Illumination – Supported by vehicle structure – Housing
Utility Patent
1998-08-24
2001-01-02
Quach, Y. (Department: 2875)
Illumination
Supported by vehicle structure
Housing
C362S294000, C362S373000
Utility Patent
active
06168303
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicular lamp and, more particularly, to a vehicular lamp designed to prevent the lens surface from becoming misted.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional vehicular headlamp includes a lamp body and a lens attached to a front opening portion of the lamp body so that a substantially airtight lamp chamber is achieved. Therefore, when the temperature in the lamp chamber drops after the headlamp has been turned off, the inner face of the lens experiences dew condensation due to saturated aqueous vapor. As a result, the lens becomes misted so that the outward appearance of the lamp is poor. To prevent the lens from becoming misted, a construction for preventing dew condensation has been proposed wherein the lamp is provided with venting holes for introducing atmospheric air into the lamp chamber.
For example,
FIG. 4
schematically illustrates a cross section of one such construction. Referring to
FIG. 4
, a lens
2
is attached to the lamp body
1
so as to cover a front opening portion
11
thereof. As a result, a lamp chamber is defined by the lamp body
1
and the lens
2
. A reflector
4
is disposed within the lamp chamber, and a bulb
6
is attached to the reflector
4
via a bulb socket
5
. Furthermore, there is provided a shade
7
for moderating the light emitted forwardly from the bulb
6
. The lamp body
1
has openings
18
formed in a lateral face or a back face thereof. The openings
18
, which serve as exhaust holes or venting holes, communicate the lamp chamber with the atmosphere.
Due to various demands imposed on the design of vehicles, vehicular lamps in recent years have complicated shapes instead of simple shapes such as circular or rectangular. In many cases, such vehicular lamps are provided with a lamp body with its corner portion having a narrow area. This narrow area adversely affects circulation of the atmospheric air, so that the aforementioned venting holes cannot effectively prevent a lens surface from becoming misted.
Referring to
FIG. 4
, the lamp is constructed in such a manner that the reflector
4
is formed separately from the lamp body
1
so as to allow adjustment of the optical axis of the bulb
6
by simply tilting the reflector. In such a construction, in order to enable the reflector
4
to be tilted, it is necessary to provide a gap S between the inner face of the lamp body
1
and a front edge portion
4
a
of the reflector
4
. If the gap S is visible from the outside, the overall outward appearance is deteriorated. Accordingly, an extension
8
X is provided to cover the gap S. Specifically, the extension
8
X is disposed along the inner face of the front opening portion
11
of the lamp body
1
. In this state, the extension
8
X is also disposed quite close to the lens
2
, along the inner peripheral face thereof. Therefore, as can be seen from
FIG. 4
, the air circulation is reduced in the vicinity of an area Y that is close to the inner face of a side portion or a corner portion of the lens
2
. Since air stagnates in this area Y, the inner face of the lens
2
tends to experience dew condensation so that it is difficult to prevent the lens
2
from becoming misted. In addition, in comparison with other areas, the heat emitted by the bulb
6
has little effect on a lower side area of the lens
2
, which is at a great distance from the bulb
6
. This especially holds true for both lateral areas of the lower side of the lens
2
. As a result, these areas are at a lower temperature than the other areas, and thus tend to suffer the most from dew condensation, which inevitably causes the lens
2
to become misted. For this reason, it is difficult to prevent the lower side area of the lens
2
as well as the lateral areas of the lens
2
from becoming misted.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a vehicular lamp that can effectively prevent a lens of a lamp equipped with an extension from becoming misted.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To achieve the aforementioned object, the present invention provides a vehicular lamp equipped with an extension for covering a gap formed between an inner face of a lamp body and a reflector, wherein the extension is provided with openings for connecting an area proximate to an inner face of the lens with a rear area of the extension. The openings are formed in a lower frame portion of the extension, which is not visible from outside through the lens. The openings may be formed in the lower frame portion at left and right positions thereof respectively. In addition, the lamp body may be provided with venting holes for communicating the inside and outside of the lamp body at positions opposed to the aforementioned openings respectively, and a shroud for introducing air flow along the inner face of the lamp body may extend between the venting holes and the openings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5285358 (1994-02-01), Watanabe et al.
patent: 5367438 (1994-11-01), Deslandres
patent: 5611612 (1997-03-01), Choji et al.
patent: 5649762 (1997-07-01), Dobler
Ashizawa Kazuhisa
Tanaka Toshio
Koito Manufacturing Co. Ltd.
Quach Y.
Sughrue Mion Zinn Macpeak & Seas, PLLC
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