The invention relates to an illumination apparatus comprising a plurality of external electrode fluorescent lamps having sufficient luminosity and brightness.
In the prior art, luminescent advertising lights have been manufactured using a neon sign lamp. Specifically, the advertising lights using the neon sign lamp embodies a variety of advertisements by manufacturing a plurality of neon sign lamps, connecting them in parallel with each other, attaching a switch to the lamps, installing a micro computer in the switch and then turning on and off the lamps in a pre-determined order.
However, it is required to manufacture the neon sign lamps to correspond to an outward form of the advertising lights having the diverse shapes when using the neon sign lamps. With regard to this, it is very difficult to technically adapt the outward form of the neon sign lamp to each shape of the advertising lights having the diverse shapes designed by an advertisement agent (for example, character or picture having a curve), and its expense is high. In addition, in this case, it is further necessary to connecting the neon sign lamps in parallel with each other and to cover the lamps with a material such as acryl used for the advertising lights. However, when the lamp is covered with the material, the emitted light is not brilliant since the neon sign lamp has a low brightness and thus an effectiveness of advertising is remarkably reduced.
In the mean time, a variety of fluorescent lamps such as external electrode fluorescent lamp (EEFL), LED fluorescent lamp and the like have been recently used as luminescent means substituting the neon sign lamp. In particular, the EEFL has such structure that an electrode is formed to an exterior of a discharge lamp rather than in the discharge lamp, contrary to the neon sign lamp having an electrode in a discharge space. The EEFL performs an alternating-type discharge that charged particles are accumulated on both ends in the discharge lamp and a plasma current alternately flows. Accordingly, since the electrode is prevented from directly interacting with the plasma in the EEFL, the EEFL has a long life. In addition, since the electrode is mounted to the exterior of the discharge lamp, it is easy to manufacture the EEFL. Meanwhile, the LED fluorescent lamp is a fluorescent lamp using a luminescent phenomenon occurring when applying a voltage to a semiconductor. It has such advantages that it is a small size, its lifespan is long and a power is less consumed since it directly converts an electric energy into a light energy.
However, it is difficult to design an outward shape of the EEFL to correspond to a shape of advertising lights, contrary to the neon sign lamp. In addition, although a luminosity of the EEFL is brilliant enough to be used for the advertising lights, it is difficult to make the EEFL large in character. Accordingly, it is required to solve an insufficiency of quantity of light resulting from the limitation of the small EEFL.
Technical Problem
Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the above problems. An object of the invention is to solve the problems of the manufacturing process of luminescent advertising lights manufactured by arranging straight-type external electrode fluorescent lamps (EEFLs), thereby easily performing an assembling process with regard to a mounting.
Another object of the invention is provide an illumination apparatus capable of exhibiting a sufficient brightness even though an EEFL is covered with a clear covering and embodying a generally large quantity of light even though each quantity of light of the EEFLs is small.
Still another object of the invention is to provide an illumination apparatus capable of easily connecting the EEFLs and maintaining a sufficient space between the fluorescent lamps to prevent electric wires from being shorted and entangled.
Yet still another object of the invention is to provide an illumination apparatus exhibiting an sufficient brightness even though an EEFL is covered with a clear covering wherein various colors are expressed with a single device.
Yet still another object of the invention is to provide an illumination apparatus having diverse shapes such as characters or images having bent parts wherein various colors are expressed with a single device and there is no difference of luminous intensities depending on locations.
Yet still another object of the invention is to provide an illumination apparatus comprising a plurality of external electrode fluorescent lamps capable of preventing electric wires connecting the EEFLs from being entangled and closely adhered to each other, thereby preventing breaking and short of the illumination apparatus.
Technical Solution
In order to achieve the objects, according to a first embodiment of the invention, there is provided an illumination apparatus comprising a plurality of external electrode fluorescent lamps connected with an electric wire into a belt shape. According to an embodiment of the invention, the external electrode is preferably covered with an insulating connector so that an electric shock due to an exposure of the external electrode can be prevented.
According to a second embodiment of the invention, there is provided an illumination apparatus comprising a plurality of external electrode fluorescent lamp sets, each set consisting of a plurality of external electrode fluorescent lamps each of which emits a different color of light; and a plurality of electric wires connecting the external electrode fluorescent lamps to each other, each of which emitting a same color of light. In addition, each of the EEFL sets may preferably consist of three EEFLs emitting red, green and blue lights.
According to a third embodiment of the invention, there is provided an illumination apparatus comprising: a plurality of external electrode fluorescent lamp sets, each set consisting of a plurality of external electrode fluorescent lamps; at least one pair of support members arranged to be opposite to each other so as to respectively support the external electrode fluorescent lamp sets and being formed with through-holes into which both ends of the external electrode fluorescent lamps are inserted; and electric wires formed on a side of the external electrode fluorescent lamp and electrically connecting one set of the external electrode fluorescent lamps to another set of the external electrode fluorescent lamps.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the plurality of external electrode fluorescent lamps constituting each of the external electrode fluorescent lamp sets may be a plurality of external electrode fluorescent lamps emitting different colors of lights, and the external electrode fluorescent lamps connected with each of the electric wires may emit a same color of light. In addition, the external electrode fluorescent lamps constituting each of the external electrode fluorescent lamp sets are preferably three external electrode fluorescent lamps emitting red, green and blue lights, respectively.
In addition, according to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the illumination apparatus of the third embodiment may further comprise a support plate having a rectangular shape formed between the pair of support members. Alternatively, the illumination apparatus may further comprise support plates perpendicularly extending from each lower part of the pair of support members toward the opposite support member and having insert recesses formed therein and an insert rod movably inserted between the insert recesses and regulating a width between the support plates. Additionally, the support member, the support plate and the insert rod are preferably made of a clear material such as silicon.
According to a fourth embodiment of the invention, there is provided an illumination apparatus further comprising a clip for fixing the electric wires in addition to the structure of the third embodiment. According to this embodiment, the clip may be structured to separately fix each of the electric wires or to bind and fix each of the wires into a single bundle.
According to a fifth embodiment of the invention, there is provided an illumination apparatus comprising: a plurality of external electrode fluorescent lamp sets, each set consisting of a plurality of external electrode fluorescent lamps; a pair of support members having a plurality of through-holes formed therein and arranged to be opposite to each other; sockets for inserting the external electrode fluorescent lamps, each of which being formed in each of the through-holes; and electric wires provided to a side of the socket and connecting the one set of external electrode fluorescent lamps to the another set of external electrode fluorescent lamps, wherein each of the through-holes is formed at positions corresponding to each other in each of the support members, wherein one end of the external electrode fluorescent lamp is inserted into the socket formed in the through-hole of the one support member and the other end of the external electrode fluorescent lamp is inserted into the socket formed in the through-hole of the other support member, and wherein the external electrode fluorescent lamps connected with each of the electric wires emit a same color of light.
In the illumination apparatus of the fifth embodiment, the plurality of external electrode fluorescent lamps constituting each of the external electrode fluorescent lamp sets may preferably emit different colors of lights, and the illumination apparatus may further comprise a plurality of electric wires connecting the external electrode fluorescent lamps emitting a same color of light. In addition, each of the external electrode fluorescent lamp sets may preferably consist of three external electrode fluorescent lamps emitting red, green and blue lights, respectively.
According to an embodiment of the invention, the illumination apparatus of the fifth embodiment may further comprise a support plate having a rectangular shape and provided between the pair of support members. Alternatively, the illumination apparatus may further comprise support plates perpendicularly extending from each lower part of the pair of support members toward the opposite support member and having insert recesses formed therein and an insert rod movably inserted between the insert recesses and regulating a width between the support plates. Additionally, the support member, the support plate and the insert rod are preferably made of a clear material such as silicon.
Additionally, the illumination apparatus of the fifth embodiment may further comprise a clip for fixing the electric wires wherein the clip may be structured to separately fix each of the electric wires or to bind and fix each of the wires into a single bundle.
Advantageous Effects
According to the invention, since a plurality of external electrode fluorescent lamps express a single character or image, it is possible to easily represent characters or images having diverse shapes, compared to the neon sign lamp expressing a single character or image with a single external electrode fluorescent lamp.
In addition, the illumination apparatus comprising the external electrode fluorescent lamps of the invention has a sufficient brightness even though the exterior of the external electrode fluorescent lamp is covered with a clear covering and can embody a sufficient quantity of light even though quantity of light of each external electrode fluorescent lamp is small.
Additionally, according to the invention, the external electrode fluorescent lamps are easily connected and the space of the fluorescent lamps is maintained to be sufficiently large, so that the short and entanglement of the electric wires can be prevented.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that the invention is not limited to the embodiments. In the following description of the present invention, a manufacture process known to those skilled in the art of an external electrode fluorescent lamp, an operation capable of being conventionally performed, and structures and operations of a known apparatus will be omitted.
An illumination apparatus according to a second embodiment of the invention is shown in
In addition, although it is shown that the EEFLs 11, 12, 13; 21, 22, 23; 31, 32, 33 are arranged to be spaced apart at a regular distance in the same plane, each distance between the EEFLs may be different as necessary.
In the mean time, in the illumination apparatus of the second embodiment, when the wires are different depending on the colors, the electric wires are overlapped, so that the wires are entangled and closely adhered to each other. Accordingly, there can a failure due to the breaking or short. In addition, in the above illumination apparatus, the EEFLs are sequentially arranged, then connected with the electric wires and covered with a proper material depending on characteristics of a product. When one or two EEFLs emit the lights, the residual EEFL is turned off. At this time, since the red-green-blue EEFLs are sequentially arranged, there occurs a difference of luminous intensities between the emitting part (lamp) and the non-emitting part. Therefore, circumferences of the EEFLs not emitting the light are seen to be dark as viewed from the outside of the illumination apparatus. In addition, when the EEFLs are arranged at a narrow distance so as to solve the problem of the difference of the luminous intensities, the problems of the entanglement and close adhesion of the electric wires become worse. Further, when the illumination apparatus is used for the advertising lights, the material covering the EEFL should be embodied into diverse shapes. However, when it is manufactured a extremely bent part, the electric wires cannot be sharply bent. Therefore, there is a limitation in the expression of the diverse shapes.
Hereinafter, an illumination apparatus according to a third embodiment of the invention will be described.
The illumination apparatus according to the third embodiment comprises a first EEFL set consisting of EEFLs 11, 12, 13, a second EEFL set consisting of EEFLs 21, 22, 23 and a third EEFL set consisting of EEFLs 31, 32, 33.
As can be shown in
In addition, the EEFLs 11, 12, 13 constituting the first EEFL set and the EEFLs 21, 22, 23 constituting the second EEFL set are connected to each other through the electric wires 61, 62, 63, and the EEFLs 21, 22, 23 constituting the second EEFL set and the EEFLs 31, 32, 33 constituting the third EEFL set are connected to each other through the electric wires 64, 65, 66.
Additionally, as shown in
According to the fourth embodiment of the invention, clips 70, 75 for fixing the electric wires 61, 62, 63; 64, 65, 66 connecting each of the EEFLs are provided. The wire fixing clip 70 comprises connecting parts 72, 73 respectively connected to sides of the support plates 51, 52 and a fixing part 71 to which the electric wires are fitted, so as to prevent a shake. Likewise, the wire fixing clip 75 comprises connecting parts 77, 78 respectively connected to sides of the support plates 52, 53 and a fixing part 76 to which the electric wires are fitted, so as to prevent a shake. In addition, the electric wires 61, 62, 63; 64, 65, 66 extending from the EEFLs are respectively coated with an insulating material and then combined into one. After that, the combined wires are fitted and fixed into recesses of the fixing parts 71, 76. Accordingly, it is possible to the breaking or short of the wires due to the movement or collision of the wires, even when the illumination apparatus is moved or shocked. In addition, in order to easily move the support plate and the EEFL set, the connecting parts 72, 73; 77, 78 are preferably made of a high elastic material.
Like this, when the electric wires are fitted and fixed into the recesses of the fixing parts 71, 76 of the clips 70, 75 so that the wires are not moved, the wires are prevented from being moved even when the illumination apparatus is moved or shaken due to the exterior environments. Accordingly, it is possible to previously prevent the difference of luminous intensities due to the electric wires and the breaking or short.
In the mean time,
The illumination apparatus according to the fifth embodiment comprises the first to third EEFL sets like the third embodiment. In the mean time, as shown in
In addition, as shown in
With the above structure, since the EEFL is inserted into the socket rather than the through-hole, the connection is easy and the stability is increased after the connection. In addition, since the electric wires are connected to the sockets rather than the EEFLs, even when the wires are disconnected from the socket, it is possible to easily perform a repair by replacing the socket only. Additionally, since the electric wires are connected to the socket and thus extended to the exterior through the support member, it is possible to prevent the entanglement of the wires and the short due to the entanglement.
Accordingly, since the width between the support members can be adjusted by regulating the length of the rod arbitrarily irrespective of the length of the EEFL, it is not required to differentiate the length of the support plate depending on the lengths of the EEFLs. In other words, this embodiment is advantageous to the mass production.
While the invention has been shown and described with reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
20-2004-0021647 | Jul 2004 | KR | national |
10-2005-0040536 | May 2005 | KR | national |
20-2005-0018477 | Jun 2005 | KR | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
---|---|---|---|---|
PCT/KR05/02437 | 7/27/2005 | WO | 1/19/2007 |