JPS5821361B2 - Vehicle lights - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] The present invention relates to a vehicle lamp.

In particular, the present invention relates to a vehicular lamp that ensures a good light distribution function as a lamp and improves visibility.

This type of vehicular lamp generally has a light source bulb disposed within a lamp chamber defined by a lamp body and a front lens.

However, in recent years, lamps have been proposed in which the lamp body is formed smaller than the front lens due to the structure of the mounting surface of the vehicle body on which the lamp is mounted or from the design requirements in terms of appearance.

In such a lamp, the front lens is larger in cross section than the lamp body.

In such a vehicle lamp, the reflector provided on the inner surface of the lamp body must be smaller than the effective surface of the lens, so various measures are required to obtain appropriate light distribution.

For example, in the conventional example shown in FIG. 1, the hole a' for mounting the lamp in the car body a is limited to a small size due to its structure, so the lamp body b is formed to correspond to the size of the hole a'. Since the lens C is formed larger than the body b, in such a configuration, the peripheral portion of the lens C becomes darker than the inside thereof, resulting in uneven light distribution.

That is, the light from the bulb d directly enters the surface of the lens C and becomes direct light, and is also reflected by the reflector e provided on the rear inner surface of the body a and becomes the forward emitted light. Since it is customary to use a paraboloid, the reflected light becomes a substantially parallel forward ray that is substantially parallel to the optical axis.

Therefore, this parallel emitted light does not contribute to the lens portion 2 on the outside of the reflector e, and only the direct light enters there.

Therefore, the area becomes darker than other areas where both direct light and parallel light rays contribute.

Although the position where such a dark zone occurs varies depending on the shape of the lamp, the dark zone Z is often located at the periphery, as shown in FIG. 2, for example.

When such a dark zone occurs, the luminous intensity decreases due to a decrease in the effective luminous flux, and the light distribution function decreases due to the fact that light is not emitted uniformly over the entire surface of the lens, resulting in a decrease in visibility.

In addition, the fisheye prism g formed on the front lens C is designed to control directional parallel light rays to obtain a desired light distribution.
The direct light that enters is not properly controlled and is diffused in a direction that is far away from the viewing angle, so it does not contribute to increasing the brightness of this part Z, and in the end, this dark zone Z It becomes a light-ineffective part and cannot function as a lamp.

For this reason, various proposals have been made to effectively utilize the dark portion Z at the periphery of the lamp.

Figures 3 to 5 show them.

In Fig. 3, an inner lens h is arranged behind a lens part Z where a dark zone may occur, and this lens h converts the direct light from the light source bulb d into a substantially parallel light beam forward, and converts it into a front surface. It is controlled by a fisheye prism g of a lens C to form an effective ray.

As such an inner lens h, a desired refraction can be achieved by using one having a Fresnel prism cut h' on the back surface.

As the inner lens h, there is an example in which a Fresnel prism cut h' for controlling the refraction of direct light into parallel light beams is formed on both surfaces thereof in mutually orthogonal directions, as shown in FIG. 4A2.

What is shown in Fig. 5 is a system in which a Fresnel cut is made directly on the back surface of the peripheral part of the front lens C to form a reflected image Fresnel prism part i, without using an inner lens, thereby converting direct light into parallel light rays forward. As mentioned above, in the case shown in FIGS. 3 to 5, a Fresnel prism or the like is installed in the lens part Z, which is the dark zone, and the direct light is converted into parallel light, and the entire C surface of the lens is used. is intended to be the effective part.

However, in the lamps shown in Figs. 3 to 5, the light from the reflector e does not enter the Fresnel prism portion, so no matter how parallel the light is, the luminous intensity in the lens periphery 2 is lower than that inside the lens. (This results in a dark zone, and uniform light distribution cannot be obtained.

In particular, lighting equipment that requires high visibility, such as signal lights and indicator lights, uses reflected light from a reflector and is controlled by a front lens, so the conventional example described above cannot ensure sufficient visibility. Can not.

In the end, it was decided that it would not be used for signal lights, etc.

Therefore, the present invention aims to solve the above-mentioned problems (by increasing the amount of light in the dark part at the periphery of the front lens with reflected light, eliminating this dark part, thereby achieving uniform light emission over the entire surface of the lens, and increasing the effective luminous flux. The object of the present invention is to provide a vehicular lamp that can improve visibility by increasing the light intensity and luminous intensity, and can maintain a good light distribution function.

Some embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 6 shows a first embodiment of the present invention, which is a vehicular lamp suitable for use as an automobile signal lamp or indicator lamp.

As shown in the drawing, the lamp according to the present invention includes a lamp body 1,
A light source bulb 4 is disposed in a lamp chamber 3 defined by a lens 2 disposed in front of the lens 2, and the lens 2 has a light source corresponding to the center of its optical axis (Y-Y axis). A refractive Fresnel prism section 5 is formed in the vicinity of the refractive index.

The "optical axis" referred to herein refers to the axis that passes through the light source point P of the bulb 4 and extends in the forward direction to be irradiated (that is, in the direction along the line from the body 1 to the lens 2 in FIG. 6). This corresponds to the illustrated Y-Y axis.

Therefore, the optical axis does not necessarily coincide with the direction of the installation axis of the bulb 4, and especially in the case of the example shown in FIG. It is not along the longitudinal direction of the valve 4.

Even in a lamp where the effective diameter l' of the lens 2 is much longer than the width l of the lamp body 1 as shown in the illustrated example, the area near the center of the optical axis has a relatively large amount of water because it is close to the optical axis. can obtain direct light.

On the other hand, in the present invention, a reflective Fresnel prism section 6 is formed around the periphery of the refractive Fresnel prism section 50.

The light incident on this part is considerably lower than that near the center of the optical axis.

In particular, as shown in the illustrated example, the corresponding part of the lamp body 1 has a step 11.
A portion 12 where the distance to the lens 2 is small through
When this happens, the amount of light is insufficient and dark zones are likely to occur.

Here, the present invention provides a focal line reflecting mirror 7 that allows a large amount of light to enter the reflecting Fresnel prism section 6 in the lamp chamber 3.
It is characterized by providing.

A focal line reflector is a curved surface whose cross section focuses light on a single point (including a point that can be recognized as almost a single point with some deviation), and a cross section perpendicular to the cross section focuses the light into approximately parallel rays. It has a curved surface as shown in FIG.

That is, as shown in FIG. 10, on one cross section, that is, on the Y direction cross section in the figure, the light from the light source P is focused on approximately one point, and on the X direction cross section perpendicular to the cross section, the light from the light source P is approximately parallel. A beam shaped like a beam of light is used.

Both the refractive Fresnel prism section 5 (portion near the optical axis center portion) used in the present invention and the reflective Fresnel prism section 6 around it direct light from the bulb approximately parallel to the optical axis. It consists of a direct-ray Fresnel prism lens that refracts and emits light.

By doing so, the light received by both prism sections 5 and 6 is made into substantially parallel effective light toward the front of the lamp, thereby improving the visibility of the lamp.

Note that the reflective Fresnel prism section 6 may be constructed from a Fresnel prism having a lattice or striped shape.

Since the vehicle lamp of the present invention has the above-described configuration, direct light from the bulb 4 enters the refractive Fresnel prism section 5 with a relatively large amount of light.

In other words, the light rays in the range from ray R1 to ray R2 in the figure directly enter this portion 5.

On the other hand, direct light from the bulb 4 also enters the reflective Fresnel prism section 6, and this is in the range of light rays R2 to R3 in the figure, but as described above, the reflective Fresnel prism section 6 Since the light is located off-axis, the light is attenuated, and therefore a sufficient amount of luminous flux cannot be obtained with only such direct light.

In order to compensate for this, in the present invention, the reflected light from the focal line reflecting mirror I enters into this portion 6, and the light ray R4 shown by the broken line in the figure is reflected by the focal line reflecting mirror 7, and the focal line F and enters the reflection system Fresnel prism section 6 (in this example, the path of this light ray R4 from the bulb 4 and the reflected return path almost overlap evenly).

Similarly, the ray R5 shown by the broken line is also reflected by the focal line reflector 7 and enters the reflection system Fresnel prism section 6 through the focal line F, and the reflected rays in the range from the ray R4 to the ray R5 are not directly incident light. used.

The light incident on both prism sections 5 and 6 both become forward, almost parallel outgoing light, but in the reflective Fresnel prism section 6, which is off the center of the optical axis, not only the direct light R2 to R3 but also the reflected light Since it receives R4 to R5, it is possible to achieve the same level of light emission as the refractive Fresnel prism section 5 which receives direct light R1 to R2 at a portion near the center of the optical axis.

That is, the amount of light incident on the prism section 6 by a normal parabolic reflector is within the range of angle α shown in FIG. 11, but in the present invention, since a focal line reflector is used, Since it is possible to make a large amount of light in the range of the angle β larger than the angle α enter the prism part 6 of the same area, a large amount of light flux is made to enter the reflective prism part 6 in the peripheral part of the lens, and the lens 2 Since the entire surface can be emitted uniformly, and the effective luminous flux is increased and the amount of light is increased, the visibility of the lamp is improved and a good light distribution function can be maintained.

FIG. 1 shows a second embodiment of the invention.

In this example, two focal line reflecting mirrors 7 are arranged in the lamp chamber 3.

Bifocal reflector 71. γ2 is each focus 8 F 1 ,
The structure is such that the reflected light beam passes through F2 and enters the reflective Fresnel prism portions 61 and 62 at the peripheral portion of the lens 2.Therefore, in this example, there are more reflective mirrors than in the example shown in FIG. 72 = +, t? s can be made to contribute to the surrounding area.

The example shown in FIG. 6 can be suitably used to eliminate the dark zone of the conventional example shown in FIG. 2, and the example of FIG. It is preferable to eliminate the problem.

Although the shape of the body 1 in the example shown in FIG. 7 is slightly different, other points are generally similar to the example shown in FIG. 6, so the same reference numerals are given.

FIG. 8 shows a third embodiment of the invention.

This can be called a modification of the first embodiment (shown in FIG. 6), and is the same as the example in FIG. 6 except that the configuration of the focal line reflecting mirror 7 is different.

That is, the focal line type reflecting mirror 7 in the example of FIG. 8 has a multi-stage shape, and the first reflecting part γa is connected to the first reflecting part γa via the stepped parts 7d and 7e.

It consists of a second reflecting section 7b and a third reflecting section 7c.

Of these, the second reflecting section 7b and the third reflecting section γC both have a common focal line, which is indicated by f2 in the figure, but the focal line f1 of the first reflecting section 7a is at a different position from the focal line f2.

In other words, this focal line type reflecting mirror 7 has a reflecting portion 7a of the focal line fI.
and the reflected portion 7b of the focal line f2.

7c, and has a plurality of focal lines.

Therefore, the light reflected by the first reflecting section 7a (for example, the light ray R6
, R7) pass through the focal line f1 and enter the reflection system Fresnel prism section 6, and the light reflected by the second and third reflection sections 7b and 7c (for example, rays R8? R9) pass through the focal line f2 and enter the reflection system Fresnel prism section 6. (It enters the reflective Fresnel prism section 6.

Therefore, the above-mentioned light beam enters the reflective Fresnel prism part 6, which is the peripheral part, and the light distribution in this part is enhanced, so that the effect of folding the plate shown in FIG. 6 can be achieved.

Note that in the figure, direct light is indicated by the symbol R]0tR1].

FIG. 9 shows a fourth embodiment of the invention.

This is a modification of the example shown in FIG. 7, but instead of the focal line reflector in the example shown in FIG. be.

In the figure, 71a, 71b, and 71c are the first and second focal line reflecting mirrors 71, respectively. Second. This is the third reflecting portion, and 71d and 71e are stepped portions.

fl indicates the focal line of the first reflecting section 71a, and f2 indicates the focal line of the second reflecting section 71a. A common focal line is shown in the third reflecting section.

Passing through the focal line fl+f2, the reflective Fresnel prism section 61
R12r R] 3 and R14+ R respectively
15.

On the other hand, 72a, 72b, 72c are the other focal line reflecting mirrors 7.
2 each 1st. Second. 72d, 72
e is the stepped portion.

f2] is the focal line of the first reflecting portion 72a, and f22 is the focal line of the second reflecting portion 72a. A common focal line is shown in the third reflection section.

The reflected lights passing through the focal line f21tf22 and entering the reflection system Fresnel prism section 61 are each R16°R]7: R18r
It is indicated by R19.

In this example, the light flux can be introduced into the reflective Fresnel prism parts 61 and 62 in the peripheral part more efficiently, thereby achieving uniform light distribution in the peripheral part.

Although direct light is not shown in FIG. 9 to avoid complication of the drawing, it goes without saying that direct light contributes to each prism portion 5°61.62.

As detailed above, the vehicular lamp of the present invention is a lamp in which a light source bulb is disposed within a lamp chamber defined by a lamp body and a lens disposed in front of the lamp body. A refractive Fresnel prism portion is formed in a portion near the center of the optical axis, and a reflective Fresnel prism portion is formed around the refractive Fresnel prism portion, and each of the prism portions is configured to receive light. The light chamber is composed of a direct-ray Fresnel prism lens capable of refracting the emitted light approximately parallel to the optical axis; A focal line type reflecting mirror whose vertical cross section is a curved surface that makes the light from the light source substantially parallel rays is disposed, and the reflected light from the focal line type reflecting mirror is configured to enter the reflection system Fresnel prism part of the lens. Therefore, it is possible to achieve uniform light emission over the entire surface of the lens in a lamp that does not use a reflector, and by increasing the effective luminous flux and the amount of light, it is possible to improve visibility and obtain a good light distribution function.

Note that, as a matter of course, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 to 4 show conventional examples, FIG. 1 is a sectional view of the first conventional example, FIG. 2 A is a front view showing the dark zone of the conventional example, and FIG. A cross-sectional view of the conventional example, FIG.
FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the third conventional example. FIGS. 6 to 9 show some of the embodiments of the present invention, and are sectional views showing the first to fourth embodiments, respectively. FIGS. 10A and 10C are explanatory views of a focal line reflecting mirror that can be used in each embodiment, and FIGS. 11 and 12 are detailed views of the effects of the present invention. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Lamp body, 2... Lens, 3... Light chamber, 4... Bulb, 5... Refractive Fresnel prism section, 6゜61.62... Reflective Fresnel prism section, 7
, 71° 72... Focal line reflector, 7a, γb, 7c.
・Reflection part, F t Fl + F2 t fl +
f2 + f21 + f22... focal line, P... light source.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A lamp comprising a light source bulb disposed within a lamp chamber defined by a lamp body and a lens disposed in front of the lamp body, the lens having a light source located at the center of its optical axis. A refractive Fresnel prism section is formed in the corresponding vicinity, and a reflective Fresnel prism section is formed around the refractive Fresnel prism section, and each prism section directs the light received from the light source bulb to the optical axis. It is composed of a direct Fresnel-like prism lens that can be refracted approximately parallel to the light source, and within the lamp chamber, one cross section forms a curved surface that collects light from the light source, and a cross section perpendicular to the cross section forms a curved surface that collects light from the light source. A focal line type reflecting mirror having a curved surface that makes the light of Vehicle lighting. 2. The vehicular lamp according to claim 1, wherein the focal line type reflecting mirror is composed of a combination of a plurality of focal line type reflection parts having a plurality of focal lines.