JP2003240610A - Pointer instrument for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an inexpensive pointer instrument for vehicle for imparting a radar image by contriving the structure of a luminescent pointer without depending on a discharge tube or a phosphor layer. <P>SOLUTION: A light guide plate 12 for introducing inside blue light entering from a light source 70 for the radar image and emitting the light from the surface is provided on a scale plate 10a, and the blue light from the light source 70 for the radar image is allowed to enter the light guide plate 12 through a light guide part 42c turning together with the luminescent pointer 40, and is emitted only from a shaded region α of the light guide plate 12. Hereby, the shaded region α is turned together with the turning of the luminescent pointer 40, accordingly the blue light can be viewed as radar image light by an occupant. Consequently, this pointer instrument for the vehicle for the radar image can be provided inexpensively without requiring arrangement of the luminescent pointer 40 by the discharge tube or application of a fluorescent paint on the surface of the scale plate 10a. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a pointer instrument used in vehicles such as automobiles.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for example, as an indicator instrument for passenger cars, there is one as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-265373. In this pointer instrument, the phosphor layer is formed in the central area of the surface of the scale. Then, when the light emitting pointer rotates along the surface of the graduation plate in the direction of increasing the indicated value (clockwise), ultraviolet rays are emitted from the light emitting pointer toward the phosphor layer in the counterclockwise direction to emit the phosphor. The portion of the layer that is on the counterclockwise side of the light emitting pointer is made to emit light. This allows
We provide a pointer instrument that gives a radar image as the light emitting pointer rotates.

[0003]

By the way, in the above-mentioned pointer instrument, since the phosphor layer is formed over a wide range of the surface of the scale plate, this phosphor layer causes an increase in manufacturing cost as the scale plate. There is a defect. In addition, since an expensive discharge tube is used as a light emitting pointer to irradiate the phosphor layer with ultraviolet rays, there is a problem that this discharge tube causes an increase in manufacturing cost as the light emitting pointer. Further, since the ultraviolet rays are used as described above, there is also a problem that the ultraviolet rays have a bad influence on a person who looks at the dial.

In view of the above points, an object of the present invention is to provide an inexpensive pointer instrument for a vehicle which gives a radar image without depending on a discharge tube or a phosphor layer.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, in the invention described in claim 1, a pointer for a vehicle for indicating a graduation portion (11) of a graduation board (10a) by rotating a pointer (40). In the instrument, a light guide plate (12) that guides the light incident from the light source (70) to the inside and emits the light from the surface is provided on the graduation plate (10a), and the light guide plate (1) from the light source (70)
It is characterized in that the incident position of the light incident on 2) is rotated together with the rotation of the pointer (40).

According to this, the light emitting region of the surface of the light guide plate (12) rotates together with the rotation of the pointer (40). Therefore, the area that rotates in this way is
For example, if the area is set from the position facing the pointer (40) of the light guide plate (12) to the predetermined position on the opposite side to the rotation side, it will be visually recognized as a radar image, and the pointer (40) will be discharged. It can be made up of tubes or scales (10
Since it is not necessary to apply fluorescent paint to the surface of a), it is possible to inexpensively provide a vehicle pointer instrument for radar images. Further, since irradiation of ultraviolet rays is unnecessary, it is not necessary to consider the adverse effect of ultraviolet rays on the viewer.

According to the second aspect of the invention, the pointer (40) has a first light guide portion (42c) which guides the light from the light source (70) to the inside and emits the light toward the light guide plate (12). ) Is provided.

As a result, the first light guide portion (42c) rotates together with the pointer (40), so that the incident position of the light incident on the light guide plate (12) rotates together with the rotation of the pointer (40). Can be easily realized.

Further, as in the invention described in claim 3, the pointer (40) extends in a longitudinal shape along the surface of the graduation plate (10a), guides light inside, and extends from the surface in the longitudinal direction. The second light guide part (42a) for emitting light is provided, and the first light guide part (42a) is provided.
It is preferable that the second light guide portion (42a, 42c) is integrally formed.

The reference numerals in parentheses of the above means are examples showing the correspondence with the concrete means described in the embodiments described later.

[0011]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

(First Embodiment) FIG. 1 shows an indicator instrument for a passenger car according to the present embodiment. The indicator instrument is provided as a tachometer on an instrument panel provided in a passenger compartment of the passenger car. ing.

As shown in FIG. 1, the pointer measuring instrument includes an instrument board 10, a wiring board 20, a rotating internal unit 30, a light emitting pointer 40,
The light guide member 50, the light guide member holding case 60, a plurality of radar image light sources 70, a plurality of pointer light sources 80 and the like are provided. These components 10 to 80 are assembled in a housing formed by an annular dial plate (not shown) and a casing 90 having a U-shaped cross section.

Instrument panel 10 and light guide member holding case 60
Is sandwiched between the bottom wall of the dial plate and the front end opening of the casing 90 at the outer periphery thereof. As shown in FIG. 2, the instrument panel 10 has a graduation plate 10a, and the graduation plate 10a is exposed toward the front surface side through the opening of the bottom wall of the dial plate.

The scale 10a is provided with an arcuate scale portion 11, and the scale portion 11 is formed in an arc shape along the outer peripheral portion of the scale 10a from the minimum scale to the maximum scale. The scale portion 11 is
The plurality of scales and the plurality of scale values form the number of revolutions of the engine of the passenger car.

Then, a portion of the surface of the graduation plate 10a excluding each graduation and each graduation value of the graduation portion 11 has a light color, and each graduation and each graduation value is black.

Further, a light guide plate 12 is provided on the scale plate 10a. As shown in FIG. 2, the light guide plate 12 is formed in a substantially fan shape along the inside of the arc of the scale portion 11 and is exposed toward the front surface side through the opening portion 10b of the scale plate 10a. . Then, a highly reflective reflection film 12a is provided on the entire back surface of the light guide plate 12. Specific examples of the high-reflective reflective film 12a include well-known white printing, mirror printing, clear pearl printing, blue pearl printing, and the like.

The wiring board 20 is attached to the instrument board 10 along the back surface thereof. The rotating inner unit 30 is composed of the inner unit main body 31.
It is attached to the bottom wall 91 within the casing 90,
The pointer shaft 32 of the rotating inner unit 30 has a through hole portion 21 of the wiring board 20, a through hole portion 13 of the scale plate 10a, and the light guide plate 1.
It extends rotatably through two through holes 12b. In the graduation plate 10a, the through holes 13 and 12b are located at the radial center of the arc-shaped graduation part 11.

As shown in FIG. 1, the light emitting pointer 40 is constructed by enclosing a light guide member 42 and a balancer 43 in a long light shielding cover 41. The light guide member 42 includes a long pointer 42a, a cylindrical boss 42b, and a light guide 42c.
The a, the boss portion 42b, and the light guide portion 42c are integrally formed of a colorless and transparent light guide resin material. The light guide portion 42c corresponds to the first light guide portion described in the claims, and the elongated pointer portion 42a corresponds to the second light guide portion described in the claims.

The pointer shaft 32 is press-fitted into the boss 42b,
As a result, the light emitting pointer 40 is attached to the pointer shaft 3 at the boss portion 42b.
It is supported coaxially at the tip of the two. The pointer portion 42a extends in a longitudinal shape from the boss portion 42b along the surface of the scale 10a and indicates the scale portion 11.

The light guide portion 42c projects from the outer peripheral surface of the boss portion 42b toward the end surface of the through hole portion 12b of the light guide plate 12 and has a reflection surface 42d. Then, the light guide portion 42c guides the blue light from the light source 70 for radar image to the inside, reflects it by the reflection surface 42d, and emits it toward the end surface of the through hole 12b of the light guide plate 12.

The light guide plate 12 guides the blue light from the light guide portion 42c to the inside, reflects the blue light on the reflection film 12a, and emits it as radar image light from the surface.

Here, the light guide portion 42c is not formed over the entire outer peripheral surface of the boss portion 42b, but is formed only on a portion of the outer peripheral surface of the boss portion 42b closer to the minimum scale than the pointer portion 42a. Has been done. Therefore, the incident range of the light source 70 for radar image incident on the light guide plate 12 via the light guide portion 42c is only the portion of the end surface of the through hole 12b facing the light guide portion 42c. When the blue light is incident, the light is emitted only from the hatched region α of the light guide plate 12 shown by the solid line in FIG.

Since the light guide portion 42c rotates together with the light emitting pointer 40, the blue light incident position on the end face of the through hole 12b of the light guide plate 12 also rotates, which causes the blue light from the light guide plate 12 to rotate. The hatched area α that emits light
Will rotate with the rotation of the light emitting pointer 40,
Consequently, the occupant can visually recognize the blue light as radar image light.

Since the light guide portion 42c is formed on the outer peripheral surface of the boss portion 42b on the minimum scale side of the pointer portion 42a as described above, the hatched area α indicates the pointer of the light guide plate 12. The scale portion 1 from the position facing the portion 42a
The predetermined area extends to the minimum scale of 1.

The light guide member 50 is formed in a substantially cylindrical shape that extends substantially coaxially with the pointer shaft 32 in the through hole portion 13 of the graduation plate 10 and is made of a colorless and transparent light guide resin material. The light guide member 50 guides the white light from the pointer light source 80 to the inside and emits the white light toward the back surface of the pointer portion 42a.

Here, on the portion of the back surface of the pointer portion 42a covered by the cover 41, a reflection film is attached by hot stamping a white hot stamp foil. Then, the pointer portion 42a guides the white light emitted from the light guide member 50 to the inside, reflects it on the reflection surface 42e, and then reflects it on the reflection film on the back surface of the pointer portion 42a and emits it from the front surface in the longitudinal direction. In addition, a slit 41a extending in a longitudinal shape is formed on the surface of the cover 41, and the white color emitted from the surface of the pointer portion 42a is emitted toward the occupant from the slit 41a and is visually recognized by the occupant.

The balancer 43 is supported by the portion of the light guide member 42 extending from the rear portion of the boss portion 42b, and the center of gravity of the light emitting pointer 40 is positioned at the center of rotation. A white reflective printing paint is applied as a film on the inner surface of the cover 41.

As can be seen from FIGS. 1 and 2, the plurality of pointer light sources 80 face the lower end surface of the light guide member 50 and are arranged on the surface of the wiring board 20 at intervals along the circumference of the pointer shaft 32. The light is emitted so that white light is emitted so that it can enter the lower end surface of the light guide member 50.

In addition, a plurality of radar image light sources 70
Faces the lower end surface of the light guide portion 42c, and
It is arranged on the surface of the wiring board 20 along the circumference of the pointer shaft 32 at a position closer to the pointer shaft 32 than 0, and blue light is emitted from the lower end surface of the light guide portion 42c. It is emitted so that it can be incident on.

The number of the light sources 70 and 80 and the light sources 7
The arrangement interval of 0 and 80 is equal to the light guide member 50 or the light guide section 42.
The incidence on c is set to be continuous.
Further, in the present embodiment, light emitting diodes are used as the light sources 70 and 80.

Next, the electric circuit configuration of the pointer meter will be described with reference to FIG. 3. The rotation speed sensor 100 detects the rotation speed of the engine of the passenger car. Control circuit 11
0 has a microcomputer as a main constituent element, and the control circuit 110 is supplied with power from the battery B via the ignition switch IG of the passenger car, and under the arithmetic processing by the microcomputer,
The inner unit main body 31 is drive-controlled based on the detection output of the rotation speed sensor 100, and the light sources 70 and 80 are emission-controlled. Here, the light emission drive of each radar image light source 70 is controlled to be the same as the light emission drive of each pointer light source 80.

When the ignition switch IG is turned on in the present embodiment configured as described above, the control circuit 110 is supplied with power from the battery B to operate the microcomputer. The engine of the passenger car is assumed to be in the operating state when the ignition switch IG is turned on.

In such a state, the control circuit 110
With the arithmetic processing by the microcomputer,
Depending on the detection output of the rotation speed sensor 100, the internal unit main body 31
Drive control. Along with this, the rotating inner unit 30 causes the inner unit main body 31 to rotate the light emitting pointer 40 via the pointer shaft 32.

In addition, the control circuit 110 controls the plurality of radar image light sources 70 and the plurality of pointer light sources 80 to emit light simultaneously, in accordance with the arithmetic processing by the microcomputer.

Here, in the light emission drive control of the radar image light source 70 by the control circuit 110, the light emission pointer 40 is shown in FIG.
At the time of turning clockwise in the figure (that is, the direction in which the value indicated by the light emitting pointer 40 increases).

The white light that has entered the light guide member 50 as described above enters from the back surface of the pointer portion 42a, and the white light that has entered the pointer portion 42a in this manner is reflected by the white reflecting film and then the pointer. The light is emitted from the surface of the portion 42a through the slit 41a of the cover 41. As a result, the light emitting pointer 40
Emits light at the slit 41a.

The blue light that has entered the light guide portion 42c as described above is reflected by the reflecting surface 42d and is guided to the light guide plate 1.
The blue light that has entered the light guide plate 2 from the end surface of the through hole 12b and thus has entered the light guide plate 12 is emitted as radar image light from the hatched region α toward the front side while being reflected by the reflective film 12a. The shaded area α rotates in the same direction as the light emitting pointer 40 rotates clockwise.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the light guide plate 12 is provided through the light guide portion 42c that rotates the blue light from the radar image light source 70 together with the light emitting pointer 40.
By making the light incident on the end surface of the through hole 12b of the light guide plate 12 and emitting the light only from the shaded region α of the light guide plate 12, the shaded region α is rotated together with the rotation of the light emitting pointer 40, and thus the blue light is converted into the radar image light. Can be made visible to the passenger.

Therefore, it is not necessary to construct the light emitting pointer 40 with a discharge tube or to apply fluorescent paint on the surface of the scale 10a, and thus it is possible to inexpensively provide the pointer image for the passenger car of the radar image and to irradiate the ultraviolet rays. It can be made unnecessary and there is no need to consider the adverse effect of ultraviolet rays on the viewer.

In addition, the blue light which is incident on the light guide plate 12 is
Since the light is incident through the light guide portion 42c that rotates together with the light emitting pointer 40, it is possible to easily realize that the light incident position on the light guide plate 12 is rotated together with the rotation of the light emitting pointer 40.

(Second Embodiment) In the first embodiment,
By providing the reflective film 12a on the entire back surface of the light guide plate 12, blue light is emitted over the entire radial direction on the surface of the light guide plate 12. On the other hand, in this embodiment, the blue light is reflected only on a part of the back surface of the light guide plate 12 in the radial direction and is emitted to the front surface side.

Specifically, the reflection film 12a is eliminated and, as shown in FIG. 4, the reflection surface 12c is provided on the outer peripheral end surface of the light guide plate 12.
Is formed, and the blue light in the light guide plate 12 is reflected to the front surface side by the reflection surface 12c, so that the blue light is reflected.
The light is emitted from only the portion corresponding to the reflection surface 12c on the surface of the.

Further, in this embodiment, the reflecting surface 12c is formed in an uneven shape. This uneven shape has a reflection surface 12c.
The blue light reflected by is emitted from the surface substantially perpendicularly to the light guide plate 12, and a specific example is the well-known Fresnel shape. By forming such an uneven shape, the visibility of the radar image light can be improved. Further, the radial length of the shaded region α can be set to an arbitrary length without changing the thickness of the light guide plate 12.

The light guide plate 12 of the instruments of this embodiment is used.
The other structure is the same as that of the first embodiment.

Incidentally, in the practice of the present invention, the reflection surface 12c may be subjected to well-known white printing, mirror printing, clear pearl printing, blue pearl printing, or other high-reflective printing or coating, instead of the uneven shape. However, this can improve the brightness of the radar image light,
It is suitable.

(Other Embodiments) In the graduation plate 10a of the first and second embodiments described above, a portion of the surface of the graduation plate 10a other than each graduation and each graduation value of the graduation portion 11 is made a bright color, and each graduation is Although the scale values are black, in the practice of the present invention, the scales and the portions excluding the scale values may be black, and the scales and the scale values may be bright colors.

Further, in implementing the present invention, each radar image light source 70 is not limited to a light emitting diode that emits blue light, but may be, for example, green or orange graduation plate 10a.
It may be a light emitting diode that emits light in a color different from the color of the central region of the surface of the. Further, each pointer light source 80 is not limited to a light emitting diode that emits white light, and may be a light emitting diode that emits orange light or another color.

Further, each pointer light source 80 is not limited to one emitting light of a color different from each radar image light source 70, and may be one emitting light of the same color as each radar image light source 70. Then, either one of the light source for radar image 70 and the light source for pointer 80 may serve as the other light source.

Further, in the first and second embodiments,
An example in which each radar image light source 70 and each pointer light source 80 are controlled to emit light at the same time has been described.
Not limited to this, the light source 70 for each radar image,
Light source 80 for each pointer for a predetermined time (for example, 0.5 seconds)
On the other hand, the light emission may be controlled to start with a delay or in advance. Further, instead of the light emitting diode as each of the light sources 70 and 80, for example, a lamp may be adopted.

Further, in carrying out the present invention, the present invention is not limited to the pointer measuring instrument for passenger cars, but the present invention may be applied to pointer measuring instruments for passenger cars and other vehicles in general. Further, the pointer instrument is not limited to the tachometer, and may be a speedometer or other instrument.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a main portion of a passenger vehicle pointer instrument according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view of the scale plate shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a block circuit diagram of the pointer instrument of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of a graduation plate according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

10a ... Scale board, 11 ... Scale part, 12 ... Light guide plate, 4
0 ... Light emitting pointer, 70 ... Light source for radar image.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A graduation portion (11) of a graduation board (10a)
In a vehicular pointer instrument that indicates by rotating the pointer (40), a light guide plate (12) that guides the light incident from the light source (70) to the inside and emits the light from the surface is provided on the scale plate (10a), A vehicle pointer instrument characterized in that the position of incidence of light from the light source (70) to the light guide plate (12) is rotated together with the rotation of the pointer (40). 2. The light source (7) is attached to the pointer (40).
The vehicle pointer instrument according to claim 1, further comprising a first light guide portion (42c) that guides the light from the light source (0) to the inside and emits the light toward the light guide plate (12). 3. A second light guide portion (42) extending to the pointer (40) in a longitudinal shape along the surface of the graduation plate (10a), guiding light to the inside, and emitting the light in the longitudinal direction from the surface.
a) is provided, The said 1st and 2nd light guide part (42a, 42c) was shape | molded integrally, The pointer instrument for vehicles of Claim 2 characterized by the above-mentioned.