JP2018041711A - Lens including wraparound light guide part and vehicular lighting fixture - Google Patents

Abstract

A lens that can guide incident light to the front side of the lens and also to the rear side of the lens, and a vehicle that uses the lens as an inner lens and distributes the incident light to the front side of the lamp and light distribution to the side of the lamp Provide lighting fixtures. An inner lens 13 of a vehicular lamp 11 includes a main body 21 that emits part of light incident from an LED 19 from the front of the lens to the front of the lamp, and another part of incident light from the side of the lens to the side of the lamp. The light guide part 22 which radiate | emits to is provided. The main body portion 21 includes a direct irradiation portion 24 that emits light incident from the incident surface 25 as parallel light and a total reflection surface 29. A triangular prism 31 is provided on the outer edge of the main body portion 21 so that the internally reflected light from the main body portion 21 wraps around the light guide portion 22 side. The light guide unit 22 totally reflects the sneak-around light at the tip total reflection surface 33 and emits the light to the lens side via the inner surface step 34. [Selection] Figure 2

Description

  The present invention relates to a lens that internally reflects incident light and emits the light from the front of the lens, and a vehicular lamp using the lens.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a technique is known in which incident light is internally reflected on the back surface of a lens, collected in a central region of the lens, and emitted from the front surface of the lens. For example, in Patent Document 1, a semiconductor light emitting element is covered with a lens from the front, a direct irradiation part is provided in the central region of the lens, incident light is emitted directly from the direct irradiation part to the front of the lamp, and the back of the lens is outside the direct irradiation part. There is described a vehicular lamp that forms an internal reflection part and emits reflected light from the internal reflection part as parallel light to the front of the lamp.

JP-A-2005-203111

  However, according to the conventional lens, since the inner surface reflected light is collected and emitted in the central region, the utilization efficiency of the light beam can be improved, but there is a problem that the light amount to the peripheral region is insufficient. For this reason, in a vehicular lamp, if light from a light source is added to the front of the lamp and distributed to the side of the lamp, it is necessary to use an optical component other than the lens such as a reflector.

  Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a lens capable of guiding incident light to the lens back side in addition to the lens front side without using a separate optical component, and to use the lens as an inner lens. An object of the present invention is to provide a vehicular lamp that can add incident light from a light emitting element to the front side of the lamp and also distribute the light to the side of the lamp.

  In order to solve the above problems, the lens of the present invention includes a main body part that internally reflects part of incident light and emits the light from the front of the lens, and a light guide part that extends from the outer edge of the main body part to the lens back side, The main body portion includes a first optical element that causes a part of the light reflected from the inner surface to go around to the light guide portion side.

  Here, the first optical element is not limited to a specific shape, but includes, for example, a triangular prism that causes a part of incident light to be totally reflected on the inner surface and wrap around the light guide unit. Then, the light that has entered the light guide unit can be emitted, for example, from the front end of the light guide unit to the rear of the lens, or from the side surface of the light guide unit to the side of the lens, depending on the use of the lens. .

  In preferable embodiment of this invention, the light guide part contains the 2nd optical element which radiate | emits at least one part of the light which went around from the main-body part from the light guide part to the lens side. Although the second optical element is not limited to a specific shape, for example, a total reflection surface formed at the tip of the light guide unit, and a step of totally reflecting light totally reflected by the total reflection surface to the side of the lens Including.

  The vehicular lamp according to the present invention includes a semiconductor light emitting element, an inner lens having an incident surface on which light from the semiconductor light emitting element is incident, and an outer lens that covers the inner lens from the outside of the lamp. And a light guide portion is formed along the outer lens.

  Here, the shape of the inner lens and the outer lens is not limited to a specific shape, and can be appropriately selected according to the mounting position and function of the vehicular lamp. In one embodiment of the present invention, the main body portion of the inner lens is formed in a rectangular shape when viewed from the front, and the light guide portion of the inner lens is formed so as to extend vertically from one side of the rectangular shape.

  Also, a part of the light incident from the incident surface is transmitted through the main body of the inner lens and emitted from the front of the lens so that the main body does not darken when a part of the incident light goes from the main body to the light guide. It is desirable to provide a direct irradiation part. In this case, the direct-light portion can be formed in a rectangle when viewed from the front.

  According to the lens of the present invention, since a part of the incident light is configured to go around from the main body part to the light guide part side, the incident light can be guided to the back side in addition to the front side by one lens. There is an effect. Further, according to the vehicular lamp of the present invention, since the lens having the light guide part is used as the inner lens, incident light from the semiconductor light emitting element can be distributed to the side of the lamp in addition to the front of the lamp. There is an effect that can be done.

1 is a perspective view of an automobile showing an embodiment of a vehicle lamp according to the present invention. It is a perspective view shown in the state which decomposed | disassembled the vehicle lamp of FIG. It is a front view shown in the state which assembled | attached the vehicle lamp of FIG. FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line AA in FIG. 3. FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line BB in FIG. 3. It is the C section enlarged view of FIG. 5 which shows the optical effect | action of an inner lens. It is a front view of the vehicle lamp which shows another embodiment of this invention. It is the DD sectional view taken on the line of FIG. 7 which shows a thick inner lens. It is the DD sectional view taken on the line of FIG. 7 which shows a thin inner lens.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. A vehicular lamp 11 shown in FIG. 1 is a tail and stop lamp attached to the rear portion of a vehicle body 2, and includes an inner lens 13 inside an outer lens 12, and only the rear side of the automobile 1 due to the optical action of the inner lens 13. It is configured so that the side can also be illuminated.

  As shown in FIG. 2, a lamp chamber 15 and an opening 16 are formed in the housing 14 of the vehicular lamp 11, the inner lens 13 is housed in the lamp chamber 15, and the opening 16 is closed by the outer lens 12. A light source unit 18 is mounted on the vertical wall 17 of the lamp housing 14, and an LED 19 as a semiconductor light emitting element is provided on the front surface of the light source unit 18 so as to face the lamp chamber 15.

  The inner lens 13 includes a main body 21 that emits part of light incident from the LED 19 from the front of the lens to the front of the lamp (rear side of the vehicle body), and another part of incident light from the side of the lens to the side of the lamp (side of the vehicle body). The light guide part 22 radiate | emits to. The main body portion 21 and the light guide portion 22 are integrally formed of a transparent material, and are covered from the outside of the lamp by the transparent outer lens 12.

  As shown in FIGS. 3 and 5, the main body 21 is formed in a rectangular shape when viewed from the front of the lens and asymmetrical when viewed from the lens plane. The light guide portion 22 is formed so as to extend from the left side (one side of the rectangle) of the main body portion 21 into a vertical plane on the lens back side, and the slit into which the tip portion of the light guide portion 22 is inserted into the lamp housing 14. 23 is provided.

  As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the main body portion 21 includes a semi-cylindrical direct irradiation portion 24 on the optical axis of the LED 19. The back surface of the direct light portion 24 is an incident surface 25 on which light from the LED 19 is incident, and a plurality of vertically long steps 26 are provided on the front surface of the direct light portion 24. And the direct-light part 24 permeate | transmits a part of light which injected from the entrance plane 25, and radiate | emits it forward from the front as a parallel light from the lamp.

  In the inner lens 13 of this embodiment, the direct-light portion 24 is formed in a rectangular shape that is vertically long when viewed from the front at a position that is biased to the left side of the center in the width direction of the main body portion 21 (see FIG. 3). Further, a large number of horizontally long micro steps 28 are formed on the incident surface 25 in the vertical direction so that the diffused light is emitted from the direct light portion 24 (see FIG. 4).

  As shown in FIGS. 2 and 5, a plurality of total reflection surfaces 29 are formed on the back surface of the main body portion 21 on both the left and right sides of the direct irradiation portion 24, and a plurality of stepped emission surfaces are formed on the front surface of the main body portion 21. 30 is formed. The main body 21 is configured so that light incident from both the left and right sides of the incident surface 25 is internally reflected by the total reflection surface 29 toward the lens front side, and the internally reflected light is emitted from the emission surface 30 to the front of the lamp. ing.

  As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the exit surface 30 </ b> L on the outer side in the vehicle width direction (left side of the direct-lighting portion 24) is more than the exit surface 30 </ b> R on the inner side in the vehicle width direction (right-hand side of the direct-lighting portion 24). It is formed with a small area. The light guide portion 22 of the inner lens 13 is formed so as to extend from the outer edge of the main body portion 21, that is, the outer edge in the vehicle width direction, to the lens back side along the outer lens 12 on the emission surface 30L side.

  A triangular prism 31 is formed on the outer edge of the main body 21 so as to protrude toward the lens front side. The triangular prism 31 includes a pair of total reflection surfaces 32 (see FIG. 6) that are opposed to each other at a predetermined angle, and a part of the light that is internally reflected by the total reflection surface 29 of both the total reflection surfaces 32 on the main body 21 side. It functions as a first optical element that wraps around the light guide 22 side.

  On the other hand, the light guide unit 22 is provided with a second optical element that emits light that has entered the main body unit 21 from the light guide unit 22 to the side of the inner lens 13. The second optical element of this embodiment includes a plurality of total reflection surfaces 33 chamfered and formed at the front end of the light guide unit 22, and a plurality of inner surface steps engraved in the longitudinal direction on the inner surface of the light guide unit 22. 34 is included.

  Then, as shown in FIG. 6, the second optical element causes the total reflection surface 33 to totally reflect the light traveling from the proximal end to the distal end of the light guide 22, and the light reflected by the total reflection surface 33 to the inner surface step 34. Thus, the light is totally reflected toward the side of the inner lens 13, passes through the outer lens 12, and is emitted to the side of the vehicle body 2.

  In the vehicular lamp 11 having the above-described configuration, as shown in FIG. 5, the LED 19 emits light from the incident surface 25 of the inner lens 13 to the direct-light portion 24, and a part of the incident light is parallel light from the front surface of the direct-light portion 24. Is emitted to the front side of the lens. Further, another part of the incident light enters the main body portion 21 from both the left and right sides of the direct-lighting portion 24, is reflected by the total reflection surface 29 toward the lens front side, and is emitted from the exit surfaces 30L and 30R to the lens front side as parallel light. Emitted. Therefore, most of the incident light can be collected in the center region of the lens by the main body portion 21 including the direct light portion 24, and the front of the lamp can be illuminated brightly.

  On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 6, a part of the light incident on the main body portion 21 on the outer side in the vehicle width direction from the incident surface 25 is totally reflected by the total reflection surface 32 of the triangular prism 31 and guided from the outer edge of the main body portion 21. After going around to the optical part 32 side and being totally reflected by the tip total reflection surface 33 of the light guide part 22, it is emitted from the inner side surface step 34 toward the lens side. Therefore, according to the vehicular lamp 11 of this embodiment, the incident light from the LED 19 can be added to the front side of the lamp by the single inner lens 13 and distributed to the side of the lamp, for example, as a tail & stop lamp of the automobile 1. The rear and side can be illuminated simultaneously.

  The vehicular lamp 11 of the present invention is not limited to a tail and stop lamp, and is applied to various vehicular lamps having a light distribution function in two directions, such as a headlamp, a turn signal lamp, and a clearance lamp. You can also. In addition, the shape and configuration of each part can be arbitrarily changed without departing from the spirit of the present invention, such as appropriately changing the shapes of the first and second optical elements of the inner lens 13. .

  7-9 illustrate another embodiment of the present invention. In the vehicular lamp 11 shown in FIG. 7, a plurality of LED chips 119 are disposed on the end surface of the socket-type light source unit 118. The inner lens 113 includes a main body portion 121 that is rectangular in front view and a light guide portion 122 that extends to the back side of the lens, as in the above-described embodiment. A vertically long step 126 is formed on the front surface of the portion 124, and the back surface of the direct-light portion 124 is an incident surface 125 (see FIGS. 8 and 9). In addition, unlike the inner lens 13 of FIG. 3, the horizontally long step 128 of the incident surface 125 is formed so as to gradually shorten as the distance from the LED chip 119 increases.

  8 and 9 both show the cross-sectional shape of the inner lens 113 along the line DD in FIG. 7, but the inner lens 113A in FIG. 8 is formed to be thick overall, and the inner lens 113B in FIG. Is formed into a thin wall as a whole. In each of the inner lenses 113A and 113B, a part of the incident light from the LED chip 119 is emitted as parallel light from the front surface of the direct light portion 124, and another part of the incident light is the main body, as in the above embodiment. Reflected by the total reflection surface 129 of the portion 121 and emitted from the emission surfaces 130L and 130R to the lens front side as parallel light, and part of the light incident on the body portion 121 outside in the vehicle width direction is guided by the triangular prism 131. It goes around to the optical part 122 side and is emitted to the side of the lens through the total reflection surface 133 and the inner side surface step 134.

  By the way, according to the inner lens 113A of FIG. 8, since the entire lens is formed thick, most of the light incident on the left and right of the main body 121 is guided to the total reflection surface 129, and the reflected light is emitted to the output surface 130L, The light can be efficiently emitted from 130R to the front of the lens. On the other hand, since the mass of the inner lens 113A is increased, the material cost is high, and a relative displacement between the inner lens 113A and the socket-type light source unit 118 is likely to occur due to vibration of the vehicle body.

  On the other hand, the inner lens 113B of FIG. 9 is configured so that a part of incident light reenters the front end side of the main body 121 after passing through an air layer inside the lens in order to make the whole thin. According to this configuration, the mass of the entire lens can be reduced, the material cost can be reduced, and the relative displacement between the lens 113B and the light source unit 118 can be suppressed. On the other hand, since the amount of light guided to the total reflection surface 129 is reduced, the light use efficiency is reduced as compared with the thick inner lens 113A. However, since a sufficient amount of light is secured on the base end side of the main body 121, the central portion of the main body 121 including the direct light portion 124 can emit light brightly.

  Normally, the socket-type light source unit 118 is attached to the lamp housing 14 via the packing member 112, while the inner lens 113 is attached to the lamp housing 14 by an attachment member separate from the light source unit 118. For this reason, the socket-type light source unit 118 is more likely to be displaced relative to the inner lens 113 than the light source unit (for example, Patent Document 1) fixed to the inner lens. Therefore, in a vehicle lamp using the socket-type light source unit 118, it is desirable to use a lightweight thin inner lens 113B in order to stabilize the light distribution pattern.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Vehicle lamp 12 Outer lens 13 Inner lens 14 Lamp housing 19 LED
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 21 Main body part 22 Light guide part 24 Direct irradiation part 25 Incident surface 29 Total reflection surface of main body part 30 Output surface 31 Triangular prism 33 Total reflection surface of light guide part 34 Inner side surface 113 of light guide part Inner lens 118 Socket type light source unit

Claims (6)

  A main body that reflects a part of incident light from the inner surface and emits the light from the front of the lens; and a light guide that extends from the outer edge of the main body to the lens back side. A lens comprising a first optical element that wraps around the light guide section side.   2. The lens according to claim 1, wherein the light guide unit includes a second optical element that emits at least a part of the light that has entered the main body from the light guide unit to the side of the lens.   The lens according to claim 2, wherein the second optical element includes a total reflection surface formed at a tip of the light guide unit, and a step of totally reflecting the light totally reflected by the total reflection surface to the side of the lens.   A semiconductor light emitting device, an inner lens having an incident surface on which light from the semiconductor light emitting device is incident, and an outer lens that covers the inner lens from the outside of a lamp, and the inner lens according to any one of claims 1 to 3. A vehicle lamp characterized in that the lens according to the item is used, and the light guide portion of the lens is formed along the outer lens.   5. The vehicular lamp according to claim 4, wherein the inner lens body is formed in a rectangular shape when viewed from the front, and the light guide portion of the inner lens is formed so as to extend vertically from one side of the rectangle.   The main body portion of the inner lens includes a direct irradiation portion that transmits a part of light incident from the incident surface and emits light from the front surface of the lens, and the direct irradiation portion is formed in a rectangular shape in front view. Vehicle lamps.

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