Koito Manufacturing Company, Ltd.

Koito Seisakusho Co., Ltd.

Hirohiko Ohshio

Naoki Tatara

Michio Tsukamoto

Shigeyuki Watanabe

Yukio Wakimizu

Kazuki Okui

Shoji Kobayashi

Hiroyuki Makita

Masami Handa

Hiroyuki Ishida

Atsushi Sugimoto

Kiyotaka Mochizuki

Kiyoshi Sazuka

Kenichi Takada

Takashi Hori

Michihiko Hayakawa

Hideki Uchida

Masaaki Ishikawa

Takeshi Ohmi

Kazuhisa Ashizawa

Keiichi Inaba

Hidehiko Nagasawa

Saburo Watanabe

Yoshiki Kurosawa

Yasuo Hirozumi

Yonemasa Yoshida

Yasuhiko Ogino

Yoshinobu Koyanagi

Hiroki Tokutake

The light distribution of a vehicle headlamp can be changed between various modes, including a basic mode and a motorway mode. In the basic mode, shaded region changeover means block a high light intensity region, and deflection control means controls a lamp optical axis Lx to a straight travel direction. In the motorway mode, the shaded region changeover means does not block the high light intensity region, and the deflection control means controls deflection of the lamp optical axis to a host vehicle lane side. A light distribution in which the high light intensity region faces a far distance ahead of the host vehicle lane can be obtained, and the host vehicle lane is brightly illuminated without dazzling a driver of a preceding vehicle or an oncoming vehicle. Accordingly, illumination suited to the motorway mode during high speed and medium speed travel can be achieved.

Vehicular lamp system

A vehicle headlamp includes a light source bulb for emitting light, a base member fixed with a light source bulb, a reflector for reflecting light emitted from the light source bulb, a projecting lens for projecting light reflected by the reflector to a front side along an optical axis Ax, and a shade for blocking a portion of light directed from the reflector to the projecting lens. The vehicle headlamp displaces the reflector from a first position to a second position which is upward and rearward from the base member. The vehicle headlamp can facilitate obtaining a light distribution suitable for driving on a motorway or in wet conditions.

Vehicle headlamp

A vehicular headlamp includes a first reflector disposed fixed with respect to the light source; a second reflector rotatable in a direction that opens and closes a reflective surface of the first reflector; a bracket rotatably supporting the second reflector via a shaft that extends in a direction generally perpendicular to the optical axis of the light source; an actuator attached to the bracket; an attachment includes an insertion hole into which the driving rod of the actuator is inserted and first and second connection holes into which the connecting shaft of the second reflector is inserted. The second reflector includes a connecting shaft that projects in a direction generally perpendicular to an optical axis of the light source. The actuator includes a body and a driving rod that projects from a portion other than a center portion of the body and moves in an axial direction. The first connection hole and the second connection hole of the attachment open one way and open in opposite directions. The actuator is capable of being respectively attached to the bracket of the lamp unit on the left and right sides in orientations that differ by a rotation of 180 degrees in a shaft rotating direction of the driving rod, with the connecting shaft of the second reflector on the left inserted into the first connection hole, and the connecting shaft of the second reflector on the right side inserted into the second connection hole.

Vehicular headlamp

A vehicle headlamp is provided with: a projector lens; a light source bulb; a reflector for reflecting direct light from the light source bulb to the front side; a movable shade; and an actuator for moving the movable shade between a shading position and a shading relieving position. The movable shade is pivotally arranged so that it can be rotated round a rotary axis extending in a vehicle width direction, in a neighborhood of a lens center axis. A rod member has one end portion connected to the movable shade and the other end portion connected to the actuator. The actuator gives a drive force to the rod member in a longitudinal direction of the rod member.

A headlight has a plurality of lighting device units and a unit support member that supports the plurality of lighting device units. Each lighting device unit has a projection lens, a light emitting diode arranged behind a rear side focus of the projection lens, and a rectilinear propagation blocking member that is arranged in a vicinity of the rear side focus, and blocks a rectilinear propagation of a portion of light emitted from the light emitting diode so as to form a cutoff line. The projection lens and the rectilinear propagation blocking member are integrally formed as a light control member in each light device unit.

Vehicle headlight including a plurality of led lighting device units

A movable shade is moved by a shade driving device between a first shade position which is positioned on an optical axis at a rear focal point of a projection lens and a second shade position which is located further downward than the first shade position. Even in the event that there is provided only a single light source, low beam light distribution patterns and high beam light distribution patterns can selectively be formed. In addition, the light source is moved by a light source driving device between a first light source position which is positioned on the optical axis and a second light source position which is positioned further forward than the first light source position. Then, four types of light distribution patterns can be formed through combinations of the positions of the light source and the positions of the movable shade.

Optical axes are simultaneously adjusted by tiltably mounting a plurality of lighting device units on a common unit support member. A rectilinear propagation blocking member of each lighting device unit is fixed with screw via the elastic bush to the unit support member, so that the optical axis can be adjusted. Due to the above structure, even when the accuracy of shapes of the rectilinear propagation blocking member and the unit support member are not sufficiently ensured and also even when the accuracy of the attaching work can not be sufficiently ensured, the optical axes of the lighting device units can be arranged in order by adjusting the optical axis of the rectilinear propagation blocking member.

Headlight

Optical axes are simultaneously adjusted when a plurality of lighting device unitsthe light sources of which are light emitting elementsare tiltably supported by the common unit support memberIn this case, the positioning recess portionis provided which is composed so that the light source fixing portionBformed in a plurality of portions of the unit support membercan be contacted with the back faceand the outer circumferential faceof the support platefor supporting the light emitting elementDue to the foregoing, the light emitting elementcan be highly accurately attached to the unit support memberand the optical axes A, of the lighting device unitscan be put in order.

Vehicle headlight

A beam switching device is provided for switching between a low beam and a high beam by rotating a shade for screening part of incident light given off from a discharge illuminant portion to a reflecting surface of a reflector . The shade rotates about a rotational axis A extending in a direction which inclines a predetermined angle &THgr; relative to a horizontal plane. A rotational locus of the shade can be inclined relative to a vertical plane. The beam switching device can also be inclined relative to the vertical plane. Thus, a vertical dimension h from an optical axis Ax to a lower end f the beam switching device is made short.

A shade driving unit is provided below a discharge bulb, and a fixed shade for covering a movable shade is provided close to the front side of the movable shade to conceal substantially the shade moving mechanism of the shade driving unit. Moreover, the shade leg portion of the fixed shade is fitted to a fixed shade-leg fitting projection formed below a reflector from its rear side to conceal substantially the mounting structure. Further, a pair of lateral upright walls extending from the fixed shade-leg fitting projection is formed below the reflector. The shade moving mechanism can thus be substantially concealed from either side of the fixed shade, even from a laterally shifted viewpoint from the front of the lamp.

A vehicle headlamp is equipped with a shade driving unit for moving a movable shade which is capable of shading part of light incident on a reflector from the discharge light emitting portion of a discharge bulb between at least two positions where the incident light is shed in different degrees. The discharge bulb is fixedly supported by the reflector via a bulb supporting base and the movable shade and the shade driving unit are fitted to the bulb supporting base Thus, the light source bulb the movable shade and the shade driving unit together with the bulb supporting base can be operated integrally as a unit. The unit is prefabricated before being fitted to the reflector to facilitate the assembling of the lamp. Moreover, the precision of placement of the movable shade with respect to the discharge light emitting portion can also be improved.

Vehicle headlamp with movable and fixed shades

A vehicle headlamp comprising a light source bulb, a reflector, a shade, a beam switching device, and a displacement regulating member. The reflector includes a reflective surface for emitting a predetermined beam forward by reflecting light from said light source bulb. The shade is for shading part of light incident on the reflective surface from said light source bulb. The beam switching device selectively switches beams between low and high beams by moving said shade between two positions where the amount of shielding said shade relative to light incident on said reflective surface has different values. The displacement regulating member regulating the displacement of said shade from one of low- and high-beam forming positions by making contact with said shade while said shade is located in the one of the low- and high-beam forming positions.

A vehicle headlight capable of switching beams between low and high beams by vertically tilting a reflector by a predetermined angle so that upward forward visibility ahead of a vehicle can be secured during high-beam traveling by using a light distribution pattern having a cutoff line as a low-beam light distribution pattern. An upward deflection prism, projecting substantially perpendicularly downward from an upper side of a reflector up to a vicinity of a height position of an upper end edge of the reflective surface of the reflector, is provided in the vicinity of the front of the front end opening of the reflector. Part of the light reflected from the reflective surface of the reflector is made incident on the upward deflection prism interlocked with the upward tilting of the reflector when a low beam is switched to a high beam, whereby part of the beam is deflected and emitted to the vicinity of a position over a cutoff line by means of the deflecting and transmitting functions of the upward deflection prism.

A vehicle headlamp is provided with a leveling unit and a mechanical drive type beam switching device having one actuator mechanism. A low beam is switched to a high beam by driving the actuator of the leveling unit so as to tilt a reflector upward by an angle greater than a maximum upwardly-tilted angle at the time of leveling adjustment in order that the actuator may be set for common use. Moreover, a bulb holder is vertically tiltably supported by the reflector and tilted together with the reflector up to the aforementioned maximum upwardly-tilted angle on one hand, and the bulb holder is fixed to the maximum upwardly-tilted angle separately from the reflector by a stopper pin while the reflector may coincide with a high-beam upwardly tilting angle.

Vehicle headlamp having a leveling unit

In the rear of a collimator lens there is disposed a reflector having a bulb serving as a light source, and a shade is interposed between the collimator lens and bulb. The reflector is mounted by means of a guide engagement mechanism, which is arranged such that guide pins provided in the front edge portion of the reflector are pivotally and slidably engaged with a plurality of guide grooves formed in a guide plate fixed on the side of the collimator to thereby be able to deflect an optical axis. The guide engagement mechanism controls or displaces the reflector by use of a control motor. The shade is fixedly secured on the side of the collimator lens.

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Shizuoka, Japan

Hirohiko Ohshio