Illumination – Supports – Ceiling-suspended support
Reexamination Certificate
1999-02-18
2001-01-30
Sember, Thomas M. (Department: 2875)
Illumination
Supports
Ceiling-suspended support
C362S147000, C362S151000, C362S225000, C362S290000, C362S148000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06179451
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a system that integrates an indirect light with a suspended grid ceiling.
2. Description of Related Art
Suspended ceilings having a metallic grid that supports panels in grid openings are common. Generally, in such ceilings, direct lighting fixtures replace panels in selected grid openings to provide room illumination. Such light fixtures are commonly simply open bottom boxes that have a number of fluorescent light tubes mounted therein, in parallel, with a translucent cover on the bottom of the box. The box is supported on the grid. In direct lighting, light from the tubes shines directly downward through the translucent cover into the room. Generally, the tubes are visible from below. Such direct form of fluorescent lighting is relatively inexpensive, but very plain and utilitarian, without much decorative effect.
An alternative type fluorescent lighting of an indirect, reflected, type is occasionally used with suspended grid ceilings. Such indirect lighting, wherein the fluorescent tubes cannot be seen, yields a glow over the room, which can be used to achieve desirable decorative effects. No translucent or other light passing covers, panes or lenses, are normally used in this type of lighting, with the light shining through open space into the room after being reflected.
In one form of indirect lighting, the tubes are positioned below the ceiling panels of the suspended ceiling, and reflect against the ceiling into the room. Opaque shields conceal the tubes from view from the room below. Such installations are generally custom designed and installed, with attendant, generally extensive, expense.
Efforts have been made to provide indirect lighting fixtures that can be supported in grid openings as in direct lighting fixtures, to avoid the expense of custom designing and installing indirect lighting which reflects against the ceiling. In this form of indirect lighting in suspended grid ceilings, the fixture reflects light through a grid opening itself, as in U.S. Pat. No. 5,709,460. In such patent, the tubes are positioned above and behind panels adjacent the openings, and thus concealed from view from below. The light is reflected from a dome over the opening and tubes, into the room below, through the grid opening. A mask is optionally secured to the fixture to reduce the area of the opening through which the reflected light travels, and to further conceal the light tubes from view from below. The fixture, including the reflector dome, rests on the grid beam flanges.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is for an indirect light that includes elements that combine with a grid beam frame in a suspended ceiling to form the fixture.
The invention uses a special panel frame that engages the grid frame that surrounds an opening in a suspended grid ceiling. This panel frame simultaneously serves as (1) a decorative and functional part of the suspended ceiling, and (2) an element in the indirect lighting fixture that (a) masks the tubes from viewing from below, and (b) permits light reflected from the tubes to pass unobstructed into the room below, and (c) when the fixture is designed to be sound absorbing, the panel frame absorbs the sound, and permits sound to reach the sound absorbing surfaces within the fixture.
The panel frame or coffer, in the event the panel is recessed, of the invention, is secured to the grid frame, from below, without interference from the other elements of the fixture, which rest on the grid frame, above the grid.
The panel frame element of the invention can be in the form of a relatively elaborate coffer frame, or simply a panel substantially the same as the remaining panels in the ceiling, except for an opening in the panel frame that permits the reflected light to shine through and sound to reach an absorbing surface, when a sound absorbing surface is optionally present within the fixture. The panel frame design is chosen to be compatible with the rest of the suspended ceiling.
The panel frame or coffer of the invention is inserted from below, just as the remaining panels in the ceiling are inserted, after the dome and light frame are in place.
With or without the lights on, the panel frame element simultaneously serves as both a decorative and functional part of the ceiling, and a part of the indirect light fixture that serves to mask the tubes.
The ceiling grid beams form a grid frame that surrounds the grid opening in which the light fixture is located. The grid frame serves as a structural element in the ceiling, and as the element in the light fixture that supports the light frame and dome, and connects the panel frame to those light elements.
The entire light fixture of the invention also serves as a decorative element in the ceiling, with or without the lights on, as well as a functional element wherein the grid opening is enclosed by the panel frame, light fixtures, and dome. When the dome and/or the panel frame are made of sound absorbing material, the light fixture of the invention also contributes to the acoustical effects of the grid ceiling.
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Bodine Darryl C.
Dorsey William C.
Alavi Ali
Armstrong World Industries Inc.
Sember Thomas M.
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