Patent Application
20130314909
1. Technical Field
The invention relates to pavement markers, particularly to reflective and luminous pavement markers.
2. Related Art
Although such a pavement marker is relatively great, it is a purely passive marker which only can reflect incident light and cannot emit light to serve as a luminous marker. Currently luminous markers need external electric power. This means power lines must be buried under the roads on which the luminous markers are installed. Obviously, this must destroy roads and will cost a lot.
An object of the invention is to provide a pavement marker, which can both reflect incident light and independently emit light.
To accomplish the above object, the pavement marker of the invention includes a housing and a unidirectionally reflective/light-penetrative panel (URLPP) covering the housing to form an inner space and having a central hole. A rechargeable battery, a circuit board with LEDs and a generator are received in the inner space. The circuit board and generator electrically connect to the rechargeable battery. The generator has a spindle penetrating the central hole. The propeller is fixed to the spindle. The generator and the propeller constitute a wind generator to charge the rechargeable, outer lights projected onto the URLPP will be reflected, and beams emitted by the LEDs will penetrate through the URLPP.
Please refer to
The URLPP 6 is of a round shape and covers the round portion of the housing 1 to form an inner space 14. The URLPP 6 is provided with a reflective side 62 which can reflect incident light from the outside and a light-penetrative side 63 which permits light from the inside to penetrate through. The reflective side 62 faces outwards so it can reflect light from the outside. Further, the URLPP 6 has a central hole 61.
The generator 7 has a spindle 70 penetrating the central hole 61 and is electrically connected to the rechargeable battery 9 for charging it. The propeller 5 is fixed to the spindle 70 with a nut (a) and has a plurality of blades. The battery room 11 is provided with cover 110 which is fastened by a screw (b) as shown in
The base 13 of the housing 1 is used for being mounted on a road. The generator 7 and the propeller 5 constitute a wind generator. The generator 7 charges the rechargeable battery 9 when the propeller 5 is blown by wind. Outer light projected onto the URLPP 6 will be reflected, and beams emitted by the LEDs 80 will penetrate through the URLPP 6 as shown in
In the shown embodiment, the circuit board 8 is composed of two separate pieces which are electrically connected by a wire 81.
Each blade of the propeller 5 is provided with a brush 50. These brushes 50 are in contact with the reflective side 62 of the URLPP 6, so they can brush away dust and dirt on the USLPP 6 when the propeller 5 is rotating. Preferably, length of each the brush 50 is shorter than that of each the blade to reduce friction.
Preferably, the propeller 5 is made of a transparent material for allowing the light from the LEDs 80 to penetrate through.
It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the above embodiment has been described by way of example only and not in any limitative sense, and that various alterations and modifications are possible without departure from the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the above embodiment has been described by way of example only and not in any limitative sense, and that various alterations and modifications are possible without departure from the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.
