Vehicle Interior Assembly with Light-Guiding Cutouts
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Solution Overview
Problem
Modern motor vehicles face challenges in design and ergonomics due to the visibility of mechanical switches when not in use, and piezo-switches are opaque, making functional lighting difficult.
Innovation Solution
An interior assembly with a decorative layer and a lighting unit where cutouts represent symbols, allowing light to pass through for invisible operation and visibility only when needed, using a light-guiding material and diffusor particles for enhanced visibility from all angles.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If mechanical switches are used for operator control elements, then switching functionality is achieved, but the switches remain visible even when not required, adversely affecting design and ergonomics
Solution Approach 1:
The visible mechanical switch housing is extracted and replaced with a decorative layer containing cutouts. Only the essential functional elements (light guides and LEDs) remain, hidden within the decorative structure. This allows the switching function to be maintained while the visual bulk of the switch is removed, achieving invisibility when not in use.
Solution Approach 2:
The decorative layer with cutouts creates a visual transformation: when LEDs are off, the cutouts are invisible against the decorative material; when LEDs are on, light emerges through the cutouts making them visible. This dynamic visibility change resolves the contradiction between always-visible mechanical switches and design aesthetics.
2Shape
If piezo-electric switches are used instead of mechanical switches, then design integration is improved, but the switches become opaque making functional lighting and search lighting difficult to implement
Solution Approach 1:
The decorative layer is segmented with multiple cutouts arranged to form symbols or patterns. This segmentation allows light to pass through specific regions while maintaining overall design integration. The cutouts create pathways for light without requiring the entire switch surface to be transparent, resolving the contradiction between opacity for design integration and transparency for lighting.
Solution Approach 2:
Light guides are introduced as intermediary elements between the LEDs and the decorative layer. These light guides channel and direct light through the cutouts in the decorative layer, enabling functional lighting while maintaining the opaque decorative material. The light guides act as mediators that allow light transmission without requiring the decorative material itself to be transparent.
3Shape
If cutouts are made small in the decorative layer, then elegance and design are enhanced, but the visibility of illuminated symbols may be reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The light guides are made from transparent materials with light-guiding particles, creating a composite structure that combines transparency for light transmission with optical properties for efficient light guiding. This composite approach allows small cutout dimensions for elegance while maintaining sufficient light transmission for symbol visibility through enhanced optical performance.
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 solution integrates display and control elements seamlessly into vehicle design, making them invisible when off and clearly visible when needed, enhancing both design and functionality while maintaining an elegant appearance.
Implementation Method 1
the light which is emitted by the lighting unit in the switched-on state of the lighting unit is directed through at least some of the cutouts to a surface of the decorative layer
Implementation Method 2
The decorative layer has at least to a certain extent diffusor particles, in particular in the region of the at least one symbol. Light beams can be diffracted, in particular deflected, at the diffusor particles.
Data Source
AI summary
An interior assembly for a motor vehicle includes a decorative layer and a lighting unit. The decorative layer has a plurality of cutouts which are arranged with respect to one another in such a way that they represent at least one symbol. The lighting unit is assigned to the cutouts in such a way that the light which is emitted by the lighting unit in the switched on state of the lighting unit is directed through at least some of the cutouts to a surface of the decorative layer.