JPH0535522Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to an automobile headlamp equipped with an optical axis adjustment device, and in particular, it is capable of initial adjustment (aiming) of the optical axis in a production factory, and Moreover, the present invention relates to an improved automobile headlamp that allows the driver to quickly and easily adjust the optical axis direction in a corrective manner without disturbing the above-mentioned aiming.

[Background of the idea]

7 and 8 are explanatory diagrams of an example of a headlamp with an optical axis adjustment device that has been commonly used in the past. FIG. 7 shows the front appearance, and FIG. 8 shows the -
A cross section is drawn.

A lens 2 is attached to the front surface of a lamp housing 1, and a concave mirror 3 is provided inside the lamp housing. A light source bulb 4 is installed near the focal point of the concave mirror 3 described above.

In order to make the optical axis Z of the concave mirror 3 adjustable, the concave mirror 3 is rotatably supported by a ball joint 5, and as shown in FIG.
Screw feeding means 6, 7 are provided on the vertical axis y and on the horizontal axis x passing through, respectively. FIG. 8 shows a cross section of the screw feeding means 6.

This conventional screw feeding means 6 includes a nut member 6a attached to the concave mirror 3, and a screw rod 6b screwed onto the nut member 6a.

A hexagonal head 6c is formed at one end of the screw rod 6b, and a flange 6d and a small diameter portion 6e are provided at a distance from each other in a portion where the screw rod 6b passes through the lamp housing 1. There is. 6f is a stop that engages with the small diameter portion 6e, and 6g is an O-ring.

In the conventional headlamp constructed in this way, when the screw rod 6b is turned, the nut member 6a is screwed and the optical axis Z of the concave mirror 3 is tilted.
Although this conventional example has a structure in which the optical axis is adjusted by moving the concave mirror 3, it can also be configured to move the lamp housing 1.

When the headlight of this example is assembled to a vehicle body at an automobile manufacturing factory, initial adjustment (aiming) is performed so that the optical axis Z is approximately horizontal.

However, when the load on the car changes, the way the suspension springs of the car body bend changes, so the direction of the optical axis must be corrected each time.

[Problem that the invention attempts to solve]

Due to the above-mentioned circumstances, automobile headlights are (a) Easy initial adjustment (aiming).

(b) The optical axis can be quickly and easily adjusted to correct any required adjustments.

(c) There is no risk of disrupting aiming when making the above correction adjustments.

(d) The above correction adjustments may be made without the use of tools.

is required.

The conventional device shown in FIG. 8 does not fully satisfy the above requirements (a) to (d). In particular, the requirements in paragraphs (c) and (d) are not met.

The present invention has been developed in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and it is easy to perform aiming and correction adjustment of the optical axis, there is no risk of deviating the aiming during correction adjustment, and moreover, the correction adjustment of the optical axis can be quickly performed without using tools. The purpose of this invention is to provide a headlamp for automobiles that can be used in various ways.

[Means for solving problems]

In order to achieve the above purpose, the headlight of the present invention is
A concave mirror is provided in the lamp housing, a light source bulb is provided in the concave mirror, and either the lamp housing or the concave mirror is supported by one ball joint and two screw means, In an automobile headlamp configured to be able to adjust the optical axis by screw means, at least one of the screw means is a cylindrical knob slidably fitted onto a screw rod for tilting the concave mirror. , a flange-shaped clutch passive plate fixed to the screw rod, and a planetary gear means, the sun gear of the planetary gear means being rotatably fitted to the screw rod, and the sun gear of the sun gear being rotatably fitted to the screw rod. A clutch drive plate is formed on a side surface and slidably contacts the clutch passive plate, a clutch spring is interposed between the sun gear and the knob, and a ring gear of the planetary gear means is disposed on the inner surface of the cylindrical knob. In addition, a planet gear is interposed and meshed between the ring gear and the sun gear.

[Effect]

In the headlamp configured as described above, the clutch spring is not compressed when no special operating force is applied to the knob, so the clutch passive plate provided on the screw rod is free with respect to the drive plate. Therefore, aiming can be performed by turning the screw rod arbitrarily. The ring gear provided on the knob accelerates the sun gear via the planetary gear, and the rotation of the sun gear is transmitted to the threaded rod, so that the optical axis can be quickly and easily corrected.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 shows one embodiment of the headlamp of the present invention, and is a sectional view of its screw feeding means.

This embodiment is an example in which the present invention is applied to the conventional apparatus shown in FIG. 8 to improve it. The threaded rod 6' shown with the same drawing reference number as in FIG.
c, a flange 6d, and an O-ring 6g, and the threaded rod 6' is installed to penetrate the lamp housing 1. This threaded rod 6' is waterproofed by an O-ring 6g and is provided with an appropriate rotational frictional resistance.

The threaded rod 6' of this example differs from the conventional threaded rod 6b in that it is provided with a flange-shaped clutch passive plate 6h. This clutch passive plate 6
Due to the provision of h, the threaded rod is divided into two parts for convenience of assembly, and they are connected by a press-fitting part 6i. FIG. 2 shows an exploded view of the press-fitting portion 6i removed, where 6i _-1 is a press-fitting shaft and 6i _-2 is a press-fitting hole.
Said clutch passive plate 6h is provided with meshing clutch teeth 6h _-1 . 6c _-1 is a groove for a cross screwdriver.

10 shown in FIG. 1 is a planetary gear means,
A cross section thereof is shown in FIG.

10a is a sun gear, which is loosely fitted into the screw rod 6'. A perspective view of the single item is shown in FIG. This sun gear 10a faces the aforementioned clutch passive plate 6h,
A meshing clutch tooth 10a-1 is formed on the opposing surface, and a clutch tooth 6 of the clutch passive plate is formed.
It meshes with i _-1 and acts as a clutch drive plate.

A cylindrical knob 8 is formed and is slidably fitted onto the cylindrical portion 6j of the threaded rod 6b.

A clutch spring 12 is interposed between the cylindrical knob 8 and the sun gear 10a.

The above clutch spring 12 is connected to the sun gear 1
0a toward the clutch passive plate 6h, and also urges the knob 8 toward the right in the figure to cause it to come out of the cylindrical portion 6j of the screw rod 6', but the hexagonal head 6c acts as a stopper.

As shown in FIG. 1, the knob 8 has a hexagonal head 6c.
The clutch spring 12 is constructed so that it has almost a free length when in contact with the clutch spring 12. In this example, the shapes and dimensions of the related members are set so that the clutch spring 12 is compressed by a minute dimension so as to prevent play from occurring between the sun gear 10a and the clutch passive plate 6h. When carrying out the present invention, the mounting length of the clutch spring is made approximately equal to the free length in the state shown in FIG. 1 (in a state in which no special operating force is applied to the knob 8).

Ring gear 10b of the planetary gear means
is formed on the inner periphery of the cylindrical knob 8. 10d is
This is a planet carrier that supports the planet gear 10c.

A protrusion 8b is integrally connected to the knob. The projection 8b of this example is formed in the shape of a rectangular parallelepiped, and FIG. 5 shows the state seen in the direction of arrow V in FIG.

A guide 13 for the projection 8b is configured and fixed to the lamp housing 1. This guide tool 13 has a spiral slope 13a, and when the knob 8 is turned, it slides against the protrusion 8b and moves the knob 8 to the left in the figure by a screw action. This movement is performed while compressing the clutch spring 12.

Mechanically, the slope 13a is the threaded rod 6'.
However, since it is only a small part of the spiral surface, it can be constructed as an inclined plane in practice. In the present invention, a spiral surface-like slope means a surface that is mechanically almost equivalent to a spiral surface.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of the state in which the guide tool 13 and the knob 8 are engaged. This figure shows a perspective view of the guide 13 seen in the direction of the arrow in FIG.
The solid line is drawn with only the nearby part broken.

The guide tool 13 is a cylindrical member provided with an inner flange-like edge 13b, and a portion of the inner flange-like edge 13b is formed into the aforementioned spiral surface-like slope 13a.

The knob 8 is connected to the clutch spring 12 as described above.
(FIG. 1), so that the protrusion 8b is in contact with the edge 13b in the state shown in FIG. 6. When the knob 8 is turned in the direction of the arrow A, the knob 8 moves to the right in the figure compared to the state shown (dashed line) when the protrusion 8b faces the slope portion 13a. When it is further turned in the direction of arrow A, it is moved to the left in the figure by the action of the slope 13a, and the projection 8 is moved to the illustrated position (with respect to the left and right direction in the figure).
In addition to the case where b faces the slope 13a, the position is shifted to the left even if the knob 8 is turned (the position indicated by the chain line in Fig. 6).
keep it.

In the automobile headlamp of this example configured as described above, in the state shown in _FIG . When the screw rod 6' is turned by inserting a wrench into the hexagonal head 6c, the nut member 6a is threaded and aiming is performed. During the above-mentioned aiming operation, the sun gear 10a and the clutch passive plate 6h are not subjected to any special sliding pressure, so they rotate idly, and there is no risk that the aiming operation will be hindered by the transmission of the clutch.

After the aiming operation is completed, the rotation of the screw rod 6' is prevented by the frictional force of the O-ring 6g.

Also, by applying hand force to knob 8, press arrow A in Fig. 5.
When turned as shown, the protrusion 8b turns into a spiral slope 13a.
The knob 8 moves as shown by arrow B, and the knob 8 moves to the left in the figure. This leftward movement compresses the clutch spring 12 and presses the sun gear 10a, which also serves as a clutch drive plate, toward the clutch passive plate 6h, causing the meshing teeth 1 provided on both members to
1b and 6h _-1 are engaged.

As mentioned above, when knob 8 is turned, the clutch is "engaged".
In this state, the threaded rod 6' and the sun gear 10a are connected, but at the same time, the ring gear 10b provided on the inner periphery of the knob 8 is rotated to drive the sun gear 10a at an increased speed via the planet gear 10c.
The rotation of the sun gear 10a is transmitted to the threaded rod 6' via the clutch means, and the nut member 6a is threaded. This screw feeding operation is performed quickly because the speed is increased by the planetary gear means. When the knob 8 is turned in this way, the optical axis of the headlight being aimed is quickly adjusted in a corrective manner, and when the knob 8 is returned to its original position, the optical axis direction is restored to the state when aiming. do.

[Effect of idea]

As described in detail above, in the automobile headlamp of the present invention, the aiming and correction adjustment of the optical axis is easy, and no tools are required for the correction adjustment. Moreover, the correction adjustment can be carried out quickly without the risk of disrupting aiming, which provides an excellent practical effect.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a cross-sectional view for explaining the configuration of one embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is an exploded view of the threaded rod of the above embodiment, Fig. 3 is a - sectional view of Fig. 1, and Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the screw rod of the above embodiment. A perspective view of the sun gear of the planetary gear means of the above embodiment, FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram as seen in the direction of the arrow V in FIG. 1, and FIG. 6 is a diagram as seen in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 1. It is an explanatory diagram. Figure 7 is a front view of a conventional automobile headlamp equipped with an optical axis adjustment device.
FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view taken from FIG. 1... Lamp housing, 2... Lens, 3...
...Concave mirror, 4...Light source bulb, 5...Ball joint, 6
...screw feeding means, 6'...screw rod, 6a...nut member, 6b...screw rod, 6h...clutch passive plate, 8...knob, 10...planetary gear means, 10a...sun gear, 10b... ...Ring gear, 10c...Planet gear, 10d...Planet carrier, 12...Clutch spring,
13... Guide tool, 13a... Spiral surface-shaped slope, 1
3b...Inner flange-like edge.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] A concave mirror is provided in the lamp housing, a light source pulp is provided in the concave mirror, and either the lamp housing or the concave mirror is supported by one ball joint and two screw means, In an automobile headlamp configured to be able to adjust the optical axis by screw means, at least one of the screw means is a cylindrical knob slidably fitted onto a screw rod for tilting the concave mirror. , a flange-shaped clutch passive plate fixed to the screw rod, and a planetary gear means, the sun gear of the planetary gear means being rotatably fitted to the screw rod, and the sun gear of the sun gear being rotatably fitted to the screw rod. A clutch drive plate is formed on a side surface and slidably contacts the clutch passive plate, a clutch spring is interposed between the sun gear and the knob, and a ring gear of the planetary gear means is disposed on the inner surface of the cylindrical knob. A headlamp for an automobile, characterized in that a planet gear is interposed and meshed between the ring gear and the sun gear.