JPH0723756Y2 - Car rear warning device - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the device] [Industrial applications]

The present invention relates to an improvement of a vehicle rear warning device of ultrasonic transmission / reception type.

[Prior art]

As an alarm device of this kind, there is a conventional alarm device, for example, in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 59-43
There is one described in Japanese Patent No. 002. In this conventional technique, a horn for an ultrasonic transmitter and a receiver is provided toward the front (or the rear) on a part of a lens or a cover of a lamp unit to be installed at the front (or the rear) of a vehicle. The vehicle lamp unit is provided with an ultrasonic wave transmitter and an ultrasonic wave receiver, respectively.

[Problems to be solved by the device]

The above-mentioned conventional technique is characterized in that the ultrasonic transmitter / receiver is integrally provided in the lamp unit mounted on the automobile, and the purpose thereof is to simply install the same on the vehicle without spoiling its appearance. It is only for ease of use, and since the transducer that emits and receives ultrasonic waves is attached to the outer surface of the vehicle with its transmitting / receiving surface facing outward, the transmitting / receiving surface is always When exposed to wind and rain, dust and mud that the vehicle winds up adheres to the wave-receiving and wave-transmitting surfaces of the transducer, which significantly deteriorates the physical properties of the transducer. In addition to this, there is one described in JP-A-60-173996. In this case, when rainwater hits the reflection inclined surface at the back through the opening of the ultrasonic wave transmitter / receiver 1, the water bounces back toward the wave transmission / reception surface of the ultrasonic transducer and covers the wave transmission / reception surface or its outer surface. Adhered to the perforated plate, many small holes of the perforated plate are clogged by the surface tension of water, and the vibration of the transducer transmitting / receiving surface is greatly hindered, resulting in unusable operation and malfunction, and even more so after the muddy water is covered. Since it is unusable and the transducer cannot be removed from the outside, the repair must be totally disassembled, so many serious problems that ordinary users cannot perform inspection, especially cleaning of the transducer and perforated plate There is a point. In order to eliminate the above-mentioned problems, the present invention installs the ultrasonic vibration unit rearward toward a reflector installed in the opposite direction to the transmitting / receiving direction, thereby The purpose is to prevent rain, muddy water, dust, and dust from adhering to the wave receiving surface, and to facilitate inspection and cleaning of the above-mentioned surfaces.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

The above-mentioned object of the present invention is to provide an elastic cap made of soft rubber facing the central reflection portion for forming a focus by combining with the horizontally long reflection concave surface formed on the front surface of the substantially rectangular parallelepiped ultrasonic reflector. An elastic piece is attached to the ultrasonic reflector in the vicinity of the opening edge of the horizontally elongated concave surface of the ultrasonic reflector by elastic concavo-convex coupling so that the ultrasonic vibration unit has an ultrasonic vibration unit whose transmitting and receiving surface has the ultrasonic reflection. The elastic cap accommodating the ultrasonic vibrating unit is disposed and supported on the ultrasonic reflector through a mounting bullet so that the elastic cap is accommodated and arranged so as to match the vicinity of the focal point of the body. This was achieved by fixing the hollow case containing the ultrasonic reflector to the vehicle body.

[Action]

The ultrasonic pulse emitted by the well-known time-division transmitter at a period of 0.1 to 1 millisecond from the transmitting / receiving surface of the ultrasonic vibration unit is focused in the shape of a horizontal beam on the horizontal reflection concave surface of the ultrasonic reflector, and then is transmitted to the rear of the vehicle. It can be sent as an intermittent pulse. The ultrasonic reflected pulse waves reflected by the obstacle behind the vehicle are focused on the same ultrasonic reflector and are intermittently added to the wave transmitting / receiving surface of the ultrasonic vibration unit. Ultrasonic electromotive force is generated in the ultrasonic vibration unit at intervals of 0.1 to 1 millisecond by the intermittent reflected ultrasonic pulse applied to the wave receiving surface, and the intermittent electromotive force is generated by a well-known time division wave receiver. When the distance between the rear part of the vehicle and the obstacle reaches a certain distance by the divided reception processing, an alarm is issued and the driver is alerted. The horizontal reflection concave surface can prevent the ground reflection of ultrasonic waves. In particular, since the ultrasonic vibration unit is housed in the elastic cap and is attached detachably to the vicinity of the opening edge of the reflection surface of the ultrasonic reflector by the mounting bullet piece, the ultrasonic vibration unit is detachably attached to the cap. Together, it can be easily attached to and detached from the ultrasonic reflector against the elasticity of the mounting bullet.

【Example】

Examples will be described with reference to the drawings. First, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the basic structure of the present invention is such that an ultrasonic reflector 3 molded of hard rubber or the like is placed in a hollow case 1 made of metal or the like as shown in FIG. After that, Fig. 1,
As shown in FIG. 5, the horizontal reflection concave surface 3A is stored so as to face forward. Then, a cup-shaped elastic cap 5 made of soft rubber as shown in FIG. 3 is provided so as to face the central reflection portion 4 of the ultrasonic reflector 3 as shown in FIG. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 5 through the engagement groove 3b cut in the vicinity of the opening edge of the reflection concave surface 3A of the ultrasonic reflector 3 with the piece 6a, through the state of FIG.
It is elastically concavo-convex and is attached so that it can be attached and removed backward. Further, in the elastic cap 5, the ultrasonic vibration unit 7 is preliminarily arranged in the state shown in FIG. 2 toward the central reflecting portion 4 so that the transmitting / receiving surface 8 thereof matches the vicinity of the focal point of the ultrasonic reflector 3. After that, it is stored and arranged as shown in FIG. The ultrasonic vibration unit 7 is attached rearward to the vehicle body of the automobile through the elastic cap 5, the mounting bullets 6, 6 and the ultrasonic reflector 3 in this order to construct the automobile rear alarm device according to the present invention. To do. The vehicle rear warning device of the present invention will be described in more detail. As shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the ultrasonic wave reflector 3 for transmitting and receiving waves, which is formed with a horizontally elongated concave concave surface 3A such as a spheroidal concave surface, is made of hard synthetic rubber or plastic. The reflective concave surface 3A is attached to the opening surface 2 of the case 1 by press fitting so as to come into contact with the opening surface 2 or by bonding or the like. On the front surface of the ultrasonic reflector 3, a hollow ultrasonic elastic cap 5 made of hard rubber or the like as shown in FIG. 5, the projection 6a of the mounting bullet piece 6 of 5 is press-fitted from the state shown in FIG. 4 into the mounting groove 3b provided in the ultrasonic reflector 3 as shown in FIG. The transmission / reception surface 8 of the unit 7 is arranged rearward so that it faces the center of the horizontally long concave concave surface 3A. Further, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the umbrella-shaped central reflection portion 4 made of hard plastic is provided at the facing portion located at the center of the wave transmitting / receiving surface 8 of the ultrasonic vibration unit 7 housed in the cap 5. The set screw 4a is attached to the female screw portion 3c provided on the reinforcing plate 3a by screwing, and the set screws 3d and 3d of the reinforcing plate 3a to which the ultrasonic reflector 3 is attached are attached to the mounting plate 1a of the hollow case 1. It is screwed onto the female screw 1b, 1b. Further, the rubber bush 12 provided in the hole of the hollow case 1
The lead wire 14 is inserted through and connected to the input / output side of the known ultrasonic wave transmitting / receiving circuit block 13 and the power supply input line, and the ultrasonic signal input end and the signal output end of this circuit block 13 are connected. The ultrasonic vibration unit 7 is connected via the slackened lead wire 7a. Then, the ultrasonic reflector 3 itself or the hollow case 1 is
As shown in the figure, the ultrasonic wave reflector 3 is attached to the rear portion of the vehicle through a mounting angle member 11 so that the horizontally long reflection concave surface of the ultrasonic reflector 3 faces the rear of the vehicle. It should be noted that the ultrasonic wave transmitting / receiving surface 8 is used by applying a water repellent net made of a nylon cloth or a glass fiber cloth and treated with a fluorine resin to prevent water from directly adhering to the ultrasonic wave transmitting / receiving surface 8. The vehicle rear alarm device of the present invention has the above-mentioned configuration, and the drive pulse of 0.1 to 1 millisecond period from the well-known time-division transmission pulse oscillator of the circuit block 13 is connected to the lead wire 7.
It is possible to join the driving ceramic of the ultrasonic vibration unit 7 via a, excite this ceramic, and intermittently radiate the ultrasonic pulse wave from the ultrasonic vibration plate, that is, the wave transmitting / receiving surface 8. This ultrasonic wave is generated by the central reflection part 4 and the horizontally long reflection concave surface 3A of the reflector 3.
Then, as shown by the chain line arrow in FIG. 6, the light is reflected once and focused into a beam having a horizontally long cross section, which can be transmitted to the rear of the vehicle as an intermittent pulse with a period of 0.1 to 1 millisecond. The reflected pulse wave of the ultrasonic wave reflected by the obstacle behind the vehicle is focused on the same reflector 3 through the path opposite to the arrow line in FIG. To the wave transmitting / receiving surface 8. With the reflected ultrasonic pulse applied to the transmitting / receiving surface 8, an electromotive force due to the ultrasonic pulse is generated in the ultrasonic driving ceramics every 0.1 to 1 millisecond, and this pulse electromotive force is received by the well-known time division receiver in a time division manner. By processing, when the distance between the vehicle and the obstacle reaches a certain distance, an alarm is issued and the driver is alerted. A method of signal processing of this type of alarm device by time division is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 58-16573. This is an obstacle detection device behind a vehicle that detects an obstacle behind the vehicle and displays the distance to the obstacle. An obstacle detector that outputs a signal that changes after a lapse of time corresponding to the distance up to, and outputs a distance signal that changes after a predetermined time elapses with respect to the reference time when the obstacle is outside the set area or does not exist. A display unit having means for determining the presence or absence of the distance signal and detecting and displaying a wire harness disconnection or a connector contact failure between the obstacle detector and the display unit. It is an obstacle detection device behind the automobile. That is, this one is used both as an ultrasonic transmitter and a receiver, and generates a pulse with a very short period of 0.1 msec to 1.6 msec for transmitting and receiving, and reflects it. It is used by electrically switching to receive and process pulse waves.
In this invention, well-known signal processing circuits by time division transmission and reception other than the above can be adopted. Since the ultrasonic reflectors 3 and 3 according to the present invention are formed with the horizontally long reflection concave surface 3A, the ultrasonic transmission / reception beam has a horizontally long horizontal cross section, and the ground reflection obstacle can be removed. In particular, in this invention, if the ultrasonic vibration unit 7 is contaminated with muddy water, the cap 5 is removed from the ultrasonic reflector 3 against the elasticity of the mounting bullet piece 6, so that the transmitting / receiving surface of the unit 7 8 can be directed to the front side, the wave transmitting / receiving surface 8 of the ultrasonic vibration unit 7 can be easily cleaned. That is, by preliminarily slackening the lead wire 7a extending from the unit 7, the unit 7 can be easily taken out and easily elastically coupled to the reflector 3 after cleaning. The center reflection part 4 of the ultrasonic reflector 3 is not limited to the illustrated example, and may be integrally formed with the reflector 3. Also, the circuit block 13 may be installed outside the hollow case 1 in a so-called external type, in which case the hollow case 1 can be omitted, and the overall flattening can be achieved.

[Effect of device]

Since the present invention is configured as described above, it has the following effects. An elastic cap 5 made of soft rubber and facing the central reflection part 4 of the ultrasonic reflector 3 having a horizontally long reflection concave surface 3A formed on the front surface.
Is attached to the rear of the horizontal reflecting concave surface 3A of the ultrasonic reflector 3 by its mounting bullets 6 and 6 so as to be detachable rearward by elastic concavo-convex coupling. The vibrating unit 7 has a transmitting / receiving surface 8 having the ultrasonic reflector 3
The rainwater, dust, dust, and mud do not directly adhere to the rearward wave-transmitting / receiving surface 8 of the ultrasonic vibration unit 7 so that the ultrasonic vibration caused by the foreign matter is generated because the rainwater, dust, dust, and mud do not directly adhere to the central reflection part so as to match the vicinity of the focal point of The deterioration of the physical condition of the unit 7 does not occur and malfunction does not occur, and the ultrasonic vibration unit 7 can be easily removed by attaching and detaching the mounting bullet piece 6 of the elastic cap 5 to the ultrasonic reflector 3 by elastic concave and convex engagement. It is easy to inspect, clean, and maintain, and the reflector 3
Is a horizontally long concave reflector, the ultrasonic wave passage has a horizontally long beam shape in cross section, which has many effects such as eliminating obstacles to ground reflection. Further, according to the present invention, since the elastic cap 5 is made of elastic rubber together with the mounting bullets 6, 6, it is possible to reduce shock caused by disturbance such as vehicle body swing applied to the ultrasonic vibration unit 7. Therefore, it has many effects such as the extension of the useful life of the unit 7 and the improvement of the operational stability.

[Brief description of drawings]

Each of the drawings shows an embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 1 is a perspective view of an automobile rear alarm device, Fig. 2 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the same device, and Fig. 3 is a cap and an ultrasonic vibration unit. FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a state before the ultrasonic vibration unit is attached to the ultrasonic reflector via the cap, FIG. 5 is a cut side view of the finished product, and FIG. 6 is FIG. FIG. 3 is a plan view of cutting with different cutting directions. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Hollow case, 5 ... Elastic cap 2 ... Opening surface, 6 ... Mounting bullet piece 3 ... Ultrasonic reflector, 7 ... Ultrasonic vibrating unit 4 ... Central reflection part, 8 ... Wave transmitting / receiving surface

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A soft rubber which is opposed to a central reflection part (4) for forming a focal point in combination with a horizontally long reflection concave surface (3A) formed on the front surface of an ultrasonic reflection body (3) having a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape. Attach the formed elastic cap (5) to its mounting bullets (6,6)
And is detachably disposed near the opening edge of the horizontally long reflection concave surface (3A) of the ultrasonic reflector (3) by elastic concavo-convex coupling, and in the elastic cap (5), an ultrasonic vibration unit (7). The transmitting / receiving surface (8) has the ultrasonic reflector (3).
The ultrasonic vibration unit (7) is arranged so as to be housed toward the central reflecting portion (4) so as to match the vicinity of the focal point of
The elastic cap (5) accommodating the above is disposed and supported on the ultrasonic reflector (3) through the mounting bullet piece (6), and the hollow case (1) accommodating the ultrasonic reflector is fixed to the vehicle body. Automobile rear warning device.