Support frame for headlight aiming apparatus
First Claim
1. An apparatus for aiming a vehicle headlight to a standard aiming image, the headlight mounted in an adjustable support, the headlight aiming apparatus comprising:
- a housing alignable with the headlight;
means, mounted in the housing, for detecting the intensity of light emitted from the headlight and entering the housing;
a reflective surface in the housing;
means for focusing light emitted from the headlight onto the reflective surface, the light incident on the reflective surface reflecting to the light detecting means;
a stationary frame extending transverse to a longitudinal axis of the vehicle, the frame allowing passage of the vehicle therethrough after a headlight aiming operation; and
means for mounting the housing on the frame for movement between a home position allowing passage of the vehicle through the frame and an aiming position during each headlight aiming operation.
0 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus and method for aiming a vehicle headlight to a standard image pattern includes a frame movable relative to the vehicle. A housing carried on a vertically adjustable housing includes a lens focusing a headlight beam onto a reflective screen which reflects the beam image to a camera. A control compares the digitized image output from the camera with a standard image pattern and generates a correlation factor based on the difference between the reflected image and a standard image. Based on the difference, the control generates output signals to an adjustment device engagable with the headlight mounting frame to adjust the position of the mounting frame to reduce the difference to zero.
-
Citations
22 Claims
-
1. An apparatus for aiming a vehicle headlight to a standard aiming image, the headlight mounted in an adjustable support, the headlight aiming apparatus comprising:
-
a housing alignable with the headlight; means, mounted in the housing, for detecting the intensity of light emitted from the headlight and entering the housing; a reflective surface in the housing; means for focusing light emitted from the headlight onto the reflective surface, the light incident on the reflective surface reflecting to the light detecting means; a stationary frame extending transverse to a longitudinal axis of the vehicle, the frame allowing passage of the vehicle therethrough after a headlight aiming operation; and means for mounting the housing on the frame for movement between a home position allowing passage of the vehicle through the frame and an aiming position during each headlight aiming operation. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
-
-
20. A method of aiming a vehicle headlight to a standard image pattern, the method comprising the steps of:
-
mounting a reflective surface in a housing; mounting a focusing lens in the housing for focusing a light beam of a vehicle headlight onto a reflective surface; stationarily mounting a frame transverse to a path of movement of a vehicle, the frame allowing the vehicle to pass therethrough after a headlight aiming operation; and mounting the housing on the frame for movement from a home position to a vehicle headlight aiming position. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22)
-
Specification