be rotatable, the area in which the cleaning liquid can be sprayed is expanded by freely adjusting the spraying direction of the cleaning liquid from the spray nozzle 4 attached to the nozzle holder 11 in the actual three-dimensional direction (all directions). , The degree of freedom in the mounting position on the vehicle body is increased, and it becomes possible to deal with multiple models. Specifically, the left and right nozzle holders 11 and the injection nozzles 4 attached thereto are rotatable about the horizontal axis x shown in FIG. 3 as shown in FIG. 4 and also shown in FIG. The shaft y is supported so as to be rotatable as shown in FIG.

  When the cleaning of the headlamp is completed as described above, a piston (not shown) is drawn into the cylinder 2 by the return spring, so that the injection nozzle 4 is returned to the storage position on the back side of the front bumper, and the valve of the check valve mechanism 3 8 is closed again as shown in FIG.

  Thus, in the present embodiment, the left and right cylindrical portions 7b of the valve case 7 are applied to a part of the periphery of the circular opening where the concave spherical bearing 7c opens (in this embodiment, the half-circumferential portion). Since the ribs 7d are formed integrally, and the flanges 11b of the nozzle holders 11 are in contact with the contact ribs 7d, the rotation of the nozzle holder 11 and the injection nozzle 4 attached thereto is partially restricted. Misalignment between the nozzle holder 11 and the injection nozzle 4 is prevented, and before the cleaning device 1 is assembled to the chlorofluorocarbon and the bumper, the nozzle holder 11 and the injection nozzle 4 are displaced from a predetermined set position due to an impact or the like. There is nothing to do. Further, when the nozzle holder 11 is assembled to the valve case 7, the positional accuracy of both is improved by pushing the nozzle holder 11 until it abuts against the abutting rib 7 d of the valve case 7.

  Furthermore, in this embodiment, the abutment rib 7d is formed only on a part (half circumference) of the peripheral edge of the circular opening where the concave spherical bearing 7c of the valve case 7 opens, so that the rotation of the nozzle holder 11 in the three-dimensional direction is performed. The movement is allowed, and the spraying direction of the cleaning liquid from the spray nozzle 4 attached to the nozzle holder 11 can be freely adjusted.

  In the above, the embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a cleaning device used for cleaning a headlamp has been described. However, the present invention is applied to a cleaning device used for cleaning any other vehicular lamp. Of course, the present invention can be similarly applied.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Cleaning device 2 Cylinder 3 Check valve mechanism 4 Injection nozzle 5 Plug 6 Bracket 7 Valve case 7A Valve case partition wall 7a Valve case valve seat 7b Valve case cylindrical part 7c Valve case concave spherical bearing 7d Valve case contact Rib 7e Valve case fitting projection 8 Valve 8a Valve valve body 8b Valve valve shaft 8c Valve shaft ridge 9 Valve guide 9A Valve guide cylindrical portion 9B Valve guide flange portion 9a Valve guide fitting groove 9b Valve guide 9c Valve guide guide rib 10 Valve spring 11 Nozzle holder 11a Nozzle holder spherical fitting portion 11b Nozzle holder collar 12 Seal member x Horizontal axis y Vertical axis

Claims (2)

A cylinder to which cleaning liquid is supplied, a piston slidably inserted in the cylinder, a valve case attached to the tip of the piston, a nozzle holder supported by the valve case, and a nozzle holder A vehicle comprising a supported injection nozzle, wherein the nozzle holder is press-fitted and fitted into the valve case in a three-dimensional direction by a spherical fitting portion, and the cleaning liquid is injected from the injection nozzle toward a vehicle lamp. In the lamp cleaning equipment,
A vehicular lamp cleaning device, wherein a part of the bulb case is formed with a contact rib for positioning the nozzle holder in contact with the nozzle holder. 2. The vehicular lamp cleaning device according to claim 1, wherein the abutment rib is formed on a part of a peripheral edge of a circular opening portion in which the concave spherical bearing of the bulb case opens.

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