JPS5953242A - Illumination device for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enhance the startability of an illumination device using a high voltage electrical discharge lamp which has an inferior startability so that a high voltage is necesary upon starting, by utilizing a secondary voltage of an engine ignition coil as a starting voltage for the lamp. CONSTITUTION:When a high voltage electrical discharge lamp 13 as a headlamp is lit on, a lamp use switch 16 and as well a lamp starting switch 11 are closed. Then, a high voltage generated from the second coil 4b of an ignition coil device 4 is applied to a starting terminal 10 at a rate of one time per one revolution of a distributor 5. This high voltage of about 10,000 to 15,000V which is obtained through the terminal 10 is fed to the electrical discharge lamp 13 thrugh capacitors 12, 17 to momentarily light up the electrical discharge lamp 13. At this time, the high voltage is inhibited by a choke coil 14 from entering into an inverter 15 so that a circuit in the invertor 15 is protected.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to a lighting device for a vehicle, particularly to a headlamp, an interior light, a tail light, etc.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

Conventional vehicle lighting systems use incandescent bulbs (-
Most of them use a log lamp (including a log lamp). However, incandescent light bulbs have drawbacks such as low luminous efficiency, short lifespan, and high frequency of replacement.

Discharge lamps are known as light sources with high luminous efficiency and long life. For example, fluorescent lamps with excellent efficiency and longevity, such as low-pressure discharge lamps, have already been used as interior lights for cars such as passes. However, fluorescent lamps are large and cannot be used as headlights. There are usage restrictions such as:

For this reason, it is conceivable to use a high-pressure discharge lamp, such as a high-pressure mercury lamp, a metal halide lamp, or a high-pressure sodium lamp, as a light source. These high-pressure discharge lamps have high brightness and are superior to incandescent lamps in terms of luminous efficiency, color rendering, and lifespan.

However, the above-mentioned high-pressure discharge lamp has poor startability, and it takes several thousand seconds to start the lamp. Requires a starting voltage of Further, when the light is turned off after being turned on and then turned on again instantaneously, the metal vapor pressure within the arc tube is high, so an even higher restart voltage is required at the time of starting. If a special high voltage generation/starting device is installed to generate such a voltage, the equipment cost will be high.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention was made based on the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a lighting device for a vehicle that uses a high pressure discharge lamp as a light source without requiring a special high voltage generation starting device. It is something to do.

[Summary of the invention]

That is, the present invention focuses on the fact that an engine in a vehicle generates an extremely high secondary voltage on the secondary side of the ignition coil and supplies this high voltage to the spark plug, and starts and restarts a high-pressure discharge lamp. In this case, the above object is achieved by lighting the vehicle using the secondary voltage of the ignition coil.

[Embodiments of the invention]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below based on the drawings.

Figure 1 is an electrical circuit diagram showing the ignition electrical system of a 4-cycle, 4-cylinder engine installed in a car, etc., and the lighting system of a high-pressure discharge lamp, where 1 is a battery, 2 is a starter motor,
3 is a dynamo, 4 is an ignition coil, 5 is a distributor, and 6a to 6d are spark plugs for each cylinder.

When the engine start switch 7 is connected, the voltage of the battery I is applied to the starter motor 3, and the starter motor 3 is rotated, so that the crankshaft of the engine (not shown) is rotated. The dynamo 3 generates electricity in synchronization with the starting motor 3, and this voltage is applied to the primary coil 4 of the ignition coil 4:a
EC given, j given. The secondary coil 4b of the ignition coil 4 generates a secondary voltage of 10,000 to 15,000 yl, and this high voltage is ignited through each terminal 51L to 5d of the IJ view and terminal 5! Lada 6a
~6d. Therefore, the fuel supplied to the combustion chamber of each cylinder is ignited, and the engine is operated. The engine is rotated approximately 700 to 3,500 times per minute, and the distributor 5 is rotated at one-half of the engine speed.

In addition to terminals 5 & -5 d connected to spark plugs 6 a - 6 d, the distributor 5 is provided with a terminal 1 o for starting the engine, for example.

This starting terminal 10 is connected to a lamp 13 via a lamp starting switch 11 and a capacitor 12.

The lamp 13 is, for example, a headlamp, and a metal halide lamp having the structure shown in FIG. 2 is used. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 20 denotes an arc tube made of quartz glass 5-.D electrodes 2.1, 2 are provided with electrodes 21.22 facing each other in the arc tube 2θ.
;l is a tungsten electrode shaft 23tC wrapped with a tungsten electrode coil 24;
is a conductive foil 25 made of a high melting point metal such as molybdenum.
．． 25. The conductive foil 25.25 is sealed within the sealing part 26.26 of the arc tube and connected to the outer well 27.271/C. The arc tube 20 is filled with a predetermined amount of mercury and a metal halide as a luminescent metal, such as scandium-sodium iodide, and is also filled with a starting rare gas such as argon at a predetermined pressure. . In this embodiment, the distance t between the electrodes is 10 meters or less, and the lamp power consumption is 100 watts or less.

Such a metal Halley lamp 13 has a choke coil 14. It is differentially connected to the node I)-7 via the inverter 15. The inverter 15 determines whether the voltage 6-15 of the battery 1 is, for example, 200yI? This is to raise the pressure to about the same level as the normal temperature. Note that 16 is the lamp use switch - f11
7 indicates a capacitor.

The operation related to the above configuration will be explained.

When using the metal halide lamp 013 as a headlight, the lamp use switch 16 is closed. Even if this switch 16 is closed, the secondary voltage generated by the inverter 15 is at most 200? The lamp 13 does not light up because it is at a low level. The lamp starting switch 11 is closed while the engine is running. Then, the high voltage generated by the secondary coil 4bVC of the ignition coil 4 is
It is applied to the starting terminal 10 once per revolution of the distributor 5. This high voltage is connected to capacitor 12
．． 17 to the lamp 13. Note that this high voltage is blocked by the choke coil 14 and transferred to the inverter 15.
VC is prevented from entering, and the circuit of the inverter 15 is protected.

The secondary voltage of the ignition coil 4 is 10,000~
15,000 ports and 5 distributors
is half the engine speed, 1'-1'! Since it is rotated approximately 350 to 1750 times per minute, when the starting switch 11 is closed, the rung is rotated approximately 10000 to 1750 times.
A voltage of 15,000 yt" is applied at a rate of 6 to 30 times per second. Therefore, a very high voltage is applied to the lamp 13, so that the lamp 13 starts instantly. Even if it is difficult to start, a pulse voltage of 10,000 to 15,000 yt" is more than enough to start the engine instantly. Also, such high pressure A? Since the pulse is applied to the lamp at a rate of about 6 to 30 times per second, the starting switch 1 only needs to be closed for a fraction of a second, and can be opened immediately after starting. In other words, the starting switch 11 only needs to be turned on and off almost instantaneously.

When the lamp 13 is started as described above, since the battery voltage is boosted and applied to the rung 13 through the inverter 15, the run f13 maintains its discharge. Note that since the voltage boosted by the inverter 15 is prevented from entering the ignition Zolags 6a to 6d by the capacitor 17, there is no problem in engine operation.

According to such an embodiment, a special high-voltage generating starting device for starting the lamp is not required, so the structure is simple, the number of parts is small, and it can be realized with inexpensive equipment.

Moreover, since the rung 13 is a metal--→id lamp, it has a high luminous efficiency and a long life, and requires less frequent replacement.

Especially when used in headlights, the brightness is high and the rung size is small, making it easy to combine with reflectors.
When the inter-electrode distance t is set to 10 mm or less, the light source becomes almost a point light source, which facilitates correspondence with the focal position of the reflecting mirror.

By the way, the mercury vapor pressure is P (atmospheric pressure), and the distance between the electrodes is L (
If pxz≦200 (atmospheric pressure/■) 9-, then the /4' Lus voltage required for starting is 2000? It has been confirmed that it can be turned on before or after the rut, and that the restart voltage can be started at around 4000 x rut. Therefore, the ignition coil 4 of the commonly known engine
It has been confirmed that the following voltage is sufficient for starting.

Also, if the distance between the electrodes is 10 or less, the lamp becomes smaller as mentioned above, so it becomes essentially a point light source, and when used as a headlight in combination with a reflector, it is possible to control the light condensing property. This has the advantage of making it easier.

In the above embodiments, a metal halide lamp was used as the high-pressure discharge lamp, but the present invention can be similarly implemented using a high-pressure mercury lamp or a high-pressure sodium lamp in addition to a metal halide lamp.

Furthermore, the present invention is not limited to headlights in vehicles, but can also be applied to interior lights such as passes, taillights other than brake lights, and the like.

Furthermore, the way to extract the voltage is not limited to providing a special terminal 0 on the distributor 5, for example,
One of the terminals 5a-5d connected to each spark plug 6a-6d may be used. Also, without passing through the distributor 5, the secondary coil 4b of the ignition coil 4
The starting switch 11 may be directly connected to the starting switch 11.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As detailed above, the present invention uses the secondary voltage of the engine's ignition coil as the voltage for starting the lamp, making it possible to start the high-pressure discharge lamp extremely easily and without using any special equipment. can. Therefore, even if a high-pressure discharge lamp is used as a lighting device for a vehicle, it can be implemented with a simple configuration, and the lighting device can have excellent luminous efficiency and a long life.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings show one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is an electric circuit diagram showing an engine ignition system and a lamp lighting system, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing the structure of a metal halide lamp. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Patch 1J-14... Ignition coil, 5... Distributor, 11... Lamp starting switch, 13... High pressure discharge lamp (metal halide lamp), 14... Choke coil, 15... ... Inverter, 16... Lamp use switch, 20... Luminous tube, 21.22... Electrode.

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) In a vehicle equipped with an engine that boosts the battery voltage with an ignition coil and supplies the secondary voltage of this ignition coil to the spark plug to ignite the fuel in the combustion chamber, a high-pressure discharge lamp is used as the light source of the lighting device. A lighting device for a vehicle, wherein the high-pressure discharge lamp is connected to the secondary side of the ignition coil at the time of starting, and the secondary voltage of the ignition coil is used as a starting voltage. (2) The lighting device for a vehicle according to claim (1), wherein the lighting device is a headlamp of a vehicle. (3) The distance between the electrodes of the high pressure discharge lamp is 101111
The lighting device for a vehicle according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the lighting device is one or less small high-pressure discharge lamps.