Vehicle Lighting Element With Integrated Heat Sink and Sealing Housing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional lighting fixtures for vehicles lack durability, heat management, and concealment features, leading to reduced effectiveness and increased maintenance due to weather exposure and visibility concerns.
Innovation Solution
A lighting element assembly featuring a flexible silicon optical element, a thermally conductive heat sink, and a compressive seal with a peripheral wall that envelops the circuit board, providing improved durability, heat dissipation, and reduced visibility through selective doping and coloring, while forming a weather-tight seal.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional lighting fixtures are used without protective housing, then installation is simpler, but durability and weather resistance are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The housing is divided into multiple functional components: a peripheral wall for structural support and sealing, inwardly-extending legs for mechanical retention, and integrated heat sink structures. This segmentation allows each component to perform its specific function optimally while contributing to overall durability without excessive complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The housing structure serves multiple functions simultaneously: it provides mechanical protection for the circuit board, creates weather-tight seals against environmental exposure, facilitates heat dissipation through integrated heat sink structures, and enables secure mounting through the inwardly-extending legs. This multi-functionality improves reliability without proportionally increasing complexity.
2Temperature
If heat sink structures are added to manage thermal output, then heat management improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The heat sink structures are merged with the housing components, specifically integrated into the inwardly-extending legs and peripheral wall structure. This combination eliminates the need for separate, standalone heat sink assemblies, thereby improving heat dissipation capability while minimizing the increase in device complexity through structural integration.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If optical elements are doped and colored for tactical concealment, then visibility is reduced, but manufacturing precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The optical elements are modified by doping with specific materials and applying color treatments to alter their optical properties. These parameter changes in the material composition and optical characteristics enable tactical concealment by reducing visibility, while the doping process itself provides a standardized manufacturing approach that manages precision requirements.
4Strength
If inwardly-extending legs with retainers are implemented, then mechanical retention improves, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The inwardly-extending legs with integrated retainers are designed to be formed as part of the housing manufacturing process itself, rather than being added as separate components. This preliminary action during housing fabrication creates the retention structures in advance, improving mechanical retention strength while minimizing the need for additional assembly steps and reducing overall manufacturing complexity.
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
The assembly offers enhanced durability, efficient heat management, reduced visibility for tactical applications, and a weather-tight seal, improving the reliability and concealment of vehicle lighting systems.
Implementation Method 1
a heat sink having at least one recess in alignment with the at least one inwardly-extending leg on the peripheral wall of the housing
Implementation Method 2
the peripheral wall forms a weather-tight seal with the mounting surface
Implementation Method 3
a housing having an optical element in register with the at least one illuminator on the circuit board
Implementation Method 4
a housing having an optical element in register with the at least one illuminator on the circuit board
Data Source
AI summary
A lighting element includes a circuit board including at least one illuminator, a housing having an optical element in register with the at least one illuminator on the circuit board and the housing including a peripheral wall enveloping a periphery of the circuit board, a heat sink in alignment with the housing.