JPS5821362B2 - Vehicle lights - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a vehicular lamp that ensures good light distribution function and improves visibility.

In this type of vehicle lamp, a light source bulb is generally disposed within a lamp chamber defined by a lamp body and a front lens.

However, in recent years, lamps have been proposed that are smaller than the front lens of the lamp body due to the structure of the mounting surface of the vehicle body to which the lamp is attached or from the requirements of external design.

In such lamps, the front lens is thicker than the cross section of 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'. On the other hand, since the lens C is formed to be thicker than the body b, in this 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 becomes direct light that directly enters the surface of the lens C, and also becomes light emitted forward by being reflected by the reflector e provided on the rear inner surface of the body a, and as such a reflector e. Since it is customary to use a paraboloid of revolution, the reflected light becomes a substantially parallel forward ray that is substantially parallel to the optical axis.

Therefore, this parallel emitted light ray does not reach the lens portion Z 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 location of such a dark zone differs depending on the shape of the lamp, the dark zone Z often occurs in the peripheral area, 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, so the dark zone f
The incoming direct light is not properly controlled and is diffused in a direction far away from the general viewing angle, making it unable to contribute to increasing the brightness of this area Z. In the end, this dark zone Z becomes 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 2 at the lens periphery.

Figures 3 to 5 show them.

In Fig. 3, an inner lens h is disposed behind a lens part Z where a dark zone may occur, and the inner lens h converts the direct light from the light source bulb d into approximately parallel light rays forward. It is controlled by a fisheye prism g of a front lens C to produce an effective light beam.

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 shown in FIG. 4A, there is an example of an inner lens h 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 directions orthogonal to each other.

What is shown in Fig. 5 is a reflective Fresnel prism section i in which a Fresnel cut is made directly on the back surface of the periphery of the front lens C without using an inner lens, thereby converting direct light into parallel light rays forward. 3 In the case shown in FIGS. 3 to 5 above, as mentioned above, a Fresnel prism or the like is arranged in the lens part Z which becomes the dark zone, and the direct light is used as a parallel light beam, and the entire lens C surface is is intended to be the effective part.

However, in the lamps shown in Figures 3 to 5, the light from the reflector C does not enter the Fresnel prism portion, so no matter how parallel the light is, the luminous intensity at the lens periphery Z is inevitably 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, utilizes the reflected light from a reflector and controls it with a front lens, so the conventional example described above cannot ensure sufficient visibility. Can not.

In the end, it becomes difficult to use it for signal lights, etc.

Therefore, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention eliminates the dark area by increasing the amount of light in the dark area at the periphery of the front lens using reflected light, thereby achieving uniform light emission over the entire lens surface, 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.

Embodiments of the vehicle lamp 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, indicator lamp, or the like.

As shown in the drawing, the lamp according to the present invention includes a lamp body 1 having a paraboloid of revolution reflector 11 on the inner surface, a lens 2 disposed on the front surface of the lamp body 1, and both 1, 2.
A light source bulb 4 disposed so as to be located near the focal point of the paraboloid of revolution reflector 11 in the lamp chamber 3 defined by
It is equipped with

The lens 2 has a reflected light utilizing prism portion 5 formed in a portion where the reflected light R1 from the paraboloid of revolution reflector 11 is incident, and a lens portion 21 where the reflected light from the paraboloid of revolution reflector 11 does not enter. is provided with a reflective Fresnel prism part 6 that sends incident light forward as a substantially parallel ray,
A focal line type reflector 7 is disposed within the lamp chamber 3 to allow a large amount of light to enter the reflection system Fresnel prism portion 6.

In this embodiment, the reflective Fresnel prism portion 6 is formed by directly prism-cutting the inner surface of the lens portion 21 where the reflected light from the paraboloid of revolution reflector 11 does not enter. A fisheye prism (lattice prism) is used as the reflected light utilizing prism section 5 formed in the lens portion into which the light from the planar reflector 11 enters.
Use.

Among the prism parts 5 and 6, reflected light utilization type prism part 5
In addition to the direct light beams R2 to R3 from the bulb 4, the light beam R reflected by the reflector 11 is also incident, so a relatively large amount of light flux is guided here.

However, the direct radiation system Fresnel prism section 6 is
Since there is no contribution of the reflected light from 1 and only the direct light R3 to R4, this portion receives less light flux than the reflected light utilization type prism section 5.

In particular, as shown in the illustrated example, the corresponding part of the lamp body 1 has a step 12.
A portion 13 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 is characterized in that a focal line type reflector 7 is provided in the lamp chamber 3 to cause a large amount of light to enter the reflection system Fresnel prism section 6.

A focal line reflector is a curved surface that focuses light on one point (including a point with some spread that can be recognized as almost one point) in one cross section, and a cross section perpendicular to this cross section focuses the light into approximately parallel rays. It has a curved surface, and is configured so that light is focused on a line formed by the focal point of one cross section, that is, a focal line.

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 focused on one point. A beam formed so that the beams become parallel is used.

Since the vehicular lamp of the present invention has the above-described configuration, the reflected light utilizing type prism section 5 receives the direct light R from the bulb 4.
2 to R3 and the reflected light R1 from the reflector 11 are incident, and a high light distribution can be obtained.
In addition to 3 to R4, reflected light R5 to R by the focal line reflector 7
6 enters the light, the prism section 6 can achieve the same level of light emission as the prism section 5.

That is, F in the figure indicates the focal line of the focal line type reflector.

The light beam reflected by the reflecting mirror 7 passes through this focal line F and enters the reflecting prism section 6, so the amount of light incident on the prism section 6 by the parabolic reflecting mirror is at an angle α as shown in FIG. However, in the present invention, as shown in FIG. 12, a large amount of light can be incident on the prism portion 6 having the same area, and the angle β is larger than the angle α, so that the reflector 11 Therefore, according to the present invention, a dark zone does not occur, and the entire surface of the lens 2 can emit light almost uniformly, and is effective. Since the luminous flux increases and the amount of light increases, the visibility of the lamp is improved and a good light distribution function can be maintained.

FIG. 7 shows a second embodiment of the invention.

In this example, an inner lens disposed inside the lamp chamber 3 is used as the reflective Fresnel prism section 6.

That is, in the example of FIG. 6, the prism part is connected to the lens 2.
Whereas the reflected light utilizing prism section 5 and the reflective Fresnel prism section 6 were formed directly on the surface of the prism section 6, this example uses separate prism members.

This prism member (reflection Fresnel prism part) 6 is Fresnel-cut on the inside, and is disposed near the inside of the lens part 21 where the reflected light from the reflector 11 does not enter.

A reflected light utilizing prism is formed in this lens portion 21, and therefore, in this example, the entire back surface of the lens 2 is a fisheye lattice prism.

The configuration is similar to the example shown in FIG. 6, so that the light reflected by the focal line reflecting mirror 7 is incident on the prism portion 6.

Further, while the bulb 4 is disposed obliquely with respect to the front-rear direction (optical axis Y-Y) of the lamp in the example shown in FIG. 6, in this example it is arranged along the front-rear direction.

The reflected light R1 from the reflector 11, the direct light R2, R3°R4, the reflected light R5t R6 from the focal line type reflecting mirror 7, and the focal point F are given the same reference numerals as in FIG.

FIG. 8 shows a third embodiment of the present 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 7a is connected to the first reflecting part 7a via the stepped parts 7d and 7e.

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

The focal line of the internal phase 2 radiation part 7b and the third reflecting part IC is common and is indicated by f2 in the figure, but the focal line f1 of the first reflecting part 7a is located at a different position from the focal line f2. be.

In other words, this focal line type reflecting mirror 7 has a reflection portion 7a of the focal line f1.
and reflecting portions 7b and 7c of the focal line f2.

Therefore, the light reflected by the first reflecting section 7a (for example, the light ray R
7+Rs) passes through the focal line f1 and enters the reflection system Fresnel prism part 6, and the light reflected by the second and third reflection parts 7b and 7c (for example, the light rays R9s Rlo) passes through the focal line f2 and enters the reflection system Fresnel prism part 6. It enters the prism section 6.

Therefore, by combining a plurality of focal line type reflecting mirrors, it is possible to control the luminous flux incident on the reflection system Fresnel prism section 6 as desired, and to achieve effects greater than those of the embodiment shown in FIG. 6.

Note that in order to avoid complication of the drawing, the description of the light reflected by the direct light-receiving flapper 11 is omitted in the drawing, but it goes without saying that each of these rays contributes.

FIG. 9 shows a fourth embodiment of the invention.

This is a modification of the example shown in FIG. 7, but in place of the focal line reflecting mirror in the example shown in FIG. 7, a focal line reflecting mirror γ (configured in a polythermal type) as shown in FIG. 8 is used.

The same reference numerals as those in FIG. 8 are used in the drawings, and a detailed explanation thereof will be omitted.3 It is clear that this example can also achieve the same effects as the example in FIG. 8.

As detailed above, the vehicular lamp of the present invention is defined by a lamp body having a paraboloid of revolution reflector on the inner surface, a lens disposed on the front surface of the lamp body, and the lamp body and the lens. a light source bulb disposed near the focal point of the paraboloid of revolution reflector in a lamp chamber in which the light is reflected from the paraboloid of revolution reflector at a portion where the reflected light from the paraboloid of revolution is incident on the lens; In addition to forming a light-utilizing prism section, a reflective Fresnel prism section is provided that sends incident light as a substantially parallel ray forward to a lens section where reflected light from the paraboloid of revolution reflector does not enter, and A focal line type reflector is disposed in which one cross section forms a curved surface that collects the light from the light source bulb, and a cross section perpendicular to the cross section forms a curved surface that makes the light from the light source bulb substantially parallel rays, and the focal line type reflector is Since the structure is configured so that the reflected light from the reflecting mirror is made to enter the reflective Fresnel prism section, a large amount of light is allowed to enter the peripheral part of the lens, which is a dark zone, and it is possible to achieve uniform light emission over the entire lens surface, making it easy to see. This has the effect of improving light intensity and providing better light distribution.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 to 5 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. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the conventional example, FIG. 4A is a diagram of an inner lens used in the conventional example, and FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of a third conventional example. 6 to 9 show embodiments of the present invention, and are sectional views of the first to fourth embodiments, respectively. 10A and 10C are explanatory diagrams of a focal line type reflecting mirror used in each embodiment, and FIGS. 11 and 12 are explanatory diagrams of the effects of the present invention. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Lamp body, 11... Paraboloid of revolution reflector, 2... Lens, 3... Light chamber, 4... Bulb, 5... Reflected light utilization type prism part, 6... ... Reflection Fresnel prism part, 7... Focal line reflector, 7a,
7b. 7c... Reflection part, F, f], f2... Focal line.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A lamp body having a paraboloid of revolution reflector on its inner surface, a lens disposed on the front surface of the lamp body, and a lamp chamber defined by the lamp body and the lens. The lamp is equipped with a light source bulb disposed near the focal point of the object surface reflector, and the lens is provided with a reflected light utilizing prism portion in a portion where the reflected light from the paraboloid of revolution is incident. In addition, a reflective Fresnel prism part is provided which sends the incident light forward as a substantially parallel ray to a lens part where the reflected light from the paraboloid of revolution reflector does not enter, and in the lamp chamber, one cross section is from the light source bulb. A focal line type reflector is provided, which forms a curved surface that collects the light of the light source, and whose cross section perpendicular to the cross section is a curved surface that makes the light from the light source bulb approximately parallel, and the reflected light from the focal line type reflector is A vehicular lamp characterized in that it is configured so that the light enters a reflective Fresnel prism portion of the lens. 2. The vehicular lamp 3 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.