Vehicle lamp

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10036524-B2
Application number	US-201515128341-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 25, 2015
Priority date	Mar 24, 2014
Publication date	Jul 31, 2018
Grant date	Jul 31, 2018

Abstract

A vehicle lamp ( 100 ) includes a light source ( 10 ), a lens ( 20 ), a housing ( 30 ), and a vent portion ( 40 ). The housing ( 30 ) is combined with the lens ( 20 ) to form a lamp space ( 50 ) in which the light source ( 10 ) is disposed. The lamp space ( 50 ) includes a narrow gap region ( 50 a ) having a width of 10 mm or less between the lens ( 20 ) and the housing ( 30 ). This width corresponds to the distance between them. The vent portion ( 40 ) is provided on the housing ( 30 ) at a position facing the narrow gap region ( 50 a ).

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A vehicle lamp comprising:
a light source;
a lens disposed in front of the light source;
a housing combined with the lens to form a lamp space in which the light source is disposed; and
a vent portion provided on the housing to allow ventilation of the lamp space, wherein the lamp space includes a narrow gap region having a width of 0.1 to 10 mm between the lens and the housing, the width corresponding to a distance therebetween,
the vent portion is an air-permeable membrane including a porous resin membrane, and
the air-permeable membrane is attached to the housing so as to cover a vent hold that is formed in the housing at a position facing the narrow gap region.

2. The vehicle lamp according to claim 1 , wherein
the housing is a component made of a thermoplastic resin, and the air-permeable membrane is integrated with the housing to serve as a part that defines the narrow gap region.

3. The vehicle lamp according to claim 1 , wherein the lens and the housing each have a side wall portion located lateral to the light source, and
in the lamp space, the narrow gap region is included in a region defined by the side wall portion of the lens and the side wall portion of the housing.

4. The vehicle lamp according to claim 1 , wherein
the housing has a side wall portion located lateral to the light source, the side wall portion of the housing has a curved surface shape, and the air-permeable membrane has a curved surface shape conforming to the shape of the side wall portion of the housing.

5. The vehicle lamp according to claim 1 , further comprising, when the vent portion is defined as a first vent portion, a second vent portion provided on the housing at a position facing a region other than the narrow gap region in the lamp space.

6. The vehicle lamp according to claim 1 , wherein the air-permeable membrane is an ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene porous body obtained by cutting a sintered body of an ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene powder.

7. The vehicle lamp according to claim 1 , wherein the air-permeable membrane is formed of a fluororesin porous body or a polyolefin porous body.

8. The vehicle lamp according to claim 1 , wherein a shortest distance between the air-permeable membrane and the lens is in a range of 0.1 to 10 mm.

Assignees

• Nitto Denko Corp

Inventors

• Tezuka Teppei
• Yano Youzou
• Furuuchi Kouji

Classifications

• F21W2107/00

  Use or application of lighting devices on or in particular types of vehicles · CPC title

• B60Q1/0005

  Devices preventing the lights from becoming dirty or damaged, e.g. protection grids or cleaning by air flow (windshield wipers for cleaning optical devices of vehicles B60S1/04) · CPC title

• F21S45/37 Primary

  specially adapted for signal lamps · CPC title

• F21S45/30 Primary

  Ventilation or drainage of lighting devices · CPC title

• F21S48/332

  Mechanical Engineering · mapped topic