JP2595977Y2 - Dial lighting structure - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a dial illuminating structure, in particular, a light source is provided on the back of a dial of an instrument panel used for a combination meter of a vehicle, and the light from the light source is applied to the dial. The present invention relates to a lighting structure of a dial that illuminates a formed design.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in an analog instrument for displaying a state quantity by a pointer, for example, an analog instrument such as a speedometer or an engine tachometer provided in a combination meter of an automobile, a viewer such as a driver is required to observe the situation. The state quantity is determined by reading the scale of the dial located at the tip of the pointer of the instrument.

Therefore, in a conventional pointer-type instrument, a scale design is formed on the dial, and a meter internal unit is attached to the back side of the scale design, and a pointer is attached to the front side to display the scale design by the pointer. I have. On the other hand, in such a pointer-type instrument, a vehicle to which the instrument is attached sometimes travels at night, so it is necessary to illuminate a dial or a pointer to improve visibility at night. The illumination includes illumination of the dial from the front side and illumination of the dial from the back side.

FIG. 2 is a front view of a conventional dial-type instrument for illuminating the dial, which illuminates the dial from the back side, and FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a portion A in FIG. 3 shows the structure.

[0005] In FIG. 2, reference numeral 10 denotes an instrument dial alone,
Reference numeral 11 denotes a plain white or black plain color of the dial surface of the dial unit 10, reference numeral 12 denotes a design portion such as a speed display provided on the dial surface 11, and reference numeral 13 denotes a rear surface of the dial unit alone. It is a through-hole through which the rotating shaft of the internal machine to be used, that is, the rotating shaft of the pointer penetrates. The configuration of the conventional dial unit 11 is as shown in the sectional view of FIG. That is, first, the light-shielding printing layer 1 provided with the translucent design portion 2 is provided on the front side, and the ground color printing layer 7 that determines the display color of the design portion 2 is provided on the back surface.
Was provided, and the translucent resin layer 3 was provided thereunder.

Further, below the light-transmitting resin layer 3,
In order to reduce the amount of illumination light from the light source 8, a halftone dot printing layer 4 on which halftone dots are printed is provided, and between the halftone dot printing layer 4 and the translucent resin layer 3. Is provided with a halftone dot printing layer 6 capable of diffusing light from the light source 8 in order to prevent the halftone dots printed on the halftone dot printing layer 4 from being reflected on the front side. Was.

[0007]

However, when manufacturing such a conventional dial body 10, first, a transparent resin plate is prepared as the translucent resin layer 3, and ground color printing is performed on the surface side thereof. The layer 7 is printed, and a transparent film is formed on the layer 7 to form a design.
The light- shielding printing layer 1 provided with the optically designed portion 2 is printed, and then the halftone dot printing layer 6 and the dimming halftone printing layer 4 are formed on the back side.
Is formed by printing, there is a problem that the number of manufacturing steps is large and the unit price of the dial unit 10 is high.

Accordingly, the present invention provides an instrument for illuminating a dial from the back side, which can provide the same effect as the conventional dial illuminating structure, and requires less manufacturing steps than the conventional dial. It is an object of the present invention to provide a lighting structure for a dial that can reduce the unit price of a dial.

[0009]

According to the present invention, there is provided a dial illuminating structure for illuminating a back surface of a dial with light from a light source provided inside the dial, and providing a translucent surface provided on the dial. The illumination structure of the dial, which illuminates the design portion of the dial brightly by the light passing from the design portion to the front side, wherein the dial is lighted from the light source side from the light source.
Halftone dot printing layer with halftone dots printed to reduce the amount ,
A matting agent is added to prevent the reflection of the halftone dots on the surface side.
Color to determine the display color of the design part
Printed, the ground color printing layer laminated on said halftone printed layer, light-transmitting resin layer as a substrate to be laminated on the ground color print layer, and the surface side of the light-transmitting resin layer It is characterized in that successively composed of a light-shielding printed layer having a design portion of the translucent are.

[0010]

According to the dial lighting structure of the present invention, the halftone dot printing layer and the ground color printing layer, which are required for the conventional dial lighting structure, are eliminated, and the effect of these two layers is eliminated. Is combined with a single ground color printing layer to which a matting agent is added, so that the lighting structure of the dial having the same effect as that of the conventional lighting structure of the dial can be printed in the manufacturing process of the dial. It can be realized while reducing the number of steps by one step.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a configuration of an embodiment of a dial illuminating structure according to the present invention. FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a portion A of a dial unit 10 in an instrument for illuminating the dial shown in FIG. 1 shows the configuration. In this embodiment, FIG.
The same components (printing layers) as those of the conventional dial illumination structure described above are denoted by the same reference numerals.

As shown in FIG. 1, the dial lighting structure of the present invention illuminates the back side B of the dial with light from a light source 8 provided inside the instrument. From the light source 8 side, a halftone dot printing layer 4 for dimming, a ground color printing layer 5 to which a matting agent is added to be laminated on the halftone printing layer 4, and laminated on the ground color printing layer 5 It comprises a light-transmitting resin layer 3 and a light-shielding printing layer 1 having a light-transmitting design portion 2.

That is, in this embodiment, the dot diffusion print layer 6 and the ground color print layer 7 in the conventional dial illumination structure shown in FIG. 3 are eliminated, and the effect of these two layers is matted. One ground color printing layer 5 to which the agent has been added is also used.

When making the dial 20 alone,
First, a transparent resin plate is prepared as a light-transmitting resin layer 3 serving as a substrate, and only the light-shielding printing layer 1 having a light- transmitting design portion 2 for forming a design on the surface side thereof is provided. Print. Then
A matting agent for halftone dot diffusion is added to the back side , and
A ground color printing layer 5 and a halftone dot printing layer 4 colored in a ground color that determines a display color are sequentially formed by printing. As described above, according to the present invention, in printing on the front surface side of the translucent resin layer 3, the conventional printing of the ground color printing layer can be omitted.
The number of manufacturing steps can be reduced as compared with the conventional case, and the unit price of the dial unit 20 can be made lower than before.

In the illumination structure for a dial configured as described above, the illumination light from the light source 8 that has passed through the halftone dots of the halftone printing layer 4 changes the color of the ground color printing layer 5 to which the matting agent has been added. Colored
At the same time, it is diffused by the matting agent in the ground color printing layer 5 and further diffuses, attenuates, and refracts while passing through the translucent resin layer 3. Halftone dots are not visually recognized in the transmitted light as in the case of the conventional dial illumination structure.

As described above, according to the present invention, the same effect as that of the conventional dial lighting structure can be obtained without performing printing for preventing halftone dot reflection, which is required in the conventional dial lighting structure. Therefore, the cost of the instrument dial can be reduced.

[0018]

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention,
In an instrument for illuminating a dial from the back side, there is an effect that an illumination structure of a dial having a lighting effect equivalent to that of the related art can be manufactured with a small number of manufacturing steps and at a low unit price.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of an embodiment of a dial lighting structure according to the present invention, showing a cross section of a dial alone at a portion A in FIG. 2;

FIG. 2 is a front view showing a dial alone in an instrument for illuminating the dial from the back side.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing a conventional dial illumination structure in section A of FIG. 2;

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 light-shielding printing layer 2 light-transmitting design part 3 light-transmitting resin layer 4 halftone printing layer for light control 5 ground color printing layer added with matting agent 6 conventional halftone diffusion printing layer 7 conventional ground color Printing layer 8 Light source 20 Dial plate of the present invention

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-4-284487 (JP, A) JP-A-2-1466084 (JP, A) JP-A-1-158913 (JP, U) JP-A-4-158 41619 (JP, U) Japanese Utility Model 3-129992 (JP, U) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) B60K 35/00 G01D 11/28 G01D 13/04

Claims (1)

(57) [Scope of request for utility model registration] 1. A back surface of a dial is illuminated with light from a light source provided inside the dial, and the design portion of the dial is brightened by light passing through a translucent design portion provided on the dial to the front side. It is an illumination structure of a dial to illuminate, wherein the dial, from the light source side, the amount of light from the light source
Light for halftone printing layer tone dot is printed in order to suppress the
A matting agent is added to prevent the reflection of halftone dots on the surface side.
And the ground color that determines the display color of the design part
Is printed, the ground color printing layer laminated on said halftone printed layer, light-transmitting resin layer as a substrate to be laminated on the ground color print layer, and the surface side of the light-transmitting resin layer It is illuminated structure of the dial, characterized in that successively composed of a light-shielding printed layer having a design portion of the translucent.