Patent ID: 7213952

Claim:
An interior illuminator for an automobile that is attached to a ceiling of the automobile, comprising: a primary light emitting unit for illuminating the interior of the automobile; a secondary light emitting unit provided around the primary light emitting unit; and a housing that holds said primary light emitting unit and said secondary light emitting unit, wherein said secondary light emitting unit has a transparent light guide body that is flexible and U-shaped, light emitting elements for launching light into the light guide body at the ends thereof, and a light emitting element control unit for controlling light emission of the light emitting elements, said housing has a light guide body holding groove that keeps the U-shape of said light guide body, a pair of insertion holes that are formed at the ends of said light guide body holding groove to introduce the end portions of said light guide body into the housing, and a housing section that houses said light emitting element and said light emitting element control unit, wherein said light guide body holding groove has a pair of straight holding sections that extend straight along the side edges of said housing and an arc-shaped holding section that is curved along the front edge of the housing, said straight holding section has an engaging protrusion that slightly protrudes into the light guide holding groove in the vicinity of said insertion hole to lock said light guide body, and a base end through-hole opening into the housing that is formed in a bottom of the light guide holding groove at a position corresponding to the engaging protrusion, and said arc-shaped holding section has an engaging step section that is constituted by a slight step formed along a peripheral wall thereof to lock said light guide body, and a curved through-hole opening into the housing that is formed in the bottom of the light guide holding groove at the same position as the engaging step section.