JP5507210B2 - Vehicle lighting - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicular lamp applied to a marker lamp in a vehicle such as an automobile, and more particularly to a vehicular lamp using an LED (light emitting diode) as a light source.

Conventionally, in the case where light is incident on a light guide in a vehicle lamp, the following methods 1) to 3) are mainly employed.
1) A method of entering light from the side of the light guide.
There is a method in which an LED is arranged near the side end face of a rod-shaped light guide, the LED is hidden by an extension or the like, and the light of the LED is incident from the side end face of the light guide. In this case, as many LEDs as the number of light guides are required, and the number of LEDs cannot be reduced.
2) A method in which a non-light-emitting portion is formed in a part of the light guide to introduce light.
The LED is arranged behind the light guide, a control surface is formed on the rear surface of the light guide on the optical axis, and the LED light is guided in the left-right direction while being totally reflected after being incident on the light guide. There is a way. In this case, a non-light emitting portion is formed in the light incident portion in front view.
3) A method in which light is incident from the back surface of the light guide.
There is a method in which a plate-shaped light guide is arranged in the vertical direction or the horizontal direction, and the light of the LED is incident from the vicinity of the back surface thereof to guide the light forward. In this case, many LEDs are required to emit light from one light guide, and the number of LEDs cannot be reduced.
In particular, according to the method 1) or 3), as the number of light guides that emit light increases, the number of LEDs and the number of circuit boards increase, making it difficult to achieve compactness and cost reduction.

  As an improvement measure of the method of entering the light guide according to 1) to 3) above, a reflector having a reflecting surface that reflects the LED light toward the front of the lamp, and the LED light is incident from one side and forward There is a vehicular lamp provided with a plate-like light guide that emits from the other side face (see, for example, Patent Document 1). This vehicular lamp uses a part of the light of the LED to emit light from the light guide, thereby reducing the number of LEDs and reducing the size and power consumption.

JP 2008-10227 A

  However, in the vehicular lamp having the configuration disclosed in Patent Document 1 and the like, there is a limit in further reducing the minimum number of LEDs. Therefore, it is difficult to reduce the number of assembly steps, circuit boards, and the like, and problems remain in further downsizing, lower power consumption, and cost reduction.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and provides a vehicular lamp that can reduce the number of light sources and circuit boards, and can reduce the number of assembling steps and the cost. is there.

  The object of the present invention is to provide a light source, a light guide having a plurality of light incident surfaces larger than the number of light sources around the optical axis of the light source, and emitting light from the light source forward of the lamp, A first reflecting portion disposed in front of the light source and configured to distribute and reflect light from the light source toward the plurality of second reflecting portions; and disposed corresponding to each light incident surface of the light guide. It is achieved by a vehicular lamp, comprising: a second reflecting portion that reflects the light distributed from the reflecting portion to the light incident surface of the light guide.

  According to the vehicular lamp configured as described above, the first reflection portion distributes and reflects the light from the light source toward the plurality of second reflection portions, and the second reflection portion guides the distribution light from the first reflection portion. Reflected on the light incident surface. Thereby, the number of light sources and the number of circuit boards can be reduced, and the number of assembly steps and cost can be reduced. In addition, various light-emitting shapes of the light guide can be adopted with a minimum number of light sources, and a vehicle lamp with high power consumption and high design freedom can be obtained.

  In the vehicular lamp configured as described above, the first reflecting portion collects and reflects the light from the light source while distributing and reflecting the light from the light source to the second reflecting portion, and the second reflecting portion includes the first reflecting portion. It is desirable to collect and reflect the light from the part toward the light incident surface of the light guide.

  According to the vehicular lamp having such a configuration, the first reflecting portion collects and reflects the light from the light source while distributing and reflecting the light from the light source to the second reflecting portion, so that the lamp chamber can be made compact. In addition, since the second reflecting portion collects and reflects the light from the first reflecting portion toward the light incident surface of the light guide, the pseudo light source can be formed in the vicinity of the light incident surface. As a result, it is possible to further reduce the size of the light emitting device and to form a pseudo light emitting unit having a good appearance.

  Further, in the vehicular lamp configured as described above, the light guide is disposed so as to extend from the periphery of the optical axis of the light source to the front position of the second reflecting portion, and the light reflected by the second reflecting portion is: It is desirable that light is incident from the side surface of the light guide and emitted toward the front of the lamp.

  According to the vehicular lamp having such a configuration, since the light of the light source is incident from the side surface of the light guide and then emitted toward the front of the lamp, the light is incident on the light guide from the rear center of the light guide. The non-light-emitting part which occurs is not generated.

  Further, in the vehicular lamp configured as described above, the first reflecting portion is a substantially elliptical reflecting surface, the light source is disposed at a first focus of the first reflecting portion, and the second focus of the first reflecting portion and the It is desirable that the first reflecting part is arranged so that the focal point of the second reflecting part coincides.

  According to the vehicular lamp having such a configuration, the light source is arranged at the first focal point of the first reflecting part which is a substantially elliptical reflecting surface, and the second focal point of the first reflecting part coincides with the focal point of the second reflecting part. Since the first reflecting portion is arranged as described above, further downsizing can be achieved. Moreover, various light emission shapes can be taken by changing the reflective surface shape of the first reflective portion.

  In addition, the above object of the present invention is to distribute light more than the number of light sources to a light source and a second reflection unit arranged in front of the light source and arranged around the optical axis of the light source. And a light guide that reflects the distributed light from the first reflector to the front of the lamp after being reflected by the second reflector, and a peripheral end of the light guide. And the second reflecting part that reflects the light distributed from the first reflecting part in the direction of the optical axis in the light guide body.

  According to the vehicular lamp configured as described above, the first reflecting portion reflects light from the light source toward the second reflecting portion, which is larger than the number of light sources, as a plurality of distributed lights, and the second reflecting portion is from the first reflecting portion. The distributed light is emitted forward of the lamp while being reflected in the direction of the optical axis in the light guide. Thereby, the number of light sources and the number of circuit boards can be reduced, and the number of assembly steps and cost can be reduced. In addition, various light-emitting shapes of the light guide can be adopted with a minimum number of light sources, and a vehicle lamp with high power consumption and high design freedom can be obtained. Furthermore, since the light guide and the second reflecting portion are integrally formed, it is possible to further reduce the assembly man-hour and the cost.

  According to the vehicular lamp according to the present invention, the second reflecting portion that is disposed at or near the peripheral end portion of the light guide body by reflecting the necessary number of distributed lights from the minimum number of light sources by the first reflecting portion. Reflect towards. The distributed light is further reflected by the second reflecting portion, and emitted toward the front of the lamp while being reflected toward the optical axis in the light guide. Thereby, the number of light sources and the number of circuit boards can be reduced, and the number of assembly steps and cost can be reduced. In addition, various light-emitting shapes of the light guide can be adopted with a minimum number of light sources, and a vehicle lamp with high power consumption and high design freedom can be obtained.

1 is a front view of a vehicular lamp 10 according to a first embodiment of the present invention. It is a side view of FIG. It is the sectional view on the AA line of FIG. It is a front view of the vehicle lamp 30 of 2nd Embodiment which concerns on this invention. It is a front view of the vehicle lamp 40 of 3rd Embodiment which concerns on this invention. It is sectional drawing of the vehicle lamp 50 of 4th Embodiment which concerns on this invention.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of a vehicular lamp according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. The vehicular lamp is housed in a lamp housing and is mounted on the vehicle as a rear combination lamp, for example.

(First embodiment)
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the vehicular lamp 10 according to the first embodiment of the present invention has a single LED 11 serving as a light source disposed at the center of a base 19 in a lamp housing (not shown). Yes. A first reflector 15 that is a first reflector in front of the LED 11, a light guide 13 that is further forward of the first reflector 15, and a second reflector that is a second reflector near the outer end of the light guide 13. 14 are arranged.

  The light guide 13 has six light incident surfaces 12 larger than the number of LEDs 11 around the optical axis of the LED 11, and emits the light of the LED 11 forward of the lamp. Light incident surfaces 12 are formed at both ends of the light guide 16. The shape of the light guide 13 is a dome shape in which the light guide portion 16 having three curved square bar shapes is projected in an asterisk shape in a front view and curved forward in a side view, for example, transparent, red, yellow It is integrally molded from a resin material such as orange.

  The first reflector 15 is disposed in front of the LED 11, and reflects the light from the LED 11 toward the six second reflectors 14 as the distribution light α. The first reflector 15 has a bottomed cylindrical shape whose front side is closed, and has a first reflecting surface (see FIG. 3) 18 that is a substantially elliptic reflecting surface divided into six surfaces on the LED 11 side of the bottomed portion. doing. The first reflector 15 has light guide holes 17 at six locations corresponding to the light guide 13 on the periphery. In addition, a focus can be formed in all directions by changing the division | segmentation number and shape of the elliptical reflective surface of the 1st reflective surface 18. FIG.

  Six second reflectors 14 are arranged on the outer peripheral edge of the base 19 near the light incident surface 12 at the end of the light guide 13, and the distributed light α from the first reflector 15 is input to the light guide 13. Reflected to the light surface 12. The 2nd reflector 14 has the 2nd reflective surface 20 which is a substantially elliptical reflective surface in the front-end | tip part.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the LED 11 is mounted on the LED substrate 21. The light guide 13 forms a step 22 composed of a plurality of concave and convex surfaces on the inner surface of each light guide 16 on the LED 11 side. In the first reflector 15, the LED 11 is arranged at the first focal point of the first reflecting surface 18, and the second focal point of the first reflecting surface 18 and the first focal point a of the second reflecting surface 20 of the second reflector 14 are the same. They are arranged to match.

  The first reflector 15 reflects the light of the LED 11 as distributed light α directed in six directions corresponding to the second reflecting surfaces 20 of the six second reflectors 14 by the first reflecting surfaces 18 divided into six surfaces. The distributed light α is condensed and reflected from the light guide hole 17 along the light guide 13 toward the first focal point a of the second reflecting surface 20 of each second reflector 14. The second reflecting surface 20 of the second reflector 14 collects and reflects the distribution light α from the first reflector 15 toward the second focal point b near the light incident surface 12 of the light guide 13. At this time, the second focal point b of the second reflecting surface 20 can be viewed as a pseudo light source as if there is a light emitting part of the LED 11. This eliminates the need for a gap required when an actual LED light source is disposed between the light incident surface 12 and the second focal point b, which is a pseudo light source, and can be more compact than LED mounting.

  The distributed light α collected at the second focal point b of the second reflecting surface 20 enters the light guide 16 from the light incident surface 12 of the light guide 13. The incident distributed light α is reflected several times in the light guide portion 16 in the direction of the optical axis Ax through the step 22 and then forward from the center and side portions of the light guide 13 to the front of the lamp (left direction in the drawing). Irradiated towards. The second reflecting surface 20 is not necessarily an elliptical reflecting surface, and may be a parabolic surface, for example. In this case, parallel light is reflected from the second reflecting surface 20 to the light incident surface 12 of the light guide 13.

  According to the vehicle lamp 10 of the first embodiment described above, the light guide 13 has a plurality of light incident surfaces 12 around the optical axis Ax of the LEDs 11 and emits the light of the LEDs 11 forward of the lamps. A first reflector 15 that is disposed in front of the LED 11 and distributes and reflects the light from the LED 11 toward the plurality of second reflectors 14, and is disposed corresponding to each light incident surface 12 of the light guide 13; A second reflector 14 that reflects the distributed light α from the first reflector 15 to the light incident surface 12 of the light guide 13.

  Thus, the light from the LED 11 is reflected by the first reflector 15 toward the second reflector 14 as the distribution light α, and then reflected by the second reflector 14 toward the light incident surface 12 of the light guide 13. . The distributed light α that has entered the light guide 13 is reflected in the direction of the optical axis Ax in the light guide 13 and irradiated forward of the lamp. Therefore, the number of LEDs and the number of LED substrates can be reduced, and the number of assembly steps and cost can be reduced. In addition, various light emission shapes can be adopted with a minimum number of LEDs, and a vehicular lamp with high power consumption and a high degree of design freedom can be obtained.

  Moreover, since the 1st reflector 15 condenses and reflects the light from LED11 toward the 2nd reflector 14, it can be made compact in a lamp chamber. Further, since the second reflector 14 collects and reflects the distributed light α from the first reflector 15 toward the light incident surface 12 of the light guide 13, the pseudo light source can be formed in the vicinity of the light incident surface 12. it can. As a result, it is possible to further reduce the size of the light emitting device and to form a pseudo light emitting unit having a good appearance.

  The light guide 13 is arranged so as to extend from the periphery of the optical axis Ax of the LED 11 to the front position of the second reflector 14, and the distribution light α reflected by the second reflector 14 is from the side surface of the light guide 13. Since the light is incident and irradiated toward the front of the lamp, a non-light-emitting portion that occurs when the light is incident on the light guide from the rear center of the light guide 13 does not occur.

  The first reflector 15 is a substantially elliptical reflecting surface, the LED 11 is disposed at the first focus of the first reflector 15, and the second focus of the first reflector 15 and the focus of the second reflector 14 are matched. Since the one reflector 15 is arranged, further downsizing can be achieved. Various light emission shapes can be adopted by changing the shape of the reflecting surface of the first reflector 15.

(Second Embodiment)
Next, a vehicle lamp according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the following embodiments, the same components as those in the first embodiment described above are denoted by the same reference numerals in the drawings, and the description thereof is omitted.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the vehicular lamp 30 according to the second embodiment includes a light guide 32 in which two light guides 31 are formed in a cross shape when viewed from the front. Four second reflectors 14 are arranged corresponding to the surface 12.

  The first reflector 15 distributes the light of the LED 11 in four directions corresponding to the second reflecting surfaces 20 of the four second reflectors 14 by the first reflecting surfaces 18 (see FIG. 3) divided into four surfaces. Reflects as α. The distributed light α is condensed and reflected from the light guide hole 17 along the light guide 32 toward the second reflecting surface 20 of each second reflector 14. The second reflecting surface 20 of the second reflector 14 collects and reflects this distributed light α toward the vicinity of the light incident surface 12 of the light guide 32. At this time, the vicinity of the light incident surface 12 of the light guide 32 can be viewed as a pseudo light source as if there is a light emitting portion of the LED 11.

  The distributed light α reflected by the second reflecting surface 20 enters the light guide 31 from the light incident surface 12 of the light guide 32. The incident distributed light α is reflected several times in the light guide portion 31 in the direction of the optical axis Ax, and then irradiated from the center and side portions of the light guide 32 toward the front of the lamp (frontward in the drawing). .

  According to the vehicular lamp 30 of the second embodiment described above, the same effects as the first embodiment can be obtained, and a cross-shaped stop display (stop, brake) can be suitably introduced with a minimum number of LEDs. It can be realized in a light body shape (light emission shape).

(Third embodiment)
Next, a vehicle lamp according to a third embodiment of the present invention will be described.
As shown in FIG. 5, the vehicular lamp 40 according to the third embodiment includes a light guide 42 in which three light guides 41 are arranged in parallel in the horizontal direction when viewed from the front. Six second reflectors 14 are arranged corresponding to the 41 light incident surfaces 12.

  The first reflector 15 distributes the light of the LED 11 in six directions corresponding to the second reflecting surfaces 20 of the six second reflectors 14 by the first reflecting surfaces 18 (see FIG. 3) divided into six surfaces. Reflects as α. This distributed light α is condensed and reflected from the light guide hole 17 along the light guide 42 toward the second reflecting surface 20 of each second reflector 14. The second reflecting surface 20 of the second reflector 14 collects and reflects this distributed light α further toward the vicinity of the light incident surface 12 of the light guide 42. At this time, the vicinity of the light incident surface 12 of the light guide 42 can be viewed as a pseudo light source as if there is a light emitting portion of the LED 11.

  The distribution light α reflected by the second reflecting surface 20 enters the light guide 41 from the light incident surface 12 of the light guide 42. The incident distributed light α is reflected several times in the light guide section 41 in the direction of the optical axis Ax, and then irradiated toward the front of the lamp (front side of the drawing) from the center and side portions of the light guide 42. .

  The vehicle lamp 40 according to the third embodiment described above has the same effects as those of the first embodiment, and realizes vertical line display with a suitable light guide shape (light emission shape) with a minimum number of LEDs. be able to.

(Fourth embodiment)
Next, a vehicle lamp according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described.
As illustrated in FIG. 6, the vehicular lamp 50 according to the fourth embodiment omits the second reflector 14 (see FIG. 3) according to the first embodiment, and the peripheral end of the light guide portion 52 of the light guide 51. For example, a total reflection surface 53, which is a metal deposition surface of aluminum (Al), is integrally formed in the portion.

  For example, the reflector 15 distributes the light of the LED 11 in six directions corresponding to the total reflection surfaces 53 arranged at six locations at the peripheral end of the light guide 51 by the first reflection surfaces 18 divided into six surfaces. The light α is reflected on the light incident surface 54 on the back surface of the light guide 52. The distribution light α is incident along the light guide portion 52 from the light incident surface 54 on the back surface of the light guide portion 52, and passes through step 22 toward the optical axis Ax in the light guide 51 by the total reflection surface 53. Reflected several times. Then, it irradiates from the center part and side part of the light guide 51 toward the lamp front (left direction in the drawing).

  According to the vehicle lamp 50 of the fourth embodiment described above, the distributed light α that is disposed in front of the LED 11 and distributes light from the LED 11 to the total reflection surface 53 disposed around the optical axis Ax of the LED 11 is greater than the number of LEDs. Are formed integrally with the reflector 15, the light guide 51 that reflects the distributed light α from the reflector 15 on the total reflection surface 53 and then irradiates the lamp forward, and the peripheral end of the light guide 51. 15, a total reflection surface 53 that reflects the distributed light α from 15 in the direction of the optical axis Ax in the light guide 51.

  Thereby, the reflector 15 reflects the light from the LED 11 toward the total reflection surface 53 as a plurality of distribution lights α, and the total reflection surface 53 reflects the distribution light α from the reflector 15 in the direction of the optical axis Ax in the light guide 51. Irradiate the front of the lamp while reflecting it. Therefore, the number of LEDs and the number of substrates for LEDs can be reduced, and the number of assembly steps and cost can be reduced.

  Moreover, the light emission shape of various light guides 51 can be taken with the minimum number of LEDs, and a vehicular lamp having a low power consumption and a high degree of design freedom can be obtained. Furthermore, since the light guide 51 and the total reflection surface 53 are integrally formed, it is possible to reduce the size and to further reduce the number of assembling steps and the cost.

  In addition, this invention is not limited to embodiment mentioned above, A deformation | transformation, improvement, etc. are possible suitably. In addition, the material, shape, dimension, numerical value, form, number, arrangement location, and the like of each component in the above-described embodiment are arbitrary and are not limited as long as the present invention can be achieved.

10, 30, 40, 50 Vehicle lamp 11 LED (light source)
12 Light-incident surface 13, 32, 42, 51 Light guide 14 Second reflector (second reflector)
15 1st reflector, reflector (1st reflection part)
18 1st reflective surface 20 2nd reflective surface 21 LED board (circuit board)
53 Total reflection surface (second reflection part)

Claims (4)

A light source;
Around the optical axis of the light source, there is a plurality of light incident surfaces larger than the number of light sources, and a light guide that emits the light of the light source forward of the lamp,
A first reflection unit that is disposed in front of the light source and distributes and reflects light from the light source toward a plurality of second reflection units;
A second reflecting portion that is disposed corresponding to each light incident surface of the light guide and reflects the distribution light from the first reflecting portion to the light incident surface of the light guide;
Equipped with a,
The light guide is disposed so as to extend from the periphery of the optical axis of the light source to a front position of the second reflection unit, and the light reflected by the second reflection unit is incident from a side surface of the light guide. vehicle lamp, wherein Rukoto emitted toward the front of the lamp.   The first reflecting portion collects and reflects light from the light source while distributing and reflecting the light from the light source to the second reflecting portion, and the second reflecting portion reflects light from the first reflecting portion of the light guide. The vehicular lamp according to claim 1, wherein the vehicle lamp is condensed and reflected toward the light incident surface. The first reflection part is a substantially elliptical reflection surface, the light source is arranged at the first focus of the first reflection part, and the second focus of the first reflection part coincides with the focus of the second reflection part. the vehicular lamp according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that said first reflecting portion is disposed so as to. A light source;
A first reflection unit that is disposed in front of the light source and reflects light from the light source to a second reflection unit that is disposed around the optical axis of the light source as distributed light that is greater than the number of light sources;
A light guide that reflects the distributed light from the first reflecting portion to the front of the lamp after being reflected by the second reflecting portion;
The second reflecting portion that is integrally formed with the peripheral end of the light guide, and reflects the distributed light from the first reflecting portion in the direction of the optical axis in the light guide;
A vehicular lamp characterized by comprising:

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