Light guide, lighting device and vehicle part

Abstract

This relates to a light guide for a lighting device for a vehicle, including at least one woven flat body and a plurality of optical fibers, which at least partly build the flat body. All or some of the optical fibers comprise at least one coupling section. Each coupling section is disposable or disposed in a socket of the lighting device to receive light from a light source of the lighting device. The optical fibers include at least one light decoupling section being part of at least one illumination section of the woven flat body. The woven flat body and/or the at least one light decoupling section of the optical fibers include at least one reflecting element to decouple light from the optical fibers.

Claims

1. A light guide for a lighting device for a vehicle, comprising: at least one woven flat body and a plurality of optical fibers, which at least partly build the flat body; wherein all or some of the optical fibers comprise at least one coupling section, each coupling section is disposable or disposed in a socket of the lighting device to receive light from a light source of the lighting device, the optical fibers comprise at least one light decoupling section being part of at least one illumination section of the woven flat body, the at least one light decoupling section of the optical fibers comprises at least one reflecting element to decouple light from the optical fibers, and the reflecting element is used in the light decoupling section of the optical fibers, wherein the woven flat body comprises at least one reflecting element to decouple light from the optical fibers, the at least one reflecting element comprises reflecting threads, shreds, and particles, and has a metallic surface.

2. The light guide of claim 1, wherein the woven flat body comprises at least one of non-optical fibers, fiberglass, Kevlar, carbon and cotton.

3. The light guide of claim 1, further comprising a protection layer covering at least one outer surface of the woven flat body.

4. The light guide of claim 1, wherein the protection layer comprises a translucent coating, and the light guide comprises an additional translucent, opaque and/or colored, coating.

5. The light guide of claim 1, wherein some or all of the optical fibers comprise a reflecting end portion.

6. The light guide of claim 1, further comprising: first optical fibers disposed in or at a first socket and comprising a first light decoupling section that is part of a first illumination section of the woven flat body; second optical fibers disposed in or at a second socket and comprising a second light decoupling section that is part of a second illumination section of the woven flat body; and further optical fibers disposed in or at a further socket and comprising a further light decoupling section that is part of a further illumination section of the woven flat body.

7. The light guide of claim 1, wherein the woven flat body is flexible or stiff and the woven body is solvable; and attachable on a vehicle part or is integrated as insolvable body, in particular builds an outer cover for the vehicle part.

8. The light guide of claim 1, wherein the woven flat body is constructed as a tight sinusoidal wave for creating an effect of multiple light sources, and the light output is consistent along the illuminated length.

9. The light guide of claim 1, wherein the woven flat body is constructed as a flexible tube enabling the illumination section to be guided into position.

10. The light guide of claim 1, wherein the woven flat body enables curved sections to be created with a radius of curvature of 5 mm or less.

11. A lighting device for a vehicle comprising: at least one light source comprising a light emitting diode (LED); at least one socket for receiving light from the light source; at least one light guide comprising the light guide of claim 1, wherein all or some of the optical fibers comprise at least one coupling section, each coupling section is disposable or disposed in or at the at least one socket to receive light from the light source; wherein the optical fibers comprise at least one light decoupling section that is part of at least one illumination section of the woven flat body; and wherein at least one of the woven flat body and the at least one light decoupling section of the optical fibers comprises at least one reflecting element to decouple light from the optical fibers.

12. The light guide of claim 1 wherein the light guide is part of a vehicle part comprising at least one of a rear view mirror, an external camera, a camera pod, a turning signal, an interior light, frontlight, and a backlight.

13. The light guide of claim 6, wherein the first illumination section and the second illumination section are adapted to create colored streams of color; or segments of different color, and the first illumination section and the second illumination section are adapted to be turned off and on independently.

14. The lighting device of claim 11, wherein at least one of a lens, a prism, a filter and reflector is disposed between the light source and the at least one socket is configured to interact with the light emitted by the light source.

15. The lighting device of claim 11, further comprising: at least one control unit configured to regulate at least one of intensity and color of the respective light emitted by the at least one light source.

16. The lighting device of claim 11, wherein the at least one light source comprises at least one RGB tri-color light emitting diode (LED) for variable output color.

17. The lighting device of claim 11, further comprising: a plurality of light sources; optic elements; sockets; bundles of optical fibers, first optical fibers disposed in or at a first socket and comprising a first light decoupling section that is part of a first illumination section of the woven flat body; second optical fibers disposed in or at a second socket and comprising a second light decoupling section that is part of a second illumination section of the woven flat body; and further optical fibers disposed in or at a further socket and comprising a further light decoupling section that is part of a further illumination section of the woven flat body.

18. The lighting device of claim 11, wherein the light source is located away from the illumination section, and the light source is located several meters away from the illumination section, and wherein the light source is located in a dry area of the vehicle, and the illumination section is located in a wet area of the vehicle.

19. The light guide of claim 12, further comprising: an outer cover the woven flat body that is solvable and attached to the woven flat body and the outer cover or the woven flat body is integrated as insolvable part of the outer cover.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) The various advantages of the present invention will become apparent to a person skilled in the art by reading the following specification and sub-joined claims and by reference in the following drawings:

(2) FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a lighting device.

(3) FIG. 2 is a further schematic illustration of the lighting device according to FIG. 1.

(4) FIGS. 3a, 3b are a top view cross section and a front schematic view of a rear view device having a light-guide comprising a woven flat body that is constructed as tight sinusoidal wave installed thereon.

DESCRIPTION

(5) The figures show an embodiment of a lighting device 2. The lighting device 2 comprises a light source 4 emitting light in direction of a socket 6. Between the light source 4 and the at least one socket 6 an optic element 8 is disposed. In the embodiment shown in the figures the light source 4 comprises a light emitting diode (LED) and the optic element 8 comprises a lens.

(6) The lighting device 2 further comprises a light guide 10 comprising a woven flat body 12 and a plurality of optical fibers 14, which at least partly build the flat body 12. The plurality of optical fibers 14 provide a coupling section 16, each coupling section 16 disposed in the socket 6 to receive light from the light source 4. Further, the optical fibers 14 comprise a light decoupling section 18 being a part of an illumination section 20 of the woven flat body 12.

(7) To increase the light decoupling, the woven flat body 12 and/or the at least one light decoupling section 18 over the optical fibers 14 comprise at least one reflecting element 22.

(8) To increase the light circle of the light guide 10, the light guide comprises a translucent protection layer 24 is realized by the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 by a translucent coating 26.

(9) Further, the woven flat body 12 comprises a plurality of non-optical fibers 28 when build with the optical fibers 14 fabric.

(10) FIGS. 3a, 3b show a top view cross section and a front schematic view of a rear view device 30 having a light-guide 10 comprising a woven flat body 12 that is constructed as tight sinusoidal wave installed thereon. To create the effect of having multiple light sources installed, the woven flat body 12 is arranged in different depths following a sinusoidal wave as it can be best seen from FIG. 3a. However, the skilled person would know that other effects might be also realized, for example, by constructing the flat body 12 as triangular or trapezoidal wave. Also, the skilled person would know that a plurality of horizontally arranged light-guides 10 can be vertically constructed above each other.

(11) The features disclosed in the specification, the claims and the figures may be important for the claimed invention, taken separately or in any combination, for the respective different embodiments.

REFERENCE NUMBER LIST

(12) 2 lighting device 4 light source 6 socket 8 optic element 10 light guide 12 woven flat body 14 optical fibers 16 coupling section 18 light decoupling section 20 illumination section 22 reflecting element 24 protection layer 26 coating 28 non-optical fibers 30 rear view mirror