Lighting decoration device and light guide element

Abstract

The application discloses a lighting decoration device and a light guide element. The lighting decoration device comprises a light source and a light guide element. The light source comprises at least one light emitting unit. The light guide element has an incident light surface, an emergent light surface and at least one set of light beam diffusion structures corresponding to the at least one light emitting unit. Each set of light beam diffusion structures comprises first and second beam expansion structures. The first beam expansion structure is arranged on the incident light surface and is used for refracting and diffusing the light emitted by the corresponding light emitting unit into first diffused light beams to the second beam expansion structure. The second beam expansion structure is arranged inside the light guide element and is used for refracting and diffusing the first diffused light beams into second diffused light beams to the emergent light surface. The lighting decoration device can ensure that the brightness and color uniformity of the emergent light surface are good in the length direction, and the dark area is clear.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to lighting and decorative devices, and more particularly to devices for interior lighting and decoration in vehicles. Background Technology

[0002] Components used for interior lighting and decoration of vehicles, such as ambient lighting, can be used for combination contour lighting and ambient lighting inside motor vehicles. Figure 1 An exemplary schematic diagram of an existing lighting decoration device is shown, such as... Figure 1 As shown, the lighting decoration device includes a light source 91 for emitting light and a strip-shaped light guide element 92. The light source 91 includes one or more LEDs 911, which are mounted on a circuit board 912. The light guide element 92 has a light-incident surface 92a and a light-exit surface 92b. Using this structure, animation effects can be achieved, such as selectively controlling the opening or closing of some light sources to create light-dark intervals and scrolling effects.

[0003] In existing technologies, to meet the requirements of uniform light output and sufficient mixing of multi-color light, larger light guide elements are typically selected to provide sufficient light guide path. Alternatively, dual-component or multi-component light guides are formed through multi-color injection molding, or diffused light guide materials are used to fabricate the light-emitting or light-receiving parts of the light guide element. These methods require large structural space, complex manufacturing processes, numerous processing steps, and high costs. Furthermore, because light diffusion is uncontrolled (or difficult to accurately control), the emitted light from a single LED diffuses significantly at the light-emitting surface, forming a large light spot. When achieving animation effects (such as light-dark intervals and scrolling effects), the large light spot inevitably causes overlap between light spots and excessively high brightness in dark areas (i.e., insufficient darkness in dark areas), resulting in indistinct light-dark intervals, poor scrolling effects, and animation display that fails to meet requirements. However, if the size of the light guide component or diffuser element is changed to reduce the light spot diffusion size, the brightness uniformity when all light sources are lit deteriorates, even when the dark areas are sufficiently dark.

[0004] In addition, existing technologies still exhibit poor optical effects at the ends of the light-emitting area, such as brightness being much lower than in the middle, or incomplete mixing of multi-color light, with a single color appearing at the end of the mixed color, resulting in a poor optical experience for users. Summary of the Invention

[0005] The technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a lighting decoration device that can ensure good brightness and color uniformity along the length of the light-emitting surface, clear dark areas, and requires little structural space and simple component processing.

[0006] Another technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a light guide element.

[0007] This invention provides a lighting decoration device, including a light source and a light guide element. The light source includes at least one light-emitting unit, and the light guide element has a light-incident surface and a light-emitting surface. The device is characterized in that the light guide element has at least one set of beam diffusion structures corresponding to at least one light-emitting unit. Each set of beam diffusion structures includes a first beam expanding structure and a second beam expanding structure. The first beam expanding structure is disposed on the light-incident surface and is used to refract and diffuse the light incident from the corresponding light-emitting unit into a first diffused beam to the second beam expanding structure. The second beam expanding structure is disposed inside the light guide element and is used to refract and diffuse the first diffused beam into a second diffused beam to the light-emitting surface for light emission.

[0008] This invention also provides a light guide element having an incident light surface and an exit light surface; characterized in that the light guide element is provided with at least one set of beam diffusion structures; each beam diffusion structure includes a first beam expander structure and a second beam expander structure, the first beam expander structure being disposed on the incident light surface and used to refract and diffuse light incident from an external light-emitting unit into a first diffused beam to the second beam expander structure; the second beam expander structure being disposed inside the light guide element and used to refract and diffuse the first diffused beam into a second diffused beam to exit light from the exit light surface.

[0009] The aforementioned light guide element includes a main body, a first side portion, and a second side portion. The first side portion and the second side portion are located on the left and right sides of the main body portion, respectively, and are connected to the main body portion. The main body portion faces the light source, and the length of the main body portion is equal to the length of the light source. The first side portion and the second side portion are respectively provided with a first convex lens and a second convex lens. The first convex lens is used to refract the light from the light source to the left side of the light guide element to the light-emitting surface, and the second convex lens is used to refract the light from the light source to the right side of the light guide element to the light-emitting surface.

[0010] This invention has at least the following technical effects:

[0011] 1. In this embodiment of the invention, beam expansion structures are respectively set on the light incident surface and the light propagation path to change and control the width of the light spot emitted by the light source at the light exit surface. While ensuring optical uniformity and light mixing effect, it can ensure the formation of clear dark areas and achieve the effect of controllable dark areas during animation display.

[0012] 2. In this embodiment of the invention, the light emitted by the light-emitting unit is refracted multiple times to improve the light output width and optical cross-section, shortening the long optical path required by the traditional light guide element design, so that the overall size of the lighting decoration device can be kept small, thus making it suitable for more vehicle models;

[0013] 3. According to the embodiment of the present invention, the light guide element is provided with convex lenses on both sides, so that the light originally incident on the side wall is refracted onto the light-emitting surface, thereby improving the optical effect at the end of the light-emitting surface and increasing the light utilization rate. Attached Figure Description

[0014] To more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention, the accompanying drawings used in the description of the embodiments will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the accompanying drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present invention. For those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without creative effort.

[0015] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of an existing lighting decoration device is shown.

[0016] Figure 2 A schematic diagram of the structure of a lighting and decorative device according to a first embodiment of the present invention is shown.

[0017] Figure 3 A schematic diagram of the structure of a light guide element according to a first embodiment of the present invention is shown.

[0018] Figure 4 A schematic diagram of the structure of a lighting decoration device according to a second embodiment of the present invention is shown.

[0019] Figure 5 and Figure 6 The diagrams show the light intensity distribution along the length of the light-emitting surface when the conventional lighting decoration device and the lighting decoration device of the first embodiment of the present invention are used to display light and dark intervals.

[0020] Figure 7 A schematic diagram of the structure of a lighting decoration device according to a third embodiment of the present invention is shown. Detailed Implementation

[0021] The present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments.

[0022] Please see Figure 2 and Figure 3 The lighting and decorative device according to a first embodiment of the present invention includes a light source 1 and a light guide element 2.

[0023] The light source 1 includes at least one light-emitting unit 11. In this embodiment, the light source 1 includes multiple light-emitting units 11, and each light-emitting unit 11 is an LED (light-emitting diode). The LEDs 11 are disposed on a circuit board 12, which can be a rigid or flexible circuit board. When the light source 1 has multiple LEDs 11, these LEDs can emit monochromatic light or multicolor light, and the light source 1 is a color-changeable light-emitting module. Multiple LEDs 11 can produce mixed light, such as mixed white light.

[0024] The light guide element 2 has a light-incident surface 2a, a light-exit surface 2b, and at least one set of beam diffusion structures corresponding one-to-one with at least one light-emitting unit 11. The light guide element can be a component molded from a polymer or a component molded from optical glass. The light guide element can be transparent or a single-component light guide with diffusion function.

[0025] Each beam diffusion structure includes a first beam expander 31 and a second beam expander 32. The first beam expander 31 is disposed on the light incident surface 2a and is used to refract and diffuse the light incident from the corresponding light-emitting unit 11 into a first diffused beam 41 to the second beam expander 32. The second beam expander 32 is disposed inside the light guide element 2 and is used to refract and diffuse the first diffused beam 41 into a second diffused beam 42 to the light exit surface 2b.

[0026] In this embodiment, the first beam expander 31, the second beam expander 32, and the corresponding light-emitting unit 11 are coaxially arranged, that is, the central axes of the first beam expander 31, the second beam expander 32, and the corresponding light-emitting unit 11 are located on the same straight line.

[0027] In this embodiment, the first beam expander 31 is a concave lens, formed by the light-incident surface being recessed inwards from the position corresponding to the light-emitting unit; the second beam expander 32 is a convex lens, and the refractive index of the convex lens 32 is less than the refractive index of the light guide element. Optionally, the convex lens 32 is an air convex lens, that is, the convex lens 32 is aperture-shaped, and the light-transmitting medium inside the aperture is air. In another embodiment, such as... Figure 4 As shown, a material with a refractive index lower than that of the optical guide material can also be selected as the filling part of the convex lens 32.

[0028] Optionally, the convex lens 32 is a plano-convex lens, and the planar side of the plano-convex lens faces the concave lens 31.

[0029] like Figure 2 As shown, the light emitted by the light-emitting unit 11 passes through the concave lens 31 at the incident light position. The arc-shaped incident light surface of the concave lens 31 causes the light to undergo a first refraction and diffusion when entering the light guide element 2, and can avoid total internal reflection at the incident light surface 2a. The first diffused beam 41 then passes through the plano-convex lens 32 in the propagation path. Figure 2 In the example, the incident surface of the plano-convex lens 32 is a plane, the purpose of which is to allow more light to be refracted from the medium (further diffused) rather than undergo total internal reflection. After further diffusion by the plano-convex lens, the emission width of the second diffused beam 42 is significantly increased, optimizing uniformity. At the same time, due to the multiple refractions of light in the air and medium, multi-colored light rays interweave more, resulting in better light mixing.

[0030] The structure described in this embodiment utilizes a combination of a concave dielectric lens and an air convex lens. By leveraging the lens's control over light, it achieves both uniform brightness during full-brightness display and controllable dark areas during animation display. Furthermore, it requires minimal structural space and simplifies component fabrication. Specifically, when all light-emitting units 11 are fully illuminated, the light is diffused and mixed three times through the combination of the concave dielectric lens and the air convex lens. Compared to other lens combinations, the light from a single light-emitting unit can be diffused and mixed more effectively, resulting in higher light utilization. Consequently, the brightness / color uniformity along the length of the light-emitting surface is excellent. When displaying animation effects (e.g., selectively illuminating light-emitting units to create light-dark intervals and scrolling effects), the air convex lens's control over light (i.e., diffusion is limited to a certain angle range by the lens) prevents excessive diffusion at the emission surface from forming continuous light spots, thus ensuring the formation of clear dark areas (i.e., sufficiently dark areas). Furthermore, because the light spot of the light-emitting unit is diffused and expanded by the convex lens, compared to other types of lenses, when displaying alternating bright and dark areas, the size of the dark area between the bright areas can be controlled to a smaller range. This makes it more conducive to creating a continuous scrolling effect when the state of the light-emitting unit changes over time (on / off, brightness, or color). If the bright and dark areas are close in size, the continuity of the scrolling effect observed by the user will be poor. This embodiment has good application in in-vehicle lighting / ambient decoration devices with animation effects, such as the common charging mode: alternating bright and dark scrolling.

[0031] The shape of the light guide element 2 is not limited to a straight line; it can also be set to other shapes, such as an arc, depending on the space and effect.

[0032] Figure 5 and Figure 6 The figures show the light intensity distribution along the length of the light-emitting surface when the existing lighting decoration device and the lighting decoration device of the first embodiment of the present invention are used to display light and dark intervals. The vertical axis of the figures is in cd / m. 2 .Depend on Figure 5 and Figure 6 visible, Figure 5 Compared to the dark area Figure 6 Brighter, with less pronounced contrast between light and dark, and Figure 6 Compared to the dark area Figure 5 It's darker, and the contrast between light and dark is more pronounced.

[0033] In this embodiment, the light-incident surface 2a and the light-exit surface 2b are located on opposite sides of the light guide element 2. Furthermore, to achieve better optical effects, a textured surface or fine optical patterns can be added to the light-incident surface 2a or the light-exit surface 2b.

[0034] In this embodiment, the light guide element 2 has at least one arc-shaped protrusion 21 on the side facing the light source 1, which corresponds to at least one light-emitting unit 11, and the light-incident surface 2a is composed of the top of the at least one arc-shaped protrusion 21.

[0035] In other embodiments, the side of the convex lens 32 facing the concave lens 31 is an inwardly concave (i.e., concave towards the light-emitting surface 2b) arc surface, and the radius of curvature of this arc surface is greater than the radius of curvature of the side of the convex lens 32 facing away from the concave lens 31.

[0036] In the first embodiment, the length of the light guide element 2 is equal to the length of the light source 1. Please refer to... Figure 4 and Figure 7 In the second and third embodiments, the length of the light guide element 2 is greater than the length of the light source 1. In this case, the light guide element 2 includes a main body 200, a first side portion 201, and a second side portion 202. The first side portion 201 and the second side portion 202 are located on the left and right sides of the main body 200, respectively, and are connected to the main body 200. The main body 200 faces the light source 1, and the length of the main body 200 is equal to the length L of the light source 1. Neither the first side portion 201 nor the second side portion 202 is large enough to accommodate an additional LED 11. A first convex lens 51 and a second convex lens 52 are respectively provided within the first side portion 201 and the second side portion 202. The first convex lens 51 refracts the light from the light source 1 directed to the left side of the light guide element 2 onto the light-emitting surface 2b, and the second convex lens 52 refracts the light from the light source 1 directed to the right side of the light guide element 2 onto the light-emitting surface 2b.

[0037] The second and third embodiments utilize the principle of a convex lens, which allows light rays originally directed toward the sidewall to be refracted at a large angle and then projected onto the light-emitting surface, thereby preventing dark areas from appearing at both ends of the light guide element and ensuring the brightness and color uniformity of the ends.

[0038] The lighting and decorative device in this embodiment can be a lighting and decorative device on the dashboard under the windshield of the car, or a lighting and decorative device on the door panel and floor of the car.

[0039] The lighting decoration device of this invention achieves light diffusion and controls the direction of light diffusion by adjusting the dimensions (such as length, width, and focal length) of the concave lens 31 and the convex lens 32. While ensuring optical uniformity and light mixing effect, it controls the size of the light spot on the light-emitting surface of a single LED, making the light controllable and the dark areas clear, which can meet the lighting requirements of more complex animations.

[0040] Obviously, those skilled in the art can make various modifications and variations to this invention without departing from its spirit and scope. Therefore, if these modifications and variations fall within the scope of the claims of this invention and their equivalents, this invention also intends to include these modifications and variations.

Claims

1. A lighting and decorative device, comprising a light source and a light guide element, wherein the light source includes at least one light-emitting unit, and the light guide element has a light-incident surface and a light-emitting surface; characterized in that, The light guide element includes a main body, a first side portion, and a second side portion; the first side portion and the second side portion are located on the left and right sides of the main body portion, respectively, and are connected to the main body portion; the main body portion faces the light source, and the length of the main body portion is equal to the length of the light source; a first convex lens and a second convex lens are respectively provided in the first side portion and the second side portion, the first convex lens is used to refract the light emitted from the light source to the left side of the light guide element to the light-emitting surface, and the second convex lens is used to refract the light emitted from the light source to the right side of the light guide element to the light-emitting surface; The light guide element is provided with at least one set of beam diffusion structures corresponding to the at least one light-emitting unit; Each beam diffusion structure includes a first beam expander and a second beam expander. The first beam expander is disposed on the light incident surface and is used to refract and diffuse the light incident from the corresponding light-emitting unit into a first diffused beam to the second beam expander. The second beam expander is disposed inside the light guide element and is used to refract and diffuse the first diffused beam into a second diffused beam to the light exiting surface. The first beam expander structure, the second beam expander structure, and the corresponding light-emitting unit are coaxially arranged; The first beam expander is a concave lens, which is formed by the light-incident surface being recessed inward; The second beam expander is a convex lens, the refractive index of which is less than that of the light guide element; the convex lens is a plano-convex lens, the planar side of which faces the concave lens; Alternatively, the side of the convex lens facing the concave lens is an inwardly concave arc surface, and the radius of curvature of the arc surface is greater than the radius of curvature of the side of the convex lens facing away from the concave lens. The lighting and decorative device is a lighting and decorative device on the dashboard under the windshield of the car, or a lighting and decorative device on the door panel of the car, or a lighting and decorative device on the floor of the car. The light source is a color-changeable light-emitting module.

2. The lighting and decorative device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The convex lens mentioned is an air convex lens.

3. The lighting and decorative device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The light-incident surface and the light-exit surface are located on opposite sides of the light guide element.

4. The lighting and decorative device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The light guide element has at least one arc-shaped protrusion on the side facing the light source, which corresponds to at least one light-emitting unit, and the light-incident surface is formed by the top of the at least one arc-shaped protrusion.

5. The lighting and decorative device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The light-emitting unit is an LED.

6. A light guide element, the light guide element having a light incident surface and a light emitting surface; characterized in that, The light guide element includes a main body, a first side portion, and a second side portion; the first side portion and the second side portion are located on the left and right sides of the main body portion, respectively, and are connected to the main body portion; the main body portion faces the light source, and the length of the main body portion is equal to the length of the light source; a first convex lens and a second convex lens are respectively provided in the first side portion and the second side portion, the first convex lens is used to refract the light emitted from the light source to the left side of the light guide element to the light-emitting surface, and the second convex lens is used to refract the light emitted from the light source to the right side of the light guide element to the light-emitting surface; The light guide element is provided with at least one set of beam diffusion structures; Each of the beam diffusion structures includes a first beam expander and a second beam expander. The first beam expander is disposed on the light incident surface and is used to refract and diffuse the light incident from the external light-emitting unit into a first diffused beam to the second beam expander. The second beam expander is disposed inside the light guide element and is used to refract and diffuse the first diffused beam into a second diffused beam to the light exiting surface. The first beam expander structure, the second beam expander structure, and the light-emitting unit are coaxially arranged; The first beam expander is a concave lens, which is formed by the light-incident surface being recessed inward; The second beam expander is a convex lens, the refractive index of which is less than that of the light guide element; the convex lens is a plano-convex lens, the planar side of which faces the concave lens; Alternatively, the side of the convex lens facing the concave lens is an inwardly concave arc surface, and the radius of curvature of the arc surface is greater than the radius of curvature of the side of the convex lens facing away from the concave lens.

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