Illumination – Vehicle steering mechanism or element moves pivoted lamp or...
Reexamination Certificate
2001-10-12
2003-09-16
O'Shea, Sandra (Department: 2875)
Illumination
Vehicle steering mechanism or element moves pivoted lamp or...
C362S056000, C362S057000, C362S487000, C362S523000, C362S524000, C362S287000, C362S273000, C362S428000, C362S425000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06619809
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an orientation-adjusting devices for vehicle head lights, and especially to an orientation-adjusting device for adjusting the projecting angle of a vehicle head light.
2. Description of Related Art
Referring to
FIG. 1
, a perspective view of a head light
900
generally used in a car is illustrated. The head light assembly
900
is an integrally-formed housing encasement
910
with a main light
920
and an indicator
930
installed therein. The main light
920
has a reflecting mask
922
which can be adjusted leftwards, rightwards, upwards or backwards. Furthermore, two mounting holes
912
as shown in
FIG. 2
are formed at a rear lateral side of the housing encasement
910
. The reflecting mask
922
in the housing encasement
910
is formed with a buckling hole
924
corresponding with respect to the mounting hole
912
.
In a prior art, Taiwanese Utility Model Application No. 89214252 filed by the inventor of the present invention, an adjuster for adjusting the orientation of the reflecting mask
922
of the head light assembly
900
of a car is disclosed. However, in practical production and applications, it has been discovered that there are a couple of defects in the orientation adjuster as described in the following:
When an active unit
20
is rotated through an angle until the front end of a driven screw rod
30
can not be further retracted, i.e., when the rear end surface of a circular protrusion
32
of the driven screw rod
30
resists against the front end surface of a driven unit
40
, as shown in
FIG. 3
, it is possible that a vertical portion
54
of a cover
50
will be damaged once the driving member
20
is subject to over-rotation; the torque of the rotated active unit
200
that causes the damage is a destructive one. Similarly, when the active unit
20
is rotated along a reverse direction, until the front end of the driven screw rod
30
can not be moved forward any further (i.e. when the front end of the circular protrusion
32
of the driven screw rod
30
withstands the inner wall of a housing unit
10
), it is possible that the driven screw rod
30
will be destroyed once the driving member
20
is subject to over-rotation. In such a situation, the torque of the active unit
20
that causes the damage is generally referred to as a destructive one.
In fact, not only the orientation adjuster has the foregoing problem, but also a general orientation adjuster suffers the same problem. Therefore, the specification of the general adjuster must list the value of the break in torque and break out torque to act as a reminder to the user from applying too much twisting force thereto. Moreover, the adjusters must be designed to tolerate up to the break in torque and break out torque. For the adjuster of the prior art, in order that the vertical portion
54
of the cover
50
and the driven screw rod
30
must be tolerate up to the destructive torque, it is required to enlarge the thickness of the vertical portion
54
and the diameter of the driven screw rod
30
. It increases not only the cost of materials, but also the volume of the orientation adjuster.
In the aforesaid head light assembly
900
, other than the mounting hole
912
, the housing encasement
910
is a closed structure without any slit. Therefore, when the adjuster device of the prior art is being mounted in position by first passing a cylindrical portion
11
with a buckling protrusion
13
through the mounting hole
912
, then at the time of compressing an elastic pad
12
, buckling a buckle
33
of the driven screw rod
30
into the buckling hole
924
, and finally rotating the whole adjuster until it reaches the predetermined position the housing encasement
910
becomes air-tight to prevent vapor from entering into the housing encasement
910
and thus keep mist from being formed therewithin, which impels light to emit out, and further preventing bulbs of the main light
920
and the indicator
930
from being damaged by humidity.
In the head light assembly
900
with the aforesaid structure, when the driving member
20
is over-rotated in one direction, the over-retracted buckle
33
would possibly destroy the buckling hole
924
and break the reflecting mask
922
. Similarly, when the driving member
20
is over-rotated in the other direction, the reflector
922
may be damaged by the over-inserted buckle
33
. In the above situations, since the housing encasement
910
is a closed structure and the reflector
922
cannot be replaced, the whole of head light assembly
900
must be replaced as a whole. In other words, when the conventional orientation adjuster is damaged by screw-in or screw-out destroyed, not only the adjuster itself is destroyed, the whole lamp assembly is ruined.
As described above, when the head light assembly
900
is mounted with the orientation adjuster of the prior art, the housing encasement
910
must be completely air-tight. However, in the orientation adjuster of the prior art, the driven screw rod
30
is installed and screwed to the first hole
14
of the cylindrical portion
11
, and thus the screwing structure cannot satisfactorily assure the air tightness of the housing
910
. Therefore, vapor might be allowed to enter into the housing encasement
910
, and thus, the interior of the housing encasement
910
is easy to have mist formed therein, and the main light
920
or the indicator
930
is easily damaged by moisture.
In addition, the conventional adjuster has the same defects. In order to assure the airtightness, there are conventional orientation adjusters equipped with sealing rubber at its front-most end (not shown). However, as the interior of the head light assembly
900
is often at a high temperature due to heat generated by the bulbs, the rubber exposed to such a high temperature is easily worn and needs to be often replaced.
In the orientation adjuster of the prior art, a threaded section
31
of the driven screw rod
30
must be screwed to the elliptical hole
14
of the cylindrical section
1
, and therefore, the length of the threaded section
31
must be approximately equal to twice the length of the hole
14
. This limits the further reduction of the volume of the orientation adjuster.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is accomplished in order to improve the defects disclosed in the prior art. It is therefore an object of the present invention, to provide an orientation adjusting device for a vehicle head light without the confinement of the destructive torque, so that no damage to the orientation adjusting device will occur even if it is over-rotated.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an orientation-adjusting device for a vehicle head light that the airtightness can be satisfactorily achieved.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an orientation-adjusting device for a vehicle head light that can be used with a longer lifetime.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an orientation-adjusting device for a vehicle head light with a reduced volume.
To achieve the above objectives, the present invention provides an orientation-adjusting device for a vehicle head light comprising a housing encasement, an active unit, a driven unit, a cover, driven screw rod, an elastic unit, and an elastic sealing unit. The housing encasement is installed with an elliptical hole and an axial hole. The active unit has an axial portion axially installed at the axial hole and a gear portion located in the housing encasement. The driven unit has another gear portion engaged with the gear portion of the active unit, and an axially-formed penetrating hole, wherein the penetrating hole includes a threaded hole section near the active unit and a threadless hole section remotely away from the active unit. The cover is installed on the housing encasement to cover the interior thereof and prevent the driven unit from projecting out therefrom. The driven screw rod has one end formed with a threaded sectio
Ekpac Taiwan, Ltd.
Shoemaker and Mattare
Zeade Bertrand
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