Rear combination lamp

Details Rear combination lamp Rear combination lamp

2000-11-30

2003-08-19

O'Shea, Sandra (Department: 2875)

Illumination

Supports

Adjustable light support

C362S421000, C362S455000, C362S519000, C362S548000, C439S336000, C439S057000, C439S546000, C439S333000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06607293

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a rear combination lamp used for an automobile etc. and, more particularly, relates to the structure of a lamp body for realizing a good contacting state between a terminal provided at a socket and a conductor wired at the lamp body.
Various kinds of related rear combination lamps used in vehicles such as automobiles etc. have been known. For example, a rear combination lamp
41
shown in
FIG. 10
is formed by a lamp body
42
and a socket
60
. The rear combination lamp is arranged in a manner that, when the socket
60
is attached to the lamp body
42
, a lamp
66
attached to the socket
60
can be coupled to conductors
47
wired at a wiring portion
46
formed at the lamp body
42
.
The lamp body
42
is configured by a socket holder
43
formed in a hollow and almost frustum shape and a lens portion
44
formed integrally at the bottom face of the socket holder
43
. The lower portion of a socket inlet
45
is formed in a hollow shape and provided at a not-shown inner wall thereof with a reflection mirror for suppressing the loss of light of the lamp within the lamp body
42
.
The peripheral wall on the upper face of the socket holder
43
is bent so as to expand toward the center direction of the socket inlet
45
to form the annular wiring portion
46
. The conductors
47
are wired on the upper face of the wiring portion
46
. The wiring portion
46
is provided at the inner peripheral wall thereof with guide grooves
49
for fitting with bayonets
65
formed on the socket
60
.
The four guide grooves
49
are formed at the peripheral edge of the socket inlet
45
with an interval of 90 degrees. The wiring portion
46
is divided into four pieces by the guide grooves
49
and each of the conductors
47
is wired in an arc shape on the associated one of the four pieces of the wiring portion. The conductors
47
are wired so as to be buried within wiring grooves
48
formed on the wiring portion
46
as shown in FIG.
11
.
The wiring portion
46
is provided at the outer side portion thereof with eight welding ribs
51
for fixing the conductors
47
and eight rectify ribs
71
serving as bending fulcrums when wiring the conductors
47
near the welding ribs
51
. Thus, the both end portions of each of the conductors
47
are bent by the associated rectify ribs
71
and welded in a state being sandwiched by the associated welding ribs
51
, respectively.
The diameter of the socket holder
45
and the number of the guide grooves
49
etc. are not limited to predetermined values and changed in accordance with the standard of the lamp
66
attached to the socket inlet
45
.
As shown in
FIG. 11
, the socket
60
is formed by a socket body
61
and a flange
62
of a circular plate shape and arranged in a manner that terminals
67
are housed within the socket body
61
. Each of the terminals
67
includes a contact
67
a
whose one end is provided with elasticity. The terminals are inserted in a fitting manner into the socket body
61
in a manner that the contacts
67
a
protrude on the face of the flange
62
from the side face of the socket body
61
.
The socket body
61
is provided on the side wall face thereof with the bayonets
65
for positioning and engaging which are fitted into the guide grooves
49
when attaching the socket
60
to the socket inlet
45
. The bayonets
65
are provided in correspondence with the number and the positions of the guide grooves
49
. In this example, four bayonets
65
are provided.
When attaching the socket
60
to the aforesaid lamp body
42
, as shown in
FIG. 10
, the socket is inserted within the socket inlet
45
in the direction shown by an arrow B such that the socket body
61
is directed downward. In this case, upon inserting the socket, the socket body is positioned so as to align the bayonets
65
to the associated guide grooves
49
, respectively. The guide grooves
49
are formed to have different shapes so as to prevent the erroneous insertion of the socket
60
, and the bayonets
65
are formed to have the configurations matched to the associated guide grooves
49
, respectively.
When the guide grooves
49
are aligned to the associated bayonets
65
, respectively, the socket body
61
can be fitted within the socket inlet
45
. In this case, the socket body
61
is inserted into the socket inlet
45
and then rotated in the direction shown by an arrow C thereby to attach the socket
60
to the lamp body
42
. Thus, as shown in
FIG. 11
, the contacts
67
a
contact to the conductors
47
, whereby the lamp
66
attached to the socket body
61
can be electrically connected.
The conductors
47
are buried within the wiring grooves
48
formed on the wiring portion
46
. Thus, when the socket body
61
is inserted within the socket inlet
45
and rotated in the direction shown by the arrow C, although the contacts
67
a
slide on the conductors
47
, the conductors
47
are prevented from moving out of the wiring grooves
48
, whereby the contacts
67
a
can be surely made in contact with the conductors
47
.
According to the aforesaid related rear combination lamp, in the case of attaching the socket
60
to the lamp body
42
, the bayonets
65
are aligned to the associated guide grooves
49
, respectively, then the socket body
61
is fitted within the socket inlet
45
and then inserted in the direction shown by the arrow B. However, in this case, there is a case that the socket body is further pushed in after the contacts
67
a
have been brought into contact with the conductors
47
.
When the socket body is pushed in excessively in this manner, the contacts
67
a
are crushed to raise an excessive deformation and so the elasticity of the contacts is degraded. As a result, there arises a problem that the contacts
67
a
are subjected to the plastic deformation and so the contacting state between the contacts and the conductors
47
becomes failure.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the invention has been made in view of the aforesaid problem of the related art, and an object of the invention is to provide a rear combination lamp which prevents the excessive deformation of contacts at the time of attaching a lamp socket to a lamp body thereby to surely prevent the contact failure between conductors and the contacts.
In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided a lamp device comprising:
a socket body for holding a lamp;
a socket holder provided with a socket inlet into which the socket body is inserted; and
a stop rib formed on the socket holder in the vicinity of the socket inlet so as to restrict an insertion amount of the socket body.
Preferably, the socket body is provided with a terminal contact, and the socket holder is provided with a conductor which is to be electrically connected with the terminal contact when the socket body is inserted into the socket inlet. Here, the stop rib restricts a further insertion of the socket body when the terminal contact is brought into contact with the conductor.
Preferably, the socket holder is provided with a first face on which the stop rib and the conductor are provided, and the socket body is provided with a second face opposing to the first face, on which the terminal is provided. Here, a top face of the stop rib is brought into contact with the second face when the terminal contact is brought into contact with the conductor.
Preferably, bayonets are provided on an outer periphery of the socket body, and the socket inlet is formed with guide grooves for respectively receiving the associated bayonets. A plurality of stop ribs are provided in the vicinity of the respective guide grooves.
Preferably, one of inner side faces of the respective guide grooves includes a tapered face.
According to the above structure, at the time of attaching the socket body to the socket holder, the bayonets formed at the socket body are aligned in correspondence with the guide grooves, respectively, and then the socket body is inserted into the socket inlet. As a result, the ter

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