Patent Description:
Due to most users of lighting fixtures becoming energy-saving conscious, as well as an increase in energy regulations, LEDs or light-emitting diodes is increasing in Demand. LEDs are designed to operate using a low voltage direct current and alternating current. When direct current types are used an LED driver must be used to convert the input alternating current to output direct current.

Because of the aforementioned issue of supplying low-rated voltage and the required direct current, it is necessary to include an LED driver, also known as an LED power supply with LED light fixture. LED drivers rectify higher voltages (120V) alternating currents into a lower voltage direct current. LED drivers come in two types: (a) an internal LED driver incorporated into the LED bulb; internal LED drivers are common in household bulbs, and (b) an external LED driver, as the name indicates, is not incorporated into the LED bulb or a bank of LED bulbs. External LED drivers are common with LEDs, such as, down lights, tape lights, cove lights, and general illumination fixtures for indoor and outdoor applications.

In recent years, the use of LED's has become prevalent in today's society, and are used in residential, industrial and commercial applications. It has been ascertained that external LED driver's life expectancy are reduced as a result of high internal operating temperatures. To circumvent such a problem, designers of LED drivers often include a heat sink to dissipate excess heat and prolong the life of the LED.

Currently, many LED drivers with electrical enclosures have a metal housing that use various techniques to ground the metal housing to earth and to the printed circuit board (PCB) such that Y-capacitors can be electrically connected. Some use separate grounding wires, some connect a clip that gets soldered into the PCB and then mechanically connects to the can cover which then connects to the base of the housing. However, the wire as well as the method of connecting from the PCB to the cover and then the base, create a relatively long path between the PCB and earth. This results in a relatively poor high frequency connection. The purpose of the grounding the PCB Y-capacitors to the earth is to reduce EMI emissions from the driver leads. If the grounding method does not provide a good high frequency path (e.g. too much inductance), then the Y-capacitors cannot properly filter these frequencies and poor EMC performance results. One method to overcome this long ground power is to directly bend up a piece of the housing base such that it protrudes through the PCB and can directly connect to a jumper wire on the PCB. This provides a method to get a very short, low inductance grounding path. However, this method requires a section of the base housing to be folded up, leaving a hole in the bottom of the metal housing. Adding a separate lose piece of metal to cover the hole is not desired and welding or riveting such a pieces adds additional cost and process steps in the manufacturing of the metal housing.

Moreover, some standards bodies also have restrictions on the size of housing openings in LED driver enclosures. For example, the North American ANSI / UL <NUM> standard is the Light Emitting Diode (LED) Equipment for Use in Lighting Products. The LED equipment includes not only LED drivers, but also LED modules, LED controllers, and so on.

North American ANSI / UL <NUM> standard states in part:
"Drivers that are not otherwise restricted by requirements in <NUM> may have openings as follows:.

To make the above method of directly bend up a piece of the housing base of the LED driver enclosure mechanically feasible, the hole must be roughly <NUM> x <NUM> in size which is larger than the allowed opening listed in the UL standards, for example. Prior art electrical enclosures are known from <CIT>, <CIT> and <CIT>.

The present invention relates to an electrical enclosure for a LED driver for mounting high-output LED drivers units, and other power supplies used in existing light fixtures, such as, for example, shoe-box parking lot fixtures, canopy fixtures, street light fixtures, flat panel fixtures, recessed and surface mounted types of fixtures. Specifically, the electrical enclosure provides efficient electrical grounding of the LED driver that is compliant with various industry standards.

The invention as defined in claim <NUM> is an electrical enclosure that comprises a base for housing an LED driver; the electrical enclosure includes an uncovered area open to the ambient surroundings that houses the LED driver, the base includes first and second sections/tabs that are respectively punched out and fold up to create openings in the base, wherein the second section's fold up portion/tab covers a portion of the opening created by the first section.

As provided above, the second tab is punched out and fold up in the housing base next to the fist opening created by the first tab (which can be larger than the second tab). In this manner, the larger opening (first section) is partially covered (with a strip of metal) by the second section. This effectively splits the opening in the housing base into <NUM> sections which separately both meet the UL requirements, for example. For larger openings, more sections can be used to split the hole into many sections, each meeting the hole size restrictions from the various standards bodies.

Additional features and advantages of the present invention are described in, and will be apparent from, the detailed description of the presently preferred embodiments and from the drawings.

In order to facilitate a full understanding of the present invention, reference is now made to the accompanying drawings, in which like elements are referenced with like numerals. These drawings should not be construed as limiting the present invention, but are intended to be exemplary and for reference.

The present invention will now be described in more detail with reference to exemplary embodiments as shown in the accompanying drawings. While the present invention is described herein with reference to the exemplary embodiments, it should be understood that the present invention is not limited to such exemplary embodiments. Those possessing ordinary skill in the art and having access to the teachings herein will recognize additional implementations, modifications, and embodiments, as well as other applications for use of the invention, which are fully contemplated herein as within the scope of the present invention as disclosed and claimed herein, and with respect to which the present invention could be of significant utility.

The present invention is an electrical enclosure for a LED driver for mounting high-output LED drivers units, which is used to attach the fixture housing. The electrical enclosure includes a base plate that has a front face with an opening for receiving integral splice/wiring for the LED driver and a plurality of holes for securing the LED driver to the electrical enclosure using screws or other fastening means.

In one embodiment and in reference to <FIG> shows a top perspective view of an embodiment of the electrical enclosure <NUM> used for an LED driver (not shown). The electrical enclosure <NUM> includes a substantially planar base <NUM> with a number of holes <NUM>, on each end (first end <NUM> and second end <NUM>) of the electrical enclosure <NUM> for securing the circuit board assembly into the housing (PCB standoffs) and for securing the housing to a fixture housing. For safely securing the electrical enclosure <NUM> to the fixture housing, either side of the electrical enclosure <NUM> may be securely mounted by screwing two screws. A cover snaps into the shown enclosure base (<NUM>) using snap features on the side walls (cover not shown).

The base <NUM> includes at least first and second sections/tabs (<NUM>, <NUM>) that are respectively punched out and are then fold up to create openings <NUM>, <NUM> in the base, wherein the second section's fold up portion/tab <NUM> covers a portion of the opening <NUM> created by the first section <NUM>.

The first and second section/tabs (<NUM>, <NUM>) can be any polygon shape, including circular, rectangular, triangle or square.

The second tab <NUM> is punched and fold up next to the housing base <NUM> and next to the fist opening <NUM> created by the first tab <NUM> (which can be larger than the second tab <NUM>). In this manner, the larger opening (first section/tab <NUM>) is partially covered (with a strip of metal) by the second section/tab <NUM>. This effectively splits the opening in the housing base into two sections which separately both meet the UL requirements, for example. For larger openings, more sections can be used to split the hole into many sections, each meeting the hole size restrictions from the various standards bodies.

Also shown in <FIG> a third section/tab <NUM> with a corresponding opening <NUM>. The third section/tab is added to mechanically support the end of the second section/tab <NUM> (e.g. metal strip) to ensure that it cannot be easily folded up. It can be just a few millimeters in size, just enough to grab the tip of the second section/tab and hold it in place. This third section/tab is optional depending on the mechanical strength of the folded second section/tab (<NUM>). In the exemplarity embodiment shown in <FIG>, a square is shown for the first section/tab (<NUM>) and a rectangular for section/tab (<NUM>). To meet the UL requirement, the openings must not exceed <NUM> millimeters (mm) (<NUM> inch) across/width and <NUM> (<NUM> in) in length. In this example, if the opening is <NUM> wide, a <NUM> strip of <NUM> or so could be used. This second section/tab (<NUM>) is folded over the opening made by the first section/tab (<NUM>) [6x8mm hole] as shown in <FIG>. All three openings satisfy the UL <NUM> standard requirements.

To make the above method of directly fold up a piece of the housing base of the LED driver enclosure mechanically feasible, the hole must be roughly <NUM> x <NUM> in size which is larger than the allowed opening listed in the UL standards, for example.

Advantageously, no addition material is used to cover the opening and no different fasteners (rivets or welding) are needed to cover a portion of the opening to comply with industry standards (in particular, for LED drivers that require high frequency grounding via the base of the LED driver housing and must meet the UL <NUM> hole size requirement).

Importantly, the base plate (<NUM>) is electrically coupled to ground and to a printed circuit board (PCB) of the LED driver, such that Y-capacitors can be electrically connected, using a jumper wire and one or of the openings created by the first (<NUM>) and second (<NUM>) sections/tabs. This provides very short, low inductance grounding path, without the need of adding a separate lose piece of metal to cover the hole.

<FIG> is a bottom view of the electrical enclosure <NUM> used for an LED driver (not shown). And shows the first, second and third sections/tabs <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM>, respectively, in an unpunched state.

It will be appreciated by one of skill in the art that an electrical enclosure for a LED driver of the present invention may be set up to safely and securely hold various size of LED driver cases and wattages.

Preferred embodiments of this invention are described herein, including the best mode known to the inventors for carrying out the invention. Variations of those preferred embodiments may become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading the foregoing description. The inventors expect skilled artisans to employ such variations as appropriate, and the inventors intend for the invention to be practiced otherwise than as specifically described herein. Moreover, any combination of the above-described elements in all possible variations thereof is encompassed by the invention unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context.

While several inventive embodiments have been described and illustrated herein, those of ordinary skill in the art will readily envision a variety of other means and/or structures for performing the function and/or obtaining the results and/or one or more of the advantages described herein, and each of such variations and/or modifications is deemed to be within the scope of the inventive embodiments described herein. More generally, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that all parameters, dimensions, materials, and configurations described herein are meant to be exemplary and that the actual parameters, dimensions, materials, and/or configurations will depend upon the specific application or applications for which the inventive teachings is/are used.

Claim 1:
An electrical enclosure (<NUM>) for an LED driver comprising:
a base plate (<NUM>) having substantially planar bottom surface, with a plurality of mounting apertures (<NUM>) on the base plate (<NUM>) on a first (<NUM>) and second (<NUM>) ends of the base plate (<NUM>, wherein a center portion of the base plate (<NUM>) between the first (<NUM>) and second (<NUM>) ends is opened allowing exposure to the surrounding ambient air;
at least one of the first and second ends having first (<NUM>) and second (<NUM>) sections/tabs that are respectively punched out and folded to create openings in the base,
said mounting apertures on the first (<NUM>) and second (<NUM>) ends of the electrical enclosure (<NUM>) providing for securement of the electrical enclosure (<NUM>) to a luminaire or other mounting surface, and said center portion for receiving the LED driver, characterized in that the second section's folded section/tab covers a portion of the opening created by the first section.