|Publication number||US7025486 B2|
|Application number||US 10/408,386|
|Publication date||Apr 11, 2006|
|Filing date||Apr 7, 2003|
|Priority date||Apr 10, 2002|
|Also published as||DE10215854A1, US20040004841|
|Publication number||10408386, 408386, US 7025486 B2, US 7025486B2, US-B2-7025486, US7025486 B2, US7025486B2|
|Inventors||Heinrich Lang, Wolfgang Seiboth, Georg Hecht|
|Original Assignee||Lang-Mekra North America, Llc|
|Export Citation||BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan|
|Patent Citations (71), Non-Patent Citations (3), Referenced by (1), Classifications (24), Legal Events (5)|
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet|
The present invention concerns a blinker light installed in an outside mirror, especially for use in commercial vehicles.
Motor vehicles have lights generally in their forward and rear areas. By varying optical signals from the lights such as color, frequency, brightness, and the like, the lights serve to indicate lane changes or announce an emergency situation (warning lights) for the vehicle.
In the interests of improving traffic safety, EP 1 172 257 A2 discloses additional blinker lights to be provided on outside mirrors of motor vehicles.
DE 198 08 139 proposes, in this respect, the use of fluorescent tubes. These blinker lights must, most importantly, be observable by following traffic, so that, the intention of a change in direction can be detected promptly. At the same time, the blinker lights themselves must not dazzle or irritate the driver.
DE 199 59 609 A1, in this matter, describes the placement of at least one LED on a back side of an outside mirror housing, in such a manner that the LED light is emitted in exactly directed beams and thus, because of aimed alignment of the LED, the driver is not dazzled upon looking in the mirror.
However, it is difficult with a known apparatus to attain the legal intensity of illumination for commercial vehicles, which is clearly higher than that of the standards for personal passenger motor vehicles. In Germany, for example, such auxiliary blinking lights must comply with Category 6 ECE.
A sufficiently intense illumination is desirable in the mirror housing that is not in the direct line of sight of a driver, but rather is visible to an observer in a position behind the vehicle such that the emitted light is deflected rearward by an appropriately shaped light conductor.
In this matter, first, an appropriate light conductor is necessary. Second, because of scattering losses and the like in the light conductor, the source of light must be of a greater intensity than the optionally desired intensity of emission, which leads to higher heating, a greater consumption of energy, and a more expensive means of light generation. Moreover, dazzling and irritation of the driver is possible from the light conductor due to emergence dispersion, etc.
The present invention provides a blinker light in an outside mirror, which possesses sufficient intensity and at the same time avoids dazzling either the driver or a possible passenger. For example, the invention permits the light to travel essentially in one specified angular zone away from its source, so that a dazzling of the driver is prevented. At the same time losses through light conductors or the like are avoided.
In a first embodiment of the present invention, light is directed by vertical, opaque strips, offset from one another on the inside and outside of a transparent pane. In this way, only those light beams from the light source, which exist in the direction of the specified angle areas, are radiated from the blinker light. Stray beams of light, which could, to a certain extent, dazzle the driver, are absorbed by the offset strips, or may be advantageously reflected back one or more times in such a manner that they finally coincide with the emission within the specified angle area.
In a second embodiment of the present invention, light is directed by one or more transparent areas having horizontal cross-sections which permit light beams to pass through to a predetermined angular zone. Advantageously, the transparent areas have more or less the same angular zone as is specified.
In a third embodiment of the present invention, light is directed by prismatically designed partial areas of a glass plate. In this arrangement, advantageously, such a prismatic partial area has a vertical cross-section in the shape of a triangle, the first leg of which (preferably the hypotenuse) faces the source of light, the second leg thereof (preferably the longer leg) is set normal to the bisector of the angle of the specified angular zone, and the third leg of the triangle lies normal to a principal direction of dazzling, into which direction as few light beams as possible are allowed to shine.
In an advantageous modification, this third leg is made opaque. In this way, essentially only beams of light are radiated in the predetermined angular zone.
Further features, advantages and embodiments become evident from the detailed description below in combination with the drawings in which:
Detailed reference will now be made to the drawings in which examples embodying the present invention are shown. The drawings and detailed description provide a full and detailed written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, so as to enable one skilled in the pertinent art to make and use it, as well as the best mode of carrying out the invention. However, the examples set forth in the drawings and detailed description are provided by way of explanation of the invention and are not meant as limitations of the invention. The present invention thus includes any modifications and variations of the following examples as come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.
The detailed description uses numerical and letter designations to refer to features in the drawings. Like or similar designations in the drawings and description have been used to refer to like or similar parts of the invention.
The angular zone 8, in this embodiment is so specified that, first, the light, i.e., the blinker signal, is readily recognized from the outside, in particular by an observer behind the vehicle. Second, the driver, and if present a passenger, is neither dazzled nor irritated thereby.
At this point, it is well to note that for the sake of simplicity, instead of bringing a passenger side mirror into explanation and description, the invention can be applied fully analogously in the case of a passenger side outside mirror.
The light radiated from the source of light 3 passes outward through a transparent pane 4 proximate a mirror M and the housing 2. As this occurs, only light of a defined range of wave length is enabled to penetrate the pane, so that the light signal acquires a predetermined color, for example, orange.
The light directional means 5 encompasses opaque, parallel, vertical strips 5 a, 5 b, etc. situated both on the inner and outer sides of the glass pane 4. The strips 5 a, 5 b, etc. are offset from one another. Only light beams within the given angular zone 8 can penetrate through both the inner and the outer strips 5 a, 5 b without hindrance. This is due to the fact that other directed beams of light are either absorbed, or alternatively, are reflected back in the direction of the sources of light 3. Such doubly reflected light beams, being directed back to the sources of light, can be reflected again to other strips 5 a, 5 b and/or from the inside of the housing 2 and emanate through openings 5 c in the direction of the predetermined angular zone 8. In this way, the yield or intensity of light is advantageously increased. Notably, the opaque strips 5 a, 5 b, etc. can be imprinted on the glass pane 4.
In this case, the specified angular zone 8 has an angle zone of 5° to 60° measured in a mathematically positive manner relative to a direction of travel D as shown in
In the embodiment shown in
Because of the fact that the housing 2 does not function as a light conductor as it does in the case of conventional mirror-blinker lights, which divert the light into the desired radiation direction, the housing 2 can be optionally formed. Especially, it can have something like a vertical water runoff 9 and/or a horizontal drop edge 10 as shown in
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. For example, specific shapes of various elements of the illustrated embodiments may be altered to suit particular applications. It is intended that the present invention include such modifications and variations as come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.
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|Citing Patent||Filing date||Publication date||Applicant||Title|
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|U.S. Classification||362/546, 362/337, 362/224, 362/311.11, 362/326, 362/248, 362/494, 362/545, 362/240, 362/244, 362/800, 362/520, 362/311.02|
|International Classification||B60Q1/26, B60R1/12, F21V11/00, B60Q1/00, B60Q3/00, F21V15/01|
|Cooperative Classification||Y10S362/80, B60Q1/2665, B60R1/1207|
|European Classification||B60Q1/26J2, B60R1/12A|
|Jul 30, 2003||AS||Assignment|
Owner name: LANG-MEKRA NORTH AMERICA, LLC, SOUTH CAROLINA
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:LANG, HEINRICH;SEIBOTH, WOLFGANG;HECHT, GEORG;REEL/FRAME:014325/0711
Effective date: 20030714
|Oct 9, 2009||FPAY||Fee payment|
Year of fee payment: 4
|Oct 10, 2013||FPAY||Fee payment|
Year of fee payment: 8
|Dec 5, 2013||AS||Assignment|
Effective date: 20120718
Owner name: PNC BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS AGENT, NORTH CA
Free format text: NOTICE OF GRANT OF SECURITY INTEREST IN PATENTS;ASSIGNOR:LANG-MEKRA NORTH AMERICA, LLC;REEL/FRAME:031766/0711
|May 6, 2014||AS||Assignment|
Owner name: LANG-MEKRA NORTH AMERICA, LLC, SOUTH CAROLINA
Free format text: RELEASE BY SECURED PARTY;ASSIGNOR:PNC BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION;REEL/FRAME:032835/0871
Effective date: 20140428