Lighting assembly for a lighting device of a motor vehicle

Abstract

A lighting assembly is provided for a lighting device of a motor vehicle. The lighting assembly includes an objective module with at least one objective lens mounted in a lens holder. The objective module also includes at least two first pins. The lighting assembly further includes a light source module with at least one light source mounted on a heat sink element, and with at least two first cavities. The objective module and the light source module are joined by adhesive joints between the first pins and the first cavities. The lens holder further includes the first pins, and/or the heat sink element comprises the first cavities.

Claims

1. A lighting assembly for a lighting device of a motor vehicle, the lighting assembly comprising: an objective module having: at least-one objective lens mounted in a lens holder, and at least two first pins integrated with the lens holder as a one-piece component of uniform material; and a light source module having: at least one light source mounted on a heat sink element, wherein the heat sink element comprises at least two first cavities, and at least two second pins integrated with the heat sink element as a one-piece component of uniform material; wherein the objective module and the light source module are joined by adhesive joints between the first pins and the first cavities.

2. The lighting assembly according to claim 1, wherein at least one of: the lens holder is fabricated by injection molding, and the heat sink element is fabricated by die casting.

3. The lighting assembly according to claim 1, wherein the heat sink element and the first cavities form a one-piece component of uniform material.

4. The lighting assembly according to claim 1, wherein the first pins extend from a back of the objective module and the first cavities are accessible from a front of the light source module.

5. The lighting assembly according to claim 1, wherein the lighting assembly comprises at least a section of a support frame with at least two second cavities, wherein the light source module and the support frame are joined by adhesive joints between the second pins and the second cavities.

6. A lighting device for a motor vehicle comprising at least one lighting assembly according to claim 1.

7. The lighting assembly according to claim 1, wherein at least one of: the lens holder comprises a thermosetting polymer, and the heat sink element comprises an aluminum alloy.

8. A method of assembling a lighting assembly for a lighting device of a motor vehicle, the lighting assembly comprising an objective module with at least one objective lenses mounted in a lens holder, a light source module with at least one light source mounted on a heat sink element, and a support frame, and the method comprising the steps of: providing the lens holder with at least two first pins integrated with the lens holder as a one-piece component of uniform material, providing the heat sink element with at least two first cavities and with at least two second pins integrated with the heat sink element as a one-piece component of uniform material, providing the support frame with at least two second cavities, positioning the objective module relative to the light source module, joining the objective module to the light source module by generating an adhesive joint between the first pins and the first cavities, positioning the light source module relative to the support frame, and joining the light source module to the support frame by generating an adhesive joint between the second pins and the second cavities, wherein a radial distance between the first pins and the light source is less than the radial distance between the second pins and the light source.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein during positioning the objective module and/or the light source module, the light source is operated and a lighting effect thereby generated is monitored, wherein a target arrangement of the objective module and/or the light source module is defined by constitution of a target lighting effect.

10. The method according to claim 8, wherein during positioning the objective module and/or the light source module, the objective module and/or the light source module are displaced along three translational axes and/or rotated around three rotational axes.

11. A lighting assembly for a lighting device of a motor vehicle, the lighting assembly comprising: an objective module having: a lens mounted in a lens holder, and a set of first pins, such that the lens holder and the first pins form a first one-piece uniform component; a light source module having: a light source mounted directly on a heat sink element, and a set of first cavities, and a set of second pins, such that the heat sink element and the set of second pins form a second one-piece uniform component; wherein the objective module and the light source module are joined by adhesive joints between the set of first pins and the set of first cavities.

12. The lighting assembly according to claim 11, further comprising: a support frame having: a set of second cavities, wherein the heat sink element and the support frame are joined by non-threaded adhesive joints between the set of second pins and the set of second cavities.

13. The lighting assembly according to claim 11, wherein the first one-piece component including the lens holder and the set of first pins is of uniform material.

14. The lighting assembly according to claim 13, wherein the uniform material is a thermosetting polymer.

15. The lighting assembly according to claim 11, wherein the second one-piece component including the heat sink element and the set of second pins is of uniform material.

16. The lighting assembly according to claim 15, wherein the uniform material is an aluminum alloy.

17. The lighting assembly according to claim 11, wherein the set of first cavities and the set of second cavities are provided in a form of a non-threaded cavity.

18. The lighting assembly according to claim 11, wherein the set of first pins and the set of second pins are provided in a form of a non-threaded fastener.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) Reference is now made more particularly to the drawings, which illustrate the best presently known mode of carrying out the invention and wherein similar reference characters indicate the same parts throughout the views.

(2) FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional elevation view of an embodiment of a lighting device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(3) FIG. 1 shows a cross-sectional sketch of a preferred embodiment of the lighting assembly 100 as part of the inventive lighting device 200. The lighting device 200 is depicted only schematically as an entity comprising the lighting assembly 100, while further components of the lighting device 200 like a housing, a front panel or further light-technical components are not included in FIG. 1.

(4) The lighting assembly 100 is depicted in a partially exploded view with the objective module 1, the light source module 2 and the support frame 3 separated from each other along the optical axis z.

(5) The objective module 1 comprises three lenses 11 mounted in the lens holder 10, e.g. by means of laser beam welding or adhesive bonding. The lens holder 10 exhibits the shape of a cylindrical hull surrounding the lenses 11. At the back of the lens holder 10, the first pins 12 extend towards the light source module 2. The first pins 12 and the remaining sections of the lens holder 10 form a one-piece component of uniform material, preferably fabricated from a bulk molding compound by means of bulk molding.

(6) The light source module 2 comprises the light source 21, in this case a LED on a printed circuit board 24, mounted on the heat sink element 20. The heat sink element 20 comprises the first cavities 22 and the second pins 23, altogether forming a one-piece component of uniform material, preferably a die-cast part from an aluminum alloy. The first cavities 22 are accessible from the front of the light source module 2 and aligned for acceptance of the first pins 12 to establish adhesive joints of the pin-cavity-type between the objective module 1 and the light source module 2.

(7) For assembling the lighting assembly 100, the first cavities get filled with an adhesive 4, e.g. an ultraviolet-light curable type, and during the positioning of the objective module 1, typically by means of an automated manipulator, the first pins 12 are received by the first cavities 22 and active alignment is deployed to find the target arrangement of the two modules 1 and 2 relative to each other. The dimensions of the first pins 12 and of the first cavities 22 are chosen to allow for a six-axis alignment of the modules 1 and 2, i.e. within a certain range the objective module 1 can be displaced along three translational axes and/or rotated around three rotational axes. After curing the adhesive 4, the objective module 1 and the light source module 2 are joint together in the target arrangement.

(8) Likewise, an adhesive joint is established between the light source module 2 and the support frame 3 with the second pins 23 and the second cavities 31 filled with adhesive 4 serving as the fastening means.

(9) In addition to the pins 12, 23 and cavities 22, 31 shown in the cross-sectional view of FIG. 1, further such fastening means are preferably present in the lighting assembly 100, e.g. distributed every 90? around the optical axis z.

(10) The present invention is not limited by the embodiment described above, which is represented as an example only and can be modified in various ways within the scope of protection defined by the appending patent claims.

LIST OF NUMERALS

(11) 100 lighting assembly 200 lighting device 1 objective module 10 lens holder 11 lens 12 first pin 2 light source module 20 heat sink element 21 light source 22 first cavity 23 second pin 24 PCB 3 support frame 31 second cavity 4 adhesive z optical axis