US 2010/0165654 A1Published application

Vehicle headlamp

AssigneeIchikoh Industries, Ltd.

InventorsYasuhiro OKUBO, Toshiya ABE

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

A vehicle headlamp is provided with: a main reflector having a convergent reflecting surface; a semiconductor-type light source; a projecting lens; an auxiliary reflector having a parabolic reflecting surface; a shade and a light shading member that are structured integrally with each other; and a switching device. By means of the switching device, the shade and light shading member, which are structured integrally with each other, are switched and positioned in a first location and a second location, thereby allowing light distribution patterns for high and low beams to be switched and illuminated toward a forward direction of a vehicle. As a result, the vehicle headlamp becomes capable of achieving downsizing, weight reduction, power saving, and cost reduction.

Claims8

Dependent claims

A vehicle headlamp, comprising:

(i) a main reflector having a convergent reflecting surface based upon an elliptical face;
(ii) a semiconductor-type light source which is disposed so that a light emitting chip is positioned at or near a first focal point of the convergent reflecting surface;
(iii) a projecting lens on which a lens focal point is positioned at or near a second focal point of the convergent reflecting surface;
(iv) an auxiliary reflector which is disposed between the main reflector and the projecting lens;
(v) a parabolic reflecting surface based upon a parabolic face, which is disposed at the auxiliary reflector and on which a focal point is positioned at or near the first focal point of the convergent reflecting surface, for reflecting radiated light from the semiconductor-type light source, which is disallowed to be targeted for light distribution on the convergent reflecting surface, as a spot light distribution of the light distribution pattern for high beam, without passing through the projecting lens;
(vi) a shade which is between the semiconductor-type light source and the projecting lens, and is disposed to be movable between a first location and a second location, for cutting off a part of reflection light radiated from the semiconductor-type light source and reflected on the convergent reflecting surface, to thereby form a light distribution pattern having one or more cutoff lines, when the shade is positioned in the first location, and for forming a basic light distribution of the light distribution pattern for high beam by means of the reflection light radiated from the semiconductor-type light source and reflected on the convergent reflecting surface, when the shade is positioned in the second location;
(vii) a light shading member which is between the semiconductor-type light source and the auxiliary reflector, and is disposed to be movable between a first location and a second location, for shading the radiated light from the semiconductor-type light source, which is to be incident to the parabolic reflecting surface, when the light shading member is positioned in the first location, and for allowing the radiated light from the semiconductor-type light source to be incident to the parabolic reflecting surface, when the light shading member is positioned in the second location;
and
(viii) a switching device for switching the shade and the light shading member to the first location and the second location respectively, thereby switching a current light distribution pattern to a respective one of a light distribution pattern, having one or more cutoff lines, and a light distribution pattern for high beam, having a spot light distribution.

6 more elements

A vehicle headlamp, comprising:

(i) a light source from which light is radiated in a hemispherical direction;
(ii) a convergent main reflector which is disposed to allow the radiated light in the hemispherical direction from the light source to be incident thereto;
(iii) a projecting lens on which a lens focal point is positioned in or near a focal point of the main reflector;
(iv) a parabolic auxiliary reflector which is disposed between the main reflector and the projecting lens;
(v) a shade and a light shading member which are disposed to be movable between a first location and a second location in between the light shade and the light shading member;
(vi) a switching device for switching the shade and the light shading member to the first location and the second location respectively, thereby switching a current light distribution pattern to a respective one of a light distribution pattern having one or more cutoff lines and a light distribution pattern for high beam, wherein:
when the shade and the light shading member are positioned in the first location by means of the switching device,
the light shading member is adapted to shade the radiated light from the light source, to be incident to the auxiliary reflector, and the shade is allowed to illuminate the light distribution pattern having one or more cutoff lines, which is formed by cutting off a part of reflection light radiated from the light source and reflected on the main reflector, toward a forward direction of a vehicle;
and
when the shade and the light shading member are positioned in the second location by means of the switching device,
the shade and the light shading member move from the first location to the second location, to thereby ensure that:
the reflected light from the main reflector, which is cut off by means of the shade in the first location, is incident to the projecting lens, as a basic light distribution of the light distribution pattern for high beam, without being cut off by means of the shade;
the radiated light from the light source, which is shaded by means of the light shading member in the first location, is incident to the auxiliary reflector, without being shaded by means of the light shading member;
and
the radiated light from the light source, which is incident to the auxiliary reflector and is disallowed to be targeted for light distribution on the main reflector, is reflected by means of the auxiliary reflector to the forward direction of the vehicle, as a spot light distribution of the light distribution pattern for high beam, without passing through the projecting lens.

12 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 12/645,076Filed 22 Dec 2009
Priority: JP 2008-33318326 Dec 2008
Published: 1 Jul 2010
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification9 codes

F21S 41/689
By moving screens: flaps, i.e. screens pivoting around one of their edges
F21S 41/148
The main emission direction of the LED being angled to the optical axis of the illuminating device: the main emission direction of the LED being…
F21S 41/155
Light emitting diodes [LED]: surface emitters, e.g. organic light emitting diodes [OLED]
F21S 41/43
Characterised by screens, non-reflecting members, light-shielding members or fixed shades: characterised by the shape thereof

Family

US 8,235,570 B2Related patent
US 2010/0165654 A1This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

Timeline

Citations

Open elsewhere

Building an agent or pulling many patents? Use the API or MCP server instead of scraping pages. Get an API key