BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention generally relates to portable lighting units suitable for providing lighting for spaces in which people may gather for various activities, including but not limited to social and entertainment activities such as outdoor fairs, amusement parks, concerts, and the like, commercial activities such as construction and industrial settings, and emergency scenarios.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides expandable portable light tower units and methods for their use.
According to one aspect of the invention, a portable light tower unit includes a base, an extendable and retractable tower assembly supported on the base, an expandable and collapsible canopy assembly supported by the tower assembly above the base, and a lighting assembly supported on the tower assembly above the canopy assembly. The canopy provides shade beneath the lighting assembly.
Technical aspects of light tower units as described above preferably include the ability to provide a mobile lighting unit for use in a wide variety of situations and applications, including entertainment, construction, industrial, and emergency scenarios. The light tower unit is configured to provide flood lighting to a large area and a canopy to provide shade beneath the lighting assembly. The light tower unit may also integrate seating, electronic device charging facilities, cooling fans, misters, accent lighting, and/or other accessories to further provide a comfortable rest and relaxation area for individuals beneath the canopy.
Other aspects and advantages of this invention will be further appreciated from the following detailed description.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIGS. 1 and 2 are perspective and front views of a portable light tower unit that integrates a canopy and seating units beneath the canopy in accordance with a nonlimiting embodiment of this invention.
FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the light tower unit of FIGS. 1 and 2.
FIG. 4 is a rear view of the light tower unit of FIGS. 1 to 3 with the canopy thereof omitted.
FIG. 5 is a detailed view of a canopy support arm assembly of the light tower unit of FIG. 4.
FIG. 6 is a top view of a base of the light tower unit of FIGS. 1 to 5.
FIGS. 7 through 10 are detailed views of upper and lower support plates of the light tower unit of FIGS. 1 to 6.
FIGS. 11 to 14 represent interlocking mechanisms for sequencing telescopic retraction of pole sections of the tower assembly.
FIGS. 15 and 16 represent receiving and anchor assemblies, respectively, of the interlocking mechanisms of FIGS. 11 to 14, and FIG. 17 depicts the interaction of the anchor and receiver assemblies of FIGS. 15 and 16.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
FIGS. 1 through 17 represent a portable light tower unit 10 and various components thereof. To facilitate the description provided below of the tower unit 10 and its components represented in the drawings, relative terms, including but not limited to, “vertical,” “horizontal,” “lateral,” “front,” “rear,” “side,” “forward,” “rearward,” “upper,” “lower,” “above,” “below,” “right,” “left,” etc., may be used in reference to the orientation of the unit 10 during its operation as represented in the drawings. All such relative terms are intended to indicate the construction and relative orientations of components and features of the tower unit 10, and therefore are relative terms intended to indicate the construction, installation and use of the invention and therefore help to define the scope of the invention.
FIGS. 1 and 2 represent the portable light tower unit 10 as comprising a base 12, an extendable and retractable tower assembly 14 supported on the base 12, an expandable and collapsible canopy assembly 16 supported by the tower assembly 14 above the base 12, a blind 20 beneath the canopy assembly 16 for enclosing or otherwise at least partially concealing the base 12 and a portion of the tower assembly 14, and a lighting assembly 18 supported on the tower assembly 14 above the canopy assembly 16. FIGS. 1 and 2 further show the light tower unit 10 as comprising seating units 22 that surround the base 12 beneath the canopy assembly 16.
The lighting assembly 18 may be any of a wide variety of lighting equipment, though in preferred embodiments the lighting assembly 18 comprises LED lights capable of producing sufficient lumens for the lighting demands of a space in which people may gather for an intended activity, including but not limited to social and entertainment activities such as outdoor fairs, amusement parks, concerts, and the like, commercial activities such as construction and industrial settings, and emergency scenarios. Notably, the canopy assembly 16 is located beneath the lighting assembly 18 to provide shade from light emitted by the lighting assembly 18, as well as shade from natural sunlight during daylight periods of the day. The lighting assembly 18 may draw electrical power that is delivered to the base 12 from a suitable external source, such as a local electric utility grid, and may be supplemented or replaced with batteries located on the base 12 to provide uninterrupted power to the lighting assembly 18 in the event of a power outage. As evident from FIGS. 1 and 2, the lighting assembly 18 comprises multiple lighting units 18A and 18B each comprising multiple vertical rows of LED lights that provide predominantly ornamental lighting, and a lighting unit 18C comprising larger LED flood lights located at the top of the lighting assembly 18 that are predominantly responsible for providing illumination lighting.
FIG. 3 depicts a cross-sectional view of the light tower unit 10 with the seating units 22 removed, which may be an alternative configuration to the seated configuration in FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. 3 reveals the tower assembly 14 as comprising multiple tube or pole sections 14A, 14B, 14C, and 14D that are assembled in a telescoping manner so that the uppermost pole section 14A is telescopically received in an upper intermediate pole section 14B immediately therebelow, which is telescopically received in a lower intermediate pole section 14C immediately therebelow, which in turn is telescopically received in the lowermost pole section 14D immediately therebelow. The lighting units 18A and 18B may be telescopically mounted on the same section of the tower assembly 14. For example, with the lighting unit 18B located above the lighting unit 18A when the tower assembly 14 is in the extended or deployed configuration seen in FIGS. 1 and 2, the lighting unit 18A surrounds the pole section 14B and the lighting unit 18B surrounds the pole section 14A. The lighting unit 18A can then be telescoped upward and into the lighting unit 18B so that the entire lighting assembly 18 surrounds only the uppermost pole section 14A to facilitate the collapsing of the tower assembly 14 into a retracted or stowed configuration, discussed below.
FIG. 4 represents the light tower unit 10 of FIGS. 1 through 3 with the lighting unit 18A retracted up into the lighting unit 18B and the blind 20 and a canopy 24 of the canopy assembly 16 omitted. The omission of the blind 20 reveals a pump 36 supported on the base 12 for providing hydraulic power for raising and collapsing the tower assembly 14, as discussed below. The omission of the canopy 24 reveals a collapsible support arm assembly 37 (FIGS. 4 and 5) comprising bows 38 that support the canopy 24 and braces 40 for actuating the bows 38 between a deployed position of the canopy 24 shown in FIGS. 1 to 5 and a collapsed position (not shown) in which the arms 38 are lowered. The base 12 is represented in FIG. 6 as generally square-shaped with lift pockets 26 on all four of its sides to allow the base 12 (with the tower assembly 14 attached thereto) to be moved with a fork truck or similar material handling device. FIG. 6 further depicts the base 12 as comprising four outriggers 28 shown as extending from corners of the base 12. The outriggers 28 can be configured to rotate outward from the corners of the base 12 and secured with an inner sleeve 30 secured to a fastening point on the base 12. The outward end of each outrigger 28 is equipped with a threaded screw jack 32, each of which extends downward into a socket on a ground pad 34. By extending the screw jacks 32 downward, the base 12 can be lifted off of the ground to level the tower assembly 14 and support the entire tower assembly 14 on the ground pads 34 at the outermost corners of the base 12.
As seen in FIG. 4, the tower assembly 14 is generally a vertical column supported on the base 12. As previously noted, the nonlimiting embodiment of the tower assembly 14 shown in the drawings comprises four telescoping pole sections 14A, 14B, 14C, and 14D, such that the tower assembly 14 has the aforementioned stowed and deployed configurations. The pole sections 14A, 14B, and 14C define upper movable pole sections that telescope upward from the lowermost pole section 14D, which is stationary and secured directly to the base 12. Transition of the tower assembly 14 between its stowed and deployed configurations can be performed with a conventional hydraulic cylinder system (not shown) powered and controlled by the pump 36 mounted on the base 12. The movable pole sections 14A, 14B, and 14C of the tower assembly 14 can be controlled to extend upward and retract downward through hydraulic cylinders (not shown) supplied by hydraulic fluid delivered by the operation of the pump 36. As a nonlimiting example, the tower assembly 14 may extend to a height in excess of 20 feet (about 6 meters). The lighting assembly 18 can be seen in FIG. 4 as mounted to the uppermost movable section 14A of the tower assembly 14.
The tower assembly 14 is preferably equipped with rollers 42 installed on support plates 44 mounted to the upper ends of the lowermost stationary pole section 14D and on the movable intermediate movable sections 14B and 14C, as represented in FIGS. 7 through 10. The rollers 42 engage the outer longitudinal walls of the pole sections 14A, 14B, and 14C to provide a low-friction interface therebetween to facilitate the telescopic movement of the movable pole sections 14A, 14B, and 14C relative to, respectively, the pole sections 14B, 14C, and 14D that telescopically receive them. Additionally, the rollers 42 are preferably manually adjustable relative to the vertical centerline of the tower assembly 14 to facilitate a centering effect and maintain proper clearances between the outer longitudinal walls of the pole sections 14A, 14B and 14C and the corresponding inner longitudinal walls of the pole sections 14B, 14C and 14D in which the former are received. The support plates 44 are shown as also serving as the pivot anchors for the bows 38 (FIGS. 7 and 8) and braces 40 (FIGS. 9 and 10) of the canopy assembly 16.
FIGS. 8 and 10 show the support plates 44 as mounted on platforms 46 rigidly secured to the upper ends of the pole sections 14B, 14C, and 14D. The platforms 46 and the pole sections 14B, 14C, and 14D to which they are secured are schematically represented in FIG. 11 with the support plates 44 omitted, and insets A, B, and C identified in FIG. 11 are shown in FIGS. 12, 13, and 14, respectively, to better illustrate the operation of sets of complementary interlocking mechanisms that are mounted on the platforms 46 to control the telescopic motion between telescoping pairs of the pole sections 14A, 14B, 14C, and 14D. As shown in FIGS. 11 through 14, the interlocking mechanisms are made up of an anvil assembly 50 and a receiver assembly 52 that cooperate to inhibit movement of a movable pole section 14A, 14B, and 14C from being retracted downward into the movable pole section 14B and 14C below it until that pole section 14B and 14C has been fully retracted into its telescopically-paired pole section 14C and 14D, respectively.
With reference to FIGS. 12 and 13, movement of the pole section 14B relative to the pole section 14C immediately below it is inhibited by a pin 54 (FIGS. 15 and 17) of the receiver assembly 52 on the platform 46 of the lower pole section 14C. The pin 54 engages a tubular sleeve or other suitable feature (not shown) in a wall of the upper pole section 14B, locking the pole sections 14B and 14C together and preventing the pole section 14B from being telescopically retracted into the pole section 14C. The pin 54 is biased into engagement with the pole section 14B by a spring 56, which prevents the pin 54 from disengaging the pole section 14B until the lower pole section 14C has been lowered to engage its receiver assembly 52 with the anvil assembly 50 of the stationary pole section 14D (FIG. 12). The pin 54 is disengaged from the pole section 14B as a result of complementary angled contact surfaces 58 and 60 on the anvil and receiver assemblies 50 and 52, respectively, which mechanically convert the vertical force of the retracting pole section 14C into a horizontal force which compresses the spring 56 and retracts the pin 54. When the receiver assembly 52 of the pole section 14C is fully engaged with the anchor assembly 50 of the stationary pole section 14D, the spring 56 is compressed and the pin 54 is sufficiently retracted to unlock the pole section 14B immediately above the receiver assembly 52, enabling the pole section 14B to be telescopically retracted into the pole section 14C. The same process then occurs between the receiver assembly 52 of the pole section 14B (FIG. 14) and the anchor assembly 50 of the pole section 14C (FIG. 13), with the pole section 14A remaining locked to the pole section 14B until the pole section 14B has been telescopically retracted into the pole section 14C, thereby disengaging the pin 54 of the pole section 14B from the pole section 14A. The use of the interlocking mechanisms ensures that when the tower assembly 14 is retracted, the telescopic retraction of the pole sections 14A, 14B, and 14C is sequenced so that the largest and lowest movable pole section 14C is retracted first, followed by the smaller pole section 14B immediately above it, and finally the smallest pole section 14A. When a movable pole section 14A, 14B, or 14C is deployed upward, the pins 54 of the interlocking mechanisms automatically re-engage the pole sections 14A and 14B above it, causing those movable pole sections 14A, 14B, and 14C to be temporarily locked together.
As noted above, the canopy assembly 16 is mounted to the tower assembly 14 via the support plates 44, which anchor the bows 38 and braces 40 of the canopy assembly 16 to the tower assembly 14. In the nonlimiting embodiment shown, the plates 44 are mounted to upper ends of the two lowest pole sections 14C and 14D, such that the canopy 24 is supported by the bows 38 that are pivotally connected to the upper support plate 44 attached to the movable pole section 14C, and the canopy 24 is fully expanded by the bows 38 through the action of the braces 40, which are pivotally connected to the lower support plate 44 attached to the stationary pole section 14D. The bows 38 and braces 40 of the support arm assembly are connected to the support plates 44 via mounting brackets arrayed around their circumference, from which the bows 38 and braces 40 pivotably extend for supporting the canopy as evident from FIGS. 2 through 5. To deploy the canopy assembly 16, the series of structural bows 38 are affixed to the mounting brackets of the support plate 44 mounted to the movable pole section 14C of the tower assembly 14. The canopy 24 is then affixed to the bows 38, after which the movable pole section 14C is raised to deploy the canopy 24 with the braces 40 connected to corresponding mounting brackets on the bows 38. Once the movable pole section 14C is fully extended, the braces 40 are utilized to secure the bows 38 in their extended positions with the supported canopy 24 in place, for example, if the upper ends of the braces 40 were already connected to corresponding mounting brackets on the bows 38 (for example, to assist in raising the bows 38), the lower end of each brace 40 is then secured to a corresponding one of the mounting brackets on the lower support plate 44 to yield the result shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. Alternatively, essentially the same procedure may be followed in reverse order. The upper and/or lower ends of each brace 40 are disconnected from their respective mounting brackets to stow the canopy 24 and disassemble the canopy assembly 16 prior to retracting the movable pole section 14C.
As represented in FIGS. 1 and 2, multiple seating units 22 can be individually placed around or installed on the base 12 of the light tower unit 10. Due to the portability aspect of the tower unit 10, the seating units 22 are preferably collapsible for transport or storage. The seating units 22 of FIGS. 1 and 2 are represented as foldable benches that provide places for users to sit. Transitioning from a sitting configuration to a folded configuration may entail the relocation of a single pin at opposite ends of each bench. The seating units 22 may further include charging stations for portable devices (cell phones, tablets, etc.), cooling fans, misters, accent lighting, or other accessories to further provide a comfortable rest and relaxation area for individuals beneath the canopy 24. Alternatively or in addition, such amenities may be associated with the base 12 and draw electrical power that is delivered to the base 12 and used by the tower unit 10 to provide electrical power to the lighting assembly 18.
While the invention has been described in terms of particular embodiments, it should be apparent that alternatives could be adopted by one skilled in the art. For example, the light tower unit 10 and its components could differ in appearance and construction from the embodiments described herein and shown in the drawings, functions of certain components of the light tower unit 10 could be performed by components of different construction but capable of a similar (though not necessarily equivalent) function, and various materials could be used in the fabrication of the light tower unit 10 and/or its components. In addition, the invention encompasses additional or alternative embodiments in which one or more features or aspects of different disclosed embodiments may be combined. Accordingly, it should be understood that the invention is not necessarily limited to any embodiment described herein or illustrated in the drawings. It should also be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed above are for the purpose of describing the illustrated embodiments, and do not necessarily serve as limitations to the scope of the invention. Therefore, the scope of the invention is to be limited only by the following claims.
Patent Application
20190309536
