Indicator light for a motor vehicle, having a faceted reflector

Abstract

An indicator light for a motor vehicle includes a lamp, a reflector, a cover lens, and a screen placed between the lamp and the cover lens so as to mask the lamp. The reflector has a set of deflecting panels or facets, adjacent to each other and arranged to generate a plurality of secondary light sources visible within a given field of observation. Each deflecting panel comprises a central zone having a contour, projected orthogonally on the optical axis, which is generally rectangular with horizontal and vertical sides and adapted to cover the whole field of illumination, together with at least one pair of peripheral zones with oblique sides, smoothly extending the central zone on two opposed sides of the central zone. The peripheral zones together also cover the whole field of illumination. Each deflecting panel reveals at least two virtual light sources within a given field of observation, when viewed from any angle within that field. The screen is a translucent plate having retro-reflective optical means on one of its faces, and includes means for generating further secondary light sources, in a distribution similar to that of the secondary sources generated by the deflecting panels and visible in the same field of observation.