JP3509644B2 - Light emitting pointer for instrument - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a luminous pointer for an instrument.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a light emitting pointer for measuring instruments of this type, there is, for example, one disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-29719. In this light emitting pointer, a display color layer, a light reflecting layer, and a light shielding layer are sequentially laminated on the back surface of the pointer portion of the pointer body made of the light guide material.

[0003]

However, in the above luminous pointer, the pointer main body is formed in a longitudinal shape. For this reason, it is difficult for the light that has entered the pointer main body from its rotating base to reach the tip of the pointer. Moreover, the light shielding layer is formed over the entire back surface of the pointer portion.

For this reason, when the pointer body emits light at the pointer portion due to the incident light, the tip portion of the pointer portion is darker than other portions, and as a result, good visibility of the light emitting pointer can be obtained. There is a problem that it does not exist. On the other hand, if the light shielding layer is abolished, there is a problem that light leaks from the pointer portion and halation occurs.

In view of the above, the present invention has an object to make the brightness of the pointer portion of the light emitting pointer for a meter uniform over the entire length thereof without causing halation. To do.

[0006]

In order to solve the above problems, the light emitting pointer for an instrument according to the invention as defined in claim 1 is rotatably supported along the surface of the scale (10a, 10b) of the instrument. An indication is given on the surface of the graduation plate by the elongated light guide pointer portion (72).

The luminous pointer includes a colored layer (73) formed over the entire back surface of the pointer portion and a light shielding layer (74) formed in a region corresponding to a portion other than the tip portion of the pointer portion.

According to this, of the light colored by the colored layer, only the portion of the region corresponding to the light-shielding layer does not leak to the back surface side of the light-shielding layer, so that the light-shielding layer of the colored layer does not leak. Light corresponding to the non-corresponding portion also leaks to the back surface side of the tip portion of the pointer portion.

In other words, in the area corresponding to the light-shielding layer of the dial, the light in the pointer portion is surely prevented from leaking to the dial by the light-shielding function of the light-shielding layer. Halation does not occur in the corresponding area. In addition, since the pointer portion is elongated, even if the light inside the pointer portion does not easily reach the tip portion of the pointer portion, the light inside the tip portion of the pointer portion does not reach the back surface side of the tip portion as described above. Since there is no light, the light is not absorbed, and the brightness of the tip portion of the pointer does not become darker than other portions of the pointer. As a result, it is possible to maintain uniform brightness over the entire length of the pointer portion, and therefore it is possible to satisfactorily visually recognize the indication on the surface of the dial by the light emitting pointer.

Here, according to the invention of claim 2,
The light-emitting pointer for an instrument according to claim 1, wherein the central portion (15, 16) of the graduation plate is formed in a light color, and the outer peripheral portions (11, 12) of the graduation plate are formed in a dark color. Is located opposite to the central portion of the dial.

As a result, in the light-colored area corresponding to the central portion of the graduation plate, the light in the pointer portion is surely prevented from leaking to the central portion side by the light-shielding function of the light-shielding layer. Halation does not occur in the area corresponding to the center of the board. Further, since the pointer portion is elongated, even if the light in the pointer portion does not easily reach the tip portion of the pointer portion, the light in the tip portion of the pointer portion does not have the light shielding layer on the back surface side of the tip portion. Light is not absorbed, and the brightness of the tip portion of the pointer portion does not become darker than the other portions of the pointer portion. As a result, it is possible to maintain uniform brightness over the entire length of the pointer portion.

[0012]

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

1 and 2 show an embodiment of a pointer instrument for a vehicle to which the present invention is applied. The pointer instrument is mounted on an instrument panel provided inside a vehicle compartment of the vehicle. There is.

As shown in FIG. 2, this pointer instrument is provided with an instrument panel unit U. This instrument instrument panel unit U
Is composed of the instrument panel 10 and the light guide plate 20.

As shown in FIG. 1, the instrument panel 10 is provided with left and right dials 10a and 10b, and these dials 10a and 10b are provided with respective substantially annular pattern display portions 11 and 12, respectively. Has been formed.

Here, the substantially annular pattern display section 11 is
Transparent scale 11a located on the outer periphery of the scale 10a
And the characters 11b are formed in black. In addition, a portion of the scale 10a excluding the substantially annular pattern display portion 11, that is, a central portion of the scale 10a (hereinafter, referred to as a central portion 15).
Is formed in gray.

The substantially annular pattern display portion 12 is located on the outer peripheral portion of the graduation plate 10b, and is formed in black except for the transparent graduations 12a and characters 12b. A portion of the graduation plate 10b excluding the substantially annular pattern display portion 12, that is, a central portion (hereinafter, referred to as a central portion 16) of the graduation plate 10b is formed in gray.

The pattern display unit 11 is a pattern representing the vehicle speed of the vehicle, and the pattern display unit 12 is a pattern representing the engine speed of the vehicle. Further, in FIG. 1, reference numeral 10c indicates an indicator portion, and this indicator portion 10c is a pattern representing the shift position of the automatic transmission of the vehicle.

The light guide plate 20 is made of a light guide material such as a transparent acrylic resin or polycarbonate, and the light guide plate 20 extends along the lower surface of the instrument panel 10 and has a dial 10 of both sides.
It is attached so as to extend over a and 10b.

The light guide plate 20 has two through-holes 21 (see FIG. 2).
In the figure, only the left-hand side through-hole portion 21 is shown), and the left-hand side through-hole portion 21 is provided in the left-hand dial 10a.
(See FIGS. 1 and 2). Here, as shown in FIG. 2, the left through-hole portion 21 is formed in a divergent shape toward the bottom. On the other hand, the right through-hole portion 21 of the light guide plate 20 has the through-hole portion 14 of the right dial 10b.
(See FIG. 1). The right through-hole 21 is also formed in the same shape as the left through-hole 21.

Further, the pointer measuring instrument is provided with a casing 30. The casing 30 has a lower end opening of an annular dial plate 40 in the opening so as to accommodate the instrument panel unit U in the opening. It is installed with the section. In addition,
The instrument panel unit U is mounted on the outer periphery of the instrument panel unit U in the lower end opening of the dial plate 40 from below.

In addition, the pointer instrument includes a left and right side driving device 50 (left side driving device 50 in FIG. 2) housed in a casing 30.
Each of these driving devices 50 is
The device body 51 is mounted on the bottom wall of the casing 30 at positions corresponding to the dials 10a and 10b.

As shown in FIG. 2, the left driving device 50 is provided with a pointer shaft 52, and the pointer shaft 52 is rotatably extended from the device main body 51 into the through hole portion 21 of the light guide plate 20. ing. The right side drive device 50 is also configured similarly to the left side drive device 50.

The linear cold cathode discharge tube 60 is arranged along the end face 22 of the light guide plate 20.
Enters the light guide plate 20 through its end face 22. As a result, the light guide plate 20 allows the incident light to enter the instrument panel 10 from the back surface thereof as planar light, and the through holes 21.
The light is reflected through the through holes 13 and 14 of the instrument panel 10.

As shown in FIG. 2, the left-hand light emitting pointer 70 is provided with an elongated pointer main body 70a and a cap 70b. The pointer main body 70a is formed of a translucent resin material so as to have a rotation base 71 and an elongated pointer 72 that integrally extends from the rotation base 71, and the pointer main body 70a is The boss 71a of the rotating base 71 allows the left hand pointer shaft 5 to move in the left through hole 21 of the light guide plate 20.
It is coaxially supported at the tip of the No. 2.

The pointer main body 70a is provided with a rotating base portion 71.
Light incident on the back surface thereof is reflected by the inclined reflecting surface 71b of the rotating base 71 and travels inside the pointer main body 72 toward the tip thereof.

A colored layer 73 is formed on the entire back surface of the pointer portion 72 of the pointer main body 70a by hot stamping with orange reflective paint as shown in FIGS. The colored layer 73 is formed on the pointer portion 7
The light in 2 is colored orange.

On the back surface of the colored layer 73, a light shielding layer 74 is provided.
However, the light shielding layer 74 plays a role of preventing leakage of light from the pointer portion 72 to the back surface side thereof. However, the formation area of the light shielding layer 74 on the back surface of the colored layer 73 is limited as follows. That is, the light shielding layer 74 is formed in a region of the colored layer 73 corresponding to a portion other than the tip portion of the pointer portion 72, that is, a region corresponding to the central portion 15 of the dial 10a. Therefore, the tip portion of the pointer portion 72 and the colored layer 73
An area corresponding to the tip portion of the pointer portion 72 is located corresponding to the pattern display portion 11 which is the outer peripheral portion of the scale 10a.

The cap 70b is a pointer body 70a.
It serves to cover the rotating base 71 from above and shield it from light.
Further, the right side light emitting pointer 70 is also configured similarly to the left side light emitting pointer 70. Along with this, the right-side light emitting pointer 70 of the dial main body 70a has a tip portion of the pointer portion and an area of the colored layer (corresponding to the coloring layer 73) corresponding to the tip portion of the pointer portion 72b of the dial 10b. The light-shielding layer (light-shielding layer 7) is located corresponding to the pattern display portion 12, which is the outer peripheral portion.
4)) corresponding to the central portion 16 of the dial 10b. Reference numeral 80 in FIGS. 1 and 2 indicates a front panel.

In the present embodiment configured as described above, when the cold cathode discharge tube 60 emits light from the end face 22 into the light guide plate 20, the light is emitted from the light guide plate 2.
It is guided by 0. Taking the left-side light emitting pointer 70 and the left-side scale plate 10a of FIG. 2 as an example, the light guide plate 20 causes the light guided as described above to enter the instrument panel 10 from the back surface thereof as planar light. Along with this, the planar light is transmitted through the scale 11a and the character 11b of the pattern display unit 11 of the scale 10a.

Further, the light guide plate 20 reflects the light guided as described above on the inner peripheral surface of the through hole portion 21 so as to reflect the light on the graduation plate 1.
The light passes through the through hole 13 of 0a and enters the round base 71 of the pointer main body 70a of the left-side light emitting pointer 70 from the back surface thereof. Accordingly, in the left-side light emitting pointer 70, the pointer main body 70a
The light that has entered the roundabout base 71 is reflected by the reflection wall 71b and travels into the pointer 72. Then, the light in the pointer portion 72 that has advanced in this way is colored and reflected in orange by the colored layer 73, and is emitted upward from the pointer portion 72.

Further, as described above, in the left-side light emitting pointer 70, the light shielding layer 74 is located corresponding to the central portion 15 of the dial 10a, and the tip portion of the pointer portion 72, that is,
A portion of the colored layer 73 where the light shielding layer 74 is not formed is located corresponding to the pattern display portion 11 of the scale 10a.
Therefore, of the light colored in orange by the coloring layer 73, only the portion corresponding to the light shielding layer 74 is included in the light shielding layer 7.
4, the colored layer 73 is prevented from leaking to the back side thereof.
The orange light corresponding to the portion that does not correspond to the light shielding layer 74 also leaks to the back surface side of the tip portion of the pointer portion 72.

In other words, the central portion 15 of the scale 10a
In the bright color area corresponding to the
Since the light-shielding action of 4 prevents the leakage to the central portion 15 side, the pointer portion 72 of the left-hand light emitting pointer 70 is prevented.
Halation does not occur in a region corresponding to the central portion 15 of the dial 10a.

Since the outer peripheral portion of the dial 10a is dark, halation at the tip of the pointer portion 72 is inconspicuous. Further, the above-described effects can be similarly ensured on the scale plate 10b side.

Next, a modified example of the above embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. 4. In this modified example, the graduation plate 10a described in the above embodiment uses the pattern display section 11 which is the outer peripheral part thereof. As shown in FIG. 4, the left light emitting pointer 70 is bent in an inclined shape toward the pointer portion 72 side. Along with this, the light guide plate 20 described in the above embodiment also includes the scale plate 1.
The portion corresponding to the pattern display portion 11 of 0a is bent and formed in an inclined shape in accordance with the inclination of the pattern display portion 11. The pattern display unit 12 of the scale 10b
Also, the corresponding portion of the light guide plate 20 is similarly bent and formed in an inclined shape. Other configurations are similar to those of the above-described embodiment.

In this modified example having such a configuration, as described above, the pattern display portion 11 of the graduation plate 10a is bent and formed in an inclined shape toward the pointer portion 72 side of the left light emitting pointer 70, so that the graduation plate 10a is formed. Can be viewed three-dimensionally. In this case, since the light guide plate 20 is also bent and formed in an inclined shape in accordance with the inclination of the pattern display unit 11 in the portion corresponding to the pattern display unit 11 of the scale plate 10a, the pattern display unit of the scale plate 10a. Light guide plate 2 to 11
The incident light from 0 is well secured. Therefore, the transmitted light on the pattern display portion 11 of the graduation plate 10a does not run short. The above effects can be similarly secured on the scale 10b side.

In the above embodiment, the scale 10a is used.
Although the central part and the outer peripheral part of 10 and 10b are formed in gray and black, respectively, the present invention is not limited to this, and dials 10a and 10b are not limited thereto.
The central part and the outer peripheral part of b may be bright and dark colors, respectively.

Further, in the above embodiment, the light from the light guide plate 20 is introduced into the pointer main body of the light emitting pointer 70, but instead of this, a light source is provided in the cap 70b to guide the light of this light source. It may be introduced into the body.

Further, in carrying out the present invention, the present invention is not limited to a vehicle indicating instrument having a light emitting pointer, and the present invention is applied to a vessel or an aircraft indicating instrument having a light emitting pointer and other various gauges having a light emitting pointer. The same effects as those of the above embodiment can be achieved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway plan view showing an embodiment of a vehicle pointer instrument according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line 2-2 in FIG.

3 is a partially enlarged cross-sectional view of a light emitting pointer, a scale plate and a light guide plate of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a partially enlarged cross-sectional view showing a modified example of the above embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

10a, 10b ... Dial, 11, 12 ... Pattern display part, 15, 16 ... Central part of dial, 20 ... Light guide plate, 7
2 ... pointer part, 73 ... colored layer, 74 ... light-shielding layer.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-6-273197 (JP, A) JP-A-10-38626 (JP, A) Actually opened 64-5197 (JP, U) Actually opened 63- 29719 (JP, U) (58) Fields investigated (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G01D 11/28 G01D 13/28 G12B 11/04

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A longitudinal light guide pointer portion (7) which is rotatably supported along the surface of a scale plate (10a, 10b) of an instrument.
2) In the luminous pointer which is indicated on the front surface of the dial according to 2), the colored layer (73) formed over the entire back surface of the pointer portion.
And a light-shielding layer (74) formed in a region corresponding to a portion other than the tip portion of the pointer portion. 2. A central portion (15, 16) of the graduation plate is formed in a light color, and an outer peripheral portion (11, 12) of the graduation plate is formed.
Is formed in a dark color, and the light-shielding layer is positioned so as to face the central portion of the dial, and the light-emitting pointer for instrument according to claim 1.