JP6665755B2 - Vehicle lighting - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicular lamp.

  2. Description of the Related Art In a vehicular lamp using an organic EL (electroluminescence) element as a plane light source, a technique is disclosed in which the plane light source is bent and arranged in a housing (see Patent Document 1). In this technique, in order to arrange the flat light source in the housing, both ends of the flat light source are held by holders.

JP 2013-45523 A

  However, in the above-described conventional example, since a portion between both ends of the flat light source is not held by the holder, there is a possibility that the portion between the both ends is displaced due to vibration during traveling or the like.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle lamp having a folded planar light-emitting body, which can suppress a change in the direction of a light-emitting surface due to vibration during traveling or the like.

The vehicular lamp according to claim 1 is provided with a housing, a light-emitting surface facing the rear of the vehicle, and a light-emitting surface facing outward in the vehicle width direction, which are provided alternately in a zigzag shape in the housing. A light emitting surface provided in the housing, a bent portion of the sheet light emitting member is inserted into the housing, and a light emitting surface facing the rear of the vehicle and a light emitting surface facing outward in the vehicle width direction are fixed. And an insertion portion.

In this vehicle lamp, since the bent portions of the planar light emitter are inserted into the respective insertion portions and fixed in the housing, the partial displacement of the planar light emitter is suppressed, and the light emission facing the rear of the vehicle is suppressed. The direction of the surface and the direction of the light emitting surface facing outward in the vehicle width direction are fixed.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to the vehicle lamp which concerns on this invention, in the vehicle lamp which has the bent planar light-emitting body, it can suppress that the direction of a light emission surface changes by vibration etc. during driving | running.

It is a top view showing the vehicles provided with the vehicular lamp concerning this embodiment. It is a top view showing the internal structure of the vehicular lamp concerning this embodiment. It is an enlarged plan view which shows the fixed state of the planar light-emitting body by an insertion part. It is an expansion perspective view which shows the fixed state of the planar light-emitting body by an insertion part. FIG. 4 is a view as viewed in the direction of arrow A in FIG. 3. It is an expanded sectional view which shows the structure of the planar light-emitting body before bending. FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a vehicle lamp in which a plurality of planar light-emitting bodies are provided in a housing. FIG. 4 is an electric circuit diagram for controlling lighting of a planar light emitting body.

  Hereinafter, embodiments for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the drawings, arrow FR indicates the front of the vehicle, arrow UP indicates the upper side of the vehicle, arrow RH indicates the right side of the vehicle, and arrow RR indicates the rear of the vehicle. Arrow OUT indicates the outside in the vehicle width direction.

  1 and 2, a vehicle lamp 10 according to the present embodiment is a rear combination lamp provided on each side of a rear end of a vehicle 20 in a vehicle width direction, for example, and includes a housing 12, a planar light-emitting body 14, , An insertion portion 16.

  The housing 12 includes, for example, a base 18 and a light-transmitting cover 24. The cover 24 is formed so as to protrude outward from the vehicle at the corner of the vehicle rear end from the vehicle rear to the vehicle side. A space S for providing the planar light-emitting body 14 is formed between the base 18 and the cover 24.

  2 to 4, the planar light-emitting body 14 is provided in the housing 12 in a state of being bent in a zigzag shape. The “zigzag shape” is a structure in which mountain folds and valley folds are alternately repeated. The planar light-emitting body 14 is bent in a zigzag shape in a plan view of the vehicle, and is arranged along the contour of the cover 24. In the planar light-emitting body 14, first light-emitting surfaces 21 as light-emitting surfaces facing the rear of the vehicle and second light-emitting surfaces 22 as light-emitting surfaces facing outward in the vehicle width direction are alternately arranged. The first light emitting surface 21 and the second light emitting surface 22 adjacent to each other are arranged, for example, at right angles to each other.

  FIG. 6 shows the planar light-emitting body 14 before bending. The planar light-emitting body 14 is provided with a plurality of organic EL elements 31 and 32 as planar light sources. The organic EL element 31 corresponds to the first light emitting surface 21, and the organic EL element 32 corresponds to the second light emitting surface 22 (FIG. 3). An anode 26 is arranged on one side in the thickness direction of the organic EL elements 31 and 32, and a cathode 28 is arranged on the other side. The organic EL elements 31 and 32 may be electrically connected in parallel, or may be electrically connected in series. The organic EL elements 31 and 32 adjacent to each other are arranged with a space therebetween, and in a portion where the organic EL elements 31 and 32 do not exist, the anode 26 and the cathode 28 are overlapped with the insulator 30 interposed therebetween. .

  The organic EL elements 31 and 32, the anode 26, the cathode 28, and the insulator 30 are covered with flexible substrates 34 and 36. The base material 34 is located on the first light emitting surface 21 side and the second light emitting surface 22 side, and is configured to be transparent. The anode 26 is also transparent, and is disposed between the base 34 and the organic EL elements 31 and 32. Since the base material 36 is located on the side opposite to the first light emitting surface 21 side and the second light emitting surface 22 side, it may be either transparent or opaque. The cathode 28 is arranged between the base 36 and the organic EL elements 31 and 32. As shown in FIGS. 2 to 4, the planar light-emitting body 14 is bent so that a flexible portion where the organic EL elements 31 and 32 do not exist becomes a bent portion 38. A plurality of bent portions 38 are formed in the planar light-emitting body 14.

  In FIG. 2, the insertion portion 16 is a portion provided in the housing 12 and to which the bent portions 38 of the planar light-emitting body 14 are respectively inserted and fixed. The insertion portion 16 can be referred to as, for example, a holding portion, a fixing portion, or a guide portion. The insertion portion 16 is erected integrally with the base portion 18 of the housing 12, and includes an inner portion 16A located on the inner corner side of the bent portion 38, and an outer portion 16B located on the opposite side of the inner portion 16A. It is composed of The inner portion 16A and the outer portion 16B are each formed in an L shape in plan view. The bent portion 38 is fixedly held between the inner portion 16A and the outer portion 16B. In the present embodiment, all the bent portions 38 are respectively inserted into the insertion portions 16 below the vehicle and fixed. The insertion portion 16 is configured not to overlap the first light emitting surface 21 and the second light emitting surface 22.

  When the light emitting area of the vehicle lamp 10 is widened in the vertical direction of the vehicle, as shown in FIG. 7, a plurality of insertion portions 16 are provided in the housing 12 so that the plurality of planar light emitting bodies 14 are stacked. It may be arranged. In this example, the base portion 18 is provided with step portions 46 and 48 having different heights from each other, and each of the step portions 46 and 48 is provided with the insertion portion 16. The number of stages for stacking the planar light-emitting bodies 14 may be two or three or more.

  In order to light the first light emitting surface 21 and the second light emitting surface 22 of the planar light emitting body 14 as tail lights of the vehicle 20 and to light up only the first light emitting surface 21 during braking, for example, as shown in FIG. Such an electric circuit 40 is used. In this example, two organic EL elements 32 corresponding to the second light emitting surface 22 and two organic EL elements 31 corresponding to the first light emitting surface 21 are alternately connected in series. In the electric circuit 40, power supplies V1 and V2 are provided in series. The organic EL element 31 and the organic EL element 32 are connected in series to the power supply V2. On the other hand, the organic EL element 31 is also connected in series to the power supply V1. A switch 42 is provided between the power supply V1 and the organic EL element 31. The ON / OFF of the switch 42 is switched by a control device 44 that is linked to the operation of the brake.

(Action)
The present embodiment is configured as described above, and its operation will be described below. 2 to 5, in the vehicle lamp 10 according to the present embodiment, the bent portions 38 of the planar light-emitting body 14 are inserted into the insertion portions 16 in the housing 12 and fixed. Therefore, partial displacement of the planar light-emitting body 14 is suppressed, and the directions of the first light-emitting surface 21 and the second light-emitting surface 22 are fixed. For this reason, in the vehicular lamp 10 having the bent planar light-emitting body 14, it is possible to suppress a change in the direction of the first light-emitting surface 21 and the second light-emitting surface 22 due to vibration during traveling or the like.

  By bending and attaching the planar light-emitting body 14, the bending rigidity of the planar light-emitting body 14 in the vertical direction of the vehicle is improved, and vibration becomes difficult. In addition, dimensional displacement of the planar light-emitting body 14 due to thermal expansion or thermal contraction can be absorbed by deforming the flexible base materials 34 and 36. Therefore, the input to the organic EL elements 31 and 32 due to thermal deformation is reduced. Therefore, the reliability of the planar light emitter 14 is improved.

  Since the planar light-emitting body 14 is simply fixed to the base portion 18 of the housing 12 via the insertion portion 16, the work of assembling the planar light-emitting body 14 is easy. The planar light-emitting body 14 can be removed from the housing 12, and the maintenance is also improved. Since the insertion section 16 does not hide the first light-emitting surface 21 and the second light-emitting surface 22, brightness at the time of lighting is ensured.

  When the organic EL elements 31 and 32 are connected in series, it is not necessary to separately draw wires from each of the organic EL elements 31 and 32. Therefore, the total length of the wiring is reduced. This also reduces the required wiring space and the size of the components of the vehicular lamp 10, thereby reducing cost and mass.

  When the organic EL elements 31 and 32 are turned on as tail lights by the electric circuit 40 of FIG. 8, the switch 42 is turned off by the control device 44, and power is supplied to the organic EL elements 31 and 32 from the power supply V2. At the time of braking, the switch 42 is turned ON by the control device 44, and the power from the power supply V1 is added to the organic EL element 31, so that the organic EL element 31 lights up brighter than the state of the taillight. The organic EL element 31 functions as a brake light because it corresponds to the first light-emitting surface 21 facing the rear of the vehicle. This eliminates the need to separately provide a dedicated light source that is turned on during braking, so that cost and mass can be reduced.

[Other embodiments]
As described above, an example of the embodiment of the present invention has been described. However, the embodiment of the present invention is not limited to the above, and other than the above, various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention. Of course there is.

  For example, if the planar light-emitting body 14 does not partially displace, it is not always necessary to fix all the bent portions 38 with the insertion portions 16. Even if a certain bent portion 38 is not fixed, if the bent portions 38 on both sides thereof are fixed by the insertion portion 16, the displacement of the bent portion 38 therebetween can be suppressed. Further, in addition to the insertion portion 16 for fixing the bent portion 38, an insertion portion (not shown) for fixing both ends of the planar light-emitting body 14 may be further provided.

  The size and shape of the insertion portion 16 are not limited to the illustrated example. If the insertion portion 16 can fix the bent portion 38 and does not overlap the first light-emitting surface 21 and the second light-emitting surface 22, the size and shape of the insertion portion 16 can be appropriately changed.

  The vehicle lamp 10 is not limited to the rear combination lamp, and may be another lamp. Further, a light emitting element other than the organic EL element may be used as the planar light emitting body 14.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Vehicle lamp 12 Housing 14 Planar light-emitting body 16 Insertion part 21 1st light-emitting surface (light-emitting surface)
22 Second light-emitting surface (light-emitting surface)
38 Bend

Claims (1)

A housing,
A light emitting surface that is provided in a zigzag shape in the housing and faces the rear of the vehicle and a light emitting surface that faces outward in the vehicle width direction are arranged alternately.
A light-emitting surface provided in the housing, the bent portion of the planar light-emitting body is respectively inserted, and the light-emitting surface facing the rear of the vehicle is inserted, and a light-emitting surface facing the outside in the vehicle width direction is fixed.
A vehicle lighting device having: