JPH08293207A - Vehicle lighting fixture with protector integrally molded - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To prevent displacement or separation between a lens and a lamp housing when the lamp housing and the lens are combined and are inserted in a metal mold. CONSTITUTION: Minute visual (larger than microscopic) unevenness 6a is formed on the surface of a lens 6 which oppositely touches a lamp housing 5. At the same time, minute visual unevenness 5a is formed on the surface of the lamp housing 5 which oppositely touches the lens 6 so as to cause friction resistance on the touching face between the lamp housing 5 and the lens 6 so as to hardly slip.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicular lamp integrally formed with a protector interposed between a vehicular lamp and a vehicle body when the vehicular lamp is mounted on the vehicle body.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When mounting a vehicular lamp on a vehicle body, the protector is generally a vehicle lamp so that the protector can be easily clamped and fixed between the vehicular lamp and the vehicle body. Is attached in advance and supplied as a sub-assembly. FIG. 2 is a disassembled sectional view schematically showing a protector of a conventional example, a manufacturing method thereof, and a mounting means for a vehicular lamp. A light source bulb 2 is attached to the lamp housing 1, and a lens 3 is disposed so as to cover the light source bulb 2 and fixed to the lamp housing 1. The protector 4 is made of a synthetic resin material separately from the lamp housing 1 and the lens 2. Since the role of the protector 4 is to protect the contact portion between the vehicle lamp and the vehicle body, it needs to be flexible and elastic, and is formed of an elastomer. On the other hand, the lens 2 and the lamp housing 1 are made of a synthetic resin material,
It is ultrasonically bonded.

The protector 4 is attached to a mounting position 4'shown by phantom lines as indicated by arrows a and a ', and adhered by an adhesive (for example, an instant adhesive). In the protector structure of the conventional example shown in FIG. 2, equipment for ultrasonic bonding is required, quality control of ultrasonic bonding is difficult, and much time and labor are required for mounting and bonding the protector. It costs. In order to solve such a problem, a technique of integrally molding a protector in which a lamp housing and a lens are set in a mold has been known. FIG. 3 is a view for explaining a technique of insert-molding the protector integrally with the lamp housing and the lens.
[FIG. 3] is a cross-sectional view of a state in which a lens and a lamp housing are set in a mold, and (B) is a cross-sectional view of a vehicular lamp integrally formed with a protector. (See FIG. 3A) Lens 6
When the lamp housing 5 is molded with a synthetic resin material, these are combined and inserted into the mold 11 and the mold 12 and the plastic elastomer is injected into the cavity 13, as shown in FIG. It is possible to obtain a sub-assembly consisting of various integrally molded products. At this time, if the material of the elastomer to be injected into the cavity 13 is appropriately selected and a material having a good heat-welding property is used for both the lens 6 and the lamp housing 5, the lens 6 and the lamp 6 Housing 5
The protector 7 is molded along the contact line with. Since the protector 7 straddles the lens 6 and the lamp housing 5 and is heat-welded to both members, the protector 7 mechanically connects the lens 6 and the lamp housing 5 to each other, and Fulfills the function of sealing the gap. As is clear from the above description, according to the integral molding technique shown in FIG. 3, it is not necessary to ultrasonically bond the lens and the lamp housing, and it is not necessary to bond the protector with an adhesive, which is quick and easy. A vehicle lamp sub-assembly with a protector is configured in. This integral molding technique is a device devised by the present inventor and is being separately applied for by the present applicant (Actual Application No. 4-60368), and is hereinafter referred to as a prior application.

[0004]

After the invention of the earlier application shown in FIG. 3 is created and applied, the present inventor analyzes the practical data of the invention of the earlier application, confirms the effect, and further improves it. As a result of promoting, we confirmed that the intended purpose was achieved in the practical state of mass-produced products, and found and confirmed the following problems, that is, there was room for improvement. FIG. 4 is a perspective view for explaining a problem in a protector structure of a vehicle lamp according to the invention of the prior application, and FIG. 4A illustrates a state in which a lens and a lamp housing are combined and held by a fingertip. , (B) show a state where the combined lamp housing and lens are separated. In the state where the lens 6 and the lamp housing 5 are housed in a mold and the molten synthetic resin material is not yet injected into the cavity 13 as shown in FIG. The lens 6 and the lamp housing 5 are only combined and not bonded or welded. A problem in production technology occurs when the lens and the lamp housing, which have not been bonded or welded yet, are set in the mold as shown in FIG. 3 (A). That is, FIG.
When the lens 6 and the lamp housing 5 are held by fingertips and inserted into the mold as shown in (A), the lens 6 and the lamp housing 5 may come off as shown in (B) of the figure. , Experts must insert with great care. Therefore, this insert process requires a lot of time and labor. The need for skilled workers to work carefully alone adds to the cost of manufacturing, but he added, "It is extremely difficult for robots to automate such highly sophisticated tasks. In the sense of "Yes", it has been a bottleneck in improving the productivity of vehicle lighting. If a robot equipped with a highly sophisticated feedback control mechanism is used, it is considered difficult to put it into practical use in consideration of economical profitability, even if automation of this insert process is not impossible. If the worker notices that the lens 6 and the lamp housing 5 are separated from each other and repeats the insert operation, the damage is limited to an increase in manufacturing man-hours and a decrease in production efficiency.
If an operator does not notice the displacement (deviation) between the lens and the lamp housing is too small, the lens and the lamp housing will not be properly stored in the mold, and the lens and the lamp housing will be damaged. Not only does it cause damage to the mold. Within the scope of the prior art, in order to reduce the above-mentioned inconvenience (disengagement or displacement between the lens and the lamp housing), the lens and the housing are configured to be fitted to each other, and if the fitting accuracy is increased, the component cost is reduced. Rises. In this way, it is irrational in terms of production technology to increase the accuracy by not increasing the performance of the lamp and increasing the cost. The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and further improves the protector structure according to the invention of the prior application so that a mold can be formed by combining a lens and a lamp housing with almost no increase in manufacturing cost. There is no risk that the lens and the lamp housing will come off or become misaligned when inserted into the inside of the protector, and the insert operation can be performed quickly and easily without requiring any skill. An object of the present invention is to provide a technique capable of improving the yield of molding work and preventing early wear of a mold. in this way,
It can be expected that the work that does not require skill is suitable for automating this.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object (prevention of separation of lens and lamp housing), a vehicular lamp according to the present invention comprises a lamp housing made of synthetic resin,
A light source bulb is disposed in a lamp chamber surrounded by the lamp housing and the lens, the lens housing being made of a synthetic resin, and the lamp housing and the lens are provided along a contact line between the lamp housing and the lens. A protector having a structure in which a protector made of a synthetic resin is integrally formed over the lamp, and the protector is heat-welded to the lamp housing and the lens to couple the lamp housing and the lens to each other. In the integrally molded vehicular lamp, visible minute irregularities are formed on the surface of the lamp housing facing and abutting the lens and the surface of the lens facing and abutting the lamp housing. Is characterized by.

In the present invention, "visible fine unevenness"
Is larger than microscopic unevenness that cannot be recognized without a microscope.
It is smaller than the unevenness that can be represented by a solid line of mm, and when a person with normal eyesight sees it at a clear viewing distance, it feels as a rough surface or a rough surface, and it is an unevenness that can be recognized as not a mirror surface, For example, a sandblasted surface, a normal sandpaper (excluding those for specular polishing), a finished surface of a sanded file, or a so-called textured surface corresponds to this. In the lamp to which the invention of the above-mentioned prior application is applied, a portion where the lamp housing and the lens come into contact with each other has a band-like shape having a width and may be almost flat or may be stepped. When the present invention is carried out, unevenness may be formed on the entire surface of the contact portion, or unevenness may be formed on a part of the corresponding contact surface. As described above, the portion where the lamp housing and the lens are in contact with each other has a band shape having a width. The above-mentioned "contact line between the lamp housing and the lens" refers to the line of intersection between the belt-shaped surface where the lamp housing is in contact with the lens and the outer peripheral surface.
That is, it is the boundary line that appears in the appearance when the lens and the lamp housing are combined.

[0007]

According to the above-mentioned means, since visible and minute unevenness is formed on the surface where the lens and the lamp housing are in contact with each other, the frictional resistance against sliding along this surface is large. For this reason, both members are relatively unlikely to be displaced in a state where the lamp housing and the lens are combined, and there is no fear that the lamp housing and the lens will separate during the insertion. As a result, it is possible to set the lamp housing and the lens in the mold quickly, easily, and accurately without requiring skill in the insert work, and to damage the lamp housing due to a defective setting or to cause a lens due to a defective setting. Of the mold and early wear of the mold due to a defective set are prevented. Moreover, since the work of inserting the lamp housing and the lens into the mold by combining them becomes easy, this work becomes easy to automate.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a vehicular lamp integrally formed with a protector according to the present invention,
(A) is a cross-sectional view, (B) is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a portion b surrounded by a chain line in the above (A). This embodiment is an improvement of the vehicular lamp according to the invention of the earlier application shown in FIG. 3 (B) by applying the present invention.
When the macro is considered as above, there is no difference as compared with the invention of the prior application shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 1 (B), visible and minute unevenness 6 a is formed on the surface of the lens 6 that is in contact with and abuts the lamp housing 5.
However, in FIG. 1B, the unevenness is enlarged and exaggerated for easy reading. Then, even on the surface of the lamp housing 5 facing and abutting against the lens 6, visible and minute unevenness 5a is formed.
Are formed. As a concrete method for forming minute visible unevenness, (a) graining or honing is applied to the "surface corresponding to the portion where the minute visible unevenness is to be provided" of the mold for injection molding the lamp housing. A method of forming minute visible unevenness on a predetermined portion of a lamp housing or a lens formed by this mold, and (b) the invention of the prior application. After molding a lens having a smooth surface and a lamp housing having a smooth surface in the same manner as in (1) and (2), minute visible irregularities are formed by sandblasting or sandpaper finishing on predetermined parts of each member. There is a method. In carrying out the present invention, the above (a),
(B), either method can be used, but (a)
As described above, if the mold is provided with visible minute unevenness, the minute visible unevenness is automatically replicated on the lens or lamp housing to be molded, and the molded members are individually processed (sandblasting). Etc.), the increase in cost due to the application of the present invention can be practically ignored.

In any of the methods (a) and (b), if the minute concavities and convexities 5a and 6a as shown in FIG. 1 (B) are provided, the contact surface between the lamp housing 5 and the lens 6 is formed. Both members are prevented from slipping relative to each other as they are prevented from sliding along. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of the trouble of disengagement, which is a serious deviation.

[0010]

When the present invention is applied, since visible and minute unevenness is formed on the surface where the lens and the lamp housing are in contact with each other, the frictional resistance against sliding along this surface is large. For this reason, both members are relatively unlikely to be displaced in a state where the lamp housing and the lens are combined, and there is no fear that the lamp housing and the lens will separate during the insertion. As a result, it is possible to set the lamp housing and the lens in the mold quickly, easily, and accurately without requiring skill in the insert work, and to damage the lamp housing due to a defective setting or to cause a lens due to a defective setting. Of the mold and early wear of the mold due to a defective set are prevented. Moreover, since the work of inserting the lamp housing and the lens into the mold by combining them becomes easy, this work has an excellent practical effect of facilitating automation.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a vehicular lamp integrally formed with a protector according to the present invention, (A) is a sectional view,
(B) is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a portion "b" surrounded by a chain line in the above (A) figure.

FIG. 2 is an exploded sectional view schematically showing a protector of a conventional example, a manufacturing method thereof, and a mounting means for a vehicle lamp.

FIG. 3 is a view for explaining a technique of insert-molding a protector integrally with a lamp housing and a lens, and (A) is a sectional view showing a state where the lens and the lamp housing are set in a mold; (B) is a cross-sectional view of a vehicular lamp integrally formed with a protector.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view for explaining a problem in the protector structure of the vehicular lamp according to the invention of the prior application,
(A) shows a state in which the lens and the lamp housing are combined and held by a fingertip, and (B) shows a state in which the combined lamp housing and the lens are separated.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Synthetic resin lamp housing, 2 ... Light source bulb,
3 ... Synthetic resin lens, 4 ... Protector molded separately from synthetic resin material, 5 ... Synthetic resin lamp housing, 5a ... Visible minute unevenness, 6 ... Synthetic resin lens, 6a ... Visible minute unevenness, 7 ... Synthetic resin protector integrally molded along the contact line between the lens and the lamp housing, a, a '... Arrows representing the mounting operation of the protector molded separately, Z, … The optical axis of the lamp.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A lamp housing made of synthetic resin and a lens made of synthetic resin, and a light source bulb is disposed in a lamp chamber surrounded by the lamp housing and the lens. A protector made of synthetic resin is integrally formed along the contact line with the lamp housing and the lens, and the protector is heat-welded to the lamp housing and the lens, so that the lamp housing A structure in which a protector is integrally formed with a structure in which a lens and a lens are coupled to each other, wherein a surface of the lamp housing facing and abutting the lens,
A vehicular lamp integrally formed with a protector, characterized in that visible microscopic irregularities are formed on a surface of the lens facing and abutting the lamp housing.