Electrical connectors – With supporting means for coupling part – Interfitting with channel or double rail
Reexamination Certificate
1998-11-14
2001-02-20
Paumen, Gary P. (Department: 2833)
Electrical connectors
With supporting means for coupling part
Interfitting with channel or double rail
Reexamination Certificate
active
06190198
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The invention relates to electrical fittings in suspended ceilings, and is particularly applicable to light fittings such as spotlights.
BACKGROUND
Conventionally, suspended ceilings comprise a grid of intersecting members in the form of metal tracks, called “main tees”, suspended below a ceiling. The metal tracks have horizontal flanges at their lower ends which are used to support ceiling panels. The cavity formed above the ceiling panel is used to pass electrical service wires to which light fittings of various sorts may be connected. Fluorescent light tubes may typically be attached to fittings placed on the grid tracks, which are approximately the size of the spacing and thus will replace a panel in that spacing.
However, when bulb lights such as halogen lights are used the fittings are smaller and thus entire panels are not removed. Instead modified panels are used and the lamp fitting is either mounted directly on the panel, or else a subsidiary track is fastened to the ceiling underneath the panel, the panel having a hole for the wires to connect to the lights.
Some expense is therefore involved when mounting lamps on existing ceilings because ceiling panels have to be replaced with modified panels. Even when the fittings are placed below the ceiling panels the panels still have to be modified to pass the electrical cables from the ceiling cavity. Halogen lamps have relatively high power requirements and consequently require relatively large wires whose appearance below the ceiling panels would generally be considered unsightly.
The present invention in some embodiments therefore aims to provide electrical fittings such as halogen lamps that can be attached to an existing ceiling arrangement of the type described without requiring modification or replacement of existing ceiling panels or like components.
SUMMARY
In accordance with a first aspect of the invention there is provided an electrical or other appliance for use with a suspended ceiling, wherein the appliance includes attachment means adapted for mounting on a member of the suspended ceiling grid.
The attachment means should be adapted for manually releasable fixing to the grid and can advantageously be in the form of a clip engaging one or both sides of the grid rail. A preferred form of such a clip is one having two U-shaped fastening members respectively corresponding to the opposite sides of the rail, of a configuration such that they can be clipped to the rail by a simple rotary or twisting action about the vertical axis. The fastening members, and indeed the entire clip, could be made of sheet material, of a thickness sufficiently small so as not to disturb the positioning of a ceiling panel on the grid.
The electrical apparatus, which can be a ceiling spotlight, will generally have wiring for connecting to an electrical supply above the ceiling; preferably the wiring is coated with an insulator of a heat-resistant substance such as PTFE, and like the clip itself is sufficiently thin to pass through the ceiling, around the grid members, without disturbing the panels.
According to a second aspect of the invention there is provided a suspended ceiling grid comprising a plurality of tracks arranged to form the grid and at least one electrical fitting releasably attached to a track. The attachment is by means such as a clip that allows displacement along the track so that the fitting can be placed at an arbitrary location on the track and subsequently moved if desired without any residual damage to the track.
According to a third aspect of the invention there is provided a suspended ceiling assembly including a grid and panels arranged in the grid, further including an electrical appliance fitted below the panels having wiring passing between the panels and the grid into the space above the panels. Such a ceiling assembly, in which the wiring will have a diameter not greatly exceeding 1 mm, avoids the necessity of making holes in or otherwise damaging the grid and the panels. This is particularly significant for devices such as halogen spots which are small; fluorescent tube fittings are large enough to cover any hole made through the panel for passing the wires through.
According to a fourth aspect of the invention there is provided a method of mounting a lamp fitting on a suspended ceiling of the kind having ceiling panels fitted in the spaces defined by the tracks of a grid, comprising the steps of: attaching the lamp fitting to the underside of a track of the grid, and running a wire from the fitting towards a power supply above the ceiling through a gap between the track and the ceiling panel resting on the track in such a way that the ceiling panel is not substantially displaced by the wire.
According to a fifth aspect of the invention there is provided a method for attaching an electrical apparatus to a suspended ceiling in which the apparatus is clipped to a flange of the grid of the ceiling.
PTFE is a substance that can be used as electrical insulation for wiring. It has the advantage that it is mechanically robust and is more resistant to heat than substances conventionally used for wiring insulation, such as PVC and silicone. As a result, the use of PTFE permits thinner wiring to be made for the same rating. Consequently the electrical fitting, which may be for example a halogen lamp fitting, can now be suspended from the main tracks of the ceiling grid and connected to the cable supply running within the ceiling duct using thin unobtrusive wires which can be run in the gap between the ceiling grid and associated ceiling panel without substantially displacing the ceiling panel or requiring any form of hole to be cut in the ceiling panel. Thus, lamp fittings according to embodiments of the invention may be applied to existing ceilings without further modification to any component of the ceiling.
The invention has been particularly conceived for low-voltage apparatus, i.e. apparatus using voltages such as 12 V which are not considered to present a health hazard, since the bending of the wire around the grid track is not likely to contravene any regulations. However, in principle the fitting could be used for mains appliances.
The tracks of a suspended ceiling grid are generally T-shaped with the bar of the T at the lower end of the track to support the ceiling panels. Thus the attachment means may suitably comprise a clip having projections which grasp the T-bar projections on one or both sides. Such a clip may be slidable along the T-bar, which assists in placing or moving the lamp, and, in embodiments where the clip engages both sides of the bar, the engaging portions on either side may be offset from one another along the length of the track to facilitate insertion and removal of the clip, in that the clip can be applied in a skew orientation and then rotated into line with the track, the clip engaging the flanges of the track. Numerous other forms of clip suitable for attachment to projecting flanges can be used and only a small selection is given in the attached drawings.
In one modification the electrical wiring for the appliance is in the form of a connector having preferably flat conductors adapted to be placed on the upper part of the grid, in combination with conductors associated with the attachment means of the appliance and adapted to make contact with the exposed conductors on the grid when the appliance is mounted on the grid member.
Preferably the conductors on the attachment means are integral with it, in particular by being moulded in to the attachment means. Most conveniently the attachment means is made of an insulating material such as plastics and the conductors are embedded in the plastics material. These conductors can then have ends protruding from the plastics in order to make contact with the exposed conductors on the grid.
The conductors in question can be linear or wire-shaped, but this makes it difficult to match the exposed ends when fitting the appliance to the grid. Preferably therefore at least one of the sets of conductors has a certain lateral exte
Lee John L.
Paumen Gary P.
LandOfFree
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