Lighting fixture with adjustable light pattern and foldable house structure

A lighting fixture includes a reflector reflecting light from a fluorescent lamp to a desired direction, and one or more lamp connectors connecting the reflector to rotatably and detachably coupling with the fluorescent lamp, wherein the reflector is adapted to selectively rotate with respect to an axis of the fluorescent lamp for reflecting light from the fluorescent lamp so as to change a light pattern of the fluorescent lamp towards an opening of the foldable housing. The foldable housing includes two side frames and a retention frame extended between the two side frames to retain a distance therebetween, wherein the side frames are pivotally coupled with the retention frame to fold between an unfolded position to retain the fluorescent lamp in longitudinal position and a folded position to form a compact size for storage and transportation.

BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

1. Field of Invention

The present invention relates to a lighting luminaire and more particularly to a lighting fixture with a rotatable reflector to adjust the light pattern and a foldable house structure adapted to be unfolded to form a compact size for storage and transportation.

2. Description of Related Arts

The fluorescent luminaries are commonly used in a lot of area. Typically, they are suspended or fixed on the ceiling.FIG. 12shows the prior art of a typical fluorescent lamp luminaire. The reflector5is fixed on a reflector support7. The reflector support7is fixed on a housing8. The reflector5can not be adjusted after installed on the housing8. Therefore, the light pattern is fixed by the manufactory. The U.S. Pat. No. D520,173S disclosed a fluorescent luminaire with fixed light pattern. In a lot of applications, it is preferred to adjust the light pattern to high light the desired subject. Therefore the typical fluorescent lamp luminaire is not suitable for this kind of applications.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,206,548 B1 disclosed a light fixture with rotatable mirror which is mounted to the housing. It has limited light pattern adjustment and it is not very efficient.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,550,725 disclosed a light fixture with a rotatable reflector. The reflector rotates along with the lamp axis. The direction of the light can be adjusted. However, the width of the light beam can not be adjusted. The system is also very complex, and costly to fabricate.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,450,668 B1 disclosed a light fixture with a foldable structure. It can only change the light direction. It cannot change the light pattern. The folding structure did not save much space. It is still very bulky to handle.

Some of the light fixture has the capability to adjust the light pattern or the direction of the light by rotating the lamp with or without the reflector or moving the lamp with the reflector. They are also very inconvenient to use.

SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

The main object of the present invention is to provide a lighting fixture with an adjustable light pattern and a foldable house structure, which is an improved luminaire with adjustable light direction which utilize the fluorescent lamp and the rotatable reflector.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a lighting fixture with an adjustable light pattern and a foldable house structure, wherein the rotatable reflector is adapted for incorporating with a conventional light housing to selectively adjust the light pattern of the fluorescent lamp in the conventional light housing.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a lighting fixture with adjustable light beam to change the light pattern.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a lighting fixture with a foldable house structure, wherein the housing is adapted for being unfolded to retain the fluorescent lamps in position and is adapted for being folded into a compact size for storage and transportation.

Accordingly, in order to accomplish the above objects, the present invention provides a lighting fixture for fluorescent lamp, comprising:

a housing;

at least a fluorescent lamp longitudinally and operatively supported at the housing;

one or more lamp connectors rotatably and detachably mounting along the fluorescent lamp; and

a reflector coupling with the lamp connectors, wherein the reflector is adapted to selectively rotate with respect to an axis of the fluorescent lamp for reflecting light from the fluorescent lamp so as to change a light pattern of the fluorescent lamp towards an opening of the housing.

The housing of the lighting fixture is, embodied as a foldable housing which comprises two side frames and a retention frame extended between the two side frames to retain a distance between the side frames, wherein the side frames are pivotally coupled with the retention frame to fold between an unfolded position and a folded position. Accordingly, the fluorescent lamps are longitudinally and operatively supported at the foldable housing when the foldable housing is folded at the unfolded position.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring toFIGS. 1 to 5of the drawings, a lighting fixture according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention is illustrated, wherein the lighting fixture comprises a housing10, one or more fluorescent lamps20, one or more lamp holders30, one or more reflectors40, and one or more lamp connectors50.

The housing10receives all the elements for holding and protection. The lamp holder30is connected on the housing10and holds the fluorescent lamp20for supporting and providing power. In a housing10there could be one or more fluorescent lamps20supported by the corresponding holders. Preferably, these fluorescent lamps20are longitudinally supported and are aligned in parallel in the housing10.

The reflector40is longitudinally extended along the fluorescent lamp20with the corresponding length as the fluorescent lamp20. However, the reflector40can have a designed length extended along the fluorescent lamp20for light reflection. The reflector40has a concave shaped cross section, preferably a U-shaped cross section. The inner surface of the reflector40can reflect light. Therefore, the reflector40can cover the fluorescent lamp20and reflect the light to a focused direction. In a preferred embodiment, the reflector40comprises a back reflecting panel41and two slanted reflecting panels42inclinedly extended from the edge of the back reflecting panel41to make the cross section of the reflector40a concave shape. So when the reflector is over the fluorescent lamp20, the back reflecting panel41and the slanted reflecting panels42can reflect the light of the lamp to change the light pattern and light direction towards a selected direction.

Referring toFIGS. 2,3and6, the lamp connector50is made of flexible material. It comprises an open end51and a supporting end52. Behind the open end51, the lamp connector50comprises a receiving cavity53which has a C-shaped cross section and a similar size as the fluorescent lamp20. The opening of the open end51is a little smaller than the diameter of the fluorescent lamp20. The open end51also has two slanted opening edges511outwardly and opposedly extended thereat. The two slanted opening edges511provide a larger opening to receive the fluorescent lamp20. The fluorescent lamp20can be inserted into the receiving cavity53from the open end51thereof, and be detachably connected by the lamp connector50by elastic force. In this way, the lamp connector50is pivotally attached on the fluorescent lamp20, and can be rotated along the axis of the fluorescent lamp20. According to the preferred embodiment, each of the lamp connectors50can be a lamp clip for detachably clipping on the fluorescent lamp20.

The supporting end52of the lamp connector50is affixed to an inner surface of the reflector40. According to the preferred embodiment, the supporting end52of the lamp connector50is affixed onto the inner surface of back reflecting panel41of the reflector40to support the reflector40. It is appreciated that the supporting end52of the lamp connector50can be affixed to any of the reflecting panels41,42to detachably couple the reflector40along the fluorescent lamp20. Therefore the reflector40and the fluorescent lamp20are pivotally connected by the lamp connector50. In the way, the reflector40can be rotated along the axis of the fluorescent lamp20to adjust the reflection of the light to a desired direction. Each reflector40may have one or more lamp connectors50to connect with the fluorescent lamp20. Preferably, a reflector40has two lamp connectors50affixed at the two ends thereof. The lamp connectors50can be affixed onto the reflector40by screw, glue, or any other similar methods.

Referring toFIGS. 2 and 3, the supporting end52of the lamp connectors50has different heights. Therefore the fluorescent lamp20can be installed in the reflector40with different positions. This gives a flexibility to apply the present invention to be adjusted so as to have different light beam angles. In other words, the lamp connectors50are adapted to selectively configure a length between the open end51and the supporting end52in such a manner that when the fluorescent lamp20is coupled at the open end51of the lamp connector50, a distance between the fluorescent lamp20and the reflector40is selectively adjusted corresponding to the length of the lamp connector50.

Referring toFIGS. 4 and 5, in practice, the reflector40can be rotated over the fluorescent lamp20along the axis thereof to adjust the reflection direction. Therefore even the housing10and the fluorescent lamp20are affixed, the lighting direction can still be adjusted as will. If there are multiple lamps20in a housing10, each reflector40of each fluorescent lamp20can be adjusted individually and provides more flexibility.

The present invention is very convenient to install and use. It is appreciated that the reflectors40can be detached from the fluorescent lamps20to be packed without the fluorescent lamps20.

FIGS. 7 to 11illustrate an alternative mode of the housing10′ as a foldable housing which is adapted to be folded between an unfolded position and a folded position. As shown inFIGS. 7 to 11, the housing10′ comprises two side frames11′ and a retention frame12′ extended between the side frames11′ to retain a distance between the side frames11′. Accordingly, the distance between the side frames11′ should be retained to correspondingly match with the length of the fluorescent lamp20.

The lamp holders30are spacedly provided along the inner sides of the side frames11′ in such a manner that two ends of each of the fluorescent lamp20are electrically coupled at two corresponding lamp holder30at the side frames11′ respectively when the housing10′ is folded at the unfolded position. Accordingly, the lamp holders30are a plurality of lamp sockets spacedly formed at the side frame11′ to electrically couple with the ends of the fluorescent lamps20.

Each of the side frames11′ comprises two folding arms111′ pivotally coupling with the retention frame12′, wherein the folding arms111′ of each of the side frames11′ are pivotally folded between the unfolded position and folded position. As shown inFIGS. 7 and 9, at the unfolded position of each of the side frames11′, the two corresponding folding arms111′ are pivotally folded end-to-end to form an elongated structure. As shown inFIG. 11, at the folded position of each of the side frames11′, the two corresponding folding arms111′ are pivotally folded to overlap with the retention frame12′ such that the two folding arms111′ are parallel with each other. Preferably, the two folding arms111′ of each of the side frame11′ have the same length such that each of the side frames11′ can be pivotally folded in half to the retention frame12′ when the side frame11′ is pivotally folded at its folded position.

As shown inFIG. 10, the retention frame12′, preferably having an Omega “Ω” shaped cross section, defines an upper mid-portion121′ and two lower side-portions122′. It is appreciated that the retention frame12′ can have a hollow rectangular cross section or a U-shaped cross section. The folding arms111′ of the side frames11′ are pivotally coupled at the top side of the mid-portion121′ of the retention frame12′ such that when each of the folding arms111′ is pivotally folded towards the retention frame12′, the folding arm111′ is folded to align with the respective side-portion122′ of the retention frame12′. Therefore, the lamp holders30are enclosed and protected within the two corresponding folding arms111′ of the side frame11′ when the folding arms111′ are folded at the folded position.

It is worth to mention that when the housing10′ is pivotally folded at its unfolded position, the fluorescent lamps20are spacedly mounted between the side frames11′ to electrically couple with the lamp holders30, wherein the reflectors40are detachably coupled with the fluorescent lamps20via the lamp connectors50at a position that each of the reflectors40is adapted to selectively rotate with respect to an axis of the respective fluorescent lamp20for reflecting light from the fluorescent lamp20so as to change a light pattern and/or a light direction of the fluorescent lamp20towards an opening of the housing10′. In addition, the reflector40can be coupled with the fluorescent lamp20via the lamp connector50or can be directly coupled to the side frame11′ at a position between the folding arms111′ of the two side frames11′. In other words, the housing10′ can also be incorporated with the conventional reflector5.

When the reflectors40and the fluorescent lamps20are detached from the housing10′, the housing10′ is adapted to pivotally fold to its folded position to form a compact structure, such that the reflectors40, the fluorescent lamps20, the lamp connectors50, and the folded housing10′ can be packed in a compact package for transportation purpose.