Integrated Control Button Light Guide for Automotive Backlighting
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current control buttons in the automotive industry face challenges with mechanical incompatibility between light guides and control knobs, leading to difficulties in movement guidance and non-uniform backlighting, which complicates assembly and increases costs and production time.
Innovation Solution
A control device design where the movable control button has a part that constitutes at least partially the light guide, with a central light source positioned inside the button, allowing for single-source backlighting and improved mechanical compatibility for movement guidance, facilitating uniform lighting and reducing assembly complexity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Illumination intensity
If a separate light guide and control button are used, then the control button can be illuminated, but mechanical incompatibility between materials causes difficulty in guiding the movement of the control button
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the light guide function and control button function into a single integrated component. The control button itself is made of translucent material that serves as both the button and the light guide, eliminating the need for a separate light guide component. This integration resolves the mechanical incompatibility issue by using the same material for both functions, allowing smooth movement guidance while maintaining backlighting capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The control button is designed to perform multiple functions simultaneously: it serves as the movable control element, the structural component, and the light guide. The translucent material of the button itself guides the light from the light source positioned at its base, making the button a multi-functional element that eliminates the need for separate dedicated light guide components.
2Illumination intensity
If multiple light sources are used at the periphery, then the light guide can be illuminated, but the homogeneity of lighting is difficult to obtain and assembly becomes complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the light sources from the periphery and relocates them to a single central position at the base of the control button. This eliminates the need for multiple light sources distributed around the device, simplifying the assembly process to a single light source installation while maintaining effective backlighting through the translucent button material.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of placing light sources at the periphery facing inward toward the light guide (conventional approach), the patent inverts the arrangement by placing a single light source at the center base of the button, with the button material itself serving as the light guide that distributes light outward. This inverted configuration simplifies assembly and improves lighting homogeneity.
3Illumination intensity
If multiple light sources are positioned at the periphery, then the light guide can be illuminated, but friction between light guide and control button materials complicates movement
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the light guide function into the control button itself, making the button and light guide the same component made of the same translucent material. This eliminates the interface between separate light guide and button materials, thereby eliminating the friction problem that occurs when incompatible materials slide against each other during button movement.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This design enhances the movement guidance of control buttons and optimizes backlighting, reducing production time and costs by allowing a single-phase development of backlighting and improving the uniformity and symmetry of the lighting, while maintaining mechanical compatibility between components.
Implementation Method 1
light guide means for conveying the light from the light source to a visible part of the light guide means
Data Source
Figure 1~2
AI summary
The device has a movable control knob (60) with a hollow part (70) to be inserted in an opening (10) of a housing frontage (20). A sliding light guide ring (40), with a visible part (45), transmits the light from a light source (100) e.g. LED, to the part (45). Light guiding units are constituted of the ring, the part (45) and partially the part (70) to be inserted. An inner part (80) forms bearings for guiding the movement of the knob with respect to the frontage.