Patent Application
20050135108
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to drop lights and more particularly to an apparatus for securely hanging a drop light in a stable manner from an object at any desired orientation.
2. Description of Prior Art
Drop lights are conventionally used to illuminate otherwise difficult to light work areas. Commonly used to light the underside of a car or engine compartment, drop lights represent portable light for hard to reach areas. These drop lights are equipped with a fastening device, usually a rigid hook, to hang the drop light from a suitable object in proximity to the work area. Drop lights consist of an electric light, either fluorescent or a traditional filament bulb, protected by a shield and cage and mounted to a handle. Power is supplied from an extension cord and routed through the handle or housing to light the bulb.
Finding a suitable structure to hang a drop light from is a significant problem. Drop lights very frequently fall from the object they have been hanged from. Often, the object which the drop light has been hanged from does not adequately lend itself to support with respect to the geometry of fastening device, or hook. Furthermore, if a suitable object is available it may not be in the correct location or orientation to illuminate the desired area. Often times an individual is left with an unstable mounting and poorly lit work area with a drop light directing light into their eyes. An insecure mounting often exists when the hook does not sufficiently loop around the mounting object. Under these conditions the drop light is not hooked to its mounting object but rather balanced on it. When a drop light is insecurely mounted it subsequently falls, resulting in failure of the bulb. Special light bulbs are sold, known as rough service bulbs, which are usually required for drop lights due to the very common occurrence of dropping a drop light.
It is imperative that a drop light be securely fastened and oriented in such a manner as to illuminate the work area to an acceptable degree while shielding the eyes of the user. The common fastening system, a rigid hook falls short due to its inability to grasp many objects, lack of stability, and its fixed orientation. It would therefore be highly desirable for a drop light to consist of a hanging system which affords the user as much freedom of choice with respect to mounting objects as possible. Providing the user both stable, convenient and adequately located mounting opportunities.
In an attempt to alleviate these problems several prior art inventions have been equipped with apparatus and schemes to provide adjustable hooks. For example U.S. Pat. No. 5,713,658 to Stranagan provides a rotatable hook and mount which attaches to and holds a fluorescent drop light at a desired angle. To adjust the hook, a threaded nut is loosened allowing the user to orient the hook to one of several slots on the mount. Once the desired location is reached the nut can be retighten securing the light. However, this approach relies on the availability of an acceptable feature within range of the work area to secure the hook to and requires significant apparatus and effort to adjust orientation.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,213,412 awarded to Ciallella discloses a hook assembly and a magnet that are alternatively selectable. A removable and replaceable cap is provided that contains a hook. When the magnet is used to hang the drop light, the cap is removed and the magnet is employed. In order to use the hook, the removable cap must be replaced and the drop light can be hung from the hook. Although, this disclosure attempts to address the fundamental problem of finding suitable mounting surfaces it does not sufficiently do so. Magnets require flat, rigid, and magnetic surfaces to adequately support weight. These conditions rarely exist in a sufficient manner as to facilitate the support of a drop light, under the conditions in which they are used. Often, magnetic surfaces are not flat or are not within an acceptable range of the work area. Furthermore, a surface that would be in proximity to the work area may not be magnetic at all. The implementation of the hook has all the shortcomings as described above and in this application, a removable hook could be lost leaving only the magnet for support.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,305,120 to Lacinski provides a means for a rotatable hook positioned at the top of a drop light. This hook can be rotated by means of a complicated apparatus integrated to the support structure of the hook. U.S. Pat. No. 5,568,968 to Jaramillo provides a hook apparatus integrated with a magnet. This system is connected to the drop light by a sliding track allowing for orientation adjustment of the hook and magnet. These disclosures provide means to adjust the orientation of the hook, or magnet, by relatively complicated means involving several components and mechanisms. However they still fail to address the overriding problem of obtaining a suitable mounting object and providing a stable fastening device.
None of the above inventions taken either singly or in combination tend to solve the overriding problem of suitably supporting a drop light in proximity to a work area with the desired illumination effect from any available mounting object. All of the above mentioned applications fall short of the objective in one or all of the following conditions:
The present invention provides an improved, convenient, simple, cheap and light weight hanger system for securing a drop light. The improvement is that a drop light can be attached to a wider range of objects at any desired orientation in a stable and secure manner. Objects, which would have previously been found unacceptable for suspension of drop light, can now easily be utilized.
Accordingly several objects and advantages of the present invention are:
Further objects and advantages will become apparent from a consideration of the ensuing drawings and description.
The invention will be better understood with respect to the above objects as well as objects other than those explicitly detailed above after a study of the following description.
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Operation—
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It will occur to those skilled in the art that many modifications and variations of hanger system 10 may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. Some of these will be discussed.
It would be possible to mount hanger system 10 to a location on drop light 16 other than the top, increasing the possibilities for orientation of drop light 16. It would also be possible to provide a means to remove and relocate hanger system 10 to several locations on drop light 16, further increasing the potential for orientation. Also the number, spacing, precise geometry, flexibility and strength of flexible hangers 12 with respect to their integration with hanger system 10 could be varied in order to optimize the griping capability of the hanger system 10. It would also be possible to integrate hanger system 10 into variations of the form of drop light 16, such as a fluorescent type drop light. Combination of hanger system 10 with any of the prior art inventions would also be possible. It would also be possible to integrate hanger system 10 into a wide variety of objects or articles whereby the overall object of hanger system 10 would benefit such an object.
Advantages
From the description above a number of advantages for the invention disclosed herein can become evident. This invention provides an improved hanger system for drop lights, which is superior to previous art in the following areas;
Although the description above contains many specifics these should not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention but merely providing illustrations of some of the presently preferred embodiments of the invention. The specific make-up and shape of the hanger system could be varied as to optimize performance. Examples given above and depicted in the accompanying figures illustrate flexible hangers as following the general shape of a hook. It may be discovered through empirical means that a slightly different shape performs best. The hanger system described herein could be integrated to a wide variety of objects whereby they would benefit from its application.
Thus the scope of this invention should be determined by the appended claims and their legal equivalents, rather than be the examples given.
