JP2014135141A - Lamp fitting for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a lamp fitting for a vehicle in which a periphery of an opening of a housing and an outer cover are laser welded while being firmly attached to each other to improve waterproofness.SOLUTION: A lamp fitting 1 for a vehicle (a rear combination lamp) includes: a housing 2 including a box shape part 2A which stores a light source unit (a tail/stop lamp 5 and a turn signal lamp 6) and a plate part 2B which extends from the box shape part 2A in a vehicle longitudinal direction along a side surface of a vehicle; and an outer cover 3 which is laser welded to a periphery of an opening of the housing 2. A corrugated sheet like irregularity part 2a which is arranged along the vehicle longitudinal direction is formed at the plate part 2B of the housing 2. Further, a plate thickness of the plate part 2B is 2 mm or thinner.

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicular lamp that is formed by laser welding an outer cover around the periphery of an opening of a housing.

  For example, the rear combination lamps arranged on the left and right of the rear part of the vehicle are configured such that a light source unit such as a tail / stop lamp or a turn signal lamp is housed in a lamp room defined by a housing and an outer cover covering the opening. However, in such a rear combination lamp, there is a lamp having a plate-like portion that extends from the box-like portion that houses the light source unit along the vehicle side surface and extends long in the vehicle front-rear direction due to the design (for example, Patent Document 1).

  By the way, in order to improve the waterproofness of the vehicular lamp, laser welding is performed on the periphery of the opening of the housing and the outer cover over the entire circumference (see, for example, Patent Document 2).

JP 2008-235162 A JP 2012-009257 A

  When the outer cover is laser welded to the periphery of the opening of the housing in a vehicular lamp provided with a plate-like portion extending around the side of the vehicle and extending in the vehicle longitudinal direction like the above-mentioned rear combination lamp, In the state where the housing is supported by the jig, the outer cover is covered from above and pressed by the jig, so that laser welding is performed with the outer cover in close contact with the periphery of the opening of the housing. When the thickness of the plate-like portion is as thin as 2 mm or less, the three-dimensional housing is distorted due to deformation of the plate-like portion when the housing is taken out from the molding die or drooping of the plate-like portion due to its own weight. . For this reason, it is difficult to perform laser welding in a state where the outer cover is in close contact with the entire periphery of the opening of the housing, and a slight gap may be generated between the two. Since the gap portion is not laser welded, water enters the lamp chamber from that portion.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a vehicular lamp that can enhance waterproofness by laser welding in a state where the peripheral edge of the opening of the housing and the outer cover are in close contact with each other. There is to do.

To achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 is a housing including a box-shaped portion that houses a light source unit, and a plate-shaped portion that extends from the box-shaped portion along the vehicle side surface in the vehicle front-rear direction.
An outer cover that is laser welded to the periphery of the opening of the housing;
In a vehicle lamp comprising:
A corrugated plate-like uneven portion along the vehicle longitudinal direction is formed on the plate-like portion of the housing.

  The invention according to claim 2 is characterized in that, in the invention according to claim 1, the plate thickness of the plate-like portion is within 2 mm.

  According to the present invention, even if the plate-like portion that extends along the vehicle side surface of the housing and extends long in the vehicle front-rear direction is as thin as 2 mm or less, the corrugated plate-like irregularities along the vehicle front-rear direction are provided on the plate-like portion. Since the plate portion is formed, the rigidity of the plate portion is increased by the concave and convex portions, which makes it difficult for the portion to be deformed, deformation of the plate portion when the housing is removed from the molding die, drooping of the plate portion due to its own weight, etc. This prevents distortion of the three-dimensional housing. As a result, the outer cover can be laser-welded in a state where the outer cover is uniformly adhered to the entire periphery of the opening of the housing, and the housing and the outer cover are bonded together without any gap. Intrusion is reliably prevented and high waterproofness is ensured for the vehicular lamp.

1 is a front view of a vehicular lamp according to the present invention. 1 is a plan view of a vehicular lamp according to the present invention. It is the sectional view on the AA line of FIG. It is a back side perspective view of the vehicular lamp concerning the present 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 plan view of the vehicular lamp, FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG. 2, and FIG. 4 is a rear perspective view of the vehicular lamp. The vehicular lamp 1 according to the present embodiment is a rear combination lamp disposed on the left and right of the rear portion of the vehicle. Since the basic configuration of the left and right rear combination lamps 1 is the same, only one will be illustrated and described below.

  A rear combination lamp 1 according to the present embodiment includes a tail / stop lamp as a light source unit, as shown in FIG. 1, in a lamp chamber 4 defined by a housing 2 and a transparent outer cover 3 covering its opening. 5 and the turn signal lamp 6, and a reflector, an extension, etc. (not shown) are accommodated.

  The housing 2 is integrally formed of a thermoplastic resin that absorbs laser light. As shown in FIG. 2, the housing 2 houses a tail / stop lamp 5 that is a light source unit and a turn signal lamp 4. The portion 2A and a plate-like portion 2B that extends from the box-like portion 2A along the side surface of the vehicle and extends to the front of the vehicle (upward in FIG. 2) are formed into a three-dimensional curved surface shape. Here, as shown in FIG. 4, a circular insertion hole 7 for inserting a valve (not shown) is formed on the back surface of the box-shaped portion 2 </ b> B of the housing 2. Nuts 8 and 9 are rotatably provided.

  On the other hand, the outer cover 3 is integrally formed in a three-dimensional curved surface shape that follows the shape of the opening of the housing 2 by a transparent thermoplastic resin that is transparent to laser light. Then, the peripheral edge portion of the outer cover 2 is aligned with the peripheral edge of the opening of the housing 2, and the laser light is irradiated to the alignment portion to melt the surface of the peripheral edge of the opening of the housing 2. The lamp chamber 4 is defined in which the outer cover 3 is welded over the circumference and the outer cover 3 is laser welded to the periphery of the opening of the housing 2 and sealed between the two.

  By the way, in actual laser welding, the housing 2 is supported by a jig (not shown), the outer cover 3 is put on the housing 2 and the outer cover 3 is pressed by a jig (not shown), thereby opening the housing 2. Laser welding is performed in a state where the outer periphery of the outer cover 3 is in close contact with the periphery of the portion. In particular, when the thickness of the elongated plate-like portion 2B of the housing 2 is as thin as 2 mm or less as in the present embodiment, the housing 2 The three-dimensional housing is distorted due to deformation of the plate-like portion 2B when it is taken out from the molding die, or drooping of the plate-like portion 2B due to its own weight. For this reason, it is difficult to perform laser welding in a state where the outer cover 3 is uniformly adhered to the entire periphery of the opening of the housing 2, and a slight gap may be generated between the two. In such a case, the gap portion between the housing 2 and the outer cover 3 is not laser welded, and as described above, the problem that water enters the lamp chamber 4 from that portion occurs. In particular, when laser light is repeatedly irradiated by passing through the outer cover to the periphery of the opening of a housing where welding is performed from a laser head portion such as a galvano scan head including a galvanometer mirror or the like (not shown) described in Patent Document 2. The laser beam is repeatedly scanned while being held in contact with each other over its entire circumference, and the entire welding range is gradually heated so that the whole is melted and joined almost simultaneously. In some cases, a slight gap between the two becomes a problem.

  Therefore, in this embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, a corrugated plate-like uneven portion 2 a is formed in the plate-like portion 2 </ b> B of the housing 2 along the vehicle front-rear direction. In this way, by forming the concave and convex portion 2a on the elongated plate-like portion 2B of the housing 2, the plate-like portion 2B that extends around the vehicle side surface of the housing 2 and extends forward in the vehicle is as thin as 2 mm or less. However, the rigidity of the plate-like portion 2B is enhanced by the corrugated plate-like uneven portion 2a, so that this portion is difficult to be deformed, and the plate-like portion 2B is deformed or removed by its own weight when the housing 2 is taken out from the molding die. Distortion of the three-dimensional housing 2 due to, for example, sagging of the shape portion 2B is suppressed. As a result, the outer cover 3 can be laser-welded to the periphery of the opening of the housing 2 over the entire circumference, and the housing 2 and the outer cover 3 are bonded together without any gaps. The sealing performance of the welded portion is enhanced, water is reliably prevented from entering the lamp chamber 4, and the rear combination lamp 1 is secured with high waterproofness.

  If the thickness of the plate-like portion 2B of the housing 2 exceeds 2 mm, since the rigidity of the plate-like portion 2B is sufficiently high, problems such as sag due to its own weight during laser welding are unlikely to occur. The invention is suitable for a vehicular lamp including a housing having a plate-like portion with a plate thickness of 2 mm or less. Further, the length of the plate-like portion 2B that extends long in the housing 2 is the boundary between the plate-like portion 2B that extends from the box-like portion 2A along the side of the vehicle and extends to the front of the vehicle (upward in FIG. 2). Even when the length in the width direction (the length in the vertical direction in FIG. 3) is shorter, problems such as sagging due to its own weight at the time of laser welding hardly occur. This is suitable for a vehicular lamp that includes a housing that is longer than the width of the root of the shape portion.

  Although the present invention has been described with respect to an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a rear combination lamp, the present invention includes another housing having a plate-like portion that extends around the vehicle side portion and extends in the vehicle longitudinal direction. Of course, the present invention can be similarly applied to any vehicle lamp.

1 Rear combination lamp (vehicle lamp)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 2 Housing 2A Box-shaped part of housing 2B Plate-shaped part of housing 2a Uneven part of plate-shaped part 3 Outer cover 4 Lamp chamber 5 Tail / stop lamp (light source unit)
6 Turn signal lamp (light source unit)
7 Insertion hole 8, 9 Aiming adjustment nut

Claims (2)

A housing having a box-shaped portion for storing the light source unit, and a plate-shaped portion extending from the box-shaped portion along the vehicle side surface in the vehicle front-rear direction;
An outer cover that is laser welded to the periphery of the opening of the housing;
In a vehicle lamp comprising:
A vehicular lamp characterized in that a corrugated plate-like concavo-convex portion is formed on the plate-like portion of the housing along the vehicle front-rear direction. The vehicular lamp according to claim 1, wherein the plate-like portion has a thickness of 2 mm or less.

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