Patent Application
20170136942
This application claims priorities of Taiwanese Patent Application No. 104219820, filed on Dec. 10, 2015 and Taiwanese Patent Application No. 104218382, filed on Nov. 17, 2015.
The disclosure relates to a light device for an automobile, and more particularly to a tail light device having a plurality of light emitting modules.
Referring to
Such light emitting module 6 has a large number of component parts, which are required to be individually mounted in sequence in the accommodation chamber 52, thereby rendering the assembly task inconvenient.
Therefore, an object of the disclosure is to provide a tail light device that can alleviate at least one of the drawbacks of the prior art.
According to the disclosure, the tail light device includes a housing having a base seat which is disposed to be mounted at a rear of the automobile, and a surrounding wall which extends in a front-and-rear direction from a periphery of the base seat to define an accommodation chamber therein and to terminate at a rear edge. Alight shade is connected to the rear edge to enclose the accommodation chamber. Amounting fixture is an integrally formed frame, and is removably connected to an inner wall surface of the surrounding wall to be accommodated in the accommodation chamber. The mounting fixture has a mounting wall which extends in a plane that is normal to the front-and-rear direction and which has two first mounting wall portions that are spaced apart from each other, and a second mounting wall portion that is interposed between the first mounting wall portions. The tail light device further includes two first light emitting modules, each secured to a respective one of the first mounting wall portions and controlled to emit light when a first operation mode of the automobile occurs, and a second light emitting module secured to the second mounting wall portion to emit light when a second operation mode of the automobile occurs.
Other features and advantages of the disclosure will become apparent in the following detailed description of the embodiment with reference to the accompanying drawings, of which:
Referring to
The shell 1 includes a housing 11 having a base seat 111 which is disposed to be mounted at a rear of an automobile, and a surrounding wall 112 which extends in a front-and-rear direction from a periphery of the base seat 111 to define an accommodation chamber 12 therein and to terminate at a rear edge 113. A light shade 13 is connected to the rear edge 113 to enclose the accommodation chamber 12. A holding frame 14 is connected to the rear edge 113 at a periphery thereof to be disposed in the accommodation chamber 12, and has two first holding holes 141 spaced apart from each other in an up-and-down direction, a second holding hole 143 formed between the first holding holes 141, and a plurality of third holding holes 142 formed laterally of the first and second holding holes 141, 143 and spaced apart from each other in the up-and-down direction.
The mounting fixture 2 is an integrally formed frame, and is removably connected to an inner wall surface of the surrounding wall 112 to be accommodated in the accommodation chamber 12. The mounting fixture 2 has a mounting wall 20 which extends in a plane that is normal to the front-and-rear direction and which has two first mounting wall portions 21 that are spaced apart from each other in the up-and-down direction, and a second mounting wall portion 22 that is interposed between the first mounting wall portions 21. Alternatively, the first mounting wall portions 21 may be spaced apart from each other in a left-and-right direction. The second mounting wall portion 22 may be disposed below the first mounting wall portions 21.
Each first light emitting module 3 includes a control board 31 which is secured to the respective first mounting wall portion 21, a plurality of light emitting members 311 that are mounted on and controlled by the control board 31 to emit light when a first operation mode of the automobile occurs, a light guiding seat 32 having an annular wall 320 which extends in the front-and-rear direction from the first mounting wall portion 21 to have a rear end held in the first holding hole 141 of the holding frame 14 and which surrounds the light emitting members 311 to define a light guiding space 326 therein, a front reflector plate 33 disposed in the light guiding space 326 and spaced apart from an inner surface 324 of the annular wall 320 by an annular gap 327 such that light emitted from the light emitting members 311 passes through the annular gap 327, an annular reflecting frame 35 attached to the inner surface 324 of the annular wall 320 and disposed rearwardly of the front reflector plate 33 to cooperatively define a light reflecting space 36, and a rear reflector plate 34 disposed to enclose the light reflecting space 36, and confronting and spaced apart from the front reflector plate 33 in the front-and-rear direction such that light emitted through the annular gap 327 is reflected in the light reflecting space 36.
In this embodiment, the light guiding seat 32 of each first light emitting module 3 has an incident surface 321 disposed on a front end of the annular wall 320 and confronting the light emitting members 311, a scattering surface 322 disposed on a rear end of the annular wall 320 such that the light passing through the annular gap 327 enters from the incident surface 321 and out of the scattering surface 322 to form a ring-shaped light, a refracting surface 325 disposed in the annular gap 327 and interposed between the incident surface 321 and the annular reflecting frame 35 such that the light transmitted from the incident surface 321 is refracted by the refracting surface 325 and then reflected in the light reflecting space 36, and an annular attachment wall 323 extending radially and inwardly from the front end of the annular wall 320 for the front reflector plate 33 to be attached thereto. In this embodiment, each first light emitting module 3 is in the form of a running and brake light from which a light is emitted when the first operation mode is a running or brake operation mode. Alternatively, each first light emitting module 3 may be in the form of a running light, a brake light, a turning light, a fog light or the like.
Each retaining unit 7 is disposed to retain the respective first light emitting module 3 to the respective first mounting wall portion 21, and includes a plurality of first through holes 76 formed in and through the first mounting wall portion 21, a plurality of second through holes 73 formed in and through the control board 31, a plurality of lugs 74 mounted on the light guiding seat 32 and each having a lug hole 741 that is registered with the first and second through holes 76, 73, a plurality of sockets 75 mounted on and extending forwardly from the front reflector plate 33 to extend through the lug hole 741 and each having internally threaded portion 751, and a plurality of screw bolts 71, each extending through the first and second through holes 76, 73 and threadedly engaged with the internally threaded portion 751. The control board 31, the light guiding seat 32 and the front reflector plate 33 can be mounted to the first mounting wall portion 21 by means of the screw bolts 71 so as to facilitate assembly and disassembly of the first light emitting module 3.
The second light emitting module 4 is secured to the second mounting wall portion 22 to emit light when a second operation mode of the automobile occurs. The second light emitting module 4 extends rearwardly to have a rear end held in the second holding hole 143 of the holding frame 14. In this embodiment, the second light emitting module 4 is in the form of a backup light from which light is emitted when the second operation mode is a backup operation mode. Note that the second light emitting module 4 may be alternatively in the form of a running light, a turning light, a brake light, a fog light or the like.
The third light emitting module 8 is disposed in the accommodation chamber 12 and laterally of the first and second light emitting modules 3, 4, and includes a plurality of light guide members 81 that are spaced apart from each other in the up-and-down direction and that are held in the third holding holes 142 of the holding frame 14, two connecting members 83, each of which interconnects the light guide members 81, and a plurality of light scattering protrusions 82 disposed on the light guide members 81 and confronting laterally. Light is reflected and refracted by the light scattering protrusions 82 to achieve a light scattering effect. To fabricate the third light emitting module 8, the light guide members 81 are connected to the connecting members 83 to form a single modular structure which is then mounted on the housing 11.
Referring to
Similarly, when the tail light device is in a brake state, the light emitting members 311 emit strong red light, which is projected to the rear reflector plate 34 through the annular reflecting frame 35 and reflected between the front and rear reflector plates 33, 34 so as to increase conspicuity of the automobile for safety purposes.
As illustrated, with the structure of the mounting fixture 2 on which the first light emitting modules 3 and the second light emitting module 4 are mounted to forma modular construction, the assembly procedure is simplified by simply mounting the modular construction in the accommodation chamber 12 of the shell 1. On the other hand, during assembly of the shell 1 and the modular construction, it is advantageous that the shell 1 is placed on an assembly line after the modular construction has been completely fabricated, which can shorten the amount of time that the shell 1 is on the assembly line to minimize possibility of damage to the shell 1, and which can reduce the defective rate of the tail light device.
While the disclosure has been described in connection with what is considered the exemplary embodiment, it is understood that this disclosure is not limited to the disclosed embodiment 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.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 104218382 | Nov 2015 | TW | national |
| 104219820 | Dec 2015 | TW | national |
