JPH0346986Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) This invention relates to a keyhole illumination device, and particularly to a keyhole illumination device that illuminates the periphery of the keyhole of an automobile door lock to facilitate key insertion at night. .

(Prior Art) A conventional keyhole illumination device for an automobile door lock is shown in a central vertical side view in FIG. 1 and a partially cutaway front view in FIG. 2.

As shown in the figure, the rubber boot 1 is held elastically, and the light emitted from the lamp 3 inserted and held in the lamp insertion holding hole 2 is guided by a disk-shaped light-transmitting light guide plate 5 on the back surface of the thin metal cover 4. Light is emitted from the edge of the key insertion hole 6 of the light guide plate 5 to illuminate the front end surface of the rotor 7, and the key 8 is inserted into the rotor 7 at night, for example.
This is to make the location of the key insertion hole 6 clear when inserting the key into the key. Since the front surface of the light-transmitting light guide plate 5 is fitted to the rotor case 9 on the back surface of the thin plate cover 4, there is no leakage of light toward the front, but no consideration is given to a means for concentrating light onto the edge of the key insertion hole 6. Since the lights were not lit, it was not possible to illuminate the room brightly. In order to provide bright illumination, it is necessary to rely on the lamp 3, which has high brightness and therefore consumes a lot of power, and even if it was attempted to use a light emitting diode as a light emitting means, it was not practical due to insufficient brightness.

In addition, the connection part (for example, the soldered part) between the lamp 3 and the wire 10 is exposed to the air,
Lamps are exposed to the risk of disconnection due to moisture or electrolytic corrosion that penetrates through the windows of automobiles, and in addition to causing such inconvenience, the work of installing or replacing lamps is also complicated.

(Purpose of the invention) Therefore, the main purpose of this invention is to be able to sufficiently illuminate the periphery of the keyhole even if a low-luminance light emitting means is used, to prevent disconnection accidents, and to make the installation work of the light emitting means easy. An object of the present invention is to provide a keyhole lighting device.

(Structure and operation of the invention) That is, this invention guides the light emitted from the light emitting means to the light guiding part, and emits the light from the translucent illumination means provided on the front surface of the rotor of the cylinder lock to illuminate the periphery of the keyhole. In the keyhole illumination device, the illumination means is formed integrally with a light guiding part in an axial direction substantially parallel to the key insertion direction, and a front end of the light guiding part, and is formed at right angles to the light guiding part. The ring-shaped part is arranged on the rotor cover at the front end of the rotor to form a peripheral edge of the key hole, and a concave part is formed at the rear end of the light guiding part, The light emitting means is composed of a light emitting diode, and is composed of a lamp assembly in which the light emitting diode and a wire are integrally molded from resin or the like, the front part of the light emitting diode is exposed as a light emitting part, and the light emitting part is placed in the recess. The ring-shaped part is provided with a plurality of prism parts inserted and arranged to convert the direction of light guided from the light-emitting part in the recess to the light guide part and emit the light from the inner peripheral edge of the ring-shaped part. , the prism portion includes at least a first prism portion that diffuses the light traveling in the axial direction of the light guiding portion over the entire circumference of the ring-shaped portion; and a first prism portion that diffuses the light traveling in the radial direction of the ring-shaped portion. a second prism section that changes the course of light toward the center of the ring; and a third prism section that changes the course of the light directed toward the center toward the front surface of the rotor.
To provide a new keyhole illumination device characterized in that it is provided with a prism part and a fourth prism part that changes the course of light directed toward the rotor front part toward the outside in the axial direction of the ring-shaped part. It is something.

Therefore, the keyhole lighting device of this invention can guide light with less light source loss by providing the prism, and the prism part shines brightly when the lighting ring is viewed from the front, resulting in long life and low consumption. Electricity has made it possible to use low-luminosity light-emitting diodes.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of this invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

The embodiment shown in FIG. 3 is a keyhole illumination device for an automobile door lock, in which a keyhole 12 of a cylinder lock 11 is used as a light emitting diode 13 as a light emitting means.
The light is guided to the illumination ring 14 for illumination. A circular flange 16 is formed at the front end of the rotor case 15 of the cylinder lock 11, and a through hole 18' is formed in a part of the flange 16 to allow the light guide section 17 of the illumination ring 14 to pass therethrough. ing. The rotor 1 is located at the center of the rotor case 15.
There is a transparent rotor insertion hole into which the rotor 8 can be inserted.
An engagement groove 21 for engaging an engagement protrusion 20 of a lamp assembly 19, which will be described later, is formed on the outer periphery of the rotor case 15. A rotor cover 22 is provided at the front end of the rotor 18, and an illumination ring 14 is provided on the rotor cover 22. The illumination ring 14 is arranged in the insertion direction of the key 23 (hereinafter referred to as
substantially parallel to the flange 1 (referred to as the "axial direction")
6, and a ring-shaped part 24 that forms a keyhole 12 in a direction perpendicular to the axial direction (hereinafter referred to as the "radial direction") and also forms a ring-shaped part. It is made of an acrylic resin material that is integrally molded and has a high light transmittance. A plurality of prism parts for changing the direction of light are formed in the ring-shaped part 24.

A recess 17' formed in the axial direction is provided at the rear end of the light guiding part 17, and a light emitting part 13' of a lamp assembly 19, which will be described later, is inserted into the recess 17'.
Light is condensed and guided to the light guiding portion 17 from the concave portion 17'.

That is, the first prism part 24a is for diffusing the light traveling in the front direction in the axial direction through the light guide part 17 in the radial direction and over the entire circumference of the ring-shaped part 24; a second prism section 24b for changing the course of the light toward the axial center;
a third prism section 24c for directing the light directed toward the axial center by the second prism section 24b toward the front end of the rotor cover 22 in the axial direction;
and four prism parts of a fourth prism part 24d for emitting light directed toward the front end of the rotor cover 22 from the inner circumferential edge of the ring-shaped part 24 to the outside in the axial direction using a large number of small prisms. Details of these prism parts are shown in FIG. 5 as the illumination ring 14 alone. FIG. 5a is a front view of the illumination ring 14 with the light guide part 17 in front, b is a left side view (third angle view), and c is a right side view (third angle view),
d is a sectional view taken along the line in FIG. 5b, and e is a sectional view taken along the arc in FIG. 5c.

As illustrated in FIG. 5, the longitudinal direction of the light guide section 17 and the circular surface formed by the ring-shaped section 24 form a right angle, and the corner end where the light guide section 17 and the ring-shaped section 24 are connected is oblique. A first prism portion 24a is formed by cutting at 45° (see FIG. 5d). And the second
The prism portion 24b is formed by cutting out the outer peripheral portion of the ring-shaped portion 24 to have a right-angled isosceles triangular cross section (see especially FIG. 5d).

The third prism portion 24c is formed on the inner circumferential portion of the ring-shaped portion 24, and is cut out at an angle of 45° with an “8” shape in cross section with respect to the axis passing through the center of the ring.
On the other hand, the fourth prism part 24d is located on the back surface of the inner peripheral part of the ring-shaped part 24, and has grooves having a right-angled isosceles triangular cross section radially from the peripheral edge at approximately equal angles (for example,
(If the grooves are cut every 4 degrees, there will be 90 grooves) and formed into a collection of small prisms.
The prism portion may be formed in other ways, such as by changing the angle, forming it partially, or forming it in a different location from the above. However, it should be understood that all kinds of modifications are possible in which the light traveling in the axial direction is guided to the periphery of the keyhole by a prism effect, and the illumination ring 14 shown in FIG. 5 is only one example. .

At the front end of such an illumination ring 14, there is a key 2.
A rotor case cover 25 made of a rust-free metal plate having a hole large enough to allow the flange 16 to be inserted therethrough and rotated therethrough is closely covered so as to cover the flange 16 as well.

Next, regarding the lamp assembly 19, after exposing the light emitting part 13' of the light emitting diode 13 and soldering the lead wire of the light emitting diode 13 and the wire 26, the light emitting diode 13 and the wire including the soldered part are soldered. 26 is molded with resin 27 to form a unit as a part.
This lamp assembly 19 includes a light emitting diode 13
After bringing the light emitting part 13' into close contact with the end face of the concave part of the light guide part 17 of the illumination ring 14, as shown in FIG. By tightening, the engaging protrusion 20 is locked, and the lamp assembly 19 is attached to the rotor case 1.
5, so that it cannot be moved freely.

Since the lamp assembly 19 is molded with resin in this way, there is no electrical corrosion or disconnection due to the intrusion of water, and there is an advantage that the insulation of the electrodes of the light emitting diode 13 and the connecting portion of the wire 26 is particularly excellent. . In this example, a light emitting diode was used as the light emitting means because it has low power consumption, long life, and excellent impact resistance.

The function of illuminating the keyhole 12 by the illumination ring 24 will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 5. The light from the light emitting portion 13' of the light emitting diode 13 passes through the light guiding portion 17, goes approximately toward the front in the axial direction, and is diffused in the radial direction and over the entire circumference of the ring-shaped portion 24 by the first prism portion 24a. Of this diffused light, the light traveling radially outward of the ring-shaped portion 24 is diverted toward the axial center by the second prism portion 24b. This path-changed light is directed to the third
The prism section changes the course toward the front end of the rotor cover 22. The light directed toward the front end of the rotor cover 22 is transmitted axially outward from the inner peripheral edge of the ring-shaped portion 24 at the fourth prism portion that is in contact with the front end surface of the rotor cover 22 on the back side of the third prism portion. Light is emitted in the direction. Therefore, the periphery of the key hole 12 is brightly illuminated, making it extremely easy to insert the key 23 at night.

FIG. 6 is a longitudinal cross-sectional side view of the center of an embodiment to which the above embodiment is applied. That is, while the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 is related to a door lock that is embedded in an automobile door, the embodiment shown in FIG. 6 is related to a door lock that is directly installed in the handle body 28 of the door. In this case, as is clear compared to the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the front end of the rotor case 15 is not required to have a specific shape, and the illumination ring 14 is simply provided directly on the back of the handle body 28. Needless to say, the rotor case cover 25 is not necessary. That is, it has the advantage of reducing the number of parts and improving work efficiency.

In addition, although the illumination ring 14 was made of acrylic resin in the above embodiment, it is not limited to this, and may be made of any other light-transmitting light-guiding material. Needless to say, a material that has high light transmittance, is easy to process, and is inexpensive is selected.

In addition, in the above embodiment, for convenience of explanation, a keyhole illumination device related to a cylinder lock of an automobile door lock was described, but the essence of this invention is by no means limited to use only for automobile doors. It is clear if you keep in mind the keyhole of the door locking device in the place.

(Effects of the invention) As described above, according to this invention, a plurality of prism parts are provided in the illumination ring as a keyhole illumination means, and light from the light emitting means is condensed on the inner peripheral edge of the illumination ring. Therefore, the keyhole can be illuminated more effectively than conventional methods.

In addition, as a result of being able to effectively collect light in this way, relatively low-luminance light emitting diodes can be used as the light emitting means, which consumes less electricity and consumes less energy than conventional lamps.
Long life and excellent impact resistance.

Furthermore, since the light emitting means and the wire are integrally molded in resin, electrical corrosion and wire breakage will not occur, and even if they occur, they are integrated into a unit, so installation or replacement work is extremely easy and work is easy. It is also extremely effective from the viewpoint of

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional side view of the center of a conventional keyhole illumination device for an automobile door lock, and FIG. 2 is a partially cutaway front view thereof. Fig. 3 is a longitudinal sectional side view of the center of a keyhole illumination device as an embodiment of this invention, Fig. 4 is a partial rear view thereof, Fig. 5 shows an illumination ring as illumination means, and a is a front view Figure, b is left side view, c is right side view, d is line -
A cross-sectional view taken in the direction of arrows and e is a cross-sectional view taken along a circular arc. FIG. 6 is a longitudinal cross-sectional side view of the central portion showing an application example to which an embodiment of this invention is applied. 12...Keyhole, 13...Light emitting diode, 1
4...Lighting ring, 15...Rotor case, 17
...Light guiding part, 18...Rotor, 19...Lamp assembly, 24...Ring-shaped part, 24a...First
Prism section, 24b...Second prism section, 24c
...Third prism section, 24d... Fourth prism section.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claim for Utility Model Registration] Light emitted from the light emitting means is guided to a light guiding part, and the light is emitted from the translucent lighting means provided on the front surface of the rotor of the cylinder lock to illuminate the periphery of the keyhole. In the keyhole illumination device, the illumination means includes a light guide section 17 extending in an axial direction substantially parallel to the key insertion direction, and integrally formed on the front end of the light guide section 17 and forming a right angle to the light guide section 17. The ring-shaped part 24 is arranged on the rotor cover 22 at the front end of the rotor to form the keyhole periphery, and the light guide part 17
A recess 17' is formed at the rear end, and the light emitting means is composed of a light emitting diode 13, and a lamp assembly 19 is formed by integrally molding the light emitting diode 13 and a wire 26 with resin or the like. 13 is exposed as a light emitting part 13', the light emitting part 13' is inserted into the recess 17', and the light guide part 17 is exposed from the light emitting part 13' in the recess 17'.
The ring-shaped portion 24 converts the direction of the light guided to the
The ring-shaped part 24 is provided with a plurality of prism parts that emit light from the inner peripheral edge of the ring-shaped part 24. A first prism part 24a that diffuses around the circumference, a second prism part 24b that changes the course of light traveling outward from the radius of the ring-shaped part 24 toward the center of the ring, and a second prism part 24b that directs light traveling toward the center of the ring toward the front surface of the rotor. A third prism section 24c for changing the course of light toward the front surface of the rotor, and a fourth prism section 24d for changing the course of the light directed toward the front surface of the rotor toward the outside in the axial direction of the ring-shaped section 24. Features a keyhole lighting device.