JPH0471733B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] This invention relates to an improvement in a vehicle sign light.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, as this type of sign light, for example, the seventh
There is a stop tail lamp shown in FIGS. FIG. 7 is a perspective view thereof, and FIG. 8 is a sectional view thereof.

In the diagram, L is a stop/tail lamp, T is a turn signal lamp, B is a back-up lamp, and R is a turn signal lamp.
is a reflex reflector.

In the stop/tail lamp L, 1 is a housing, 2 is a light distribution lens, and 3 is a light source, that is, a light bulb. This light bulb 3 has a double filament, for example, one filament is 23W to meet the luminous intensity standards for stop lamps, and the other filament is 8W to satisfy the luminous intensity standards for tail lamps. is used.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

However, such a stop tail lamp uses one light bulb 3 in one housing 1, that is, a point light source, so if the light bulb 3 is too close to the light distribution lens 2, , the periphery of the light bulb 3 became particularly bright, and the entire surface of the light distribution lens 2 did not emit surface light with uniform brightness. For this reason, the light bulb 3 has to be separated from the light distribution lens 2 to some extent, which inevitably increases the depth or thickness of the lamp, which has the drawback of compressing the limited space of the vehicle.

Furthermore, when the light bulb 3 is turned on, the light is distributed over the entire surface of the light distribution lens 2 with uniform brightness, so that the stop filament and the tail filament have a certain wattage. Although there are differences, only surface emission with the same shape and area can be obtained. Therefore, there was a problem in that it was difficult to distinguish between the stop lamp and the tail lamp, resulting in a lack of visibility.

Furthermore, since the light bulb 3 was used, there were cases where the filament of the light bulb suddenly broke and the light did not turn on. Furthermore, since it is not easy to replace the light bulb 3 even if the wire breaks, there is also the problem that it is not possible to immediately respond to such an accident.

This invention was made in order to solve these conventional problems, and involves forming a surface light source with a plurality of light emitting diodes, and dividing the light emitting diodes constituting this surface light source into a plurality of blocks. , all of these blocks or only the central block can be lit, making it compact and easy to see.
Moreover, it is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle marker light that does not have the risk of suddenly extinguishing.

[Means for solving problems]

The vehicle marker light provided by the present invention includes a surface light source formed by arranging a plurality of light emitting diodes in a planar shape, and a light distribution lens disposed in front of the surface light source. The light emitting diode constituting the surface light source is divided into a plurality of blocks, and all of these blocks or only the central block of the surface light source is turned on.

〔Example〕

1 to 4 show a first embodiment of the invention. 1 is a front view thereof, FIG. 2 is a sectional view, FIG. 3 is a lighting circuit diagram, and FIGS. 4A and 4B are front views for explaining the operation.

In the figure, 11 is a housing, 12 is a light distribution lens, 13 is a printed circuit board attached to the back of the bottom plate portion 11a of the housing 11, 14 is a back cover, and 15 is a light emitting diode mounted on the printed circuit board 13. This light emitting diode 15 is
It is inserted into the hole h of the bottom plate portion 11a of the housing 11 and attached to the housing 11 together with the printed circuit board 13. Since the holes h are arranged in 5 stages with 13 holes per row, the light emitting diodes 15 have 13 holes per row.
The blocks are arranged in five stages. One block in the center stage is the tail lamp _L1 , and a total of four blocks, two in each of the upper and lower stages, are added to this to form the stop lamp _L2 . A light reflecting surface is formed on the bottom plate portion 11a in order to improve the light extraction efficiency. The light distribution lens 12 has sufficient characteristics to meet the light distribution standards. In addition, the luminous intensity when one block of light emitting diodes 15 in the center stage, that is, the tail lamp _L1 , is turned on satisfies the luminous intensity standard for a tail lamp, and the luminous intensity of all the light emitting diodes 15 of the block 5, that is, the stop lamp L1, satisfies the luminous intensity standard for a tail lamp. The luminous intensity when ₂ is turned on satisfies the luminous intensity for a stop lamp.

In this embodiment, the number of light-emitting diodes 15 can be varied by appropriately selecting whether to turn on the tail lamp _L1 or the stop lamp _L2 .

FIG. 3 shows a lighting circuit for this purpose.

In the figure, SW ₁ is the tail lamp switch,
SW ₂ is a switch for the stop lamp. now,
When the switch SW ₁ is turned on, power is supplied to the tail lamp L ₁ through the diode D ₁ , which turns on the tail lamp.
At this time, the diode D ₂ is connected to the stop lamp L ₂
The function is to prevent power from being supplied to the When SW ₂ is turned ON, power is supplied to the tail lamp L ₁ through the diode D ₂ even when the switch SW ₁ is OFF, and both lamps L ₁ and L ₂ are turned on. Also, diode D ₁
Even if the value of the current limiting resistor of tail lamp _L1 is the same,
It works to make the brightness the same when switch SW ₁ is ON and when switch SW ₂ is ON.

When the tail lamp L ₁ is turned on and the stop lamp L ₂
The lighting area ratio when the lights are turned on is set to 1:5, and the luminous intensity ratio between the former _L1 and the latter _L2 is set to be 1:5.

With this configuration, the switch
When SW ₁ is turned ON, only the tail lamp L ₁ , that is, the third block from the bottom of the center indicated by diagonal lines, lights up, as shown in FIG. 4A. On the other hand, when the switch SW ₂ is turned ON, the stop lamp L ₂ , that is, all the blocks (also shown with diagonal lines) are lit, as shown in FIG.

At this time, since the light source is a so-called surface light source in which the light emitting diodes 15 are arranged in a planar manner, a lighting surface having uniform brightness according to the number of lighting diodes 15 can be obtained. In this embodiment, the latter _L2 has a lighting area five times that of the former _L1 . Therefore, the stop and tail can be easily distinguished and their visibility is improved.

Furthermore, as described above, since the structure is provided with a surface light source in which the light emitting diodes 15 are arranged in a planar manner,
Even if the distance from the light distribution lens 2 is shortened, uniformity of brightness can be maintained. Therefore, the lamp can be made thinner, contributing to effective use of vehicle space.

Furthermore, as is clear from the circuit configuration in Figure 3,
Since n blocks of light emitting diodes 15 are connected in n parallel, even if one of the blocks does not turn on, the light emitting diodes 15 in other parallel circuits compensate for this. Further, the light emitting diode 15 itself does not have a fragile part like a filament in a light bulb. Therefore, there is no possibility that the lamp will suddenly go out.

FIG. 5 shows a second embodiment.

In this embodiment, the tail lamp _L1 is provided in a square shape in the center of the light distribution lens 2, as shown in FIG. In the same figure, the lighting surface of the stop lamp _L2 is shown with diagonal lines.

FIG. 6 shows a third embodiment.

In this embodiment, the front shape of the lamp housing 11 is circular, the light emitting diodes 15 are arranged in a concentric circle, and the center part is a tail lamp _L1 as shown in FIG. In the same figure, the lighting surface of the stop lamp _L2 is shown with diagonal lines.

The second and third embodiments show that the number of light-emitting diodes 15 that light up can be varied, and that the lighting surface formed by the diodes 15 can be arbitrarily transformed into a square, circle, or triangle. It is. In both FIGS. 5 and 6, the same or corresponding parts as in FIG. 4 are given the same reference numerals.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, a surface light source is formed by a plurality of light emitting diodes, and the light emitting diodes constituting the surface light source are divided into a plurality of blocks, and all of these blocks or the central portion Since only the block can be lit, it is possible to obtain a vehicle sign light that is small, has good visibility, and is not likely to suddenly go out.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of the first embodiment of this invention, and FIG.
The figure is a cross-sectional view of FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is a lighting circuit for a light emitting diode in the first embodiment, and FIG.
B is a front view for explaining the operation of the first embodiment;
5 and 6 are front views showing the second and third embodiments of the present invention, respectively, FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a conventional vehicle sign light, and FIG. 8 is a cross-section along the line shown in FIG. 7. It is a diagram. In the figure, 11 is a housing, 12 is a light distribution lens,
13 is a printed circuit board, 15 is a light emitting diode,
SW is a tail lamp switch, SW is a stop lamp switch, L is a tail lamp, and L is a stop lamp.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a vehicle marker light comprising one surface light source formed by arranging a plurality of light emitting diodes in a planar shape and a light distribution lens disposed in front of the surface light source, the light emitting diodes constituting the surface light source 1. A vehicle marker light characterized in that the light source is divided into a plurality of blocks, and all of these blocks or only the block in the center of the surface light source is lit.