IL181954A

IL181954A - Flexible tubular light

Info

Publication number: IL181954A
Application number: IL181954A
Authority: IL
Original assignee: He Shan Lide Electronic Entpr
Priority date: 2004-10-12
Filing date: 2007-03-15
Publication date: 2010-05-17
Also published as: HU3450U; CA2579466C; WO2006039839A1; AT10294U1; IL181954A0; RO122649B1; HU0700074V0; CA2579466A1; TR200701911T1

Description

81954 ρ'τι I 453341 τηκ nw>m ΪΙ>*Μ>* rniNin A FLEXIBLE TUBULAR LIGHT He Shan Lide Electronic Enterprise Company Ltd. 1 A FLEXIBLE TUBULAR LIGHT 2 1. Field of the Invention 3 The present invention relates to a decorative illumination, and more 4 particularly to an improved flexible tubular light to simulate a neon light that has continue, uniform, colorful and soft l ight. 6 2. Description of Related Art 7 The available flexible tubular lights used as illumination have already been 8 widely used in gardening art, commercial ads and decorations for backyards, etc. The 9 advantages of the flexible tubular lights are that the flexible tubular lights are produced by automatic production, have low manufacturing cost, are easily bent when applied, 1 1 can be connected and cut to extend and shorten the length, are durable for impact, are 12 safe and reliable, can be design as the decorating pattern as client's requirements. The 13 decorative effects of the flexible tubular lights are wonderful and changeable. 14 However, the disadvantages of such flexible tubular lights are obvious, which involves discontinuous illumination, no uniform light rays, not as the light effect as a neon light. 16 The reason that the flexible tubular lights cannot as continuous and uniform as neon 17 light is because that the illuminating elements inside the flexible tubular light are 1 8 multiple single point lights such as mini-bulbs or LEDs mounted and arranged i 1; separately. 0 The reason why neon lights are used as decorative illuminating elements is 1 because that they have vivid color, diversity in colors, evenly distributed and soft 2 lights. Therefore, the neon lights are widely used in doors, signs, bulletin board, 3 dancing clubs, bars, pubs and outer walls of a building, etc. However, the fatal 4 disadvantages of the neon lights are that the electricity consumption rate is high, the voltage is high, the cost is high and the outer glass tube is easily broken, is difficult to repair and transportation, cannot be bent to change configuration, cannot be cut, need professional technician to install and repair, are not easy to be preserved, and are not safe. Therefore, people seek for a light to replace neon light for many years.

For example, someone used to take flexible tubular light to replace neon lighl. A plastic flexible tubular light (or called soft neon light) is introduced to the market. The plastic flexible tubular light uses light emitting diodes (LED) as the illuminating elements to avoid large electricity consumption rate, difficulty in maintenance, fragility and large voltage requirement. Because of the improvements, the improved flexible tubular light is bendable, extendable and has adaptability to adapt to different shape requirements. However, because the interval between the adjacent LEDs is greater, the light emitted from each LED is not continuous, which makes the improved flexible tubular light impossible to reach the neon light effect. To solve the problem, a translucent cover is attached to the outer periphery of the flexible tubular light to nebulize the light from the LEDs to as to create a foggy effect the same as that of a neon light. However, adding in the translucent cover to the outer periphery of the flexible tubular light increases the manufacture cost. Further, after the addition of the translucent cover, the flexible tubular light is not bendable and loses its adaptability to shape change.

A different flexible tubular light made of acrylic resin is introduced to the market, which is able to be bent after being heated and the light bean is soft and continuous, a perfect replacement for the neon light. But still, this kind of flexible tubular light is fragile in room temperature. More over, this kind of flexible tubular light adopts soft circuit board as the electric connection media among elements and employs a process to fill in the enclosing material to position the elements onboard the circuit board, which increases the manufacture step and cost dramatically.

With reference to Fig. 12, a conventional flexible tubular light has an elongated plastic core ( 1 10), two wires (120, 130), multiple longitudinal holes (140) or multiple transverse holes ( 150a, 150b, 150c, 150d, 1 50e) to receive therein multiple bulbs (160a, 160b, 160c) and connection wires ( 170a, 170b) connecting each bulb ( 160a, 160b, 160c). A transparent cladding layer (180) is then formed outside the core. If the core of the conventional flexible tubular light receives the light sources in the longitudinal holes and the directions of the light sources align with the axis of the core, the conventional flexible tubular light is called the Horizontal-Type. If the core of the conventional flexible tubular light receives the light sources in the transverse holes and the directions of the light sources are perpendicular with the axis of the core, the conventional flexible tubular light is called the Vertical -Type.

US Pat. No. 4,607,317 issued on August 19, 1986 discloses an invention called "non-neon light". The invention is the Vertical-Type flexible tubular light as previously described. It is with better safety, packaging, installation, use and maintenance features than any other existing neon light. However, the invention cannot solve the shortcoming that the light from the point light source is not continuous. That is, this flexible tubular light still uses the LEDs as the light source without any modification to soften the dotted-effect of the LEDs.

US Pat. No. 6,186,645B 1 issued on February 13, 2001 discloses an invention called flexible lighting system and mounting arrangement. The invention is a Horizontal -Type flexible tubular light having the capability to scatter the light from the LEDs. However, the light from the LEDs is not sufficiently softened and thus still does not emit a soft and continuous light when compared with a neon light in the market.

US Pat. No. 6,565,251 B2 issued on May 20, 2003 discloses an invention called tubular decoration light string. The invention is an improved Horizontal-Type flexible tubular light having a core and a cladding outside the core. The core and the cladding may have different shapes such as circular, square, oval or even wave-like. At least one longitudinal space may be defined between the core and the cladding so that the at least one longitudinal space may be filled with insulation fluid to improve the light scattering and reflection. Although this flexible tubular light claims to have the capability to emit a soft and continuous light effect as that of a neon light, there is no definite structure to show how the light is reflected and/or refracted.

The primary objective of the present invention is to provide an improved flexible tubular light using a cladding to scatter the light from the light emitting diodes to present a soft and continuous light. Further, the improved flexible light can be connected and cut to extend and shorten the length In order to accomplish the aforementioned objective, the flexible tubular light of the present invention includes: A core is extruded by a soft material and has two main wires received oppositely in one side of the core and multiple transverse holes formed separately in the other side of the core.

Multiple light emitting diodes (LEDs) connects to each other by connecting wires and connects to at least one current limiting resistance. The first and last connecting wires are connected to the main wires. The LEDs, the connecting wires and the current limiting resistance are mounted in the corresponding transverse holes.

A milky and translucent scattering body has a predetermined height and a predetermined width, has the same length with, the core and is on the top of the LEDs to scatter light emitting from the LEDs.

A cladding layer is extruded by a soft plastic, has the same length with the core and covers the core, the scattering body and the LEDs. The cladding layer has an arcuate top surface covering the LEDs.

The flexible tubular light of the present invention further has an LED driver formed with the wires. The LED driver may be an alternating current to direct current converter (AC to DC converter) or an LED current pulse driver.

The scattering body of the present invention preferably is extruded, has the same length with the cladding layer, is milky and translucent, is made of PVC (polyvinyl chloride), is integrated with the cladding layer and has a longitudinal hole. The core of the present invention has an inverted trapezoidal recess corresponding to the top of the LEDs.

The flexible tubular light of the present invention has the effect of even and continuous light rays, simulating the neon light, and can be mass-produced continuously and automatically with low cost.

In hejliaayjngs; Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing the flexible tubular light of the present invention; Fig. 2 is a cross sectional view taken from line A-A of Fig. 1 showing the internal structure of the flexible tubular light of the present invention; Fig. 3 is a schematic perspective view showing the formation of a cladding outside the core and the scattering body on lop of the core; Fig. 4 is a schematic view showing the light effect from the flexible tubular light of the present invention; Fig. 5 is a perspective view showing the second embodiment of the flexible tubular light of the present invention; Fig. 6 is a cross sectional view of the flexible tubular light taken from line B-B of Fig. 5; Fig. 7 is a perspective view of the second embodiment of the flexible tubular light of the present invention extruded from an extrusion machine; Fig. 8 is a schematic view showing the light effect from the flexible tubular light of the second embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 9 is a perspective view showing another embodiment of the flexible tubular light of the present invention; Fig. 10 is a cross sectional view taken from line C-C of the flexible tubular light in Fig. 9; Fig. 1 1 shows three different structures inside the core of the present invention; Fig. 12 is a perspective view of a conventional flexible tubular light; and Fig. 13 is a schematic view showing the application of the flexible tubular light of the present invention.

Tn the preferable embodiment Referring to the Figures, Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing the flexible tubular light of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a cross sectional view taken from line A-A of Fig. I showing the internal structure of the flexible tubular light of the present invention and Fig. 3 is a schematic perspective view showing the formation of a cladding outside the core and the scattering body on top of the core.

The manufacturing process of the flexible tubular light in accordance wit the present invention as described below. Two copper main wires (O l a, 01b) pass the extrusion machine (not shown). The extrusion machine automatically continually extrudes a core (02). The core (02) is made of soft and opaque plastic, usually soft and opaque white or other colors PVC. The main wires are mounted in the core, The flexible tubular light may have two, three or four main wires.

The core (02) has multiple transverse holes (03a, 03b, 03c, 03d) defined in a side of the core (02) to respectively receive therein light emitting diodes (LEDs) (04a, 04b). The main wires (O la, 01 b) are received in the other side of the core (02) opposite to the transverse holes (03a, 03b, 03c, 03d). The transverse holes may form a column, two columns or three columns.

As can be seen from Fig. 12 that the transverse holes (150a, 1 50b, 150c, 1 50d, 150e) and the light bulbs (160a, 160b, 160c) with the leads (170a, 170b) of the light bulbs are arranged between the main wires (120, 130). However, from the depiction shown in Figs. 1 and 2, it is to be noted that because the two main wires (Ola, 01b) are on one side in the core (02) and the transverse holes (03a, 03b, 03c, 03d) are on the other side of the core (02), when the flexible tubular light is bent as shown in Fig, 13, the stretching force to each main wire (Ola, 01b) is the same so that difficulty in bending the flexible tubular light and breakage of the main wires (O l a, 01b) are avoided.

Due to the low energy consumption rate, low temperature, high brightness, and compact of the LED, the amount of the LEDs in the flexible tubular light of the present invention is increased and the distance between adjacent LEDs is shorten without over-heating to enhance the brightness of the flexible tubular light. As a result the brightness of the flexible tubular light to exceed the neon light is doable. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the diameter of the LED is 3 to 5 mm and the brightness of the LED is about 200 mcd (milli-candela). The distance between adjacent transverse holes is about 1/2 inch.

When the core (02) is formed, the LEDs (04a, 04b) are received in the transverse holes (03a, 03c) in the core (02). Multiple transverse holes (03b, 03d) are between the adjacent LEDs (04a, 04b) to receive connecting wires (05) or current-limiting resistances (06). The connecting wires (05) connect the LEDs in series connection. The first connecting wire (07) and the last wire (not shown) of the LED series string respectively connect to the main wires (Ola, 01b) in the core (02).

When the LED series string is filled with the core (02), the core (02) with a milky translucent element, which is a scattering body (08), pass through a through hole (21) in the extrusion machine (20). With reference to Fig. 3, a soft plastic (22), e.g. transparent PVC, is extruded and covers the core (02) and the scattering body (08) to form a cladding layer (14) having the same length with the core (02). The cladding layer ( 14) has an arcuate top surface mounted on top of the scattering body (08) and the LEDs (04a, 04b) to simulate the light-emitting surface of the neon light.

Furthermore, when the core (02) and the scattering body (08) pass through the through hole (21 ) in extrusion machine (20), the scattering body (08) must above the LEDs (04). Therefore, the LEDs (04) should located below the scattering body (08) and preferably below the center line of the scattering body (08). This is the ordinary skill of the art and unnecessary details are not described here.

Because the core (02) is made of opaque plastic, the light of the LEDs cannot emit through the two sides of the core (02) when the LEDs mounted in the transverse holes in the core. Therefore, the opaque core can shade the sidelight of the LEDs (04). Thus, the lights of the LEDs (04) only emit from the top through the scattering body (08).

It is noted from the teaching that the width and height of the scattering body (08) are related to the brightness and the emitting angle of the LEDs. If the LEDs have higher brightness or greater emitting angle, the height and the width of the scattering body is greater. If the LEDs have lower brightness or smaller emitting angle, the height and the width of the scattering body is smaller. The greater the width and the height of the scattering body, the weaker the brightness of the tubular light in accordance with the present invention but the point light effect is eliminated more. The smaller the width and the height of the scattering body, the stronger the brightness of the tubular light in accordance with the present invention is but the point light effect is eliminate less. In preferable embodiment of the present invention, each LED has a diameter of 3 to 5 mm, a brightness of 200 mcd and an emitting angle of 45 degrees. The distance between the adjacent transverse holes is 1/2 inch. The scattering body (08) has a height (H) of 14 mm and a width (L) of 8 mm as shown in Fig. 2. With reference to Fig. 4, the lights emitting from the LEDs are refracted by the cladding layer (14) and is refracted and diffused by the scattering body (08). The edges of the lights of the adjacent LEDs (04a, 04b, 04c, 04d) are overlapped to form overlap sections (12). The overlap sections (12) enhance the brightness of the edge of the LEDs to almost equal to the central section of the LEDs. Therefore, the top of the LEDs (04), which is the arcuate top surface (10) of the cladding layer (14), emits the continued and uniform light as the neon light.

When the cladding layer is formed, the main wires (Ol a, 01b) are connected electrically to a power supplying cable ( 1 1 ). The connecting section is covered by a plastic shel l, which forms a connection (12) as shown in Fig. 1. The ends of the core (02) and the cladding layer ( 14) are covered by a plastic shell, which forms a plug ( 13). This is the ordinary skill of the art and unnecessary details are not described here.

In order to enhance the lighting effect of the present invention, an LED driver ( 15) is injected modeling on the power supplying cable ( 1 1) as shown in Fig. 1. The LED driver may be an AC to DC inverter to provide direct current to the LEDs to stabilize the light of the LEDs and to eliminate flashing of the LEDs. The inverter usually comprises four diodes to rectify or other more precise rectified structures. This is the ordinary skill of the art and unnecessary details are not described here. The LED driver may be a current pulse driver to provide current pulse to the LEDs to enhance the light efficiency of the LEDs and to decrease the power cost. Therefore, the LED provides brighter light when the power cost is the same. Further, the brightness of the flexible tubular light is enhanced.

A second embodiment of the present invention is shown in Figs. 5, 6 and 7, the scattering body is not pre-manufactured when the LED string is filled with the core (02). The scattering material is integrated with the cladding material and extruded by the extrusion machine ( 16) when the core (02) passes the through hole (17) in the extrusion machine ( 16), which forms a scattering body (09) on the top of the core (02) and forms cladding layers (1 1) on the bottom and two sides of the core (02). The material ( 19) used to make the scattering body (09) and the cladding layer ( 141 ) is a soft, milky and translucent plastic, especially a soft, milky and translucent PVC. The scattering body (09) on the top of the core (02) has a height (H) of 14 mm and a width (L) of 8 mm.

With further reference to Fig. 8, the lights of the LEDs are diffused and refracted by the scattering body (09). The edge of the lights of the adjacent LEDs (04a, 04b, 04c, 04d) are overlapped to form overlap sections (121). The overlap sections (12) enhance the brightness of the edges of the LEDs to almost equal to the central section of the LEDs.

A third embodiment is shown in Figs. 9 and 10, wherein a passage (091) is defined axially in the scattering body (090) on top of the core (02) to save materials, The scattering body (090) and the cladd ing layer ( 141 ) are integrated and extruded. Due to the scattering effect of air inside the passage (091) being inferior to the scattering body, the height (HI ) and the width (L 1 ) of the scattering body (090) on top of the core (02) in the embodiment disclosed in Figs. 9 and 10 should be larger than the height (H) and the width (L) of the scattering body (09) in the embodiment disclosed in Figs. 5 and 6. As the size of the passage (091) changes, the height (HI) and the width (LI ) of the scattering body (090) should be changed correspondingl .

With reference to Fig. 11, the core (020) has an inverted trapezoidal recess formed in the core (020) and corresponding to the top of the LEDs (04). The inclined sides of the inverted trapezoidal recesses in the core (020) reflect and condense the lights emitting from the LEDs (04). Therefore, the lights from the LEDs can only be emitted from the arcuate top face ( 10), which is able to emit a continuous and soft light the same as a neon light. The three cross sectional views, Al-Al , Bl-B l, Cl-Cl respectively represent the first, the second and the third preferred embodiment of the present invention.

With reference to Fig. 13, the flexible tubular light of the present invention is employed to simulate a neon light with the form of the word "OPEN". When in application, the flexible tubular light is suitably cut to have appropriate length respectively. Then the clamp (30) is used to firmly secure the sections of the flexible tubular light onto the board (31 ). From the top face (10) of the flexible tubular light, it is noted that the light is continuous so as to emit a soft and continuous lighting effect, which is the same as that emitted from a neon light. Furthermore, due to the simple production process, the manufacture cost is low and there is no problem to mass production.

Claims

WHAT TS CLAIMED TS:

1. A flexible tubular light characterized in that: a core extruded by a soft material and having two mam wires received oppositely in one side of the core and multiple transverse holes formed separately in the other side of the core; multiple light emitting diodes (LEDs) connecting to each other by connecting wires and connecting to at least one current limiting resistance to form an LED string, wherein the first and last connecting wires are connected to the main wires and the LEDs, the connecting wires and the current limiting resistance are mounted in corresponding transverse holes; a milky and translucent scattering body has a height and a width, having the same length with the core and being on the top of the LEDs to scatter light emitting from the LEDs; and a cladding layer extruded by a soft plastic, having the same length with the core and covering the core, the scattering body and the LEDs and having an arcuate top surface covering the LEDs.

2. The flexible tubular light as claimed in claim 1 characterized in that further comprising an LED driver injected modeling on a power supplying cable.

3. The flexible tubular light as claimed in claim 2 characterized in that, wherein the LED driver is an AC to DC converter (alternating current to direct current converter).

4. The flexible tubular light as claimed in claim 2 characterized in that, wherein the LED driver is an LED current pulse driver.

5. The flexible tubular light as claimed in claim 1 characterized in that, wherein the scattering body and the cladding layer are integrally formed.

6. The flexible tubular light as claimed in claim 1 characterized in that, wherein the scanering body is milky, is translucent and is made of PVC (polyvinyl chloride).

7. The flexible tubular light as claimed in claim 5 characterized in that, wherein the scattering body has a longitudinal passage.

8. The flexible tubular light as claimed in claim 1 characterized in that, wherein the core has an inverted trapezoidal recess formed in the top of the core and corresponding to the LEDs.