JPS6052526B2 - Vehicle lights - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a vehicular lamp, and more particularly to a vehicular lamp in which printed wiring is provided on the inner surface of a back cover and a bulb is held horizontally to reduce the overall thickness of the lamp.

For example, as shown in Fig. 1, in a conventional vehicle lamp, a holder c is provided protruding from the inner surface of a back cover provided on the rear surface of a housing H to hold a bulb a, and a metal cylindrical shape is attached to the holder c. The socket d is press-fitted, and the negative cord f is sandwiched between the holder c and the socket d, and the socket d and the valve prong metal part e are brought into contact to establish a connection on the ground side.

Also, the positive side is the button contact i connected to the cord.
is crimped and attached to insulator j, and this is pressed against positive terminal 1 of valve a using a coil spring to establish a positive connection. However, in such conventional vehicle lamps, the electrical connection between the socket d and the bulb holder part e is achieved by the upward biasing force of the bulb holder part e by the coil spring.
This is only the part where the inner surface of the J-slot m and the upper part of the engaging protrusion n of the valve block metal part e make contact, and the contact is poor, and the negative side cord f is pinched between the socket d and the holder c. Since it is pressure welding, the electrical connection is not stable, and
Since the wiring uses vinyl-coated wires, many processes such as cutting, welding, and caulking must be performed when processing the wiring, resulting in extremely poor productivity for lighting equipment, and due to manual processing, wiring errors occur. In addition, the number of rear signal lights of this type has increased significantly due to the increase in the number of bulbs, the complexity of wiring, and the increase in size.

For this reason, in recent years, although not shown in the drawings, improved lighting fixtures have been proposed, such as wiring a flexible printed circuit board on the inner surface of the back cover to eliminate problems such as incorrect wiring. As in the illustrated example of the lamp in FIG. 1, since the bulb a is arranged in the direction of the lamp axis Y-Y, the distance T from the tip of the bulb a to the bottom of the cover is large, and the lamp as a whole becomes deep. In addition, the lamps have become thicker (
There are disadvantages such as increased size (larger size). Recently, although not shown in the drawings, vehicle lamps have been developed that allow the bulb to be mounted parallel to the inner surface of the back cover, and have been proposed to reduce the overall thickness of the lamp. However, in such a lighting device, the holder, socket, insulator, spring, button contact, etc. are assembled to the back cover using vinyl-covered cord wiring, which makes the assembly work complicated and difficult. Workability is poor, and if the bulb is placed sideways, the heat from the bulb directly heats the back cover, which has a problem with the heat resistance of the back cover, so it is necessary to keep a certain distance. There are drawbacks such as the inability to reduce the thickness.

The present invention was developed in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and aims to automate wiring by using a flexible printed circuit board, and also incorporates a harness assembly such as a socket holder, etc., which has been made into a unit into a back cover, to facilitate assembly work. It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel vehicle lamp which can greatly simplify the process, and also mount the bulb on the side, thereby making the lamp as a whole thinner.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An example of the implementation of a vehicle lamp according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The illustrated embodiment of the present invention shown in FIGS. 2 to 8 is applied to a tail light for an automobile. In the figure, 1 is a housing, and the bottom surface of the housing 1 is provided with a dish-shaped back cover made of synthetic resin. The main point is to connect 1 and 2, to arrange light bulbs 3 and 3'' horizontally in a row, and to construct a circuit by laying a flexible printed circuit board 9 (hereinafter abbreviated as FPC) on the bottom of the bag and cover 2. It is something to do.

In this embodiment, the light bulb 3 is a double filament and the light bulb 3
5 is a diagram using a single filament, but the explanation will be given particularly for the case of the double filament shown on the left side of FIG. First, the shape and circuit of the FPC 9 is such that, as shown in FIG. The FPC 9 is trimmed so as to leave the minus tongue piece 94 on the side and the plus loop piece 93 on the plus side.

Furthermore, the minus tongue piece 94 has two small holes 95, 95 for caulking the socket 6 of the light bulb 3. Further, the positive loop piece 93 has contact portions 92'', 92' for contacting the contact terminals with the light bulb 3 as terminals of the positive circuits 92, 92.
Each positive circuit is connected to a connector section (not shown) at approximately the center side of the FPC 9, so that positive circuits 92 and 9 are connected to each other.
2 is used as a terminal 92'',) 922, and as a negative circuit 91
The circuit is derived in parallel as a 9-bit terminal.

The FPC 9 having the circuit described above is attached to the bottom of the back cover 2 by adhesive or the like, but in this case, the negative tongue piece 94 of the negative circuit 91 and the positive loop piece 93 of the positive circuit are not bonded. with the free end. 10 is a heat shielding surface using conductive metal on the FPC 9 for a heat shielding effect. Next, in the structure of the holder part to which the light bulb 3 is attached, the synthetic resin holder 5 has two engaging leg parts 51, 5
1, with guide notch windows 52, 52 cut out for the support pieces 81, 81 of the insulator 18 on both sides, and caulking holes 53, 53 bored in the back.

The socket 6 of the light bulb 3 is made of cylindrical metal, with hook holes 63, 63 cut in one end for locking the engaging protrusion 32 of the light bulb, and openings 61, 61 cut in both sides. Caulking leg portions 62, 62 are provided protruding from the missing end portions. Further, in order to conduct the positive circuits 92, 92, support rods 81, 81 are provided on both sides of the pot-shaped insulator 18, and caulking projections 82, 82 are integrally provided. Since the positive loop piece 93 of the FPC 9 has a free end,
The positive loop pieces 93 are seated on the support rods 81, 81 on both sides of the insulator 18, and the caulking projections 82, 8 are seated.
Melt and caulk 2. Next, the insulator 18 to which the positive loop piece 93 is fixed is inserted into the cylinder of the socket 6 so that its support rods 81, 81 are guided through the opening 61 of the socket 6, and then the coil is inserted. Insert spring 7. Holder 5 of the above blocks
When loading, first insert the caulking holes 95, 95 drilled into the minus tongue piece 94, which is the free end of the minus circuit 91.
Align with the caulking holes 53, 53 on the back of the holder 5, insert the caulking legs 62, 62 of the socket 6, and bring the caulking legs 62, 62 into close contact with the surface of the minus tongue piece 94. By bending it, it becomes conductive and is fixed at the same time. In order to attach the holder 5, which has thus formed a conductive circuit, to the back cover 2, the hooking legs 51,
51, a locking protrusion 21 protruding from the back cover 2;
It is forcibly pressed from the top of 21 to lock it. 22,
22 is a stationary projection. The light bulb 3 is inserted into the socket 6 facing in the horizontal direction, and is elastically fixed to the hook hole 63 against the spring 7, so that the positive side connects to the positive connection part 92''.
, 92'' and the anode terminal of the light bulb 3 (not shown), and the negative side connects the negative connection part 9V and the caulking leg 62 to the socket 6.
A circuit is formed through the cap 31 of the light bulb 3. Contact with the connector section (not shown) from the power source is achieved from the positive circuits 92, 92 to the positive terminals 922, 92'', and from the negative circuit 91 to the negative terminal 91''.
Finally, the lens 4 is mounted on the front surface of the housing 1 to complete the lamp. In the lamp with the above configuration, the FPC 9 is first trimmed and the positive loop piece 93 and the negative tongue piece 94 are brought out as free ends and brought into direct contact with the light bulb 3, so the structure is simple and the number of parts is small. Moreover, the heat resistance of the FPC film and the heat dispersion of the conductive metal film are utilized to prevent the light bulb 3 from being thermally deformed even when the light bulb 3 is placed horizontally and close to the bag holder 12. The height (thickness) can be designed to be thin.

Further, since there is some reflection from the conductive metal film, the amount of reflected light can also be increased, which is advantageous for light distribution. As is clear from the above-described embodiments, the vehicle lamp of the present invention has a flexible printed circuit board trimmed so that the positive circuit and the negative circuit become free ends, and the contact surface of the positive circuit is pressed directly against the terminal of the light bulb. However, the negative circuit can be configured by placing the socket close to the back of the holder, and by using the FPC surface at the bottom of the bulb as a heat shield, the bulb can be placed horizontally in the holder and close to the back holder. Since it is characterized by being fixed, the thickness of the lamp can be reduced, the number of parts is reduced, the weight is reduced, the number of assembly steps is reduced, and moreover, a large amount of reflected light can be used, and many other effects can be achieved.

Note that the vehicle lamp of the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a main part of a conventional lamp. 2 to 8 show embodiments of the vehicle lamp of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a front view showing the inside, FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view, and FIG. 4 is a flexible printed circuit board circuit and a heat shield section. Figure 5 shows the socket without the light bulb, the relationship between the holder part and the conductive board, Figure A is a side view, the opening is a sectional view, and Figure 6 is Figure 3. Figure 7A is a partial sectional view in the direction of arrow A with the light bulb removed; Figure 7A is a perspective view of the holder;
The opening in the same figure is a perspective view of the socket, FIG. 1...●●・Housing, 2●●●●・●Back cover, 3.1...Light bulb, 4.
...Luns, 5...Holder, 52...
Insulator 1 guide cutout window, 6...socket,
61...Opening, 7...Spring, 8
...Inculator 1, 9...FP
Cl9l...Minus circuit, 92...Positive circuit, 93...Positive loop piece, 94...
... Minus tongue piece, 10 ... Heat shielding surface.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. When attaching a flexible printed board that defines a negative circuit, a positive circuit, and a heat shielding surface to the bottom of the back cover fixed to the bottom of the frame-shaped housing, the contact piece between the negative circuit and the light bulb socket and the positive The contact piece between the circuit and the bulb terminal was trimmed so that it became a free end, and an insulator with the positive circuit contact piece seated was elastically attached to the inside of the drum-shaped holder so that the bulb could be installed horizontally. At the same time, the socket is installed and the contact piece of the negative circuit is tightened on the back of the holder to form a circuit, and the light bulb is held close to the back cover having a heat shielding surface and elastically engaged in the lateral direction. A vehicle lamp characterized by: