Illumination – Light source and modifier – Adjustable or repositionable light source or light source...
Patent
1999-11-05
2000-10-24
O'Shea, Sandra
Illumination
Light source and modifier
Adjustable or repositionable light source or light source...
362546, 362549, F21V 2128
Patent
active
061356190
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a fixing device enabling a motor vehicle lighting and/or signalling device to be assembled to the bodywork of a motor vehicle, while taking up clearances due in particular to manufacturing tolerances.
For reasons to do essentially with appearance, car manufacturers have for several years been seeking to position signal lights and headlights more and more accurately so that they are completely integrated in the shape of a vehicle and do not have any play within their own housings.
In FR-A-2 719 269, the Applicant has already proposed a fixing device that enables the position of an attachment zone of a housing or "base" of the lighting and/or signalling device to be adjusted in three dimensions relative to the bodywork of the motor vehicle.
That known device essentially comprises two elements capable of sliding relative to each other, one of the elements being secured to the housing or base, and the other being fixed to the bodywork by means of a screw that co-operates with a nut. Means are provided for enabling the assembly to be held in a locked position.
Such a fixing device makes it possible to adjust the position of the housing relative to the bodywork in three independent directions. However, it cannot always be adapted to a wide variety of positioning defects, and in particular to an angular positioning defect between the surfaces of the housing and of the vehicle bodywork. Furthermore, that device uses a plurality of independent parts which need to be associated with one another in order to achieve fixing, thereby complicating assembly and increasing the risk of pieces being lost, and thus of losing the various clamping operations that are required when a light is mounted on the bodywork.
Another device, proposed in document DE-C-195 11 137, enables a housing for a signalling or lighting device to be fixed to the bodywork of a vehicle and comprises two snap-fastenable ends that are united by a moving spring which is guided in its elongation direction.
However, that known device does not provide positioning freedom in a plane perpendicular to the elongation direction and it adapts poorly to all types of positioning defect.
Furthermore, it is observed that in order to snap-fasten that device between the housing and the bodywork, it is necessary to apply pressure to the device in the spring-compression direction, and that in order to avoid the spring bending a system is provided for blocking the spring during mounting. That gives rise to a structure that is complicated and bulky, and to risks of the device breaking.
The object of the present invention is to propose a device for fixing a housing of a signalling or lighting device to the bodywork of a vehicle, the device having improved ability for taking up clearance.
Another object of the invention is to provide a fixing device which is simpler and quicker to mount.
The present invention provides a fixing device for fixing a housing of a motor vehicle lighting or signalling device to the bodywork of the vehicle, the device comprising a one-piece body possessing a fixing portion that is elastically deformable in elongation interconnecting a fixing portion for fixing to the bodywork and a fixing portion for fixing to the housing, the device being characterized in that one of the two fixing portions is suitable for being engaged in an enclosure associated with the housing or with the bodywork so as to provide, in said enclosure, two degrees of freedom transverse to the elongation direction of the elastically-deformable portion.
The device is also characterized in that the body is made of plastics material and includes in said elastically-deformable portion, a groove in which there is received a metal spring having a sinuous blade, said spring possessing, at at least one of its ends, at least one catch for engaging the material of the body.
More particularly, the device is characterized in that the fixing portion for fixing to the housing comprises a hollow head connected to the elastically-deformable portion by a narrower p
REFERENCES:
patent: 2138076 (1938-11-01), Taylor et al.
Donaire Camacho Juan Manuel
Garcia Castilla Jose
O'shea Sandra
Sawhney Hargobind S.
Valeo Vision
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