Patent Publication Number: US-2004047159-A1

Title: External accessory of car exhaust pipe

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001] 1. Field of the Invention  
       [0002] The present invention relates to an external accessory of a car exhaust pipe and particularly an external accessory of a car exhaust pipe that has warning and decorative effects.  
       [0003] 2. Description of the Prior Art  
       [0004] Nowadays many merchandises are designed and made with personalized flavor to appeal targeted customers. Event the common and standardized products may be coupled with various accessories to become unique with personalized appealing. For instance, many car lovers try to equip their cars with various personalized items and features to reflect their tastes and personality. To add accessories on the exhaust tail pipe is one of the ways to meet this purpose. Conventional ornaments for the exhaust tail pipe usually provide only decorative effect. They mostly cover the tail end of the exhaust pipe and change the exterior form, or add lighting features on the ornaments to provide nightlight effect. Because of technical limitations, their effects are not desirable. Moreover, conventional products generally have complicated structure and higher costs. Besides offering decorative effect, they do not have much practical value. In the highly competitive market these days, a successful product has to offer more practical value and a lower price to benefit consumers.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0005] Therefore the primary object of the invention is to resolve the aforesaid disadvantages. The invention aims at coupling an accessory on the tail end of a car exhaust pipe that equips with a luminous element to generate light for alarming thereby to enhance drive safety and provide decorative effect.  
       [0006] The foregoing, as well as additional objects, features and advantage of the invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings. 
     
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
     [0007]FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the present invention;  
     [0008]FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the present invention;  
     [0009]FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the present invention;  
     [0010]FIG. 4 is a schematic view of another embodiment of the present invention;  
     [0011]FIG. 5 is a schematic view of the present invention in use. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
     [0012] Referring to FIGS. 1, 2, and  3 , the accessory of the invention consists of a barrel  20 , a coupler  40  and a luminous element  60 . The barrel  20  is fastened to a tail end  90  of a car exhaust pipe (also referring to FIG. 5). The barrel  20  includes an external duct  21  and an inner duct  22  connecting to the external duct  21 . There is an interval  23  of a desired distance formed between the external duct  21  and the inner duct  22 . The external duct  21  has two ends with different diameters. The inner duct  22  is connected to a selected spot  211  located in the external duct  21  by soldering in an embodiment of the invention. Of course other connection methods such as screwing, wedging, screw thread coupling, riveting or the like may also be used. In addition, the connection juncture between the outer duct  21  and the inner duct  22  has one or more aperture (not shown in the drawings) to facilitate air ventilation and heat dissipation.  
     [0013] The coupler  40  is fastened to one end of the barrel  20 , and is wedged in the interval  23  between the outer duct  21  and the inner duct  22 , and also is spaced from the inner duct  22  with a desired gap. The coupler  40  is fastened to the barrel  20  by riveting in an embodiment of the invention. Of course other fastening methods such as wedging, screw thread coupling, screwing or the like may also be used. The coupler  40  has an annular housing compartment  41  for housing at least one pad ring  42  (two pad rings are used in the embodiment). The barrel  40  has a front end covered by a light radiation element  43 . The light radiation element  43  is fastened to the barrel  40  by a suitable method such as supersonic bonding adopted in the embodiment.  
     [0014] Moreover, the coupler  40  may be made from a transparent material that can radiate light, such as transparent plastics, colored plastics, smoked surface plastics or other materials with equivalent effect. The light radiation element  43  is formed to radiate light in a plane fashion, and is made from a transparent and light scattering material. It also may be printed with patterns such as warning signs or company logos. The coupler  40  and the light radiation element  43  may also be formed in various shapes for decorative purpose to increase the added value of the invention.  
     [0015] The luminous element  60  is located in the pad ring  42  held in the housing compartment  41  to get a desired positioning and protection. The luminous element  60  may be a fluorescent lamp, LED lamp, light bulb or other lighting articles of equivalent effect. The luminous element  60  is connected to a conductive wire  61  of high-temperature resistant and fire-proof for linking to the 12V power supply of the car to obtain the required power supply. Another approach is to connect the luminous element  60  to a transformer  80 , then connect to the power supply of the car to control the lighting fashion of the luminous element  60  (such as blinking at a selected interval, controlling on and off of lighting, etc).  
     [0016] By means of the aforesaid construction, when the invention is installed on the tail end  90  of the car exhaust pipe, the luminous element  60  emits light through the coupler  40  and the light radiation element  43  to form ornamental light. In addition to decorate the tail end  90  of the exhaust pipe, it also has more practical function such as alarming to improve drive safety of the car.  
     [0017] Through the light radiation element  43 , light generated by the luminous element  60  from a point or line source may be refracted to become a plane light source to illuminate the printed patterns on the transparent panel to make the contour and appearance look more appealing. It also can function as an alarm light. When coupled with the transformer  80 , it can be synchronized with driving conditions such as turning on concurrently with the brake light to alert the following cars and enhance drive safety.  
     [0018] Refer to FIG. 4 for another embodiment of the invention. As shown in the drawing, in order to augment the warning and decorative effects, the coupler  40  has some alterations to match the outer duct  21 , such as increasing the length of the light radiation element  43  and reducing the length of the outer duct  21 , and the radiation element  43  covering the coupler  40 , and the light radiation element  43 , coupler  40  and outer duct  21  are fastened together by a desired method (such as riveting). By means of these alterations, a greater luminous area may be obtained to provide even better and more versatile warning effects. Another alternative is to increase the length of the radiation element  43  to provide more space for printing patterns to increase decorative effect.  
     [0019]FIG. 5 illustrates an example of the invention in use. The outer duct  21  has a smaller diameter to couple with the tail end  90  of the car exhaust pipe. A plurality of fasteners (not shown in the drawing) may be used to run through the outer duct  21  to form a secured fastening with the tail end  90  of the exhaust pipe.  
     [0020] While the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been set forth for the purpose of disclosure, modifications of the disclosed embodiments of the present invention as well as other embodiments thereof may occur to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to cover all embodiments, which do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.