COVER ELEMENT FOR SENSORS AND METHOD FOR PRODUCING THE COVER ELEMENT

Abstract

The invention relates to a cover element having a housing of a film that is formed and moulded between a front plate and a carrier plate and is used to represent multidimensional structures, the carrier plate being connected on the rear side to a heating plate, characterized in that the housing consists of an annular housing base and an annular housing front, and a circuit-board ring having LEDs and plugs is installed in the housing base.

Claims

1. A cover element having a housing of a film that is formed and moulded between a front plate and a carrier plate and is used to represent multidimensional structures, the carrier plate being connected on the rear side to a heating plate, wherein the housing consists of an annular housing base and an annular housing front, and a circuit-board ring having LEDs and plugs is installed in the housing base.

2. The cover element according to claim 1, wherein the light of the LEDs is introduced into the carrier plate by means of an optical unit.

3. The cover element according to claim 2, wherein the optical unit is part of the carrier plate.

4. The cover element according to claim 2, wherein the optical unit is a cone which extends from the carrier plate towards the LEDs.

5. The cover element according to claim 2, wherein the film extends towards the optical unit in the region of the optical unit at an angle relative to the plane of the film.

6. The cover element according to claim 1, wherein the light is guided between the film and the upper side of the heating plate.

7. The cover element according to claim 1, wherein the light is output through the film and the front plate by selection of the material of the upper side of the heating plate or by installation of geometrical structures on the heating plate.

8. The cover element according to claim 1, wherein the heating plate is fastened by means of pins in recesses of the circuit-board ring or in sockets of the housing base.

9. A method for producing a cover element, including: placing a film in a first tool half of an injection-moulding tool; transparently overmoulding the film to produce a front plate; placing a heating plate in a second tool half of the injection-moulding tool; rotating the second tool half of the injection-moulding tool such that the front plate overlies the heating plate; overmoulding the heating plate with a transparent material of a carrier plate between the front plate and the heating plate to form an injection-moulded assembly; and hard-lacquering the injection-moulded assembly or immersing the injection-moulded assembly in a hard lacquer.

Description

DRAWINGS

[0029] The drawings described herein are for illustrative purposes only of selected embodiments and not all possible implementations, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.

[0030] FIG. 1 shows a side view of a cover element,

[0031] FIG. 2 shows a plan view of the side of the cover element lying in the vehicle interior,

[0032] FIG. 3 is an exploded representation of the cover element,

[0033] FIG. 4 shows a sectional representation through the edge of the cover element,

[0034] FIG. 5 shows a cross section,

[0035] FIG. 6 shows a cross section through the edge region, and

[0036] FIG. 7 shows the production steps of the cover element.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS

[0037] In FIG. 1, the cover element 1 is represented from the side. The cover element 1 comprises a housing, which consists of a housing front 3 and a housing base 2. The two annularly configured housing parts are connected to one another by means of hooks 3a, which are clipped into slots 2a. As may also be seen from FIG. 3, a plurality of hooks 3a are in this case arranged distributed along the radius of the housing front 3. The housing base 2 likewise comprises the corresponding slots 2a over its radius.

[0038] FIG. 3 shows the overall construction of the cover element 1 with all the individual layers, some of which are produced directly connected to one another.

[0039] As observed from outside the vehicle, the housing front 3 together with a front plate 4 may be seen. The front plate 4 covers the film 5, which is a metallized or partially metallized film. The film 5 may also be provided partially or fully with a paint application. The film 5 is supported by a carrier plate 6, on the side of which facing towards the inside of the vehicle a heating plate 7 is applied. The components: front plate 4, film 5, carrier plate 6 and heating plate 7 are constituents of a combined injection-moulding method, which will be discussed in more detail below.

[0040] As a further component of the cover element 1, a circuit-board ring 8 may be seen. The entire component is closed by the annular housing base 2.

[0041] In order to represent an emblem in the cover element, the film 5 and the carrier plate 6 may comprise a geometrically multidimensional structure, that is to say a two-dimensional or three-dimensional structure. Extended configuration options are therefore possible independently of the basic coatings.

[0042] FIG. 2 represents a view of the cover element 1 from the interior of the vehicle. The rear side of the heating plate 7 may in this case be seen. The horizontal lines, which intersect the circular heating plate as secants, define an inner surface which is intended for unperturbed transmission of the radar beams.

[0043] At one location of the housing base 2, a cutout through which a plug 8a is fed out from the circuit-board ring 8 is provided.

[0044] FIG. 4 and FIG. 6 represent a section through an edge region of the cover element 1. The construction of the individual component parts may be seen, starting with the housing front 3, the front plate 4, the film 5 and the carrier plate 6. The heating plate 7 comprises pins 7a, which are arranged distributed along the outer edge of the heating plate 7. These pins 7a engage in recesses of the circuit-board ring 8 and are suitably connected to the circuit-board ring. As an alternative thereto, the pins 7a may also extend through the circuit-board ring 8 as far as the housing base 2 and be connected there. For example, the connection is carried out by ultrasonic riveting. On the circuit-board ring 8, LEDs 8b are distributed along the edge of the circuit-board ring 8. The circuit-board ring 8 is held in the housing base 2. The LEDs respectively shine through an optical unit 9 into the carrier plate 6, which extends above the circuit-board ring 8 as far as the outer wall of the housing base 2, i.e. a side-wall 2c. The light of the LEDs is totally internally reflected at the film 5 and at the surface of the heating plate 7. The light is thus distributed along the carrier plate 6. A part of the light, which does not impinge on the film 5, is emitted as scattered light into the front plate, where it is then deflected at the surface by total internal reflection. The scattered light, however, lies in the region of the annular housing front, which shields this region and thus makes scattered light invisible on the outside.

[0045] In the region of the direct beam path of the LEDs, the film 5 has an inclined face 5a which optimizes the introduction. An angle of inclination of 45° which the face 5a has when bending away from the plane of the film 5 is in this case optimal.

[0046] Since the light which is introduced travels by total internal reflection along the carrier plate 6, precautions must be taken so that the light can actually emerge outwards.

[0047] Either the coating or paint or metallization of the heating plate 7, which reduces the effect of the total internal reflection suitably over the entire surface, or in the sections which correspond to an emblem, is used for this.

[0048] FIG. 5 shows an alternative option for outputting light from the carrier plate. To this end, ribs 14 are formed on the heating plate 7. The ribs are formed below a structure that represents an emblem, so that a particularly large amount of light is output at these locations. The output structures are in this case ribs with a different shape and extent as well as groupings of ribs.

[0049] FIG. 6 shows an alternative embodiment. The heating plate 7 is in this case configured in such a way that the pins 7a engage in recesses of the housing base 2. In the housing base 2, the circuit-board ring 8 is embedded between two side-walls 2b and 2c.

[0050] The optical unit 9 is a part of the carrier plate 6 which extends as far as the sidewalls 2c of the housing base 2. The film 5 ends with the bent face 5a in the region in which the optical unit 9 extends as a conical appendage of the carrier plate 6.

[0051] A further alternative is represented by a circuit-board ring 8 which is adhesively bonded or welded directly to the housing base 2.

[0052] FIG. 7 shows the production process in successive steps S1 to S5. The film 5 is produced by a high-pressure forming method and has a two-dimensional or three-dimensional structure. In this method, a plastic film, which is generally decorated by printing on the rear side, is formed and is given the intended contour before it is put into an injection-moulding tool.

[0053] In a first step S1, the film 5 is placed in a first tool half of the injection-moulding tool.

[0054] In the second step S2, the film is transparently overmoulded and the first component part is thus produced as a transparently overmoulded film. The transparent region forms the front plate 4. The gate location 12 of the injection-moulding method lies at the edge of the tool.

[0055] In step S3, the heating plate 7 with the heating wire and the contact pins is placed in the second tool half 11 of the injection-moulding tool and the tool is rotated in step S4 so that the injection-moulding can take place from the same side as for the first component part. The heating plate 7 has a central opening which is used as a gate opening 13.

[0056] The carrier plate 6 is then injection-moulded in step S5 with a transparent material between the first component part, film 5 plus carrier plate 6, and the heating plate 7.

[0057] As a result, a composite of layers with air excluded is obtained. The composite is compact and may be further processed straightforwardly.

[0058] In the last step S6, the injection-moulded assembly is hard-lacquered on the front side or immersed in a hard lacquer. In a final step, the housing front 3, configured as a chrome ring, is clipped on.

List Of Reference Numerals

[0059] 1 cover element [0060] 2 housing base [0061] 2a slots [0062] 2b, 2c side-wall [0063] 3 housing front [0064] 3a hook [0065] 4 front plate [0066] 5 film [0067] 5a face [0068] 6 carrier plate [0069] 7 heating plate [0070] 7a pin [0071] 8 circuit-board ring [0072] 8a plug [0073] 8b LED [0074] 9 optical unit [0075] 10 first tool half [0076] 11 second tool half [0077] 12 peripheral gate [0078] 13 central gate [0079] 14 rib