JP2544369B2 - Vehicle headlamps - Google Patents

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a headlamp for a traveling vehicle, and more particularly to a high brightness lamp capable of selectively projecting light of various colors.

Background of the Invention Shield beam headlamps for conventional high speed vehicles and off-road vehicles, both for automobiles, have typically used filaments that illuminate white light through a transparent light diffusing element, which is typically glass or plastics. And many of the competing subjects are focused on headlamp design. A high-intensity lamp that well illuminates the far side of the highway ahead of the traveling vehicle gives the oncoming vehicle a dazzling glare due to an uncovered filament under normal driving conditions. Also, when there is fog, dust, snow, rain, or smoke, the light emitted from the headlamps tends to be reflected and returned, and the front of the vehicle should not be illuminated sufficiently to make it safe to drive at high speed. It hinders driving. Fuoglamps that emit yellow light have good permeability to fog, dust, snow, rain, or smoke, but they do not have sufficient luminous intensity to run at high speed on the road without hindering visibility.

Therefore, conventionally, it has been customary to combine a shield beam type white light lamp and a fog lamp in the same vehicle. This results in the need to install at least four headlamps and is expensive from a manufacturing standpoint. Furthermore, when the light goes out, the number of headlamps is 2
It takes the burden of having to replace double the lights.

There is a headlamp that combines yellow light and white light instead of providing a fug lamp and a white light lamp separately, and is disclosed in U.S. Patent Application No. 653,437 "improvement of vehicle headlamp" which is the present inventor. . With this special configuration, the driver can select white light or yellow light depending on the weather condition to provide appropriate lighting under normal or bad weather.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention overcomes the problems listed above in a novel and simple manner.

According to the invention, a single headlamp is proposed which is capable of selectively projecting light of the first or second color, or a combination of these colors, if desired. Preferably these colors are white and yellow, but in addition to these two colors it is also possible to emit other colors.

More specifically, in one embodiment of the present invention,
It has two filaments in one bulb, one emitting light through the transparent portion of the bulb and the other emitting light through the colored portion of the bulb. The colored part is yellow. This is because the wavelength of yellow light is excellent in the transmission performance for fog, dust, snow, smoke or rain. The control circuit should be able to energize the filament depending on the operating environment of white light, yellow light or a combination of both.

Alternatively, bulbs, each emitting a different color, can be incorporated into one headlamp. The filament incorporated in each valve can be electrified by a control circuit similar to that described above, or combined with a rheostat to select a mixed color of white and yellow as desired and select it in a manner similar to the above embodiment.

The present invention can be applied to conventional structures approved for public road driving. By increasing the size of the standard valve, it does not affect the position of the high beam and low beam filaments,
It is also possible to provide colored areas and other filaments to which the present invention pertains without affecting the white light illumination performance of the bulb.

The lamp of the present invention can be applied to other than illuminating the front of the vehicle. For example, the bulb may be used with a handheld electric lamp or other luminaire.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description together with the claims and the accompanying drawings.

EXAMPLE FIG. 1 shows a shield beam headlamp at 10. The conventional part of the headlamp 10 consists of a molded plastic housing 12 with a hyperbolic reflecting surface 14 facing forward.
It has a light diffusing element 16 made of glass or plastic.
Is covered with. The reflecting surface 14 is made reflective by a thin film 17 formed by vacuum deposition of aluminum or the like. A boss 18 (FIG. 2) is integrally formed on the rear side of the housing 12 and serves as a contact support for establishing an electrical connection between the power source and the valve, which will be described later.

In FIG. 2, the conventional valve 20 is shown in the operating position in the housing 12. The valve has a tubular body 22 defining a chamber 24 in which the high beam filaments and low beam filaments 26, 28 are contained. Typically, this filament is made from tungsten, and the filament 26,28
Light is emitted through the respective coil winding portions 30 and 32. The rear portion of the bulb 34 is crushed and an inert gas is sealed in the chamber 24 to seal the filament lead and improve the light emission.

The high-beam and low-beam filament power supply leads 36, 38 project from the boss 18 and are soldered to the plate-shaped male contacts 40, 42.The contacts 40, 42 are press-fitted into a conventional electrical socket for automobiles applicable to the lamp. Accepted. The ground-side leads 44,46 of the high beam and low beam filaments are electrically connected to another plate-like contact (not shown), but the leads 44,46 are shown as grounded in FIG. .

When this conventional bulb is installed, the high beam and low beam filaments are selectively energized by a conventional control switch 48, causing one or the other filament to illuminate. Together with the high beam filament, this coil coincides with the focal point of the hyperbolic reflecting surface 14. The rays from the high beam filament are reflected forward in a substantially collimated relationship, maximizing intensity and coverage. The low-beam filament is located slightly in front of the high-beam filament and concentrates the light rays more widely and reduces the effective illumination range of the lamp than this arrangement placed before the focus of the headlamp. In order to control the direction of the light rays that emerge in front of the filament, the front surface 50 of the bulb is made a concave surface that spreads backwards and this surface is silver plated or reflective so that this light ray is the main reflection surface of the housing 12. It is reflected back toward 14 and dispersed.

Since the 1950s, it has been common for car manufacturers to provide four headlamps as a lighting improvement measure.
The outer lamp of the automobile was of the double filament type as described above. The inner lamp was a single filament, high power, high beam filament, and exhibited the spotlight effect. The low beams from the two outer lamps are focused to the right and are used when facing or overtaking another vehicle, and when there is no approaching vehicle, all four high beam lamps are used safely.

Embodiment An embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIGS. 1 and 3. In these figures, a two-color bulb 52 is shown, which is a tubular light transmissive body.
54, which axis extends in front of the reflective surface 14 of the housing 12.
The front portion 56 of the bulb is colored and preferably colored, while the rear portion 58 of the bulb is transparent. Coloring of the front portion 56 of the bulb can be accomplished by tinting a mold, dipping a transparent bulb, overlaying a tinted transparent sleeve, or other known means. Although white and yellow are disclosed herein as bulb colors, it should be understood that combined colors are also within the scope of the invention.

The bulb 52 is shaped and colored such that the high beam filament 26 and the low beam filament 28 are within the transparent portion boundary axially rearward of the bulb. The high and low beam filaments are arranged similarly to the conventional bulb 20 shown in FIG. The third filament 60 extends forward of the high and low beam filaments 26, 28 in the direction of the valve axis, and the coil portion 62 is oriented with this axis transverse to the forward tint 56. The filament 60 has leads 64 which are soldered to 66 on the housing to establish electrical contact with the plate contacts 68. The filament 60 is commonly grounded through the lead 69 to the ground leads 44, 46 of the high beam and low beam filaments.

A switching controller 70 of the type well known in the electrical arts allows an operator to selectively energize high beam, low beam, and / or supplemental filaments 26, 28, 60. Therefore, the operator can select between white light by the high beam filament or low beam filament or yellow light by the filament coil 62. By combining the controller with a rheostat, it is possible to mix white light and yellow light based on operating conditions. For example, when the fog is heavy it indicates full yellow light use, and in a slightly dusty condition the yellow light needs to be slightly mixed with white light. By modifying a conventional bulb approved for use on public roads, it effectively acts on the white light part of the lamp,
The functionality of the headlamp can be improved.

In order to prevent the mixing of light inside the bulb 52, a disk-shaped light-shielding plate 72 is installed inside the bulb, and the front chamber and the rear chamber are
Divide 74 and 76 respectively. The shading plate 72 is preferably made of tungsten or other suitable material that does not transmit light and is heat resistant. A 0.78 mm (1/32 inch) annular gap 78 is retained around the baffle to allow thermal expansion when the bulb is heated. By disposing a plurality of spacers 79 on the periphery of the light shielding plate, the light shielding plate is supported at the operating position in the bulb. The shading plate is located rearward from the end 80 of the front yellow portion 56 in the bulb axial direction. The above gap is 3mm (1
/ 8 inch) is preferable. Such a configuration effectively shields the yellow portion of the bulb from light rays from high and low beam filaments.

In a conventional bulb, the front end 82 of the bulb 52 is film coated with a reflective material to return light traveling directly forward to the reflective surface 14. The front surface 82 in FIG. 3 is flat, but an imaginary line 84
It may be a concave surface which is opened forward as shown by, or a concave surface which is opened backward as shown by a virtual line 86. Other rays that try to focus just before the filament are returned for more effective scattering. As the curved surface extends in the axial direction, the distance from the apex of this curve to the intersection of the curve and the tubular valve body is about 4 mm (1/4 inch). The coating on the curved surface 82 is silver, chrome oxide or other reflective material known in the art.

A variant of the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 and 3 is shown in FIG. 4, which shows a valve 88 with filaments corresponding to the high and low beam filaments 26, 28 respectively, which is preferably yellow. There is another bulb 90 having a light-transmitting surface 92 that is colored in. The filament 94 and the filaments 26, 28 incorporated in the valve 90 are selectively energized by the controller 96 in the same manner as in the previous embodiment. The embodiment shown in FIG. 4 works in all respects the same as the previous embodiment.

Although the present invention has been described herein with reference to a vehicle headlamp, the concept can be used with any type of luminaire, i.e. home luminaire. The present invention can be applied when it is desirable to project light of various colors from a common light beam.

The above detailed description has been made for the purpose of clearly showing the constitutional operation of the present invention, and the necessary limitations will be understood thereby.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a conventional headlight housing in which a bulb according to the present invention is mounted, and FIG. 2 is a partial cutaway view showing a conventional headlamp in which a conventional bulb is mounted.
FIG. 3 is a partial cutaway view of the headlamp of FIG. 1 taken along line 3-3, and FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 3 but showing a case where another bulb structure is adopted according to the present invention. is there. 10: Headlamp, 12: Headlamp housing, 14: Reflective surface, 26: High beam filament, 28: Low beam filament, 52: Two-color bulb, 56: Bulb front part (colored part), 58: Bulb rear part (transparent part) ), 60: Third filament, 70, 96, 108: Switch controller, 72: Disc-shaped shading plate, 74: Valve front chamber, 76: Valve rear chamber, 82: Valve front face, 90, 100: Colored valve , 98: White light bulb.

Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-50-130278 (JP, A) Actual development 47-35685 (JP, U) JP-B 6-3193 (JP, B2) JP-B 5-801 (JP , B2) Japanese special public Sho-46-35358 (JP, B2) Actual public 37-20942 (JP, Y2) Actual public 32-14085 (JP, Y2) Actual public 30-17382 (JP, Y2) Actual public Sho- 13-12596 (JP, Y2)

Claims (8)

(57) [Claims] 1. An internal chamber defined by an internal bulb surface, a first zone for imparting a first color to transmitted light and a second area for transmitted light.
A light-transmitting surface having a second area for coloring, and directing the light so as to pass through the first area when energized so that the light having the first color is emitted from the bulb. A first filament, which directs light so as to pass through the second area when energized and causes light having the second color to be emitted from the bulb;
Part of the filament, the shading plate, and at least the co-shading plate are separated from the inner bulb surface to allow thermal expansion of the shading plate, and the shading plate allows the light from the first filament to be in the second light area. Baffle mounting means for attaching the baffle to the inner bulb surface so as to prevent light from the second filament from being transmitted through the first light zone. An illumination device that is capable of projecting multicolored light. 2. The first area is transparent, the second area is yellow, and the vehicle light source is capable of selectively projecting fog-transmitted light when the weather is bad and white light normally. The lighting device according to the above item 1. 3. The bulb according to claim 1, wherein the bulb has a substantially tubular portion through which light can pass, and the first portion and the second portion are formed in the tubular portion. Lighting equipment. 4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising a reflector for reflecting the light from the first and second filaments so that the light is directed from the rear side to the front side of the bulb. The lighting device according to any one of claims. 5. The illumination device according to claim 4, further comprising a reflecting means for returning the light from the second filament to the reflector and reflecting the light. 6. The lighting device according to claim 1, wherein the light-shielding plate mounting means mounts the light-shielding plate in a position apart from the second region within the first region. 7. The bulb has a substantially tubular portion, the axis of the tubular portion extending forward from the reflector, the first and second
The headlamp according to claim 4, wherein the areas are formed apart from each other in the axial direction of the tubular portion. 8. The first to seventh aspects, wherein the bulb has a one-piece structure and the light shielding plate is made of tungsten.
The illumination device according to any one of items.