JPH097412A - Reflecting surface structure of vehicular lighting fixture - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To enlarge the area of a light emitting part of a front lens, uniformly emit the light, and give a deep feeling to external appearance when it is unlighted by improving a structure of a reflector to reflect a light flux emitted from a light source bulb of a vehicular lighting fixture toward the front lens. CONSTITUTION: An inside surface (a surface on the illustrated side) of a reflector 4 also serving as an inner housing is formed as a reflecting surface. Plural curved cylindrical sheet-like reflecting elements 5a to 5d are put in a vertical directional attitude, and are arranged in the X axis direction. The center lines of these curved cylindrical sheet-like reflecting elements are curved in a parabolic shape. The parabola is positioned on a virtual surface in parallel to a Y-Z surface, and its focal distance becomes long in order of the curved cylindrical sheet-like reflecting element 5 → the 5d. Therefore, the light emitted from a light source bulb 3 is properly and diffusively reflected, and a purpose is attained.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a structure of a reflecting surface in a vehicular lamp of a type in which a light beam emitted from a light source is reflected by a reflecting mirror to project the light beam. It is suitable for a vehicle lamp that the user has.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 5 shows a conventional example of a vehicular lamp having a wraparound portion. (A) is a horizontal sectional view of a part of a turn signal lamp constituting a rear combination lamp, and (B) is It is the perspective view which extracted and drew the inner housing which doubled as the reflector of the said turn signal lamp. In the above (A) diagram, the upper side of the figure is the traveling direction of the vehicle, the lower side of the figure is the rear of the vehicle body in the main light emitting direction, and the left side of the figure corresponds to the left side of the vehicle body. Reference numeral 1 indicates the inner housing / reflector, and the front lens 2 is mounted so as to cover the front opening. However, unless otherwise specified, front and rear are referred to as the projection direction regardless of the traveling direction of the vehicle body and the opposite is the rear direction. In order to reflect the light beam emitted from the light source located at 3'in the figure toward the front, a paraboloid of revolution Rp having the focal point at the light source position 3'is set, and the inner housing is provided along the paraboloid of revolution Rp. Also, the main body 1a of the reflector 1 is molded, and its inner surface is made to function as a reflector. In this conventional example, a so-called kamaboko prism type reflecting element 1b is formed in the vertical direction on the inner surface of the main body 1a.
This reflective element reflects the incident light in the horizontal direction while diffusing the incident light in the lateral direction. That is, the counter arrow Y in FIG.
When viewed in the direction (planar projection), the reflected light is diffused, but when viewed in the direction of the arrow X (side projection), the reflected light is parallel to the Z axis shown. The reason for being configured in this manner is that the turn signal lamp emits light in a wide angle range in the horizontal direction, that is, lighting can be visually recognized from the wide range in the horizontal direction. Then, the horizontal reflected light diffused by the kamaboko prism type reflecting element 1b is dimmed when passing through the front lens 2 and projected as a diffused light beam toward the rear of the vehicle body (downward in FIG. A). Since the front lens 2 of this conventional example has a wrap-around portion 2a that curves toward the left side of the vehicle body in order to achieve a design harmony with the entire vehicle body, the side of the body portion 1a of the inner housing / reflector 1 side. On the other hand, a dummy part 1c is continuously provided facing the lens wraparound part 2a at substantially equal intervals. This dummy portion does not function as a reflector that reflects the light from the light source, but when the external light is received when it is not lit, the main body 1
A vertical prismatic surface-shaped reflective element 1d is formed so as to have an appearance similar to that of a. The term "rectangular prismatic surface shape" is a general term for straight prismatic shapes such as a right triangular prism, a right circular cylinder, and a right elliptic cylinder.

[0003]

The conventional vehicular lamp shown in FIG. 5 has the effect that the wraparound portion 2a of the front lens 2 also looks bright when external light is received when it is not lit. a) Since the luminous flux emitted from the light source position 3'and reflected by the inner surface of the inner housing / reflector 1 does not reach the wraparound portion 2a of the front lens at the time of lighting, the light emitting area of the front lens 2 is small, and For the reason, the external appearance of the front lens 2 when turned on has a non-uniform luminance distribution, and (b) the interval dimension D between the dummy part 1c and the front lens wraparound part 2a is small, so that the lens wraparound part 2a when not lit is There is a defect that the appearance has no depth. The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems all at once, and has a large light emitting area when turned on, a uniform luminance distribution, and a depth-like appearance when not turned on. An object of the present invention is to provide a reflective surface structure for a lighting fixture.

[0004]

The basic principle of the reflecting surface structure according to the present invention created to achieve the above object will be briefly described with reference to FIG. is there. In the conventional example, the straight columnar surface-shaped reflective element 1d in the Y-axis direction (vertical direction) is formed in the portion of the front lens 2 that faces the wraparound portion 2a. The present invention improves this reflective element to a curved cylindrical surface. In the present invention, the curved cylindrical surface shape means a shape similar to the curved cylindrical surface, and also includes a curved elliptic cylindrical surface and its modification. Further, according to the present invention, the center line of the above-mentioned curved cylindrical surface reflecting element forms a parabola and is arranged in the X-axis direction (left and right when viewed in the light projecting direction). As a result, the boundary line facing the adjacent reflective element also becomes a parabola. Further, in the present invention, the parabola, which is the above center line, is changed to Y
-Locate on a plane parallel to the Z plane. Along with this, the parabola, which is the boundary line, is also located on a plane parallel to the YZ plane. With respect to the large number of parabolas formed as described above, the shapes thereof are not made uniform, but the parabolic focal length increases as the distance from the light source increases. In the present invention, the above-mentioned tendency does not necessarily need to be an accurate proportional relationship, but means that even if there is a small variation, it is sufficient if it is in a proportional relationship when viewed as a macro. As a basic structure based on the above-described principle, the reflecting surface structure of the present invention is a structure of a reflecting surface of a vehicular lamp that reflects a light flux emitted from a light source and projects the light in front of the lamp. 3 orthogonal axes X, Y, Z
, A plurality of curved cylindrical surface-shaped reflecting elements are arranged substantially in the X-axis direction, and the boundary line where each of the curved cylindrical surface-shaped reflecting elements faces the adjacent reflecting element is Y-Z. A parabola located on the boundary surface parallel to the surface or a shape similar to the parabola, and a parabola located on the boundary surface close to the light source has a short focal length and is located on the boundary surface far from the light source. The parabola is characterized by a tendency for the focal length to be long. The boundary surface is a virtual plane used for explaining the tendency of the focal length of the parabola in the present invention to be long or short.

[0005]

According to the above-mentioned means, each of the plurality of curved cylindrical surface reflecting elements receives the light beam emitted from the light source and reflects it by providing appropriate diffusivity, so that the light emitting area can be widened. Since the plurality of curved columnar surfaces are arranged in the X-axis direction without arranging them equidistantly with respect to the wraparound portion of the front lens, all of the plurality of curved columnar surfaces emit light beams emitted from the light source. Received and diffusely reflected.
Therefore, the front lens has a uniform luminance distribution, and moreover, the curved cylindrical surfaces are arranged in the X-axis direction without being arranged equidistantly with respect to the wraparound portion of the front lens. There is no restriction on the distance dimension between the curved columnar surface and the front lens wraparound portion. Therefore, it is easy to set a large distance between the curved columnar surface and the front lens wraparound portion to give the appearance a depth feeling.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 2A and 2B show a vehicular lamp equipped with an embodiment of a reflecting surface structure according to the present invention. FIG. 2A is a partial horizontal sectional view showing coordinate axes, and FIG. 2B is a drawing with a front lens removed. It is the figure which added the coordinate axis to the partial front view. The front lens 2 is a member similar to or similar to that in the conventional example described with reference to FIG. 5 above, and has a wraparound portion 2a. Reference numeral 4 denotes an inner housing / reflector constructed by applying the present invention, and a plurality of curved cylindrical surface-shaped reflecting elements 5 are provided on the inner surface (front surface in the light projecting direction) thereof.
Has been formed. FIG. 3 is a partial perspective view in which the inner housing / reflector in the above embodiment is extracted and drawn. For convenience of explanation, orthogonal coordinate axes X, Y, and Z are assumed as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. The Z axis passes through the light source (the center point of the filament of the light source bulb 3) and is aligned with the main projection direction of the lamp. The X axis is the horizontal axis passing through the light source and the Y axis is the vertical axis. In FIG. 3, for convenience of explanation, a large number of curved cylindrical surface reflecting elements 5a, 5b to 5 are provided.
They are distinguished by adding suffixes in alphabetical order to d. The detailed structure of each of the large number of curved cylindrical surface reflecting elements will be described later with reference to FIG. Reference numeral 4a shown in FIG. 3 is a mounting hole provided in the inner housing / reflector 4 for mounting a bulb socket (not shown) for mounting the light source bulb 3. Among the plurality of curved cylindrical surface-shaped reflecting elements, the one closest to the light source bulb 3 is named 5a, and the farther away from the light source bulb 3, the more named 5b to 5d.

As shown in FIG. 2B, the boundary line between adjacent curved cylindrical surface reflecting elements 5 is a straight line parallel to the Y axis in the front view. That is, each of the boundary lines is located on a plane parallel to the YZ plane. For convenience of description, a virtual plane on which the above-mentioned boundary line is placed is called a boundary surface. The boundary line is a curved line as shown in FIG. 3 which is a perspective view, and more specifically has a parabolic shape. The fact that these boundary lines are parabolic means that the center line of the virtual curved cylinder that forms the basic shape of the curved cylindrical surface reflecting element is curved in a parabolic shape. ing. However, it is extremely difficult to observe and measure the curved cylindrical surface reflecting element as a resultant product and obtain the center line thereof. Therefore, the following explanation of the structure is mainly for the boundary facing the adjacent reflecting element. Do with lines.

FIG. 1 is a view for explaining a reflecting surface structure of a vehicular lamp according to the present invention, in which a coordinate axis and a light source position are shown in a perspective view of a plurality of curved cylindrical surface reflecting elements arranged in the X-axis direction. It is the figure which added and. The curved cylindrical surface-shaped reflecting elements 5a to 5d are sequentially arranged in the X-axis direction as the distance from the light source position 3'is increased. As an example, a curved cylindrical surface reflecting element 5b
As shown by adding a hidden line to a part of each of these, each of these curved cylindrical surface reflecting elements has a curved cylindrical surface shape that is convex toward the light source position. Curve P _30, P ₃₀ shown by the chain line 'is a boundary of a song cylindrical surface like reflection element 5a, respectively Y-
A focal length f = 3, which is located on a boundary surface (not shown, virtual surface) parallel to the Z plane and has a center line parallel to the Z axis
It is a 0 mm parabola. The distance La between the virtual boundary surface on which the parabolas P ₃₀ and P ₃₀ ′ are placed and the light source position 3 ′.
Is about 30 mm in this embodiment. That is, the distance from the light source and the focal length of the parabola are almost equal. Similarly, parabola P ₃₀ is a boundary of a song cylindrical surface like reflection element _{5b. 5, P 30. 5} ' includes a light source positioned 3' distance Lb from
It is located on a boundary surface (not shown) of ≈30.5 mm, and the focal length f = 30.5 mm. Similarly, the parabola P ₃₁ , P ₃₁ ′ which is the boundary line of the curved cylindrical surface reflecting element 5c is a boundary surface (not shown) at a distance Lc≈31 mm from the light source position 3 ′.
Located at the top, the focal length f = 31 mm. Similarly, a parabola P ₃₂ , which is a boundary line of the curved cylindrical surface reflecting element 5d,
P ₃₂ ′ is located on the boundary surface (not shown) at a distance Ld≈32 mm from the light source position 3 ′, and the focal length f = 32 mm.

When the present invention is carried out, the focal length of the parabola and the distance from the light source do not necessarily have to be equal, but the focal length is set larger as the distance from the light source increases. Each of the eight parabolas P ₃₀ and P ₃₂ ′ shown in FIG. 1 is located on an imaginary boundary surface parallel to the YZ plane, and these boundary surfaces are separated from the light source position 3 ′. are doing. Therefore, these parabolas are not parabolas whose focal point is the light source position. The prism-shaped reflecting element in the reflecting surface structure of the conventional example is a straight cylindrical surface, or is a curved cylindrical surface reflecting in the present invention in comparison with the case where the reflecting element is configured with a parabola whose focal point is the light source position. The element 5a is curved in a parabolic shape with no focus on the light source position. The above 8
Each of the parabola P ₃₀ and P ₃₂ ′ of the book does not need to be a strict parabola in terms of analytical geometry, and may have a shape similar to a parabola.

FIG. 4 shows a vehicular lamp equipped with the reflecting surface structure of the above embodiment, (A) is a plan view of a section taken along the XZ plane, and (B) is a bb plane. It is an arrow view cut and drawn by. As shown in FIG. 7A, the front lens 2 in this example has a wraparound portion 2a formed on the left side of the Z axis, so that the inner housing / reflector 4 of this example has the same structure as in FIG. The present invention is applied to the left side of the Z axis. (B) is a sectional side view of a portion configured by applying the present invention because it is a bb section. As shown in FIG. 5 described above, the main body 1a of the inner housing / reflector 1 of the conventional example has a light source position 3'in a plan view.
The main body portion 4b of the inner housing / reflector 4 of this embodiment is formed as shown in FIG.
As shown in (A), the right side of the Z axis (lens wraparound portion 2a
Is formed only on the side on which the YZ plane is not formed, and the left side of the figure is cut off with the YZ plane as a boundary.
A curved cylindrical surface reflecting element 5 extending in the left direction from the Z plane
a to 5e are arranged in the X-axis direction. Since a large number of curved cylindrical surface-shaped reflecting elements 5a to 5e have an arc-shaped horizontal cross section, the light emitted from the light source is diffused and reflected. For example, the light incident on the curved cylindrical surface reflecting element 5c as shown by the arrow a is reflected in the direction of the arrow a ', and
The light incident on the incident point different from the incident point of as shown by the arrow c is reflected in the direction of the arrow c ′ and diffused. In this way, the light flux emitted from the light source and reflected by the curved cylindrical surface reflecting element according to the present invention is given diffusivity in the horizontal plane.

Next, the reflection state in the vertical plane will be considered with reference to FIG. This (B) diagram
(A) The Y-axis is in the left-right direction in the figure because it is drawn so as to form a two-sided view by the triangular projection method in a pair with the figure, but the Y-axis is shown when the lamp is mounted on the vehicle. Represents the vertical axis, the arrow Y points upward with respect to the earth, and the Z axis is horizontal, and the arrow Z represents the main projection direction. Since the inner housing / reflector of the conventional example has the reference shape of the paraboloid of revolution whose focal point is the light source position, the light source position 3 '
The light that has exited from and is incident on the reflecting surface as indicated by arrows e and d is reflected parallel to the Z axis (that is, in the horizontal direction) as indicated by dotted arrows e ″ and d ″, and is not diffused in the vertical plane. .
However, the curved cylindrical surface reflecting element 5 of the present invention is arranged at the light source position 3 '.
Since it is not a paraboloid of revolution whose focal point is, the reflected light does not become a parallel light flux and is diffused and reflected in the vertical direction as indicated by arrows d'and e '. As described above with reference to FIG. 4, the curved cylindrical surface reflecting element of the present embodiment imparts diffusivity to the incident light and reflects it toward the front lens 2. Therefore, the front lens 2
Including the wrap-around portion 2a, each portion of (1) receives the reflected light flux from each portion of each of the large number of curved cylindrical surface-shaped reflecting elements 5a to 5e. As a result, the entire surface of the front lens 2 including the wraparound portion 2a appears to be uniformly emitting light, and the area of the light emitting portion is large. As shown in FIG. 5 (A) illustrating a conventional example, the inner housing / reflector 1 of the conventional example is shown.
Right prismatic surface reflective element 1d provided on the dummy portion 1c of
Was opposed to the wraparound portion 2a of the front lens 2 with a relatively short distance D, but the curved cylindrical surface-shaped reflecting element 5a of this example was used.
5e are arranged in the X-axis direction as shown in FIG. 4 (A). For example, the distance E between the curved cylindrical surface-shaped reflecting element 5e and the front lens wraparound portion 2a is equal to the distance D. Compared to this, it is set to be significantly larger. Therefore, there is a sense of depth when viewed from the front of the lamp when it is not lit. As described above, according to the inner housing / reflector 4 of the present embodiment, the light emitting area of the front lens 2 applied during lighting is wide,
Moreover, the luminance distribution of the light emitting portion is uniform, and in addition, there is a sense of depth in the appearance when it is not lit, and the product value is high. The curved cylindrical surface reflecting element in the above-described embodiment has a curved cylindrical surface shape that is convex toward the light source position 3 ', but as can be understood from FIG. 4A showing the function and effect thereof. When a curved cylindrical surface (not shown) concave toward the light source position 3'is formed, the incident light beams as shown by the arrows a and c are reflected as convergent light beams as shown by the dotted arrows a "and c". However, the same effect as in the above-described embodiment can be obtained because the light is diffused after it intersects once. Although the embodiment described above is an example in which the reflecting surface structure of the present invention is applied to the reflecting surface formed on the inner surface of the inner housing / reflector, the reflecting surface structure of the present invention is formed on the inner surface of the inner housing / reflector. It is possible to apply not only to the reflecting surface of the lamp housing but also to the reflecting surface formed on the inner surface of the lamp housing / reflector, or to a dedicated reflector that is not also used as the lamp housing. The same action as
The effect is obtained.

[0012]

As described above with reference to the embodiments,
According to the reflecting surface structure to which the present invention is applied, each of the plurality of curved cylindrical surface-shaped reflecting elements receives the light flux emitted from the light source,
Since an appropriate diffusivity is given and reflected, the light emitting area can be widened. Since the plurality of curved columnar surfaces are arranged in the X-axis direction without arranging them equidistantly with respect to the wraparound portion of the front lens, all of the plurality of curved columnar surfaces emit light beams emitted from the light source. Received and diffusely reflected. Therefore, the brightness distribution of the front lens is uniform,
Moreover, since the plurality of curved columnar surfaces are arranged in the X-axis direction without being arranged equidistantly with respect to the wraparound portion of the front lens, the distance dimension between the curved columnar surface and the front lens wraparound portion is set. Not restricted. Therefore, it is easy to set a large distance between the curved cylindrical surface and the front lens wraparound portion to give the appearance a depth, and it is possible to construct a vehicle lamp having a high commercial value. It has a practical effect.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a view for explaining a reflecting surface structure of a vehicular lamp according to the present invention, in which a coordinate axis and a light source position are shown in a perspective view of a plurality of curved cylindrical planar reflecting elements arranged in the X-axis direction. It is the figure which added.

2A and 2B show a vehicular lamp including one embodiment of a reflecting surface structure according to the present invention, where FIG. 2A is a partial horizontal sectional view showing coordinate axes, and FIG. 2B is a drawing with a front lens removed. It is the figure which added the coordinate axis to the partial front view.

FIG. 3 is a partial perspective view in which the inner housing / reflector in the above embodiment is extracted and drawn.

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing a vehicular lamp equipped with the reflecting surface structure of the above embodiment, in which (A) is a plan view taken along the line XZ and (B) is cut along the line bb. It is an arrow view drawn by.

FIG. 5 is a view showing a conventional example of a vehicular lamp having a wraparound portion, (A) is a horizontal sectional view of a part of a turn signal lamp constituting a rear combination lamp, and (B) is the turn signal lamp. FIG. 3 is a perspective view of an inner housing that also serves as a reflector of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Inner housing and reflector of a prior art example, 1a ... Rotating parabolic body part, 1b ... Kamaboko prism type reflection element, 1c ... Dummy part, 1d ... Straight column surface reflection element, 2 ... Front lens, 2a ... Surrounding part, 3 ... Light source bulb, 3 '...
Light source position, 4 ... Inner housing and reflector in the embodiment of the present invention, 4a ... Light source bulb socket mounting hole, 4
b ... Inner housing / reflector body, 5, 5a
-5d ... Curved cylindrical surface reflecting element, 6 ... Color cap.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In the structure of a reflecting surface of a vehicular lamp that reflects a light beam emitted from a light source and projects the light in front of the lamp, three orthogonal axes X, Y, and Z with a main light emitting direction as a Z axis are assumed. However, a plurality of curved cylindrical surface-shaped reflecting elements are arranged substantially in the X-axis direction, and the boundary line where each of the curved cylindrical surface-shaped reflecting elements faces the adjacent reflecting element is the YZ plane. A parabola located on a parallel boundary surface or a shape similar to that of a parabola, and a parabola located on a boundary surface close to the light source has a short focal length and is located on a boundary surface far from the light source. A reflecting surface structure of a vehicular lamp, wherein the parabola tends to have a long focal length.