Patents Examined by Bao Truong
  • Patent number: 6394625
    Abstract: The invention relates to a combination of a light-emitting tubular device (25) and a support pillar (15) for retaining and electrically connecting the device, the light emitting device comprising a translucent outer sheath comprising braided filaments (8) and a light emitter (2) arranged within the tubular hollow body (1), the combination comprising retaining hooks (20, 36, 41) for retaining the device in the pillar, and power connectors (19, 26, 38, 43) for connecting the device and the pillar and providing power to the light emitter. The invention also relates to a light emitting device and a pillar for mounting the device with purposes of delimiting pedestrians walking areas, performing towing functions, rescuing activities, signaling.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 30, 2001
    Date of Patent: May 28, 2002
    Inventor: Edgardo Dante Demaria
  • Patent number: 6394621
    Abstract: A latching power switch for a light emitting diode (“LED”) flashlight is disclosed which includes a vessel comprising upper and lower components for receiving and containing a lithium cell battery, a means of using the anodic and cathodic leads from the LED, an aperture provided through the said vessel, and a switching mechanism comprising a rotating cam movable through the vessel aperture. The switching device comprises an on-off switch. The switch operates by rotating a biwire LED in which its leads are formed to surround a lithium coin cell power source. The LED wire leads pass through holes in an electrically nonconductive cam which has both a protuberance for operating the cam and a lobe for latching against a surface of the aperture through which it passes. The cam latches the wire leads against their proper corresponding coin cell surfaces thus activating the circuit and causing the illumination of the LED.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2000
    Date of Patent: May 28, 2002
    Inventor: William Henry Hanewinkel, III
  • Patent number: 6394637
    Abstract: A pivot structure of a vehicle lamp that is tiltably mounted on a vehicle body. The pivot structure includes: a fulcrum member that comprises a threaded shaft portion, a spherical portion and an operating portion; a screw receiving portion formed on the vehicle body so that the threaded shaft portion of the fulcrum member is screwed to the screw receiving portion; a pivot receiving member formed on a vehicle lamp so as to rotatably house the spherical portion of the fulcrum member; and a projecting wall that covers the operation portion of the fulcrum member and prevents the user from making an access to the operating portion with a rotating tool.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 2000
    Date of Patent: May 28, 2002
    Assignee: Koito Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Takao Watanabe, Naoki Kakiuchi
  • Patent number: 6382818
    Abstract: A lighting device includes a reflector, and a lens attached to a front open portion of the reflector. Cantilever-type elastic legs are formed on those portions of the lens respectively opposed to engagement holes in the reflector, and extend in a direction of the circumference of the lens. Engagement projections, for engagement in respective engagement holes, are formed at respective distal end portions of the elastic legs. When the lens is formed into a thin design, the length of the elastic legs in the circumferential direction is not limited, and each elastic leg can have a length sufficient to enable it to be elastically deformed so as to fit the engagement projection into the engagement hole. Therefore, the engagement projection can be positively and easily engaged in the engagement hole. Even if one tried to forcibly engage the engagement projection in the engagement hole, the elastic leg will not break.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 2, 2000
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2002
    Assignee: Koito Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Takafumi Iwama, Makoto Ito
  • Patent number: 6375339
    Abstract: A lighting apparatus which enables a shade to be easily attached, detached and rotated with a simple structure and an enhanced degree of freedom in design. Grooves 9,10 defining arc-shaped portions 15,16, respectively, are formed around an axis of a head 4, to which is mounted a fluorescent light bulb 7. A shade 8 which is formed with protrusions 17, 18 opposite to the grooves 9, 10 is mounted to the head 4 so as to cover the fluorescent light bulb 7. By pressing the protrusions 17, 18 of the shade 8 into the grooves 9, 10 of the head 4, the shade 8 can be very easily mounted to the head 4. By lifting up the shade 8 from the head 4, the shade 8 can be very easily removed from the head 4. In addition, the shade 8 can be rotated by allowing the protrusions 17, 18 formed on the shade 8 to slide along the arc-shaped portions 15, 16. As such shade 8 allows a simple integral structure, degree of freedom in designing a lighting apparatus can be enhanced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 3, 2000
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2002
    Assignee: Twinbird Corporation
    Inventors: Kaname Maruyama, Takashi Honda, Shuichi Taniguchi, Masahiko Hori
  • Patent number: 6375341
    Abstract: A bulb shield for use in an automotive headlamp assembly, and a method for making same. The bulb shield includes a cup portion and a portion which extends from the cup portion and is configured for mounting to a reflector of the automotive headlamp assembly or to another, proximate structure. When the bulb shield is mounted, the cup portion is preferably generally horizontally aligned with a headlamp bulb in the automotive headlamp assembly, thereby eliminating a “hot spot” which would otherwise be viewable when looking into the headlamp beam. Preferably, at least a portion of the cup portion of the bulb shield is electro-formed. Such a bulb shield is relatively inexpensive and easy to make, yet can withstand the high temperatures which are typically experienced in an automotive headlamp assembly. Additionally, such a bulb shield can be inexpensively provided, yet meet precision requirements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 2000
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2002
    Assignee: Elco Textron, Inc.
    Inventor: Ronald S. Denley
  • Patent number: 6371621
    Abstract: An improved flush-mount emergency light fixture (10) is provided having a housing (12) adapted for placement in a wall or ceiling aperture (20), an internal illumination assembly (16) and a selectively movable cover (14), in order to provide illumination during an emergency condition. The fixture (10) includes a servo-motor (74) and an operator (78) for controlled movement of the cover (14) between a closed position and a deployed illumination position. A floating hinge (54) couples the cover (14) to housing (12) and allows the cover to both pivot and translate relative to the housing (12) during cover movement.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 19, 2000
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2002
    Assignee: SPX Corporation
    Inventor: Vincent Victor Le Bel
  • Patent number: 6367958
    Abstract: An endoscopic device includes a dimming assembly having an array of segments which is successively insertable into a path of a light beam. The segments have outlines of different geometric shapes defining a configuration of a transmission region depending upon an angular position of the shaft.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2000
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2002
    Assignee: Karl Storz Endovision
    Inventor: Eric M. Jones
  • Patent number: 6367957
    Abstract: The invention is lighting that has at least one light-conducting rod, which features at least one light inlet surface and a light outlet surface, and a light source, wherein the light inlet surface is inclined with respect to the longitudinal axis of the light-conducting rod.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 2000
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2002
    Assignee: Valeo Beleuchtung Deutschland GmbH
    Inventors: Oliver Hering, Reiner Lendle
  • Patent number: 6354724
    Abstract: A line illuminating apparatus comprises a pair of irradiating units 12a, 12b of the same structure. The irradiating unit 12a. The light irradiating unit 12a includes a light source 14a, a first light guide 16a consisting of a large number of optical fibers, a light connector 18a, and three second light guides 20 (20a to 20c). The first light guide 16a permits the light emitted from the light source 14a to be incident as a slender rectangular light ray on the light connector 18a. The light emitted from the light connector 18a is divided by the three second light guides 20. Each light guide 20 is in the form of a thin plate, and the light emitting surfaces of the light guides 20a to 20f are arranged to define a imaginary semicylindrical plane surrounding the irradiating line L of work 28. The particular construction is effective for suppressing the loss of energy required for illumination. Also, the inspection is not adversely affected by the presence of, for example, an irregularity on the surface of the work.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 25, 2000
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2002
    Assignee: Kokusai Gijutsu Kaihatsu Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Shigeji Sakashita
  • Patent number: 6354719
    Abstract: The invention relates to a connecting structure of a light bulb holder, which is provided with an easy connecting design at the outside walls of the body for effective connecting with electric wires securely. The invention is particularly used in a net-type or a curtain-type decorative light string. By use of enough connecting strength, the bulb holders are able to connect with the wires in order that the complete decorative configuration can be obtained and remained perfectly.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 1999
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2002
    Inventor: Wun Fang Pan
  • Patent number: 6352357
    Abstract: A method for furnishing a perceptor with apparently continuous illumination over an extended target area, in which at any instant only part of said area is illuminated, but every part thereof is intermittently and repeatedly illuminated by discontinuous flashes. With regard to any one part of said target area, the flashes are repeated at time intervals not less than the decay period of the response elicited in the perceptor. The method is performed by means of a device which comprises a beam-generating arrangement (1) that focuses a beam of radiation (5) upon a rotatably-mounted light-deflector (6), which is rotated under control at a suitably high speed by mechanical means (9, 10, 11 and 12) so as repeatedly to illuminate a target area (15) with a narrow flash to radiation (16).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 2000
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2002
    Inventor: Leslie Adrian Alfred Woolard
  • Patent number: 6352353
    Abstract: This invention discloses a grape-type light bulb string which is consisted by a new winded skill to obtain a novel structure as grapes on a connecting wire with decorative lighting effect. The structure includes a main electrical wire a plurality of separated branch strings as a curtain-type lighting string, wherein a connecting wire of the branch string is provided with a set of several outward extended wires at a suitable interval thereof. A bulb assembly is connected at an end of each extended wire and each set of the outward extended wire with the bulb assembly becomes a unit as a connecting wire having mounted with many grapes thereon for obtaining a better lighting effect and improvement.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2000
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2002
    Inventor: Chun Ming Liu
  • Patent number: 6345906
    Abstract: The invention is a lamp (1) for motor vehicles, especially a rear lamp. The lamp includes a plurality of chambers each having a light source. The chambers are arranged adjacent to one another and each represents an illumination unit (3). Each illumination unit has a pot-shaped housing (6) with a light source. An opening of each housing is closed by a covering pane (7). The lamp is also provided with a locking device (13) with elements for fixing the illumination units to a common support (2).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 21, 2000
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2002
    Assignee: Hella KG Hueck & Co.
    Inventors: Johannes J. Bahne, Susanne Pfarr, Reiner Pohl
  • Patent number: 6341882
    Abstract: A light emitting circuit assembly includes a battery holder holding a battery set and a light emitting element installed in the battery holder, wherein the light emitting element has a first lead-out leg extended in vertical direction and retained between the negative terminal of the battery set and the battery chamber, and a second lead-out leg extended in horizontal, which is forced into contact with the positive terminal of the battery set when the battery holder is forced upwards relative to the light emitting element to curve the first lead-out leg, or disconnected from the positive terminal of the battery set when the upward pressure is released from the battery holder.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 2000
    Date of Patent: January 29, 2002
    Inventor: Mo-Hsin Lin
  • Patent number: 6328456
    Abstract: The present invention is directed to an LED lamp and method of using one or more lamps, and portable lighting products such as flashlights using such LED lamp(s). The LED lamp according to the invention provides uniformly distributed light that radiates spherically approximately 270° in all directions, both radially and axially. This newly designed lamp is ideally suited as a source of illumination for beam lights of the type employing reflective surfaces to produce a beam of light. The at least one chip is encased in at least one envelope surrounding the chip, with the envelope extending from a first position below the position of the at least one chip to a second position above the chip position. The second position of the envelope forms a lens in from of the at least one chip with the surface of the lens being configured and positioned relative to the ship such that a substantially uniform portion of light emitted from the chip is reflected off of the surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2000
    Date of Patent: December 11, 2001
    Assignee: Ledcorp
    Inventor: John V. Mize
  • Patent number: 6296373
    Abstract: An incandescent lamp for use in a reflector is provided. The lamp has an envelope having a longitudinal axis, at least one filament, and electrical lead-out wires. A metal support portion receives the envelope and a sleeved metal optical disc positions the filaments with respect to the reflector in a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis. The incandescent lamp has a plastic base anchoring the sleeved optical disc and including the electrical lead-out wires. A locking element, which is not separately formed, is used.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 1999
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2001
    Assignee: General Electric Company
    Inventors: Imre Gál, Attila Gonda, Tamás Torma, Miklós Valovics
  • Patent number: 6283607
    Abstract: A socket wrench including a handle, a socket, and a handle body which is provided at a front end thereof with a clamping cell having a pivoting slot. The pivoting slot is provided with a guide slot and a rotary member having a shaft rod and a light bulb opening in which an illuminating element is disposed such that two pins of the illuminating element extend toward the rotary member, and that two pins are connected with two conductive annular members which are fitted over the rotary member. The conductive piece of the plug body is extended into the clamping cell by an extension guide body which is forced by a resilient element to become attached to the conductive annular member of the rotary member, thereby enabling the rotary member to adjust an angle at which the illuminating element illuminates.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 2000
    Date of Patent: September 4, 2001
    Inventor: Chang-Ming Lin
  • Patent number: 6283624
    Abstract: A shade assembly for covering a lamp assembly of a headlamp is provided. The shade assembly mainly includes a shade holder and a shade seated on a number of anti-vibration supports provided on inner wall surface of the shade holder. The shade holder is also provided on its peripheral wall with a number of radially outward extended fork-headed legs that are adapted to engage with lugs provided on a lamp holder of the lamp assembly independent of the US or European specification of the lamp holder. Heated produced by the lighted lamp is allowed to dissipate from the shade via convection holes provided on the wall of the shade holder and a heat-diffusing hole provided on a top of the shade through the effect of air convection in the shade.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2000
    Date of Patent: September 4, 2001
    Inventor: Chin-Ming Tsai
  • Patent number: 6276819
    Abstract: An adjustable support device for a trouble light including a base member comprised of a cylindrical lower section and a rounded upper section. The cylindrical lower section has a lower end. The lower end has a notch extending upwardly thereof. The notch has a magnetic surface disposed thereon whereby the notch can be secured to a ferrous surface. The rounded upper section has a central channel extending downwardly thereof. The rounded upper section has a cross-bar extending laterally therethrough with a center section exposed within the central channel. A sleeve member is pivotally coupled with respect to the base member. The sleeve member includes a lower rod and an upper expandable cylindrical sleeve. The lower rod has a lower end having an aperture therethrough. The aperture receives the center section of the cross-bar of the base member therethrough. The lower rod has an upper end secured to the upper expandable cylindrical sleeve.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2000
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2001
    Inventor: Roger Gordner