Lighting device for a motor vehicle and motor vehicle with such a lighting device

Abstract

The present invention relates to a lighting device (1) for a motor vehicle (2) having an interior (4). What is essential to the invention is that - at least one support frame (5) for receiving an illuminable three-armed star (6) is arranged in the interior (4), - the illuminable three-armed star (6) comprises a circuit board (7), a reflector (9) and an optical device (10), - the optical device (10) has positioning pins (11) whose heads (12) penetrate the reflector (9) and the circuit board (7) and thereby align the circuit board (7) and the reflector (9) with the optical device (10), - the heads (12) of the positioning pins (11) are hot-formed and the circuit board (7), the reflector (9) and the optical device (10) are fixed to one another by hot-staking, so that the illuminable three-armed star (6) forms a pre-assembled assembly, - the illuminable three-armed star (6) is pivotally mounted on the support frame (5) for installation via a first arm (13) and is fixed to the support frame (5) via an opposite fixing device (18).

Description

The present invention relates to a lighting device for a motor vehicle, in particular a headlight, according to the preamble of claim 1.DE 10 2015 119 445 A1 discloses a generic lighting device for a motor vehicle having a light source for emitting light and an optical unit for deflecting a useful light portion of the light in accordance with a predefined light function in the main emission direction and having a design device arranged on a lateral edge of the lighting device, which can be illuminated by a missing light portion of the light emitted by the light source in order to generate a design lighting. The design device has an arcuate design component that determines a structure of the design illumination and a design lens arranged coaxially to the design component, wherein scattering means for scattering the light component error are assigned to the design lens, and wherein the design lens is arranged at least partially at a radial distance from the design component. This is intended to make it possible to integrate the design device into the lighting device in a simple and variable manner.DE 20 2004 001 269 U1 discloses a headlight having a light source and a light cover which shields at least part of the radiation emitted directly and / or indirectly by the light source, a graphical element being introduced into the light cover. This is intended to make it possible to provide a light cover or radiation screen which offers additional design free spaces.CN 204623289 U discloses a motor vehicle headlight having a headlight sleeve, a decorative strip and further components.Further lighting devices are known from U.S. Pat. No. 747,819 S, U.S. Pat. No. 913,537 S and U.S. Pat. No. 913,536 S, U.S. Pat. No. 2014 / 0 160 780 A1 and CN 2 01 881 996 U.Lighting devices on motor vehicles are increasingly intended not only to fulfil the function of optimum lighting, in particular of a roadway, but also to satisfy design requirements, which is facilitated in particular by the LED technology. An increased optical design can also be used in particular to have a positive influence on the visual appearance of the motor vehicle and its significance. The installation of illuminatable design elements in existing lighting devices on motor vehicles, in particular in headlights, represents a particular challenge in this case, since not only is an extremely short installation space available for the placement of such illuminatable design elements, but such an installation is also complicated and therefore expensive.The present invention therefore addresses the problem of specifying an improved or at least one alternative embodiment for a lighting device of the generic type, with which the disadvantages known from the prior art can be at least partially overcome.This problem is solved according to the invention by the subject matter of independent claim 1. Advantageous embodiments are the subject of the dependent claims.The present invention is based on the general idea of configuring a specially designed and illuminatable design element as a prefabricated assembly and mounting it in a lighting device by means of a simple mounting technique. The lighting device according to the invention for a motor vehicle, which is designed, for example, as a headlight, has an interior in which at least one, in particular fixedly or movably mounted, supporting frame for receiving an illuminatable three-armed star is arranged. This illuminatable three-armed star is the aforementioned design element. The illuminatable three-armed star has three arms lying in a plane, a printed circuit board with an electrical contact, in particular with a plug, as well as at least one LED, a reflector and an optical device, wherein the optical device in turn has positioning pins, the heads of which penetrate the reflector and the printed circuit board and thereby align the printed circuit board and the reflector with the optical device. The reflector is arranged between the circuit board and the optical device. The heads of the positioning pins are hot-formed on the circuit board after being inserted through the through-openings, whereby the circuit board, the reflector and the optical device are fixed to one another by hot-caulking and form a prefabricated, coherent assembly. The illuminatable three-armed star is suspended on the supporting frame via a first arm for fixing in the housing of the lighting device and is mounted pivotably for installation, so that after suspension it is pivoted on the supporting frame and can be fixed on the supporting frame via a fixing device, in particular a screw connection, opposite the first arm. The fixing device is arranged on a holding arm which does not lie in the plane of the other three arms of the illuminatable three-armed star or is bent out of this plane. With the lighting device according to the invention, it is thus possible to preprepare a particularly designed and illuminable design element first separately and to fix it to the supporting frame in a subassembly prefabricated in this way particularly easily, namely by hanging it in via the first arm of the illuminable three-armed star and by fixing, in particular screwing or clipping, on the opposite side, i.e. usually between the second and third arms of the illuminable star. The supporting frame, in turn, can be installed in the housing or form an integral component of the housing. The assembly can furthermore also be suspended in a module frame which is a component of lighting modules and can therefore be pivoted together. With the lighting device according to the invention, a compact construction and a robust design with respect to a positioning of the illuminatable three-armed star can also be achieved. In addition, for fixing the illuminatable three-armed star, only the screwing in of a single screw or the latching of a clip connection is necessary, wherein the latter offers the great advantage of being able to completely dispense with a separate fixing means, such as a screw, for example.In an advantageous development of the lighting device according to the invention, the reflector has an edge which at least partially surrounds the printed circuit board. By means of the edge at least partially encompassing the circuit board, it is possible to arrange the circuit board under the reflector in a protected manner and at the same time to be able to align the circuit board comparatively easily with respect to the reflector, since the edge at least partially encompassing the circuit board represents a positioning contour which simplifies the positioning of the circuit board in the reflector, that is to say from the rear side thereof. The reflector can be designed, for example, as a cost-effective plastic injection-molded part or sheet metal part, for which reason it is also possible to produce the edge which at least partially surrounds the circuit board in a comparatively simple manner. Furthermore, the border or the edge prevents leakage light from emerging, i.e. missing light that does not go forward, but rather would undesirably illuminate the border and the joint to the board.In a further advantageous embodiment of the illumination apparatus according to the invention, the optical device is formed in one piece. Such a one-piece construction, in particular for example as a plastic injection molded part, not only enables a cost-effective and high-quality production of such an optical device, but also makes easier assembly of the three-armed illuminable star. Alternatively, the optical device can of course also have three individual elements for the three arms of the three-armed illuminatable star, which in turn offers the advantage of being able to produce the individual elements individually and thus also extremely differently, which offers an increased freedom in terms of design and production technology.Expediently, the optical device has a suspension contour, wherein the supporting frame has an opening which is formed in a manner complementary to this suspension contour and into which the suspension contour is suspended and is mounted pivotably for installation. The illuminable three-armed star is thus installed by an electrical connection of the electrical contact with an on-board power supply system of the motor vehicle taking place initially, whereupon the illuminable three-armed star is suspended with its suspension contour into the opening formed on the support frame and subsequently pivoted. A pivot axis extends through the opening on the support frame and the suspension contour. If the illuminatable three-armed star has reached its final installation position, in a fixing device designed as a screw connection, a screw-in opening on the support frame side is aligned with an associated through opening on the reflector, so that the fixing of the illuminatable three-armed star on the support frame can be completed by simply screwing in an associated screw. The installation is of even simpler design if a clip connection is present instead of the screw connection, so that in this case the illuminable three-armed star merely has to be hooked into the opening on the support frame side via the hook-in contour arranged on the optical device and then the illuminable three-armed star has to be pivoted until the opposite snap-in connection or clip connection latches. In this case, installation without any tools and without additional fixing means is possible, which simplifies the mounting of the illuminatable three-armed star once again.In a further advantageous embodiment of the lighting device according to the invention, the illuminatable three-armed star is accommodated at least in regions in a form-fitting manner in the supporting frame. Walls can be provided on the support frame, for example, which on the one hand form an alignment contour for the illuminatable three-armed star accommodated therein and on the other hand form a shielding element which prevents unintentional light emission. The form-fitting reception of the illuminatable three-armed star in the supporting frame can likewise simplify assembly, since complex alignment is dispensed with.The illuminatable three-armed star is expediently surrounded by a star diaphragm. Such a star diaphragm can be formed, for example, in black or chrome colors, as a result of which its design effect is very appealing visually even when the design element is not illuminated, i.e. when the triarm star is not illuminated. By means of such a neutral shield with a different color, a 3D effect can also be enhanced, which likewise leads to an appealing appearance.In a particularly preferred embodiment of the star screen, this has lateral light outlet openings. Further design light effects can be achieved via such lateral light outlet openings, such as, for example, a background illumination of the three-armed star, whereby the latter can be perceived as optically floating. Purely theoretically, such lateral light exit openings can also achieve further optically appealing effects, such as, for example, a beam of the three-armed star.The supporting frame is expediently formed integrally with the housing, which offers the great advantage of a formation of both high-quality and low-cost. Alternatively, it is of course also conceivable for the supporting frame to be formed separately from the housing and to be mounted therein. The supporting frame can be mounted on the housing, for example, via a screw connection or a clip connection and thus likewise easily produced.Further important features and advantages of the invention are evident from the dependent claims, from the drawings and from the associated description of the figures with reference to the drawings.It is understood that the features mentioned above and those still to be explained below can be used not only in the respectively specified combination, but also in other combinations or alone, without departing from the scope of the present invention. The above-mentioned components of a superordinate unit, such as a device, a device or an arrangement, which are designated separately, and which will be mentioned below, can form separate components or components of this unit or can be integral regions or sections of this unit, even if this is illustrated differently in the drawing.Preferred exemplary embodiments of the invention are illustrated in the drawings and are explained in more detail in the following description, wherein the same reference numerals refer to the same or similar or functionally the same components.In each case, diagrammatically show: FIG. 1 shows a view of an illumination device according to the invention, FIG. 2 shows a view of a possible embodiment of an illuminatable three-armed star in a front view, FIG. 3 shows an illustration as in FIG. 2, but in a rear view, FIG. 4 shows the lighting device according to the invention with supporting frames, but not yet installed illuminatable three-armed star, FIG. 5 is a view as in FIG. 4, but with a built-in three-armed and illuminatable star, FIG. 6 shows a detailed illustration A from FIG. 7, FIG. 7 shows an illustration as in FIG. 5, but with a different optical device, FIG. 8 shows a detailed illustration B from FIG. 7.According to FIGS. 1 to 3 and 5 to 8, a lighting device 1 according to the invention for a motor vehicle 2, in particular a headlight, has a housing 3 which has a light outlet opening closed in the forward direction of travel by a transparent pane, not shown. The housing 3 and the pane delimit an interior 4 in which at least one support frame 5 (compare also FIG. 4 ) for receiving an illuminatable three-armed star 6 (compare in particular FIGS. 2 and 3 ) is arranged. The illuminatable three-armed star 6 has a printed circuit board 7 with an electrical contact 8 and at least one light-emitting diode (LED), a reflector 9 and an optical device 10. The at least one light-emitting diode (LED) can emit light of different colors. The reflector 9 serves to reflect light emitted by the LED, while the optical device 10 serves to scatter, concentrate and / or direct deflection of the light emitted by the at least one LED.The optical device 10 has positioning pins 11 (compare FIG. 3 ), the heads 12 of which penetrate the reflector 9 and the circuit board 7 into through-openings 19 and thereby align the circuit board 7 and the reflector 9 with the optical device 10. The reflector 9 is arranged between the optical device 10 and the circuit board 7. The heads 12 are hot-stamped, whereby the circuit board 7, the reflector 9 and the optical device 10 are fixed to one another and thereby form a coherent and pre-assembled assembly, as is shown according to FIGS. 2 and 3.To fix the illuminatable three-armed star 6, the latter is suspended on the supporting frame 5 via a first arm 13, here via the upper arm, and is pivotably mounted there for installation by being suspended with an attachment contour 14 on the optical device side (compare FIG. 6 ) in an opening 15 on the supporting frame side and designed to be complementary to this attachment contour 14. On the opposite side, i.e. between a second arm 16 and a third arm 17, the illuminatable three-armed star 6 is now fixed to the supporting frame 5 via a fixing device 18, in particular a screw connection or a clip connection. Instead of the screw connection, it is of course also possible to use another connection, in particular a connection which can be detached without additional tools, such as a clip connection or a latching connection. The lighting device 1 can thus be mounted comparatively easily and without large additional tools, since initially only the illuminatable three-armed star 6 is prefabricated by the circuit board 7 being inserted into the reflector 9 and the optical device 10 being mounted opposite one another in such a way that its positioning pins 11 pass through both the reflector 9 and the circuit board 7 at associated through-openings 19. Subsequently, the heads 12 of the positioning pins 11 are hot-formed, i.e., hot-stamped, thereby producing the prefabricated assembly consisting of the circuit board 7, the reflector 9 and the optical device 10. Usually, two LEDs are seated altogether under each arm 13, 16, 17 of the star 6. Under each arc of the optical device 10 (collimator), there is an LED. Depending on the LED type, it is then also possible to flash to color.The electrical contact 8 is automatically secured at the consumer by form locking. In addition to a daytime running light, position lights or direction indicators as well as further driving state signaling colors can also be generated with the printed circuit board 7.In a preferred embodiment, the electrical contacting 8 of the lighting device 1 according to the invention is realized with an edge plug connector. The system of the edge connector comprises a section at the edge of the circuit board 7, on which contacts for the electrical supply and for the actuation of the lighting device 1 are arranged, and a complementary socket with socket housing, which is connected to the lines for the operation of the lighting device 1.The edge plug connector is advantageously arranged in the vicinity of the fixing device 18. In the contacted state, the housing of the socket protrudes beyond a front side of the circuit board 7 and a rear side of the circuit board 7. In the support frame 5, in the region in which the socket of the lighting device 1 is arranged in the installation position, there is an opening into which the socket housing protrudes, which protrudes beyond the rear side of the printed circuit board 7. In the assembled state, it is then ensured that the socket is inserted correctly and the socket is secured by the positive fit with the opening in the supporting frame 5.The illuminatable three-armed star 6 thus has the first arm 13, the second arm 16 and the third arm 17, which lie in particular in a common plane. The fixing device 18 is arranged on a holding arm 25 which projects out of this plane, the holding arm 25 not being illuminated and thus not being visually apparent. The optical device 10 is arranged on the three arms 13, 16 and 17, so that the illumination apparatus 1 can represent a "Mercedes star" in the illuminated state.The optical device 10 can have a thick-wall optical unit and / or can have further special light guide elements 23, which enable a predefined light refraction and thus a predefined illumination effect. The optical device 10 can also taper towards a free end, as a result of which the "Mercedes-Stern" effect is enhanced. In FIG. 5, the collimator that makes the light pyhsical (homogeneous appearance) is designated as the optical device 10, and in FIG. 7, the front optical device, which corresponds to the final design, is designated. The attachment optics can also have further light optics. The collimator and the attachment optics can be part of the optics device 10.If the reflector 9 is viewed in greater detail according to FIG. 3, it can be seen that it has an edge 20 which at least partially surrounds the circuit board 7, as a result of which a positive positioning of the circuit board 7 in the reflector 9 is possible in a comparatively simple manner. The board 7 is thus already aligned relative to the reflector 9 by the edge 20. A further alignment can be effected by the optical device-side positioning pins 11.The optical device 10 can be formed in one piece, whereby it can be produced not only cost-effectively and at the same time with high quality, but also facilitates mounting of the assembly consisting of the printed circuit board 7, the reflector 9 and the optical device 10. Alternatively, it is of course also conceivable for the optical device 10 to have three individual elements, so that the individual elements are arranged, for example, in each of the three arms 13, 16 and 17. This allows a particularly individual configuration of the illuminatable three-armed star 6.The illuminatable three-armed star 6 is surrounded, for example, by a star diaphragm 21 (compare FIG. 1 ), which can be held, for example, in black or chromium. As a result, a spatial effect can be enhanced and an optical appearance can be evaluated. Lateral light outlet openings 22 (compare FIG. 1 ) can be arranged on the star screen 21, via which light can be directed laterally outwards by the light-emitting diode. This allows in particular backlighting of the illuminatable three-armed star 6.If one views FIGS. 4 and 5, it can be seen that the illuminatable three-armed star 6 is accommodated in the supporting frame 5 in a positively locking manner at least in regions, as a result of which the illuminatable three-armed star 6 is positioned relative to the supporting frame 5 not only via the suspension contour 14 on the optical device side and the opening 15 on the supporting frame side and the fixing device 18, but also via corresponding walls 24 of the supporting frame 5. these walls 24 can additionally bring about a predefined shielding function, such that the light emitted by the illuminatable three-armed star 6 does not affect, for example, adjacent light sources, or only to a predefined extent.All in all, an extremely compactly round lighting design element, which is at the same time easily mountable, can be realized with the lighting device 1 according to the invention, wherein the fixing of the illuminatable three-armed star 6 in the associated support frame 5 is easy to implement and at the same time extremely reliable.

Claims

Lighting device (1) for a motor vehicle (2), in particular a headlight, having an interior (4), characterized in that - at least one supporting frame (5) for receiving an illuminatable three-armed star (6) is arranged in the interior (4), - the illuminatable three-armed star (6) has a printed circuit board (7) with an electrical contact (8) and at least one LED, a reflector (9) and an optical device (10), - the optical device (10) has positioning pins (11), the heads (12) of which penetrate the reflector (9) and the printed circuit board (7) and thereby align the printed circuit board (7) and the reflector (9) with the optical device (10), - the heads (12) of the positioning pins (11) are hot-formed and the printed circuit board (7), the reflector (9) and the optical device (10) are fixed to one another by hot caulking, so that the illuminatable three-armed star (6) forms a pre-assembled assembly, the illuminatable three-armed star (6) is suspended on the supporting frame (5) via a first arm (13) and pivotably mounted for installation and is fixed on the supporting frame (5) via a fixing device (18) opposite the first arm (13).Lighting device (1) according to Claim 1, characterized in that the reflector (9) has an edge (20) which at least partially surrounds the printed circuit board (7).Illumination apparatus (1) according to Claim 1 or 2, characterized in that - the optical device (10) is formed in one piece, or - the optical device (10) has three individual elements.Lighting device (1) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that - the optical device (10) has a suspension contour (14), - the supporting frame (5) has an opening (15) which is formed in a manner complementary to this suspension contour (14) and into which the suspension contour (14) is suspended and mounted pivotably for installation.Lighting device (1) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the illuminatable three-armed star (6) is accommodated in the supporting frame (5) in a positively locking manner at least in regions.Lighting device (1) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the illuminatable three-armed star (6) is surrounded by a star diaphragm (21).Lighting device (1) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the fixing device (18) has a screw connection and / or a clip connection.Lighting device (1) according to claim 6 or claims 6 and 7, characterised in that the star screen (21) has lateral light outlet openings (22).Lighting device (1) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the supporting frame (5) is formed integrally with a housing (3).Lighting device (1) according to one of Claims 1 to 8, characterized in that the supporting frame (5) is formed separately from a housing (3).Illumination device (1) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the optical device (10) is designed as a thick-wall optical unit.Motor vehicle (2), in particular an electric vehicle, having a lighting device (1) according to one of the preceding claims.

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