Patent Publication Number: US-6905232-B2

Title: Vibration resistant lamp structure

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   1. Field of the Invention 
   The present invention is related to a lamp structure improved for assembling, especially in its convenience to assemble. The purpose is to secure a lamp holder inside a lamp housing and simultaneously avoiding vibration of the lamp set. The structure is suitable for all land, sea and air traffic vehicles etc. as well as for illuminating lamps such as spotlights and searchlights. 
   2. Description of the Prior Art 
   As shown in  FIG. 1 , a schematic view showing the mode of assembling, a conventional lamp  1  comprised of a lamp housing  10 , a lamp holder  11 , and a locking collar  12 . Wherein the lamp housing  10  has an opening  101  and an inner thread  102  on the inner side of the lamp housing  10 ; the locking collar  12  correspondingly has an external thread  103  on the outer side thereof; thereby in assembling after the lamp holder  11  is placed in the lamp housing  10 , the locking collar  12  can be connected and locked onto the lamp housing  10  to form a lamp set. 
   Generally speaking, the lamp holder  11  mounted in the lamp housing  10  is manufactured and vended together with the lamp housing  10  and the locking collar  12  depends on the original manufacturer; taking a lamp for a vehicle as an example, the lamp holder  11  is changed in pursuance of a consumer&#39;s preference when it is damaged; there are many manufacturers of lamp housing in the market, while a consumer does not have to get the exact same lamp holder made by the original manufacturer is much easier on the consumer. However, a lamp holder  11  not made by the same manufacturer may have some size variation from the lamp housing  10 . If it is too small, a gap may exist after mounted which results to water permeation, or the gap may induce vibration of the lamp holder  11 ; while if it is too large, it is unable to be aligned and placed in the lamp housing  10 . 
   Moreover, after activating an engine of a vehicle, it creates irregular shaking and vibration, particularly when driving on an uneven surfaced road. During driving, the engine of a car or a motorcycle rotates under different high speeds which makes the locking collar  12  come loose or rotate toward the direction against the thread, hence the locking collar  12  drops and causes an accident. 
   Furthermore, the wall of the lamp housing  10  is very thin. During the process of manufacturing, it is difficult to establish the inner thread  102  and easy to deviate, thereby, the opening of the lamp housing  10  with the thread is subject to the mounting of the lamp holder  11  onto the lamp housing  10  being hard or even unable to lock the locking collar  12 . 
   In view of this, the present invention is developed to improve the drawbacks of the conventional lamp. 
   SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   The purpose of the present invention is to provide a lamp structure improved for convenience in assembling and for the lamp to be installed securely and avoid vibration of the lamp set thus render driving safety. 
   To achieve the above goal, the present lamp structure invented comprises of: a lamp housing shaped like a cone barrel with a receiving space, the housing has holes on the surface for extending a wire through, and the inner wall has a stepped portion that comes with an engagement block; a circular ring piece to be placed in the lamp housing and supported by the stepped portion, a recess on the external periphery of the circular ring piece to make engagement of the block in the recess, and there is at least one convex compressible ridge with a notch on the ring piece; a lamp holder with a receiving space for a lamp bulb and a protrusion on its external periphery to be engaged in the notch on the ring piece; a lamp locking-collar that is a circular sleeve with a reduced neck portion, being connectable to the lamp housing when the ring piece and the lamp holder are sequentially placed in the lamp housing. 
   The present invention will be apparent after reading the detailed description of the preferred embodiment thereof in reference to the accompanying drawings. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       FIG. 1  is an analytic perspective view showing the elements of a conventional lamp; 
       FIG. 2  is an analytic perspective view showing the elements of the embodiment of the present invention; 
       FIG. 3  is a schematic sectional view showing the state of assembled elements of the embodiment of the present invention; 
       FIG. 4  is a perspective view showing the circular ring piece of the present invention is bended in lieu of forming the flexible compressible portion; 
       FIG. 5  is a perspective view showing the lamp locking-collar and the lamp housing could be connected by engagement; 
       FIG. 6  is a perspective view showing the lamp locking-collar with an arci-form portion on the external periphery thereof. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
   Referring to  FIGS. 2 and 3  showing an embodiment of the improved lamp structure improved for assembling of the present invention, the lamp structure comprises: a lamp housing  4 , as well as a circular ring piece  5 , a lamp holder  6  and a lamp locking-collar  7 , these members are sequentially mounted in the lamp housing  4 . 
   Wherein the lamp housing  4  is a cone-shaped barrel with a receiving space  41 , the housing  4  has holes  42  on the surface for extending an electrical wire  8  through, and a stepped portion  43  on the inner wall provided with an engagement block  431 . 
   The circular ring piece  5  is placed in the lamp housing  4  and supported by the stepped portion  43 . An engagement recess  51  is provided on the external periphery of the circular ring piece  5  to make engagement of the block  431  in the recess  51 ; and on one side of the circular ring piece  5  there is at least one compressible ridge  52  that is formed by point welding mutually spaced steel sheets onto the circular ring piece  5 ; the circular ring piece  5  and the compressible ridge  52  has respectively notches  521 ,  53  aligned with each other. 
   The lamp holder  6  is formed by connecting the ends of a cover  61  and a shell  62 , the shell  62  has an opening  621  on the other end with predetermined size for receiving a lamp bulb and has therein a space for receiving the bulb. The lamp holder  6  has a protrusion  63  on the external periphery thereof to be engaged in the notch  53  provided on the compressible ridge  52  when the lamp holder  6  is mounted; the lamp holder  6  abuts against the circular ring piece  5  to thereby be fixed on it. 
   The lamp locking-collar  7  is a circular sleeve with a reduced neck portion  71 ; it is connectable to the lamp holder  6  when the circular ring piece  5  and the lamp holder  6  are sequentially placed in the lamp housing  4 . The reduced neck portion  71  provided on the front end wall of the lamp locking-collar  7  has grooves  715 ,  716  with gaskets  73 ,  74  respectively therein; so that after the lamp locking-collar  7  is connected with the lamp housing  4 , the gasket  73  provides an auxiliary effect of preventing the lamp locking-collar  7  from dropping off and an upper-area waterproof effect, the gasket  74  derives the absolute waterproof effect by the fact that it presses against the cover  61  of the lamp holder  6 . 
   For the purpose of increasing stability of connecting the lamp locking-collar  7  with the lamp housing  4 , the reduced neck portion  71  on the lamp locking-collar  7  is provided thereon with a groove  711  and a screw hole  712  therein; the lamp housing  4  is provided on the inner wall thereof also with a groove  44  in corresponding with the groove  711  of the lamp locking-collar  7 , the groove  44  has a through hole  441  to make passage when the grooves  711 ,  44  are aligned with each other in connecting of the lamp locking-collar  7  with the lamp housing  4 . The screw hole  712  and the through hole  441  respectively of the groove  711  and the groove  44 , are located at the same side of the lamp housing  4 ; the passage is provided for extending an elongate member  2  (the elongate member  2  can be a spring or a soft steel rope) to allow extending of the two ends of the elongate member  2  to be at the two lateral sides of the screw hole  712 , then a screw  3  is screwed into the screw hole  712  to increase stability of the lamp set after assembling. 
   When put into effect, as shown in  FIGS. 2 and 3 , the circular ring piece  5  is placed in the lamp housing  4  to make the engagement block  431  on the stepped portion  43  of the lamp housing  4  engaged into the recess  51  of the circular ring piece  5 ; and then the lamp holder  6  is placed into the lamp housing  4  to make the protrusion  63  provided on the external periphery of the lamp holder  6  fixedly engaged in the notches  521 ,  53  respectively provided on the circular ring piece  5  and the compressible ridge portion  52 . Meantime, the lamp holder  6  presses against the circular ring piece  5 , and the stepped portion  43  supports the circular ring piece  5 , the lamp holder  6  is thereby firmly positioned in the lamp housing  4 . And then the lamp locking-collar  7  which is provided with the gaskets  73 ,  74  connected to the lamp housing  4  to make the screw hole  712  and the through hole  441  of the grooves  711  and the groove  44  respectively of the reduced neck portion  71  on the lamp locking-collar  7  and the upper area of the inner wall of the lamp housing  4  aligned at the same side; at this time, the aligned grooves  711  and the groove  44  form a passage (not shown) for extending the elongate member  2  through to allow extending of the two ends of the elongate member  2  to be at the two lateral sides of the screw hole  712 , then the screw  3  is screwed into the screw hole  712  to increase stability of the lamp set. 
   This way, by adjustment of an elastic force, the generality of use of the lamp of the present invention can be largely increased to suit various types of lamp holders and to automatically regulate the gap formed, not only keeping the immovability but also achieves the waterproof effect with the gaskets  73 ,  74  provided at the front end and inner wall of the lamp locking-collar  7 . 
   Furthermore,  FIG. 4  is a variation in use of a circular ring piece  5 ′ and the lamp locking-collar  7 . In  FIG. 4 , the circular ring piece  5 ′ of the present invention  FIG. 2  can also be bended to form multiple undulated concave portions  54 ′ to derive the same effect of the compressible ridge  52  in  FIG. 2  for flexibility, without the actually ridge welded. The circular ring piece includes an engagement recess  51 ′ and notches  521 ′. The mode of connecting the lamp locking-collar  7 ′ with the lamp housing  4 ′ can also be an engagement mode, such as shown in FIG.  5 . On the reduced neck portion  71 ′ of the lamp locking-collar  7 ′, it comes with an engagement portion  713 ′ and its tailing end comes with a cut engagement groove  714 ′, while the inner wall of the lamp housing  4 ′ comes with an engaging stud  45 ′ in opposition to the lamp locking-collar  7 ′. When the lamp locking-collar  7 ′ is rotated, the pressing force of the circular ring piece  5 ′ fixes the engaging stud  45 ′ into the engagement groove  714 ′ to secure the lamp lock-collar  7 ′ so it will not drop off when loosened after it engages with the lamp housing  4 ′. And as shown in  FIG. 6 , the lamp locking-collar  7  can also add to its design by providing a pliable arch-form portion  75  on the external periphery thereof. 
   Therefore, the present invention holds the following advantages:
     1. The circular ring piece of the present invention can be bended to form a sheet member with multiple undulated concave portions, or a steel sheet can be pointed welded onto the circular ring piece to form convex compressible ridges; so when the circular ring piece and the lamp holder are sequentially placed in the lamp housing, by the flexibility of the circular ring piece, the lamp holder can be firmly mounted in the lamp housing; and when the locking-collar is connected to the lamp housing, the lamp holder will not shake to affect illumination.   2. The present invention has grooves on the lamp locking-collar and the lamp housing and an elongate member to be extended and engaged therein. Assembling is simple, and after assembling it is structurally secure. Production is convenient; the lamp locking-collar has gaskets filled therein to increase water resistance of the entire lamp.   

   In summary, the present invention can achieve the desired effect of being waterproof, secure, unshakeable, and convenient in assembling. The design is brilliant yet practical.