JP2017111908A - Vehicle headlamp - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a vehicle headlamp capable of melting a bonnet that forms a part of a vehicle body panel that forms an outer shape of a vehicle and snow accumulated on a side panel with a simple structure to prevent a deterioration in function. A front of a vehicle in which at least one of a traveling beam lamp and a low beam lamp is housed in a lamp chamber defined by an outer lens that covers a housing and a front opening of the housing. In the illumination lamp 4, an air supply duct 11 configured integrally with the housing 12 is disposed in the housing 12, and an air inlet 11 a of the air supply duct 11 is connected to a heat source (radiator) in the engine room 2 of the vehicle 1. 7 and the engine 10), and the exhaust ports 11b and 11c of the air supply duct 11 are directed toward the rear surface of the vehicle body panel (bonnet 5 and side panel 17) located above the vehicle headlamp 4. Open. [Selection] Figure 4

Description

  The present invention provides a snow melting structure in which snow accumulated on a bonnet and a side panel constituting a part of a vehicle body panel that forms the outer shape of a vehicle is melted by heat generated from a heat source such as an engine or a radiator in an engine room. The present invention relates to a vehicular headlamp.

  When the vehicle is stopped, parked or slowed down under snowfall, as shown in FIG. 13, snow accumulates on the hood 105 of the vehicle 101, and this accumulated snow hangs down to the front of the headlamp 104. There arises a problem that the hanging snow (snowfall) blocks the light emitted from the headlamp 104.

  By the way, in patent document 1, while arrange | positioning a collector on the back surface of a bonnet of the upper direction of an engine and an exhaust manifold, it arrange | positions under a windshield so that operation | movement of a wiper may not be inhibited by the snow accumulated on the windshield. The panel heater and the collector and tank are connected by piping to form a closed loop. The collector collects heat from the engine and the exhaust manifold, and the heated coolant is led to the panel heater. A snow melting structure is proposed in which the windshield is heated and the snow accumulated on the windshield is melted by the heat of the cooling water.

  Patent Document 2 proposes a snow melting structure that melts snow accumulated on the bonnet and the roof by routing the pipe on the hood and roof of the vehicle and circulating hot water from the radiator to the pipe with a small pump.

JP 7-304425 A JP 2007-085154 A

  The snow melting structure proposed in Patent Documents 1 and 2 melts snow by heat from a heat source such as an engine or a radiator, but since both use cooling water as a heat medium, piping for circulating this cooling water, A circulation pump is required, which causes a problem that the structure is complicated and the cost is increased.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and the object of the present invention is to melt the snow accumulated on the bonnet and the side panel constituting a part of the vehicle body panel forming the outer shape of the vehicle with a simple configuration. An object of the present invention is to provide a vehicular headlamp that can prevent functional degradation.

  To achieve the above object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, at least one of a traveling beam lamp and a passing beam lamp is accommodated in a lamp chamber defined by an outer lens covering a housing and a front opening of the housing. In this vehicle headlamp, the housing is provided with an air supply duct integrally formed with the housing, and the intake port of the air supply duct is opened toward a heat source in the engine room of the vehicle. The exhaust port of the air supply duct is opened toward the back surface of the vehicle body panel located above the vehicle headlamp.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, a part of the vehicle body panel is configured as a bonnet, and an exhaust port of the air supply duct is provided on the bonnet and a rear surface thereof. It is characterized by opening toward the space between the heat material.

  The invention according to claim 3 is the invention according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the intake port of the air supply duct is opened near the engine of the vehicle, and an air supply fan is provided in the air supply duct. It is characterized by that.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect of the present invention, the intake port of the air supply duct is opened toward a radiator fan of a vehicle.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect of the present invention, an air inlet of the air supply duct is opened in a radiator hood of the vehicle, and an air supply fan is provided in the air supply duct. It is characterized by that.

  According to the present invention, an engine or a radiator in an engine room is used as a heat source, and air heated by the heat source is taken into the air supply duct from the intake port of the air supply duct, and the vehicle body panel (bonnet or side Since the vehicle body panel (bonnet or side panel) is heated from the back surface side, the snow accumulated on the vehicle body panel (bonnet or side panel) melts and falls. For this reason, the function of the vehicle headlamp is such that the snow accumulated on the vehicle body panel (bonnet or side panel) hangs down to the front of the vehicle headlamp and does not block the light emitted from the vehicle headlamp. It is possible to prevent the occurrence of a malfunction that is hindered. In the present invention, since air as a gas is used instead of a liquid such as cooling water as a heat medium, piping and a circulation pump are not necessary, and an air supply duct is simply provided integrally with a vehicle headlamp. The above-described effect can be obtained with a simple configuration, and the structure is not complicated and the cost is not significantly increased. Further, since the air supply duct is integrated with the housing of the vehicle headlamp, the structure can be further simplified and the cost can be further reduced.

1 is a half-cut front view of a vehicle including a vehicle headlamp according to a first embodiment of the present invention. It is the sectional view on the AA line of FIG. It is a half-cut top view of the engine room of a vehicle provided with the vehicle headlamp which concerns on Embodiment 1 of this invention. FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line BB in FIG. 3. It is a fragmentary perspective view which shows the opening state of the inlet port and exhaust port of an air supply duct in the vehicle headlamp which concerns on Embodiment 1 of this invention. (A), (b) is a fragmentary sectional view which shows the structural example of the air supply duct of the vehicle headlamp which concerns on Embodiment 1 of this invention. (A), (b) is a fragmentary sectional view which shows another structural example of the air supply duct of the vehicle headlamp which concerns on Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the control system of the snow melting structure provided in the vehicle headlamp which concerns on Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the control procedure of the snow melting structure provided in the vehicle headlamp which concerns on Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is a side view of a vehicle front part provided with the vehicle headlamp which concerns on Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is a half-cut top view of the engine room of a vehicle provided with the vehicle headlamp which concerns on Embodiment 2 of this invention. It is a half-cut top view of the engine room of a vehicle provided with the vehicle headlamp which concerns on Embodiment 3 of this invention. It is a side view of the vehicle front part which shows the snow cover state on a bonnet.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

<Embodiment 1>
FIG. 1 is a half-cut front view of a vehicle including a vehicle headlamp according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along line AA of FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG. 3, and FIG. 5 is a partial perspective view showing the opening state of the intake and exhaust ports of the air supply duct in the vehicle headlamp according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. FIGS. 6A and 6B are partial cross-sectional views showing a configuration example of the air supply duct, and FIGS. 7A and 7B are partial cross-sectional views showing another configuration example of the air supply duct.

  A vehicle 1 shown in FIG. 1 includes headlamps 4 (only one is shown in FIG. 1) according to the present invention on the left and right of the front part of the vehicle body. Here, since the basic configurations of the left and right headlamps 4 are the same, only one of the headlamps 4 will be illustrated and described below.

  As shown in FIG. 2, each headlamp 4 is disposed in a lamp chamber 23 defined by a transparent outer lens 22 covering the housing 12 and the front opening thereof, as shown in FIG. A traveling beam (high beam) lamp 24 arranged and a passing beam (low beam) lamp 25 arranged inside thereof are accommodated.

  Here, a specific configuration of the low beam lamp 25 is shown in FIG. 2. In the low beam positive lamp 25, a solid light source (light emitting diode (LED), laser, etc., which is a semiconductor light emitting element) 26 is a heat sink 27. A phosphor 28 and a projection lens 29 are sequentially arranged in front of the solid light source 26. An extension 30 is disposed around the low beam lamp 25, and the solid light source 26 is electrically connected to a power source 31 disposed on the lower surface of the housing 12 via a power supply wiring 32. Yes.

  By the way, as shown in FIG. 1, the vehicle 1 including the headlamp 4 according to the present invention includes an engine room 2 at the front of the vehicle body and the headlamps 4 (one in FIG. Only shown). Here, the engine room 2 is covered with an openable hood 5 (FIG. 1 shows an open state), and a heat shield 6 is provided on the back surface of the hood 5.

  Thus, as shown in FIG. 3, a radiator 7, a radiator hood 8, a radiator fan 9, and an engine 10 are sequentially arranged in the engine room 2 of the vehicle 1 from the front, and the left and right headlamps 4 ( The air supply ducts 11 are respectively arranged on the back side of FIG. Here, the left and right air supply ducts 11 constitute a snow melting structure, and as shown in FIG. 6, are integrated with a resin housing 12 of each headlamp 4. That is, left and right vertical rims 12a are integrally projected in parallel with each other along a direction perpendicular to the paper surface of FIG. 6 on a part of the outer surface of the housing 12, and the housing is made of resin as shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 6B, the duct cover 11A formed separately from the cover 12 is put on the left and right vertical rims 12a of the housing 12, and this is connected to the left and right vertical rims 12a by a hook method. A duct 11 is formed integrally with the housing 12. Here, as shown in FIG. 7, a lateral rim 12 b orthogonal to the longitudinal rim 11 a is erected on the outer surface of the housing 12, and this lateral rim 12 b is air (hot air) in the air supply duct 11. As shown in FIG. 7A, a plurality of (three in the illustrated example) holes 13 are formed in a portion of the lateral rim 12b facing the air supply duct 11 as shown in FIG. ), The height of the horizontal rim 12b is set lower than the height of the vertical rim 12a (in the illustrated example, about ½ of the height of the vertical rim 12a).

  In the present embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the intake port 11a that opens to each of the left and right air supply ducts 11 (only one is shown in FIGS. 3 and 4) is an engine that is a heat source. As shown in FIG. 4, a shut-off valve 15 that is opened and closed by an electromagnetic solenoid 14 is provided at a location close to the air inlet 11 a in each air supply duct 11. Yes. Further, as shown in FIG. 4, an air supply fan 16 is provided inside each air supply duct 11.

  On the other hand, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, two exhaust ports 11 b and 11 c are opened in the upper part of each air supply duct 11, and one exhaust port 11 b is provided on the bonnet 5 and the back surface thereof. The other exhaust port 11 c is opened toward the back surface of the side panel 17.

  Here, the configuration of the control system for the snow melting structure provided in the vehicle headlamp 4 according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a control system for a snow melting structure according to the present embodiment. A storage unit 18a is built in the ECU 18 which is a control means, and a snow melting switch 19 and a snowfall are provided on the input side of the ECU 18. A sensor 20 is connected, and an electromagnetic solenoid 14 for driving the shutoff valve 15 and an air supply fan 16 are connected to the output side. Note that the snow melting switch 19 is an ON / OFF operation by the occupant by his / her own intention. Moreover, the snowfall sensor 20 detects snowfall by the presence or absence of the reflection by a laser beam, for example.

  Next, the operation of the snow melting structure according to the present embodiment will be described below with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

  An occupant who has entered the vehicle 1 starts the engine 10, and when snow is accumulated on the hood 5 or the side panel 17, the snow melting switch 19 is turned on (step S1: Yes in FIG. 9). Then, the ECU 18 receives the signal from the snow melting switch 19 and drives the electromagnetic solenoid 14 to open the shut-off valve 15 and drives the air supply fan 16 (step S2 in FIG. 9). When the shutoff valve 15 is thus opened and the air supply fan 16 is driven, high-temperature air (hot air) around the engine 10 that is a heat source is supplied from the intake port 11a of the air supply duct 11 to the air supply duct 11. Sucked in. The high temperature air (hot air) sucked into the air supply duct 11 is sent to the exhaust ports 11b and 11c by the air supply fan 16, and the air (hot air) flowing out from the one exhaust port 11b is bonnet. In the process of flowing through the space S between the heat shield 5 and the heat shield material 6, the bonnet 5 is heated from the back side, and the air (hot air) flowing out from the other exhaust port 11c is blown to the back side of the side panel 17 The panel 17 is heated from the back side.

  As described above, the bonnet 5 and the side panel 17 of the vehicle 1 are heated from the back side, so that the snow accumulated on the bonnet 5 and the side panel 17 (more precisely, the bonnet 5 and the side panel 17). The snow that is in contact with each surface of the glass melts, so that the accumulated snow flows down along the bonnet 5 and the side panel 17 as shown in FIG. For this reason, the snow accumulated on the bonnet 5 and the side panel 17 hangs down to the front of the headlamp 4 and does not block the light emitted from the headlamp 4, and the function of the headlamp 4 is hindered. This prevents the occurrence of problems. In this embodiment, since air as a gas is used instead of a liquid such as cooling water as a heat medium, piping and a circulation pump are not required, and the air supply duct 11 is simply provided in the engine room 2. The above-described effect can be obtained with the configuration, and the structure is not complicated and the cost is not significantly increased. The ambient temperature around the engine 10 is about 77 ° C.

  In the present embodiment, since the air supply duct 11 is integrated with the housing 12 of the headlamp 4, further simplification of the structure and cost reduction can be achieved. As shown in FIG. 7, if the vertical rim 12a constituting a part of the air supply duct 11 is erected integrally with the housing 12 of the headlamp 4, the strength and rigidity of the housing 12 are increased by the vertical rim 12a. The effect that it is raised is also acquired.

  On the other hand, even if the snow melting switch 19 is not turned on by the occupant (step S1: No in FIG. 9), if the snowfall sensor 20 detects snowfall (step S3: Yes in FIG. 9), the snowfall The ECU 18 that has received the signal from the sensor 20 determines that snow melting is necessary, drives the electromagnetic solenoid 14 to open the shut-off valve 15, and drives the air supply fan 16 (step S2 in FIG. 9). . Then, similarly to the above, the bonnet 5 and the side panel 17 of the vehicle 1 are heated from the back side, and the snow accumulated on the bonnet 5 and the side panel 17 melts and falls.

  In the vehicle 1, as shown in FIG. 3, when the bumper 21 protrudes forward from the front end of the headlamp 4, snow accumulates on the bumper 21 and the same problem as described above occurs. However, in such a case, the bumper 21 is heated from the back side by opening the discharge port (not shown) of the air supply duct 11 toward the upper back surface of the bumper 21, and the snow accumulated on the bumper 21 is removed. Can be melted.

<Embodiment 2>
Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 11 is a half plan view of a vehicle engine room showing a snow melting structure provided in a vehicle headlamp according to a second embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 11, the same elements as those shown in FIG. Are denoted by the same reference numerals, and a repetitive description thereof will be omitted.

  The present embodiment is characterized in that the air inlet 11a of the air supply duct 11 is opened toward the radiator fan 9, and the other configuration is the same as that of the first embodiment. However, in the present embodiment, the air supply fan 16 in the first embodiment is not necessary.

  Thus, in the present embodiment, air (hot air) whose temperature has been increased by exchanging heat with the high-temperature engine cooling water by the radiator 7 is supplied from the intake port 11a of the air supply duct 11 to the air supply duct. As in the first embodiment, the bonnet 5 and the side panel 17 are heated from the back side by high temperature air (hot air) discharged from the air supply duct 11 as in the first embodiment. The snow accumulated on the top and side panels 17 melts and falls as shown in FIG. For this reason, the snow accumulated on the bonnet 5 and the side panel 17 hangs down to the front of the headlamp 4 and does not block the light emitted from the headlamp 4, and the function of the headlamp 4 is hindered. This prevents the occurrence of problems. Note that the temperature of the air passing through the radiator fan 9 shows a high value of about 82 ° C.

<Embodiment 3>
Next, Embodiment 3 of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 12 is a half plan view of the engine room of the vehicle showing the snow melting structure provided in the vehicle headlamp according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention. In FIG. 12, the same elements as those shown in FIG. Are denoted by the same reference numerals, and a repetitive description thereof will be omitted.

  The present embodiment is characterized in that the air supply duct 11 is connected to the radiator hood 8, and the intake port 11 a of the air supply duct 11 is opened in the radiator hood 8. Same as that of 1.

  Thus, in the present embodiment, air (hot air) whose temperature has been increased by exchanging heat with the high-temperature engine cooling water in the radiator 7 opens into the radiator hood 8. As in the first embodiment, the bonnet 5 and the side panel 17 are heated from the back side by high-temperature air (hot air) that is sucked into the air supply duct 11 from the opening 11a and discharged from the air supply duct 11. Therefore, the snow accumulated on the bonnet 5 and the side panel 17 melts and falls as shown in FIG. For this reason, as in the first and second embodiments, the snow accumulated on the hood 5 and the side panel 17 does not hang down to the front of the headlamp 4 and blocks the light emitted from the headlamp 4. The occurrence of the problem that the function of the headlamp 4 is hindered is prevented.

1 Vehicle 2 Engine Room 3 Front Grill 4 Headlight 5 Bonnet (Body Panel)
6 Heat shield 7 Radiator (heat source)
8 Radiator hood 9 Radiator fan 10 Engine (heat source)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Air supply duct 11A Duct cover 11a Air intake duct inlet 11b, 11c Air supply duct exhaust 12 Headlight housing 12a Housing vertical rim 12b Housing horizontal rim 13 Horizontal rim hole 14 Electromagnetic solenoid 15 Shut-off valve 16 Air supply fan 17 Side panel (body panel)
18 ECU
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 19 Snow-melting switch 20 Snowfall sensor 21 Bumper 22 Outer lens 23 Lamp chamber 24 Travel beam lamp 25 Passing beam lamp 26 Solid light source 27 Heat sink 28 Phosphor 29 Projection lens 30 Extension 31 Power supply 32 Power supply wiring S Bonnet and heat shield Space between

Claims (5)

In a vehicle headlamp configured to house at least one of a traveling beam lamp or a low beam lamp in a lamp chamber defined by an outer lens covering a housing and a front opening thereof,
The housing is provided with an air supply duct configured integrally with the housing, the air intake duct is opened toward a heat source in the engine room of the vehicle, and the air discharge duct has an exhaust port. A vehicle headlamp having an opening toward a back surface of a vehicle body panel positioned above the vehicle headlamp.   A part of the vehicle body panel is configured as a bonnet, and an exhaust port of the air supply duct is opened toward a space between the bonnet and a heat shield provided on the back surface thereof. The vehicle headlamp according to claim 1.   The vehicle headlamp according to claim 1 or 2, wherein an intake port of the air supply duct is opened near a vehicle engine, and an air supply fan is provided in the air supply duct.   The vehicle headlamp according to claim 1 or 2, wherein an intake port of the air supply duct is opened toward a radiator fan of the vehicle. The vehicle headlamp according to claim 1 or 2, wherein an intake port of the air supply duct is opened in a radiator hood of the vehicle, and an air supply fan is provided in the air supply duct.

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