Vehicle interior lighting assembly with varied transparency
AssigneeFca US LLC
InventorsFernando Marco Garza Villarreal, Matthew R Kappel
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An interior lighting assembly for a vehicle includes a base having an end wall and an open side opposite to the end wall, a light emitter between the end wall and the open side; and a cover attached to the base over the open side and defining with the base an interior in which the emitter is received, the cover has a first portion formed of a first material and a second portion formed of a second material so that the second portion has a lesser transparency than the first portion.
Claims20
An interior lighting assembly for a vehicle, comprising:
- a first trim piece having an exterior surface that defines part of a cavity and part of a light path;
- a second trim piece spaced from the first trim piece and having an exterior surface that defines part of the light path, where the light path has an outlet arranged to be open to a passenger compartment of the vehicle;
- a base received in the cavity spaced from the outlet and behind at least part of the first trim piece, the base having an end wall and an open side opposite to the end wall;
- a light emitter between the end wall and the open side;
- and
- a cover attached to the base over the open side and defining with the base an interior in which the emitter is received, the cover is located behind at least part of the first trim piece and has a first portion formed of a first material and a second portion formed of a second material so that the second portion has a lesser transparency than the first portion.
A vehicle, comprising:
- a first trim piece having an exterior surface that defines a first trim piece show surface defining part of a cavity that defines at least part of a light path;
- a second trim piece spaced from the first trim piece and including a second trim piece show surface that defines part of the light path;
- a lighting assembly received within the cavity and overlapped by a surface of the first trim piece that is not the first trim piece show surface and that defines part of the cavity, the lighting assembly having a base, a cover and an emitter that is received between the base and the cover, the cover has a first portion formed of a first material and a second portion formed of a second material so that the second portion has a lesser transparency than the first portion, and wherein the second trim piece show surface is arranged to direct light emitted from the emitter and through the first portion of the cover out of the light path, wherein the second trim piece show surface is arranged to direct light away from a glass surface of the vehicle.
The vehicle of 9 which also includes a reflecting surface that is not parallel to the second trim piece show surface, the reflecting surface is downstream of the second trim piece show surface and arranged to reflect light onto the first trim piece show surface.
The vehicle of 11 wherein the reflecting surface is arranged so that at least some of the light from the emitter reflects off of the second trim piece show surface and then onto the reflecting surface, and at least some of the light on the reflecting surface is reflected onto the first trim piece show surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.