JPH1153903A - Lighting system for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To miniaturize and reduce cost for a lighting system for vehicle, and also to improve safety. SOLUTION: A headlamp 14 is provided, where a lighting body 21 comprising two transparent acrylic resin materials 22, 23 are mounted with a support body 26 to a front part of a vehicle body 12. A HID(high intensity discharge) light source 30 is connected to the lighting body 21 via an optical fiber 29. Further, a reflecting surface 24 and a diffusion surface 25 are formed to the lighting body 21, light from the HID light source 30 is led into the lighting body 21 through the optical fiber, the light penetrates inside the lighting body 21 to be reflected at the reflection surface 24, and then it is refracted and diffused at the diffusion surface 25 to be lighted up in a prescribed direction.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a lighting device such as a headlamp provided on both sides of a front portion of a vehicle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A headlamp of a vehicle is configured such that a bulb as a light source is accommodated in a reflector case and a lens is mounted on a front surface. Therefore, when the bulb is turned on,
Light is condensed by the reflecting surface in the reflector case, and is emitted to the front of the vehicle through the lens.

[0003]

However, in such a conventional headlamp, since the bulb as a light source is housed in the reflector case, the lamp itself needs to be provided with a predetermined brightness. It becomes large.
When the size of the headlamp is increased, the vehicle design is restricted and the degree of freedom is lost. In addition, due to an increase in the size of the headlamp, the injury value of the pedestrian at the time of a collision with the pedestrian increases, which is not preferable in terms of pedestrian protection. Furthermore,
The conventional headlamp has a problem that power consumption at the time of light emission is large and cost is increased.

[0004] Therefore, as a common light source for the two headlamps, for example, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 6-20504.
There is a "vehicle illuminating device" disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) Publication. In this “vehicle lighting device”, a light source is attached to the rear of one of the lighting devices, and the light of the light source is reflected by a reflector and radiated forward, while being guided to the other lighting device by an optical fiber and directed forward. Irradiation is performed. However, in this "vehicle lighting device", the structure of one of the lighting devices becomes complicated in order to mount a light source on the rear of one of the lighting devices and distribute light to both of the lighting devices, and the size of the lighting device becomes large. I will.

An object of the present invention is to solve such a problem, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicular lighting device that is reduced in size and cost and that improves safety.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a vehicle lighting device, comprising: a light source which is provided at a front portion of a vehicle and has a light transmitting property through an optical fiber; The lighting unit is provided with a reflection unit and a diffusion unit. Therefore, light is introduced into the illuminating body from the light source through the optical fiber, and is reflected by the reflection unit and diffused by the diffusion unit to be irradiated in a predetermined direction.
Since the light source and the illuminating body are separate bodies, the illuminating body can be simplified and downsized, the direction of light to be introduced from the optical fiber to the illuminating body is not specified, and the degree of freedom of design and the optical fiber are increased. A predetermined range can be reliably irradiated to diffuse the transmitted light by the diffusion unit.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing a vehicle lighting device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an external view of a vehicle equipped with the vehicle lighting device of the embodiment, and FIG. 3 shows an attached state of a lighting device.

As shown in FIG. 2, a vehicle 11 has a cabin 13 disposed at a central portion of a vehicle body 12, and a headlamp 14 as a vehicle lighting device of the present embodiment is provided on both sides of a front portion of the vehicle body 12. It is installed. This headlamp 14
As shown in detail in FIG. 3, is mounted on a cooling air inlet 15, and is of a retractable type. That is, when the headlamp 14 is not used, the headlamp 14 is rotated upward and stored, and when used, the headlamp 14 is rotated downward and protrudes, so that the front can be irradiated.

In this headlamp 14, as shown in FIG. 1, the illuminating body 21 is composed of two transparent acrylic resin materials 2.
2 and 23 are integrally fixed, and a reflection surface 24 is formed on the contact surface between the two. The reflection surface 24 is formed by vapor-depositing aluminum on the inclined surface portion of the acrylic resin material 23 on the rear side. A diffusion surface 25 is formed on the front surface of the front acrylic resin material 22 by frost processing.

The illuminating body 21 made of the acrylic resin materials 22 and 23 has a support 26 fixed to the upper surface thereof, is rotatably supported on the vehicle body 12 by a hinge shaft 27, and is turned up and down by a driving unit (not shown). Then, it can be moved to an upper storage position and a lower protruding position. Also,
One end of an optical fiber 29 is fixed to the support 26 by a mounting bracket 28, and the end of the optical fiber 29 penetrates the support 26 and the illumination body 21 (acrylic resin material 22)
Facing. The other end of the optical fiber 29 is connected to a high intensity discharge (HID) light source 30 such as a high intensity discharge lamp disposed on the back side of the hood of the vehicle 1.

Therefore, when a headlamp switch (not shown) is operated, the headlamp 14 pivots downward and protrudes. In this state, light is introduced from the HID light source 30 through the optical fiber into the illuminator 21. Then, this lighting body 21
Is transmitted through the acrylic resin material 22 from above, collides with the reflection surface 24, is reflected, and the traveling direction is changed. The light reflected by the reflection surface 24 passes through the inside of the acrylic resin material 22 and reaches the diffusion surface 25.
Here, the light is refracted and diffused by the diffusing surface 25 and is emitted in a predetermined direction, and irradiates the front of the vehicle 11.

As described above, in the headlamp 14 as the vehicle lighting device according to the present embodiment, the lighting body 21 made of two transparent acrylic resin materials 22 and 23 is provided at the introduction port 15 of the vehicle body 12 with the supporting body 26. This lighting body 2
1 is connected to the HID light source 30 via the optical fiber 29, and the reflecting surface 24 and the diffusing surface 25 are formed on the illuminating body 21, so that light is introduced from the HID light source 30 to the illuminating body 21 through the optical fiber. The light passes through the interior of the illuminating body 21, is reflected on the reflection surface 24, is refracted and diffused by the diffusion surface 25, and is irradiated in a predetermined direction.

Therefore, since the HID light source 30 and the illuminating body 21 are separate bodies, the illuminating body 21 can be simplified and downsized, and the light passing through the optical fiber 29 can be transmitted through the diffusing surface 25.
Thus, a predetermined range in front of the vehicle 11 can be reliably irradiated. Since the light is once reflected by the diffusing surface 25 and changed its traveling direction and guided to the diffusing surface 25, the direction of introduction of light from the optical fiber 29 to the illuminating body 21 is not defined, and the degree of design freedom is increased. Increase. Further, the weight of the lighting body 21 is reduced by forming the lighting body 21 with the acrylic resin materials 22 and 23, and the cooling performance is improved by providing the lighting body 21 at the cooling air inlet 15.

In the above-described embodiment, the illumination body 21
Is formed by integrally fixing two transparent acrylic resin materials 22 and 23, but the material is not limited to acrylic resin, and may be glass or polycarbonate, for example, as long as it has transparency. Also, an optical fiber 29 is attached to the upper part of the illuminating body 21, and the light from the optical fiber 29 is reflected by the reflecting surface 24 and guided to the front diffusion surface 25. Alternatively, the light from the optical fiber 29 may be directly guided to the diffusion surface 25. Furthermore,
A reflecting surface 24 is provided at the rear of the illuminating body 21 and the diffusing surface 2 is provided at the front.
Although the reflecting surface 24 is provided, the reflecting surface 24 may be frosted and the diffusing surface 25 may be provided here.

Although the headlamp 14 is of a retractable type, it may be a fixed type.
Further, the headlamp 14 may be provided in another portion instead of the cooling air inlet 15.

[0017]

As described in detail in the above embodiment, according to the vehicle lighting device of the first aspect of the present invention, the light source provided to the transmissive illuminator provided at the front of the vehicle via the optical fiber. And by providing a reflecting portion and a diffusing portion to the illuminating body, the light introduced into the illuminating body from the light source through the optical fiber is reflected by the reflecting portion and diffused by the diffusing portion to irradiate in a predetermined direction. As a result, the light source and the illuminating body are separated from each other, so that the illuminating body can be simplified and downsized. The degree of freedom of design and design is increased, and the value of injury to pedestrians is reduced in the event of a collision with pedestrians, which can contribute to pedestrian protection. Safe and able It is possible to improve the.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a vehicle lighting device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an external view of a vehicle equipped with the vehicle lighting device of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a mounting state diagram of the vehicle lighting device of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Vehicle 12 Body 13 Cabin 14 Headlamp (lighting device) 15 Air guide 21 Illumination body 22, 23 Acrylic resin material 24 Reflection surface 25 Diffusion surface 26 Support body 29 Optical fiber 30 HID light source

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A light source is connected via an optical fiber to an illuminating body provided at the front of a vehicle and having transparency, and a reflecting section and a diffusing section are provided on the illuminating body so that the light source passes through the optical fiber. A lighting device for a vehicle, wherein the light introduced into the lighting body is reflected by the reflecting portion and diffused by the diffusing portion to irradiate the light in a predetermined direction.