Patent Publication Number: US-8123374-B2

Title: Lighting appliance with a reduced encumbrance for industrial environments

Description:
The present invention relates to a lighting appliance with a reduced encumbrance for industrial environments. 
     Lamps or appliances for direct lighting are widely used for the artificial illumination of buildings for civil and industrial use, both as a main light source and as an emergency or safety source; in particular, lighting appliances for industrial environments generally comprise a bell-shaped reflector, which houses a lamp, connected to terminals which allow the electric charge. 
     A particularly strongly-felt problem, especially on the part of wholesalers of electric material, relating to lighting appliances of the traditional type, concerns the overall encumbrance of the supporting structures of light sources. 
     The construction of lighting appliances of the known type do not in fact allow an effective reduction in the encumbrance, particularly with respect to the transportation and storage of the packagings. 
     An objective of the present invention is therefore to eliminate the reported drawbacks by providing a lighting appliance with a reduced encumbrance for industrial environments, which allows the saving of storage space. 
     A further objective of the present invention is to provide a lighting appliance with a reduced encumbrance for industrial environments, which allows a substantial reduction in warehouses, materials referring to raw materials and packaging, as well as in transport and storage costs. 
     Another objective of the invention is to provide a lighting appliance with a reduced encumbrance for industrial environments, which allows good performances to be obtained, as a result of optimized production processes. 
     A last objective of the invention is to provide a lighting appliance with a reduced encumbrance for industrial environments, which has an excellent quality/price ratio and which can be easily installed and maintained. 
     These and other objectives, according to the present invention, are achieved by providing a lighting appliance with a reduced encumbrance for industrial environments, according to the enclosed claim  1 . 
    
    
     
       The characteristics and advantages of a lighting appliance with a reduced encumbrance for industrial environments, according to the invention, will appear more evident from the following illustrative and non-limiting description, referring to a preferred embodiment, and to the enclosed drawings, in which: 
         FIG. 1  is a side view of the lighting appliance with a reduced encumbrance for industrial environments, according to the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  is a plan view from above of the lighting appliance for industrial environments, according to the present invention; 
         FIG. 3  is an exploded view of the lighting appliance for industrial environments, according to the present invention; 
         FIG. 4  is a side view of the lighting appliance for industrial environments, according to the invention, in an open position for the substitution of the lamp; 
         FIGS. 5A ,  5 B and  5 C refer to respective side views of the lighting appliance for industrial environments, according to the invention, in an open position for a rapid maintenance of the electric connections; 
         FIGS. 6A and 6B  show partial, exploded and sectional, side views, of a lighting appliance for industrial environments, suitable for being packaged for transportation and storage, according to the present invention; 
         FIG. 7  is a perspective view of the lighting appliance for industrial environments, according to the present invention, housed in a packaging container. 
     
    
    
     With particular reference to  FIGS. 1 and 2  mentioned above, the lighting appliance for industrial environments, according to the present invention, essentially consists of an upper support  10  for hooking the appliance to the ceiling of an industrial warehouse or building in general, a head  11  and two reflectors, one above or inside the head  11 , generically indicated with  13 , and a lower or external reflector, indicated with  12 , which have substantially different functions and optical properties. 
     In particular, the reflector  13  inside the head  11  is produced as a moulded product, with a complex faceted optical system, and guarantees the quantity of light necessary on the vertical axis of the lighting appliance, avoiding interference with the light source situated internally and ensuring a high performance. 
     The outer or lower reflector  12 , on the other hand, shaped with a cylindrical symmetry and possibly made of transparent methacrylate, has a segmented geometry so as to illuminate the working surface in areas far from the vertical axis of the lighting appliance; for this purpose, it is possible to increase the distance between subsequent appliances thus reducing, with respect to the traditional solutions, the number of lighting appliances necessary for obtaining suitable lighting conditions on a certain working surface. 
       FIG. 3  shows in detail the main components of the lighting appliance for industrial environments, according to the invention. 
     In particular, it is possible to identify the hooking support  10 , a wirelead element  20  for the inlet of the feeding wires, the head  11 , in which a plate  14  is positioned where the electric and/or electronic components of the lighting appliance, the upper reflector  13  and the lower reflector  12 , inside which there is a lamp  15 , are fixed. 
     On the bottom of the lower reflector  12 , there can also be a circular transparent glass  16 , crimped on the edge  25  of the reflector  12 , which covers the whole base of the above lower reflector  12  and contributes to optimizing the illuminating engineering characteristics of the appliance according to the invention. 
     The appliance can be used according to standards IP65 and IP40, in the versions with 250 and 400 Watt lamps  15 , with metal iodides, high pressure sodium or with mercury vapours. 
     As illustrated in detail in  FIG. 4 , the external reflector  12  is connected to the head  11  by means of a hinge  17  and respective fixing screws  18  inserted in respective threaded housings  21 , so that, by acting on the screws  18  with a screwdriver  19  to free them from the housings  21 , it is possible to rotate the reflector  12  according to the direction of the arrow F for an easy substitution of the lamp  15 . 
     In  FIGS. 5A and 5B , which illustrate the lighting appliance without the internal reflector  13  and lamp  15 , and also  FIG. 5C , a further unhooking procedure is shown, of the components of the lighting appliance, according to the invention, for its rapid installation. 
     In particular, it can be observed that the plate  14 , where the electric and/or electronic components of the lighting appliance are fixed, among which the lamp holder  22  and the terminal board  23  for the electric connections of the appliance to the power supply, is hooked, by means of a spring  24 , in a horizontal position, inside and in correspondence with the top of the head  11  of the lighting appliance ( FIG. 5A ). 
     It is therefore sufficient to act on the spring hook  24 , in order to unhook the plate  14  from inside the head  11  and rotate it according to the direction of the arrow G of  FIG. 5B , so as to have free and facilitated access to the terminal board  23  and to the lamp holder  22  for the necessary wiring and further maintenance operations. 
       FIG. 5C  schematically represents the same view as  FIG. 5B  with the lamp  15  inserted. 
     One of the specific advantages of the dissembling of the lighting apparatus into two reflectors, an outer reflector  12  and an inner reflector  13 , lies in the fact that, in this way, it is possible, after removing the lamp  15  and the hinge  17 , in order to be able to unhook the head  11  from the outer reflector  12 , to house the head  11 , overturned and complete with inner reflector  13 , in the upper space  26  of the outer reflector  12  (according to the direction of the arrow H of  FIG. 6A ). 
     An extremely compact structure is therefore obtained ( FIG. 6B ), with a considerably reduced encumbrance for the transportation and storage of the lighting appliance, according to the invention. 
       FIG. 7  illustrates a particular type of packaging, generically indicated with  30 , with an extremely reduced encumbrance, containing the structure of the lighting appliance, dismantled and positioned as described above with reference to  FIGS. 6A and 6B . 
     The packaging  30 , also complete with a possible insert  31  for containing the lamp  15  and other accessories of the lighting appliance, has considerably limited encumbrance dimensions, with respect to traditional solutions of containers suitable for containing analogous types of lighting appliances for industrial environments. 
     From what is specified above, it is evident that the innovative design of the two-reflector structure of the lighting appliance according to the present invention, allows its overall encumbrance to be considerably minimized during the transportation and storage of the pieces; the reduced encumbrance of the appliance also saves storage space thus allowing a greater number of packagings (stackable) on top of a pallet and/or inside a container having a predefined volume, to be contained. 
     It is therefore verified how the particular design of the lighting appliance leads to reduced dimensions, with respect to the traditional appliances, of the packaged product; a considerable simplification in the assembly and wiring of the appliance is also obtained, with respect to traditional solutions having the same functionality. 
     Furthermore, a vertical regulation system of the lamp  15 , although leaving the two reflectors  12  and  13  unvaried, drastically changes the illuminating engineering characteristics of the appliance, as if there were two different appliances. 
     The options relating to the optical system of the outer reflector  12  and the inner reflector  13  allow different photometric conditions to be obtained by varying the distance of the lamp  15  from the working surface. 
     For example, the following table illustrates the performances of the lighting appliance according to the invention by varying the position of the lamp  15  (in this respect, an original starting configuration is conventionally called position 0 and the further positions of the lamp are taken at +10/+20/+30 mm. and at −10/−20 mm., respectively). 
                                         Position of                   lamp   Performance   Vertical axis intensity   Installation height                                                        +30   80.28%   14835   cd   7   m.       +20   80.46%   12437   cd   6.4   m.       +10   80.29%   10039   cd   5.8   m.       0   79.83%   7705   cd   5   m.       −10   79.11%   5787   cd   4.4   m.       −20   78.05%   4092   cd   3.7   m.                    
It can be observed that the performance of the appliance is high in all conditions with respect to the original configuration (0) and actually improves with respect to the original design in positions +10/+20/+30 m.; it should also be noted that the value of the installation height has been calculated for the single lighting appliance and that consequently, in a real plant, consisting of various appliances, this value is definitely higher.
 
     The technical characteristics of the lighting appliance with a reduced encumbrance, for industrial environments, according to the present invention, appear evident from the above description, as also the advantages. 
     In particular, among these, the following can be mentioned:
     reduction in the encumbrance;   reduction in the warehouses;   reduction in the materials (raw materials and packagings);   reduction in the transportation and storage costs;   innovative design;   performances equal to market references;   easy installation and maintenance;   excellent quality/price ratio;   optimization in the production processes.   

     Finally, numerous other variants can obviously be applied to the lighting appliance in question, all included in the novelty principles inherent in the inventive idea. In the practical embodiment of the invention, the materials, forms and dimensions of the details illustrated can also obviously vary according to the demands and can be substituted with other technically equivalent alternatives.