Patent ID: 9628680
Date: 2017-04-18
CPC Classifications: B22D,B60R,G01B,G03B,G06T,H04N,Y10T

Claim:
1. A method of manufacturing a vehicle-mounted camera including a cover housing including a top plate portion, a camera main body portion fixed to the cover housing, and a circuit board connected to the camera main body portion, the vehicle-mounted camera configured to be attached to a windshield and used in a posture in which the top plate portion extends along the windshield, the method comprising the steps of: preparing a set of molds including two or more partial molds configured to be combined to define an internal cavity including a tabular portion sandwiched by inner surfaces of the partial molds; combining the partial molds to define the internal cavity; injecting a material in a fluidized state into the internal cavity; solidifying the material; separating the combined partial molds and taking out an intermediate member; machining the intermediate member to obtain the cover housing; fixing the camera main body portion to the cover housing with a fixing member; and connecting the circuit board to the camera main body; wherein the camera main body portion includes a lens unit; the top plate portion of the cover housing includes a pedestal extending downward; the camera main body portion includes a camera flat face; the inner surfaces of the partial molds that sandwich the tabular portion in the internal cavity are surfaces of the partial molds that are different from each other; one of the inner surfaces includes a recessed portion; a depth of the recessed portion measured with reference to a flat portion of the one of the inner surfaces is larger than a height of the pedestal; the machining step includes cutting a distal end of the pedestal to define a pedestal flat face facing a predetermined direction; in a state in which the camera main body portion is fixed to the cover housing, the pedestal flat face and the camera flat face are in contact with each other; and the predetermined direction is determined with reference to an inclination angle of the windshield of a target vehicle body, a relative direction of an optical axis of the lens unit with respect to the camera flat face, relative directions of the pedestal flat face and an upper face of the top plate portion, and relative directions of the top plate portion and a surface of the windshield in a state in which the vehicle-mounted camera is attached to the windshield.