Illumination – Self powered lamp – Cylindrical flashlight casing
Reexamination Certificate
2000-10-30
2002-06-04
O'Shea, Sandra (Department: 2875)
Illumination
Self powered lamp
Cylindrical flashlight casing
C362S197000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06398383
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the invention
The present invention is related to a flashlight carriable on one's person, and especially to a miniaturized flashlight carriable on one's person and using an LED lamp bulb as the light source, the main members including an internal lamp holder and switching device can be provided in an end cover for combining with a main barrel to form the flashlight having two sections. By controlling by directly rotation of the end cover, the LED lamp bulb can be turned on or off. Otherwise, the end cover can be separated independently from the main barrel for assembling or dismounting batteries.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a conventional flashlight, a lamp bulb with a tungsten filament and conventional batteries are used and are convenient for holding; however, such a conventional flashlight has quite a large volume and a predetermined length, thus is inconvenient for carrying.
Following nonstop advancing of science and technique of semiconductors, light emitting diodes (LED) without tungsten filaments have been made to have various colors, and can give high brightness and even super high brightness, they have already been able to substitute for the conventional miniature lamp bulbs, and are widely used in products in various fields. Such LED's with small volumes can surely be probable to be used in miniaturizing flashlights. And such flashlights using LED's as light sources can make the length of a flashlight to about 3.5-6 cm and a diameter of about 1.1-2.5 cm.
A conventional lamp bulb has on one end thereof a threaded metallic cap connecting with a lamp holder with an inner thread; while the LED lamp bulb has two terminal electrodes exposed, thereby, a completely different lamp holder is required to connect it in a flashlight.
FIG. 1-3
show a conventional miniature flashlight with an LED lamp bulb as the light source, it is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,349,506. As shown in
FIGS. 1 and 2
, such a conventional miniature flashlight has a main barrel
10
, the front end thereof is provided with a head assembly
11
, while the rear end thereof is provided with a tail cap
12
, these members in three sections compose the whole flashlight. The main barrel
10
is connected on the threaded end thereof with a fixing ring
13
to cooperatively position a reflecting condenser
14
and a glass
15
. And the LED lamp bulb
16
is located at the center of the reflecting condenser
14
. The tail cap
12
is provided on the inner bottom thereof with a spring
17
, the main barrel
10
is provided therein with a plurality of batteries
18
.
The lamp bulb and the switching device in the flashlight structure stated above are respectively mounted on an upper insulator receptacle
100
and a lower insulator receptacle
120
. The main barrel
10
is provided on the front end thereof with a folding-in edge
109
, so that the lower insulator receptacle
120
can be received in the interior on the right hand of the folding-in edge
109
as shown in the drawing, while the upper insulator receptacle
100
is located at the left external side of the folding-in edge
109
; and that the two insulator receptacles
100
and
120
can be gotten closed to and move apart from each other axially. Referring simultaneously to
FIG. 1 and 3
, the upper insulator receptacle
100
is provided with two mutually separated through holes
101
,
102
, and a split hollow pipe formed from two mutually opposite arciform sheets
103
,
104
. The two terminal electrodes
161
,
162
of the LED lamp bulb
16
are extended into the through holes
101
,
102
, and into the split hollow pipe. While the lower insulator receptacle
120
is provided with two middle slots
121
,
122
for insertion of a central conductor
123
and a side conductor
124
respectively. The two insulator receptacles
100
and
120
can allow movement of the arciform sheets
103
,
104
to extend into arciform slots
125
,
126
to allow the two terminal electrodes
161
,
162
to insert to contact the central conductor
123
and the side conductor
124
respectively. The central conductor
123
is provided at one side of the lower insulator receptacle
120
with a bent piece
127
for contact with one end of the battery set
18
, and the other end of the battery set
18
presses and contacts the spring
17
. The side conductor
124
is provided at the other side of the lower insulator receptacle
120
with another bent piece
128
.
The flashlight structure stated above will have the bent piece
128
of the side conductor
124
separated from the folding-in edge
109
of the main barrel
10
when the head assembly
11
is completely locked tightly on the main barrel
10
(as shown in FIG.
1
), thus the LED lamp bulb
16
is turned off. While if the head assembly
11
is rotated to screw off a predetermined distance (as shown in FIG.
2
), the spring
17
on one side of the tail cap
12
will push to render the bent piece
128
to press the folding-in edge
109
to make a turning on state, and the LED lamp bulb
16
is lightened.
The structure of such a miniature flashlight has been disclosed in many documents such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,485,360, No. 5,806,964 and 6,086,219.
However, such a conventional miniature flashlight structure with an LED lamp bulb as the light source has one end thereof fixedly mounted with a head assembly, and has on the rear end thereof a tail cap, it is totally a structure in three sections; these make the flashlight difficult to be further miniaturized. The head assembly must have an internal thread which is slightly larger and connected and locked on an external thread matching therewith on the main barrel. A protrusion portion of the head assembly renders the whole flashlight difficult to make the main barrel and the head assembly integral in their contour. In practical assembling in site, the lower insulator receptacle must be installed into one end of the main barrel, and the upper insulator receptacle is connected at the other end of the main barrel to the lower insulator receptacle, the assembling work is troublesome and inconvenient. The main barrel and the head assembly rotate relatively to each other to control the movement of the upper and the lower insulator receptacles to or apart from each other taking the end where the reflecting condenser locates as a force bearing point, in this mode, operation of controlling is less stable. Before the head assembly is detached or completely mounted, no matter during assembling or maintenance, the LED lamp bulb is in the upright state without covering (such as shown in
FIG. 8
of the drawings in U.S. Pat. No. 5,349,506), the expensive LED lamp bulb is extremely subjected to damage by inadvertent collision.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to provide a flashlight carriable on one's person which is comprised lengthwise of a main barrel and an end cover both have their threaded sections adjustable in movement. The end cover has therein a hood for the light emitting diode. The main barrel has in the hollow interior thereof a set of batteries and a lower spring. A male insulation block and a female insulation sleeve are telescopically connected with each other and have therein and therebetween sequentially a metallic electric conductive piece, an electric conductive cap and an upper spring from below upwardly. The male insulation block and the female insulation sleeve telescopically connected with each other can be functioned as a lamp holder for an LED lamp bulb and a switching device. The electric conductive cap can control turning on/off of the LED lamp bulb by press contacting with or separating from the metallic electric conductive piece during rotation control of the end cover. The male insulation block and the female insulation sleeve and the internal elements of the switching device can be integrally provided in the end cover in order to form a flashlight being further miniaturized.
The members in the end cover of the present invention can be assembled sequentially at
O'Shea Sandra
Troxell Law Office PLLC
Truong Bao
LandOfFree
Flashlight carriable on one's person does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Flashlight carriable on one's person, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Flashlight carriable on one's person will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2911810