The disclosure relates to a vehicular lamp, and more particularly to an optical lens and an optical lens assembly having the same for producing a light pattern of a vehicle lamp.
As shown in
The optical lens 11 is adapted to forwardly projecting light rays for producing a high beam pattern of a vehicle lamp, and includes a first lens part 12 and a second lens part 13 that is connected to and disposed rearwardly of said first lens part 12. The first lens part 12 has a high beam exit surface 121 that is in the form of a portion of a cylindrical surface. The second lens part 13 collects light rays by using the optical characteristics of a hyperbola. The second lens part 13 has a reflecting surface 131 which is formed by one revolution of an arm segment 16 of one of two hyperbolic branches 15 of a hyperbola 14 about an optical axis (A0) of the optical lens 11. The reflecting surface 131 is a continuous surface and is unzoned for having differently designed surface profiles.
Therefore, one object of the disclosure is to provide an optical lens that can alleviate the drawback of the prior art.
According to the disclosure, an optical lens includes a front lens part and a rear lens part.
The front lens part has a light exit surface adapted to forwardly projecting the light rays.
The rear lens part is disposed rearwardly of the front lens part, and has a rear end, a light entry portion, and a reflective portion. The light entry portion is concaved forwardly from the rear end and is adapted to receive incidence of the light rays. The reflective portion extends forwardly from the rear end and surrounds the light entry portion. The reflective portion has two first reflective surfaces respectively disposed on top and bottom sides of the light entry portion, two second reflective surfaces respectively disposed at left and right sides of the light entry portion, and a plurality of third reflective surfaces each disposed between one of the first reflective surfaces and one of the second reflective surfaces. The first, second, and third reflective surfaces together form a discontinuous surface around the light entry portion.
Another object of the disclosure is to provide an optical lens assembly.
According to the disclosure, the optical lens assembly includes an aforementioned optical lens and a high beam lens.
The aforementioned optical lens is adapted to producing a low beam pattern. The light exit surface of the optical lens is in the form of a portion of a cylindrical surface.
The high beam lens is adapted to forwardly projecting light rays for producing a high beam pattern, and includes a first lens part and a second lens part that is connected to and disposed rearwardly of the first lens part. The first lens part has a front end formed with a high beam exit surface. The high beam exit surface is in the form of a portion of a cylindrical surface and is coplanar with the light exit surface of the optical lens. The second lens part has a light entry surface that is concaved forwardly from a rear end of the second lens part, and a reflecting surface that extends forwardly from the rear end of the second lens part and that surrounds the light entry surface of the second lens part.
Other features and advantages of the disclosure will become apparent in the following detailed description of the embodiment(s) with reference to the accompanying drawings. It is noted that various features may not be drawn to scale.
Before the disclosure is described in greater detail, it should be noted that where considered appropriate, reference numerals or terminal portions of reference numerals have been repeated among the figures to indicate corresponding or analogous elements, which may optionally have similar characteristics.
It should be noted herein that for clarity of description, spatially relative terms such as “top,” “bottom,” “upper,” “lower,” “on,” “above,” “over,” “downwardly,” “upwardly” and the like may be used throughout the disclosure while making reference to the features as illustrated in the drawings. The features may be oriented differently (e.g., rotated 90 degrees or at other orientations) and the spatially relative terms used herein may be interpreted accordingly.
Referring to
The front lens part 31 has a light exit surface 311 adapted to forwardly projecting light rays from the light source 2. The light exit surface 311 is in the form of a portion of a cylindrical surface and is convexed from rear to front along the optical axis (A11). The light exit surface 311 defines a main focal point (F11) that is situated on the optical axis (A11) and that is disposed rearwardly of the rear lens part 32 (see
The rear lens part 32 has a rear end 33, a light entry portion 34, and a reflective portion 35.
The rear end 33 is the rearmost of the optical lens 3. As shown in
The light entry portion 34 is concaved forwardly from the rear end 33 and is adapted to receive incidence of the light rays. As shown in
In this embodiment, the light entry portion 34 has a main light entry surface 341 and a light entry surrounding surface 342. The main light entry surface 341 is disposed forwardly of the opening (S12) in a spaced-apart manner and in front of the light entry space (S11). The light entry surrounding surface 342 is connected around and extends forwardly from the opening (S12), and is connected to the main light entry surface 341. The main light entry surface 341 and the light entry surrounding surface 342 cooperatively define the light entry space (S11).
Referring to
Referring back to
Referring back to
The reflective portion 35 extends forwardly from the rear end 33 and surrounds the light entry portion 34 in a manner that the reflective portion 35 is disposed outwardly around the first, second and third light incident surface segments 343, 344, 345 of the light entry portion 34. The reflective portion 35 has two first reflective surfaces 351, two second reflective surfaces 352, and a plurality of third reflective surfaces 353. As shown in
The first reflective surfaces 351 respectively have first cross sections when sectioned by a first section plane extending in the top-bottom direction; each of the first cross sections forming a first parabolic line (L351) with a focal point coinciding with the main focal point (F11). Each first reflective surface 351 has a surface formed by the corresponding first parabolic line (L351) moving in the left-right direction. Therefore, each first reflective surface 351 has a front junction end (B21) that connects the front lens part 31 and that forms a line extending in the left-right direction.
As shown in
As shown in
Referring back to
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
Noteworthy, the virtual focal point (F23) of the main light entry surface 341 is changeable in position when the position of the third sectioning plane along line VIII-VIII is changed. Specifically, when the third sectioning plane is proximate to a perpendicular plane parallel with the top-bottom direction of the light entry portion 34, the virtual focal point (F23) becomes proximate to the virtual focal point (F21). When the third sectioning plane is proximate to a horizontal plane parallel with the left-right direction of the light entry portion 34, the virtual focal point (F23) becomes proximate to the t virtual focal point (F22). The position of the virtual focal point (F23) is variable, and the virtual focal point (F23) shown in
As shown in
Referring to
Because the focal points of the first parabolic lines (L351) of the first reflective surfaces 351 coincide with the main focal point (F11) of the light exit surface 311, the projected first light pattern (P21) formed by the first light rays (L21) is distributed concentratedly in the horizontal direction (i.e., the left-right direction). Specifically, as shown in
Because each first reflective surface 351 is formed by the corresponding first parabolic line (L351) moving in the left-right direction, the projected first light pattern (P21) is extendable leftward and rightward. Specifically, the projected first light pattern (P21) has a first width (W11) in the left-right direction (horizontal direction) that ranges between ±50 degrees (see
Referring to
Because the third reflective surfaces 353 have the largest degree of bending among the first, and second reflective surfaces 351, 352 and thus has the highest conformity to a parabolic surface, the projected third light pattern (P23) is most concentrated at a central region where the horizontal line intersects the vertical line (
Referring to
Because the degree of bending of each second reflective surface 352 is intermediate between the degrees of bending of the first and third reflective surfaces 351, 353, the projected second light pattern (P22) has a second width (W12) in the horizontal direction, which is in a range of ±15 degrees. That is, the first width (W11) is greater than the second width (W12) that is greater than the third width (W13).
Referring to
In this embodiment, the first, second and third reflective surfaces 351, 352, 353 are inner surfaces of the rear lens part 32 and cooperatively surround the light entry surrounding surface 342 in the form of the discontinuous stepped surface. The first, second and third reflective surfaces 351, 352, 353 have differently designed surface profiles to produce different projected light patterns that are formed into the low beam light distribution pattern (P31) when stacked on one another.
The optical lens 3 includes the following advantageous features.
Compared to the prior art, the reflective portion 35 has differently designed zones to produce desired satisfactory light patterns. Specifically, the projected first light pattern (P21) enables the low beam light distribution pattern (P31) to extend horizontally between ±50 degrees. The projected third light pattern (P23) is used to increase brightness at a central region of the low beam light distribution pattern (P31). Because the second width (W12) of the projected second light pattern (P22) is intermediate between the first width (W11) of the projected first light pattern (P21) and the third width (W13) of the projected third light pattern (P23), the projected second light pattern (P22) can smoothly link discrete regions of different brightness formed by the projected first and third light patterns (P21, P23). In addition, by providing more zones of different features (e.g., focal points) in the reflective portion 35, the overall light output efficiency of the optical lens 3 can be increased.
Because the main light entry surface 341 is formed by the cross sectional curve (L341) moving in the left-right direction, it has differently shaped curvatures in different directions (e.g., the directions of planes sectioning the main light entry surface 341 in
Referring to
The high beam lens 4 is adapted to forwardly projecting light rays for producing a high beam pattern (P41) as shown in
The first lens part 41 having a front end formed with a high beam exit surface 411. The high beam exit surface 411 is in the form of a portion of a cylindrical surface and is coplanar with the light exit surface 311 of the optical lens 3. As shown in
The second lens part 42 has a light entry surface 421 that is concaved forwardly from a rear end of the second lens part 42, and a reflecting surface 422 that extends forwardly from the rear end of the second lens part 42 and that surrounds the light entry surface 421 of the second lens part 42.
The reflecting surface 422 is formed by one revolution of an arm segment (L43) of one of two hyperbolic branches (L42) of a hyperbola (L41) about the optical axis (A12) of the high beam lens 4. Therefore, imaginary extension lines of the light rays refracted by the light entry surface 421 of the second lens part 42 intersect at a first imaginary focal point (F42a) of the one of the hyperbolic branches (L42). Imaginary extension lines of the light rays reflected by the reflecting surface 422 after being refracted by the light entry surface 421 of the second lens part 42 toward the reflecting surface 422 intersect at a second imaginary focal point (F42b) of the other one of the hyperbolic branches (L42). The second imaginary focal point (F42b) coincides with the focus point (F12) of the high beam exit surface 411.
More details of the high beam lens 4 producing the high beam pattern (P41) are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 10,781,998.
In the second embodiment of the disclosure, because the high beam exit surface 411 of the high beam lens 4 is coplanar with the light exit surface 311 of the optical lens 3, the high beam lens 4 and the optical lens 3 share a common light exit surface so as to provide an integration of a low-beam-light lens and a high-beam-light lens.
Noteworthily, the language “the virtual focal point coinciding with the main focal point” used hereinbefore means that the virtual focal point partially or entirely covers the main focal point.
In the description above, for the purposes of explanation, numerous specific details have been set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiment(s). It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art, that one or more other embodiments may be practiced without some of these specific details. It should also be appreciated that reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” an embodiment with an indication of an ordinal number and so forth means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic may be included in the practice of the disclosure. It should be further appreciated that in the description, various features are sometimes grouped together in a single embodiment, figure, or description thereof for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure and aiding in the understanding of various inventive aspects; such does not mean that every one of these features needs to be practiced with the presence of all the other features. In other words, in any described embodiment, when implementation of one or more features or specific details does not affect implementation of another one or more features or specific details, the one or more features may be singled out and practiced alone without the another one or more features or specific details. It should be further noted that one or more features or specific details from one embodiment may be practiced together with one or more features or specific details from another embodiment, where appropriate, in the practice of the disclosure.
While the disclosure has been described in connection with what is(are) considered the exemplary embodiment(s), it is understood that this disclosure is not limited to the disclosed embodiment(s) but is intended to cover various arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent arrangements.
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