Elastic Light Guide with Pliable Portions for Automotive Lamps
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional light guides for vehicle lamps are inflexible and require specific design for each function, limiting customization and application, as they cannot be bent or curved to achieve different optical effects without compromising performance.
Innovation Solution
A light guide made of elastic material with pliable portions that can be bent or curved to change conformation, featuring connection elements that interact with a supporting structure to maintain desired shapes, allowing for various configurations and customizable optical effects.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional light guides are designed specifically for each function, then performance is optimized, but device complexity and production costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The light guide body is designed with universal features that allow it to perform multiple functions across different applications. The standardized body with pliable portions can be configured for various optical effects and lamp types, eliminating the need for separate specialized designs while maintaining performance through proper conformation selection.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the physical state of the light guide body by introducing pliability through elastic materials and pliable portions. This parameter change allows the same body to achieve different conformations (bent, curved, straight) to optimize performance for different functions without requiring multiple specialized designs.
2Adaptability or versatility
If conventional light guides are bent or curved to modify conformation, then customization is enabled, but performance deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The light guide body incorporates pliable portions made of elastic material that can be bent or curved without compromising optical performance. These flexible sections allow customization of conformation while maintaining the integrity of light conduction through total internal reflection, resolving the conflict between adaptability and performance.
3Ease of manufacture
If standardized components are used for multiple applications, then production costs decrease, but adaptability to different functions is limited
Solution Approach 1:
A single standardized light guide body design serves multiple applications through its pliable portions that can be configured in different conformations. This universal design reduces production costs by eliminating the need for multiple specialized components while maintaining adaptability to different lamp functions and optical requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The light guide body transitions from a static, fixed-conformation component to a dynamic component with pliable portions that can be shaped and configured. This dynamic characteristic allows the standardized body to adapt to different functions through conformation changes, bridging the gap between manufacturing simplicity and application versatility.
4Adaptability or versatility
If material is removed to obtain different conformation from standardized initial shape, then customization is achieved, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of removing material to achieve different conformations, the invention changes the physical parameter of the material by making it pliable and elastic. This allows the same standardized body to be shaped into different configurations through bending and curving rather than material removal, significantly reducing manufacturing complexity while maintaining customization capabilities.
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
Enables flexible and customizable light guide configurations for vehicle lamps, reducing production costs and enabling standardized components to serve multiple applications with improved performance and aesthetic versatility.
Implementation Method 1
adapted to conduct, at least partly, light rays within itself by total internal reflection
Data Source
AI summary
A light guide for a lamp of an automobile includes at least one body made of elastic material adapted to conduct, at least partly, light rays within itself by total internal reflection; a supporting structure adapted to connect the at least one body to the lamp. The body comprises: at least one light inlet portion, from which the light rays emitted by at least one light source enter the body; a plurality of light emission portions, from which the light rays exit the light guide, so as to be visible to an observer. The light guide comprises at least two connection elements adapted to permit fastening the body to the supporting structure. The body includes at least one pliable portion between the at least two connection elements so that the body can be bent and/or curved to take a plurality of different conformations.