JPH05144302A - Lamp for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To form an auxiliary light distribution part at a position of a horizontal line, and improve visibility for a facing obstacle. CONSTITUTION:An outer cover 2 fixed to an aperture surface of a lamp body 1 and a projector lamp unit 4 facing it are included in the lamp body 1. A fine prism step 13 is provided extending right and left for refracting a transmitted light flux only a little up for a little distance (h) over a position of an optical axis L of the outer cover 2.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicular lamp in which an outer cover is provided with prism steps for light distribution control in order to adapt a luminous flux to a predetermined light distribution standard.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a fog lamp, which is used in parallel with a headlight for general driving, distributes an irradiation light flux that diffuses horizontally in order to illuminate a road surface at a relatively close position. A lamp having characteristics is attached and used so that the optical axis is inclined downward.

[0003]

Therefore, in the structure of the conventional fog lamp described above, the light distribution in the state of being mounted on the vehicle is such that the light distribution pattern P1 of the illuminating light beam diffused in the horizontal direction is horizontal as shown in FIG. Since it is located below the line H at a distance h, and has an excellent function of irradiating the road surface immediately in front of the vehicle, since there is no light flux in the portion near the horizontal line H, the contrast with the irradiating portion is high. May become very strong, and visibility of obstacles approaching the vehicle may be deteriorated to cause a problem in safe driving.

The present invention was conceived in view of the above problems, and in particular, in a fog lamp in which an outer cover is provided in front of a projector type light source, an auxiliary light distribution portion is formed at a horizontal line position, and an obstructing obstacle is formed. An object of the present invention is to provide a vehicular lamp with improved visibility.

[0005]

A vehicle lamp according to the present invention has an outer cover provided in a front opening of a lamp body, and a light source of a projector lamp unit incorporated in the lamp body is substantially parallel to the outer cover. In a lamp having a structure for irradiating and transmitting a light flux, a fine prism step for slightly refracting the transmitted light flux upward is positioned slightly above the optical axis position of the outer cover so as to extend in the left-right direction. The main idea is to establish an article.

[0006]

According to the above construction, the irradiation pattern of the light beam transmitted and refracted through the prism step is positioned slightly above the entire irradiation pattern irradiated in front of the outer cover. Therefore, when aiming adjustment is performed on the lamp so that the luminous flux emitted by the prism step is located on the horizontal line, the entire luminous flux is slightly downward, forming a luminous flux that illuminates the front of the vehicle as a fog lamp. Then, since the illumination of the front horizontal line portion can be obtained above the irradiation of the road surface, an extremely dark portion is not formed in the horizontal line portion.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a vehicular lamp according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. In the drawing, reference numeral 1 denotes a lamp body having an outer cover 2 provided in a front opening, and an inner cavity 3 of the lamp body 1 is irradiated with a parallel light flux through a convex lens 5 provided on the front surface. The projector lamp unit 4 is arranged so that its optical axis L coincides with the optical axis of the outer cover 2.

The projector lamp unit 4 has two focal points F1 and F2 at the rear end of the casing 6 to form a reflector 7 having an ellipsoidal shape, and a bulb 8 for lighting at the first focal point F1 position. And the second focus F2 and the convex lens 5 provided on the front surface of the casing 6 share a focus.
A shade 9 for regulating and controlling the cross-sectional shape of the light flux is arranged between the two.

The outer cover 2 has a sealing groove 11 formed by bending on the outer periphery fitted and fixed to a fitting groove 10 provided around the front end edge of the lamp body 1 with an adhesive 12. On the inner surface of the outer cover 2, there is a prism for slightly refracting the light flux that is located slightly above the optical axis L (distance h) and that enters the portion upward (about 4 °). Step 13 is extended horizontally.
As shown in FIG. 3, the prism step 13 has a fine prism cross section with a vertical width S1 of 1.3 mm and a height S2 of 0.2 mm, and a horizontal length S3 of the outer cover. It is about half the length of 2. Then, on the entire back surface of the outer cover 2, as shown in FIG.
Fine diffusion steps 14 and 1 having a cylindrical shape extending in the vertical direction with a pitch of 0.15 mm as shown in FIG.
4 are formed and are configured to diffuse the transmitted light flux in the left-right direction.

Reference numeral 15 denotes an extension interposed between the outer cover 2 and the outer circumference of the convex lens 5 of the projector lamp unit 4, and the inner surface is mirror-finished.

In the vehicular lamp having the above-described structure, the parallel light flux whose shape is controlled by the bulb 8 of the projector lamp unit 4 into a predetermined irradiation pattern by the light-shielding action of the shade 9 is irradiated toward the outer cover 2. .
Since the outer cover 2 has diffusion steps 14, 14, ... Formed over the entire surface, as shown in FIG. 5, the road surface illumination pattern P1 which is spaced below the horizontal line H and diffused in the left-right direction is formed. At the same time as the formation, the light flux entering the prism step 13 is slightly refracted upward at this portion to form a horizontally long horizontal portion pattern P2 on the horizontal line H.

As a result, the visibility immediately before the vehicle can be secured by the road surface irradiation pattern P1 and at the same time,
The horizontal part irradiation pattern P2 illuminates a part of the front horizontal line H, the contrast with the road surface part irradiation pattern P1 is reduced, and the visibility of an obstacle approaching the vehicle from a distance is improved.

[0013]

Since the vehicular lamp according to the present invention is configured as described above, the prism step formed on the outer cover can illuminate the front horizontal line portion located above the irradiation pattern. The fog lamp has a feature that the horizontal line portion does not become an extremely dark part with respect to the illumination of the road surface near the vehicle, the visibility of the driver is improved, and the safety of the vehicle is ensured especially as the fog lamp. Therefore, the effect obtained by implementing the present invention is extremely large.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway vertical cross-sectional view of an entire lamp showing an embodiment of a vehicle lamp according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view of the same.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view taken along line III-III in FIG.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged sectional view taken along line IV-IV in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a light distribution pattern of the vehicular lamp according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a light distribution pattern of a conventional fog lamp.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Lamp Body 2 Outer Cover 4 Projector Lamp Unit 5 Convex Lens 6 Casing 7 Reflector 8 Lighting Bulb 9 Shade 13 Prism Step 14 Diffusion Step

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A lamp having a structure in which an outer cover is provided in a front opening of a lamp body, and a light source of a projector lamp unit built in the lamp body irradiates and transmits a substantially parallel light beam to the outer cover. A vehicle lamp characterized in that a minute prism step for slightly refracting a transmitted light beam is provided slightly above the optical axis of the cover so as to extend in the left-right direction.