Koito Manufacturing Company, Ltd.

Fumihiko Sugiyama

Michihiko Suzuki

Kazuhiro Yamazaki

Kazuo Akiyama

Haruo Otani

A lamp for a vehicle is described that incorporates a lamp body to which a front lens is joined by a sealing member. The sealing member is made of a low-adhesive hot melt in the gel state which causes surface exfoliation when the front lens is separated from the lamp body. This makes it possible to easily attach or detach the front lens and prevent the front lens, the lamp body, and the sealing member from being damaged during a separating operation. Since the elastic repulsion force of the sealing member is small, threaded fasteners are not required for fastening the front lens to the lamp body. Instead, only hook fasteners need be used. Therefore, the structure of the lamp is simplified and the workability in the process for assembling the lamp is improved.

Lamp for vehicle

A vehicle lamp has a plastic lamp body (,) with a sealing leg (,) that extends from the back of the lamp body and is pressure-welded and held on a vehicle body panel (,), via an elastic sealing material (,). The elastic sealing material is formed by injection-molding of a thermoplastic foamable elastomer where the lamp body (,) is inserted into a mold (,A) and the sealing leg (,) is projected into a sealing-material molding cavity (C,). The sealing material is molded over the whole area of the sealing leg and has a transverse cross section that is U-shaped.

Vehicle lamp

A vehicle lamp incorporating a lamp body having a wall structure formed on the rear surface. An elastic sealing member is applied to the leading edge of the wall structure. The wall structure is arranged to reduce a compressive load which has to be exerted on the elastic sealing member when the lamp is joined to the panel of a vehicle body. The wall structure prevents shifting of the elastic sealing member with respect to the wall structure. Portions of the wall structure in which the height of the wall is short are composed of double walls. Other portions each having a greater height are composed of single wall portions and include a plurality of ribs so that the elastic sealing member is stably held along the overall length of the wall structure.

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Shizuoka, Japan

Fumihiko Sugiyama