Electricity: conductors and insulators – Conduits – cables or conductors – Insulated
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-05
2001-11-27
Nguyen, Chau N. (Department: 2831)
Electricity: conductors and insulators
Conduits, cables or conductors
Insulated
Reexamination Certificate
active
06323429
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention refers to an electric device, an electric apparatus or a lighting device.
Such devices are well known. The conductor arrangement consists of metallic substances, for example, which serve to conduct the electric power to the corresponding consumers. In most cases, these are insulated or uninsulated cables, for example consisting of copper or other conductive materials.
Particularly in lighting technology and especially in the lighting of interior rooms, a supply cable to a consumer has various disadvantages. For instance, it might have an unsightly and unfavorable appearance and might adversely affect the overall impression of the lighting means and the interior room.
There are various possibilities to overcome this problem. In the case of table or standard lamps, the supply cable is usually covered by an envelope of metal or plastics. In the case of interior room lighting, the cables are laid under plaster to keep them from view. Furthermore, it has become standard practice to use the supply cables themselves as decorative objects, for example in the case of halogen rail or rope systems.
However, all these solutions do not provide a supply cable allowing an “invisible power supply” to the consumer, such as a lamp, for example.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention is based on the object to improve an electric device, an electric apparatus or a lighting device in such a manner that a simple and cost-effective, invisible power supply to a consumer is possible.
Due to the conductor arrangement consisting of one or multiple non-conductive carrier materials comprising at least one transparent, conductive and power transferring layer, a power supply to one or multiple consumers is possible in an invisible and simple manner.
When glass is used in this manner as a carrier material, it is possible that a power consumer, e.g. a lamp, can be arranged on a free end of a completely transparent glass arrangement and be operated without a further supply cable. In this context, multiple conductive layers can be applied on one or multiple carrier materials to be electrically coupled. This way, it is possible to supply power to powerful electric devices or especially simply designed electric devices having small dimensions according to requirements. What is more, in such electric devices, different carrier materials can be provided, such as wood and glass, so as to adapt the electric device as well as possible to specific ambient circumstances.
In this context, it has to be remarked that it is already known from automotive engineering to apply transparent, conductive layers on glass to provide a heatable rear and/or frontal windscreen. In this case, however, the electric power supply takes place by means of a conventional supply cable, and the glass with the applied transparent conductive layer is itself the consumer in the circuit and has to comprise a resistance as high as possible so that the power usually comprising a current of more than 10 A can be converted into the heat necessary to heat the windscreen.
However, the conductor arrangement of the device according to the invention serves to supply power to a consumer, and the loss of power (i.e. heat) should be as low as possible.
In this context, the transparent conductive layer should comprise a layer cross-sectional area of A
sch
and a specific resistance of &dgr;
sch
, allowing as high a power transfer as possible. A ratio of &dgr;
sch
/A
sch
<0.4 ohms/mm, preferably <0.3 ohms/mm has been found to be advantageous.
Glass has proven to be an especially convenient carrier material regarding the operation, but also regarding the application of the transparent conductive layer.
The transparent conductive layer can also comprise a metal layer such as copper, silver or gold, or another metal oxide layer, such as ITO (indium tin oxide).
To allow a high power transfer, it is preferable that a number of transparent conductive layers, each separated by a transparent insulation layer, are arranged on the non-conductive carrier material. The layers, applied alternately, are more transparent than a thick transparent conductive layer. Such an arrangement can be used like a so-called multilayer circuit board, with power being supplied separately to multiple consumers.
Another possibility to increase performance or to supply power to consumers separately is to arrange a number of non-conductive carrier materials and transparent conductive layers above one another. In this manner, the conductive layers are arranged to be shock-proof in a kind of composite arrangement, whereby the use of glass as a carrier medium provides a good temperature for the conductor arrangement, on the one hand, and the construction of the conductor arrangement provides a high stability, on the other hand. Due to the carrier materials being shiftable relative to one another, the area of application of the conductor arrangement can be adapted to the requirements of the user in a simple manner. If the transparent conductive layers are additionally directed towards one another in the arrangement on the corresponding carrier materials, the power can be controlled in a fairly simple manner by shifting the carrier materials relative to one another.
As the ratio of specific resistance to cross-sectional area of the conductive layers is relatively large in comparison to conventional conductors such as copper cables, the overall resistance of the conductor arrangement
(
R
=
δ
×
L
A
)
also depends to a high degree on the length of the conductive layers. This dependence can be used advantageously in an electric device when the consumer is arranged shiftably on the conductor arrangement. If the conductor arrangement is designed accordingly, power can be controlled by slidingly shifting the consumer.
There now follows a more detailed description of an embodiment of the invention with reference to the accompanying drawings.
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patent: 3576941 (1971-05-01), Colglazier
patent: 3586757 (1971-06-01), Haldeman, Jr.
patent: 3805213 (1974-04-01), Austin
patent: 5155301 (1992-10-01), Mase
patent: 5529829 (1996-06-01), Koskenmaki et al.
patent: 5681666 (1997-10-01), Treger et al.
patent: 3446662 (1986-06-01), None
patent: 1580868 (1969-09-01), None
patent: 5178644 (1993-07-01), None
Diller Ramik & Wight
Nguyen Chau N.
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