Lighting fixture

• US 4,943,900 A
• Filed: 08/09/1988
• Issued: 07/24/1990
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/1987
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Klaus Gartner
• Original Assignee: Klaus Gartner
• Inventors: Gartner, Klaus
• Primary Examiner(s): Lazarus, Ira S.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hagarman, Sue
• Application Number:
  US07/229,949
• Time in Patent Office: 714 Days
• Field of Search: 362/227, 362/249, 362/226, 362/240, 362/806, 362/217, 362/232, 362/319
• US Class Current: 362/227
• CPC Class Codes: F21S 4/20 with light sources held by or within elongate supports
• CPC Class Codes: F21V 11/12 of slot type
• CPC Class Codes: F21V 14/08 by movement of the screens or filters
• CPC Class Codes: F21V 17/06 the fastening being onto or by the lampholder
• CPC Class Codes: F21V 19/008 of straight tubular light sources, e.g. straight fluorescent tubes, soffit lamps

Abstract

Lighting fixture including a light-transmitting lighting tube in which a plurality of series-connected miniature light bulbs are disposed and whose ends are provided with current connections in the form of female connectors which have an interior, centrally located, electrically conductive plug-in contact, so as to contact, when the lighting fixture is mounted, male connectors disposed in a holding head and connected with an electrical lead, the fixture further including a profiled connecting member which has a cross section in the shape of a circle segment and which, in the mounted state of the lighting fixture, is arranged so as to be rotatable about the lighting tube. The holding heads (2a, 2b) can be inserted into the ends of the profiled connecting member (3) and can be connected in a form-locking manner with the profiled connecting member (3) by rotating the profiled connecting member (3) and/or the holding heads (2a, 2b).

Claims

1. A lighting fixture comprising:

(a) two opposing holding heads;

(b) a female electrical connector disposed in the interior of each of the holding heads, the holding heads being positioned such that said female connectors face one another;

(c) a rigid lighting tube containing a plurality of series-connected miniature light bulbs, said lighting tube being disposed between said respective holding heads;

(d) a male electrical connector disposed on respective terminal ends of said lighting tube, each of said male connectors being electrically connected to one of said female connectors; and

(e) a profiled connecting member having an arc-shaped cross-section and a gap, said profiled connecting member being disposed on each of said respective holding heads in a form-locking manner coaxially on the lighting tube, the profiled connecting member being rotatable about said lighting tube relative to said holding heads, whereby light only emits from the lighting fixture through the gap in the profiled connection member and the rotation of the profiled connection member controls the angle of illumination from the lighting fixture.

2. A lighting fixture according to claim 1, wherein the form-locking manner the profiled connecting member is disposed on each of the holding heads is a bayonet-like lock.

3. A lighting fixture according to claim 1, wherein each of the holding heads comprises a cylindrical surface having two facing, flattened portions and two annular webs connecting the flattened portions, and the profiled connecting member comprising cylindrical termal ends, each cylindrical end having an annular groove, the annular webs engaging, when the lighting fixture is in the mounted state, in corresponding annular grooves disposed in the ends of the profiled connecting member.

4. Lighting fixture according to claim 3 wherein the profiled connecting member includes a chamfer at least in the region of its ends disposed on the holding heads, said chamfers being oriented longitudinally at the outer edges of the gap in the arc-shaped cross-section.

5. Lighting fixture according to claim 4, wherein the distance between the flattened portions at the holding heads is slightly less or equal to the distance between the chamfers at the outer edges of the chord of the circle segment of the profiled connecting member.

6. A lighting fixture according to claim 1, wherein each of the holding heads comprise a first circumferential annular web and regions which interrupt the annular web and the profiled connecting member comprises a second circumferential annular web and regions which interrupt and second annular web, the arrangement of the regions interrupting the annular web of said profiled connecting member corresponding with the web of said holding heads, said first and second annular webs engaging one behind the other when said profiled connecting member is disposed on said holding heads.

7. A lighting fixture according to claim 6, wherein the arrangement of the parts of the annular webs and are rotationally symmetrical in the circumferential direction.

8. Lighting fixture according to claim 7, wherein the regions of the holding heads interrupting the first annular web are smaller in the circumferential dimension than the remaining regions of the holding head and the regions interrupting the second annular web of the profiled connecting member are larger in the circumferential dimension than the regions remaining of the profiled connecting member.

9. Lighting fixture according to claim 8, wherein the first annular web extends longitudinally and the second annular web of the profiled connecting member has a recess and extends longitudinally therefrom, with the parts of the second annular web being continued over the length of the profiled connecting member to permit the recess to engage behind the first longitudinally extending webs.

10. Lighting fixture according to claim 8, wherein the gap of the profiled connecting member extends between two remaining annular web regions.