Acoustical transducer mounting arrangement

An improved ceiling mountable acoustic transducer mountable in a ceiling tile without the cutting of a hole. A pair of elongated members which pierce the ceiling tile are attached to a housing which holds the acoustic transducer. The housing is held in contact with the surface of the ceiling tile by a pair of spring clips which engage the elongated members. The electrical connection of the transducer to an acoustical electrical signal source is made through the elongated members to the acoustic transducer by attachment of leads to the clips.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The invention relates to mounting arrangements for acoustical transducers 
in ceiling panels and the like. 
2. Description of the Prior Art 
Acoustical systems have been developed in which a plurality of speakers are 
connected to a signal source in which the individual speakers are mounted 
in ceiling panels such as acoustical tiles. These speakers are mounted by 
the cutting of a circular hole within which the speaker is placed and 
attached to the circular cutout. This mounting arrangement, while 
satisfactory, requires the labor of cut out of the circular hole and 
further the cleanup of the dust and debris which is caused by the cutting 
of the hole and the resultant damage to the tile. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention is an improved mounting assembly for acoustical 
transducers such as loudspeakers in ceiling panels and the like in which 
the mounting and wiring to the system is accomplished quickly without the 
requirement of the making of a cutout within the ceiling panel to complete 
the mounting. With the invention, there is a savings of labor by the 
elimination of the cutting of the circular hole for the mounting of the 
acoustical transducer and further the electrical connection of the 
transducer has been simplified to make the mounting arrangement an 
integral part of the electrical connection to minimize the number of 
parts. 
A panel mountable acoustic transducer in accordance with the preferred 
embodiment of the invention includes an acoustic transducer, a housing 
which holds the acoustic transducer in a fixed position; a mounting 
assembly attached to the housing having at least one elongated member 
projecting away from the housing for piercing a panel on which the 
transducer is to be mounted to fix the position of the housing with 
respect to the panel; and a removable clip which is attachable to each of 
the elongated members at selectable fixed longitudinal positions along the 
member to permit the acoustic transducer to be mounted by attachment of 
the clip to the elongated member after the elongated member has pierced 
the panel. 
Preferably, the mounting assembly has a pair of elongated members which are 
respectively electrically coupled to separate terminals of the acoustic 
transducer. The elongated members complete the electrical circuit between 
the acoustic transducer and a source of electrical signals for 
electrically driving the transducer by the connection of a pair of 
conductors from the source of electrical signals directly to the clips 
which are in electrical contact with the elongated members which are 
electrically conductive and electrically coupled to the terminals of the 
transducer. 
The mounting assembly comprises a first clamp attached to the housing for 
removably attaching one of the elongated members to the housing and second 
clamp attached to the housing for removably attaching the other of the 
elongated members to the housing. The clamps include a recess for 
receiving the elongated member to fix the member with respect to the 
housing, a conductive section for holding the portion of the elongated 
member into the recess with the conductive section contacting the 
elongated member and an electrical conductor coupling the conductive 
section to one of the terminals of the transducer. 
The conductive section is pivotable from a first position where the 
elongated member is not contacted to a second position where the elongated 
section contacted and retained in the recess while electrically coupling 
the elongated member to one of the terminals. The elongated section 
comprises a first part joined to a second part which forms an angle of 
intersection of approximately 90.degree. and the second part joined to a 
third part which forms an angle of approximately 90.degree.. The recess 
has a first channel which receives the first part and a second channel 
which receives the second part to retain the elongated member in a fixed 
position with respect to the housing when the conductive section is 
pivoted to the second position. 
The clip includes a conductive member having at least one aperture for 
receiving the elongated member. Preferably, the clip has first and second 
sections joined together to form an angle of intersection and each having 
an aperture for receiving the elongated member. The sections have a spring 
characteristic which permits the first and second sections to be 
elastically moved from the angle of intersection. The apertures do not 
permit an elongated member to pass through the apertures when the sections 
form the of intersection angle but permit the member to pass through when 
the position of the sections is varied by the application of a force to 
the sections to cause relative movement of the sections. The spring 
characteristic causes the clip to be retained by the apertures engaging an 
elongated member when the spring characteristic is the only force applied 
to the sections. 
Each of the clips includes a spring connector for receiving conductors or a 
screw type connector for connecting the acoustic transducer to the source 
of the electrical signals. The spring connector contains a deflectable 
section having a semicircular part for engaging one of the conductors 
which is coupled to the source of the electrical signals to be applied to 
the acoustic transducer. The semicircular section presses the electrical 
conductor against a pair of bifurcations of the clip when the deflectable 
part is moved from the rest position. 
When the invention is used with ceiling tiles having a conductive top 
surface, an insulative member is placed over each of the elongated members 
with a sleeve which projects downward to pierce the conductive layer to 
insulate the elongated projections from the conductive top surface. 
The present invention is not limited to the mounting of acoustic 
transducers to ceiling panels. 
A method of mounting an acoustic transducer having a housing which holds 
the acoustic transducer in a fixed position, a mounting assembly attached 
to the housing with a pair of elongated members projecting away from the 
housing which are respectively electrically coupled to different terminals 
of the transducer within an acoustical system including a pair of 
conductors for applying a signal from a signal source to the acoustical 
transducer in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the invention 
includes the steps of piercing panel on which the acoustical transducer is 
to be mounted with the pair of elongated members; attaching a separate 
clip, which is attachable to each of the elongated members at selectable 
fixed longitudinal positions along the longitudinal member, to each of the 
elongated members so that the housing contacts a front surface of the 
panel and the clips contact a back surface of the panel; and attaching the 
pair of wires respectively to the clips to couple the acoustic transducer 
to the signal source.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
The present invention provides a panel mountable electrical device which 
preferably is a loudspeaker mountable within ceiling acoustical tiles. The 
panel mount obtained with the present invention is characterized by a 
mount which is made with minimal labor without the necessity of cutting a 
hole in the panel and permitting electrical connections to be made rapidly 
through a pair of elongated projections which pierce the panel to fixedly 
locate the electrical device on the panel. A pair of rapid, quick 
disconnect clips are mounted on the portion of the projections which 
extend up through the panel to secure a housing of the electrical device 
in surface contact with the panel. 
FIG. 1 illustrates a ceiling mountable acoustical device 10 in accordance 
with the present invention. A housing 12, which contains a loudspeaker 
unit, which is discussed below with respect to FIG. 2, is attached to an 
individual ceiling tile 14. The top lip 16 of the housing 12, which is 
circular, contacts the exposed surface of the ceiling tile 14 to form a 
flush mount. The individual ceiling tiles 14 are suspended between 
orthogonally intersecting members 20 and 22 in a conventional manner. Each 
of the individual ceiling tiles 14 has a portion which extends out over 
the periphery of the orthogonal members 20 and 22 to provide a lip which 
is supported by the orthogonal members. Each individual ceiling tile 14 
may be pushed upward away from engagement of the orthogonal members 20 and 
22 to permit access to the top surface of the ceiling tile. The present 
invention utilizes the accessibility to the top surface of the ceiling 
tile to permit the attachment of spring clips, which are discussed below, 
to a pair of pointed projections which pierce the low density material of 
the ceiling tile during the mounting operation to secure the lip 16 in 
surface contact with the exposed surface of the ceiling tile. 
FIG. 2 illustrates a top plan view of the preferred embodiment of the 
invention. The housing 12 is preferably a plastic member which is molded 
by a conventional process to form a mounting structure having one or more 
pieces for holding an acoustic transducer 24 which is mounted centrally 
therein. Four bosses 26 are mounted diametrically about the center of the 
housing 24 to form the attachment mechanism for the acoustic transducer 
24. A pair of spring-type retainers 28 are forced down over a diametrical 
pair of the bosses 26 to hold the acoustic transducer in surface contact 
with surface 30 which is the bottom of a cylindrical section formed by the 
projection of cylindrical wall 32 upward from surface 30. A pair of 
plastic retainers 34 are connected to the remaining pair of diametrical 
bosses 26. The pairs of retainers 28 and 34 hold the acoustic transducer 
firmly into contact with the surface 30 of the housing. A circular 
aperture 36 is cut in the surface 30 to permit the cone of the transducer 
24 to be acoustically coupled to a room within which the acoustic device 
10 is mounted. A recess 38 is formed between rectangular section 40, which 
projects outward from boss 54 having its outer surface 42 located on a 
circular radius positioned with respect to the center of the housing, and 
the outer surface 44 of the cylindrical section 30. The recess 38 is 
comprised of a first section 46 which extends vertically downward to an 
intersection with the inner surface 48 of the housing 12 located between 
the top lip 16 of the housing and the outer surface 44 and a second 
section 50 which extends vertically downward from the top surface 52 of 
the individual bosses 54. Bosses 54 contain a threaded bore 56. Each of 
the threaded bores 56 receives a screw 58. A diametrically disposed pair 
of the threaded bores 56 retains pivotable conductive sections 60 and 61. 
The pair of the pivotable sections 60 and 61, are rotatably mounted by 
means of screws 58 to be rotatable from a first position as illustrated to 
a second position which overlies the recess 38 to form a clamp in 
combination with recess 38 for elongated members 80 illustrated in FIGS. 3 
and 4. An electrical lead 62 is connected to a terminal 63 of the acoustic 
transducer 24, pivotable section 60 and terminal 64 of a volume control 
potentiometer 66. A lead 68 connects another terminal 70 of the acoustic 
transducer 24 to terminal 72 of the volume control 66. A lead 74 connects 
the pivotable conductive section 61 to terminal 76 of the volume control 
66. The volume of the acoustic transducer 24 is varied by rotation of the 
potentiometer. While the present invention may be used to mount electrical 
devices other than acoustic transducers, preferably, the housing 12 
contains an acoustic transducer having a piezoelectric unit which is 
manufactured by Motorola Corporation. 
FIG. 3 illustrates a partial sectional view of the housing 12 which 
illustrates one of the pair of identical mounting assemblies 78 which 
retain the elongated conductive section 80 which pierces the ceiling tile 
14. The elongated member has a first part (illustrated as element 82 in 
FIG. 4) which is joined to a second part 84 by a 90.degree. angle of 
intersection. The second part 84 is joined to a third part 86 by a 
90.degree. angle of intersection. The third part 86 extends upward from 
the housing at a 90.degree. angle from the plane defined by the lip 16 of 
the housing 12. The end 88 of the third part 86 of the elongated member 82 
is pointed to facilitate the puncture of the ceiling tile 14 without a 
high degree of force. As illustrated, the conductive section 60 is rotated 
to the second position which overlies the second section 84 of the wire to 
retain it in the recess 38. 
FIG. 4 illustrates an exploded perspective view of an acoustic device 10 in 
accordance with the present invention as it is mounted in a single ceiling 
tile 14. The individual elongated members 80 are retained within the 
recesses 38 by the pivoting of the pivotable sections 60 and 61 to their 
second positions. The pointed end 88 pierces the ceiling tile 14. An 
insulative sleeve 90, which is discussed below with reference to FIG. 6, 
is used in the situation where ceiling tiles 14 having a conductive 
backing (not illustrated) are used with the present invention. The sleeve 
90 pierces the conductive backing to prevent the conductive elongated 
members 80, which are part of the electrical connections to an acoustical 
signal source 92, which produces the audio drive signal for the acoustic 
transducer 24 from being shorted together. Without the insulative sleeve 
90 being positioned over each of the elongated members 80, the leads 94 
and 96 would be electrically shorted together by the conductive backing. A 
spring retaining clip 98 is provided having a pair of apertures 100 which 
receive the elongated member 80. The spring retaining clip 98 has a first 
section 102 which is joined to a second section 104 by an angle of 
intersection which is acute. The spring retaining clips 98 have a spring 
characteristic which holds the apertures 100 at a position with respect to 
each other at which an elongated member 80 will not freely pass through 
the apertures. To position the spring retaining clip 98 onto the elongated 
member 80, a force is applied to the first section 102 and second section 
104 to decrease the acute angle therebetween from the angle of 
intersection to cause the apertures to be aligned to permit free passage 
of the elongated member 80 therein. The individual spring clips 98 are 
positioned with the bottom surface 106 of the second section 104 in 
surface contact with the top surface 108 of the ceiling tile 14. In this 
position, the lip 16 is in surface contact with the exposed surface 110 of 
the ceiling tile 14. The individual leads 94 and 96, which couple the 
signal source 92 to the elongated members 80, are respectively joined to 
separate spring clips 98. 
FIG. 5 illustrates a side elevational view of the insulative sleeve 90 of 
FIG. 4. The insulative sleeve 90 has a cylindrical disc 112 which has a 
bottom surface 114 which engages the conductive metallic backing of an 
individual ceiling tile 14. A truncated cone 116 projects away from the 
bottom surface 114 of the disc 112. The truncated cone 116 has a top 
surface 118 which pierces the conductive backing of the ceiling tile 14. A 
cylindrical bore 120 extends through the disc 112 and the truncated cone 
116 for receiving the third part 86 of an elongated part 80. 
FIGS. 6a and 6b illustrate an alternative type of spring retaining clip 98 
which may be used with the present invention. The spring retaining clip is 
identical to that illustrated in FIG. 4 with the exception that a quick 
disconnect electrical connector 122 is provided for attaching the wires 94 
or 96 from the signal source 92. A pair of bifurcations 124 contact a 
portion of the leads 94 or 96 which have been stripped of insulation when 
a spring member 126 has been forced to a position in which the 
semicircular section 128 has been rotated counterclockwise to where the 
stripped portion of the lead is in contact with the inner surface 130. 
The present invention is used in the mounting of an acoustic transducer in 
ceiling tile 14 in the following manner with reference to FIG. 4. The 
individual elongated members 80 are fixedly positioned within respective 
recesses 38 by the rotation of the pivotable sections 60 and 61 to their 
second position which overlie the second part 84. The threaded members 58 
are turned to hold the sections 60 and 61 firmly in contact with the 
second portion 84 of the members 80. This step establishes an electrical 
connection between the respective elongated members 80 and the respective 
terminals 63 and 70 of the acoustic transducer 24. The pointed ends 88 are 
forced through the ceiling tile 14. The pointed ends 88 are forced upward 
until the top lip 16 of the housing 12 engages the surface 110 of the 
ceiling tile 14. If the ceiling tile contains a conductive foil backing, 
the insulative sleeves 90 are positioned down over the elongated members 
80 to force the surface 118 through the conductive foil so that the part 
86 does not contact the conductive foil to cause a shorting of the 
electrical leads 94, 96 together. Thereafter, the spring retaining clips 
98 are positioned onto the part 86 by the application of a force to the 
sections 102 and 104 to force these sections together to align the 
apertures 100 to permit the third part 86 of the elongated member 80 to 
extend up through the apertures 100. The individual spring retaining clips 
98 are forced downward so that surface 106 engages either the top surface 
of insulative sleeve 90 or the top surface 108 of the ceiling tile to 
cause the top lip 16 to engage surface 110. Release of the sections 102 
and 104 retains the spring clips 98 in a fixed longitudinal position on 
the elongated members 80 to fix the acoustical device 10 to the ceiling. 
It should be noted that the positioning of the clips on the elongated 
members performs the dual function of physically attaching the housing in 
fixed position to the ceiling tile 14 and establishing the electrical 
connection of the signal source 92 to the individual acoustic transducer 
24 by a single step. This is highly beneficial in the installation of 
multiple acoustic transducers in a large number of rooms or separate 
locations. 
While the invention has been described in terms of its preferred 
embodiment, it should be understood that numerous modifications may be 
made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention 
as defined in the appended claims. It should be clearly understood that 
the invention is not limited to the installation of acoustic transducers 
in ceiling tiles as described above with regard to the preferred 
embodiment.