Illumination – Supports – Counterbalanced support
Patent
1994-05-06
1995-09-05
Lazarus, Ira S.
Illumination
Supports
Counterbalanced support
362220, 362285, 362403, 362419, F21V 2120
Patent
active
054484642
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to lamp stands and is more particularly, but not exclusively, concerned with photographic lamp stands.
In studio photography, lighting of a subject is very commonly achieved by use of powerful photographic lamps supported by specially adapted stands. The positioning of the lamps and their orientation can be critical to the particular lighting effects to be obtained, and it is therefore important that the lamps should be adjustable in height on their stands. Whilst such height adjustment is generally a feature of such stands, it normally involves some clamping arrangement which must be loosened to permit the lamp to be lowered or raised on the stand and subsequently tightened to lock the lamp in the required position.
It is an object of the invention to provide a lamp stand which is particularly easily adjustable.
According to the present invention there is provided a lamp stand comprising a ground-engaging base a, vertical support member carried on the base, a carriage mounted on the support member so as to be slidable therealong to adjust its vertical position and attachment means on the carriage for attaching a lamp thereto, whereby the vertical position of the carriage is adjustable by application of a lifting force to a portion of the lamp and by raising or lowering of the lamp to a required height, the carriage being frictionally held in position on the support member when the lamp is subsequently released, characterised in that the support member comprises two vertical support surfaces extending parallel to one another on opposite sides of the support member, and that the carriage incorporates braking portions which are forced into engagement with said support surfaces by the weight of the lamp acting on the carriage when the carriage is in a braking position and which are disengaged from said support surfaces when the carriage is moved into a release position by application of said lifting force, and guide portions which engage said support surfaces when the carriage is in the release position to permit sliding of the carriage along the support member during raising or lowering of the lamp.
In order that the invention may be more fully understood, a preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the photographic lamp stand;
FIGS. 2 and 4 are sectional views through parts of the stand;
FIG. 3 is an exploded view of an assembly for attaching the lamp to the stand; and
FIG. 5 is a perspective view of two lamp stands connected together.
Referring to FIG. 1, the lamp stand 1 comprises a ground engaging base 2 to which a vertical support member 3 constituted by an aluminium tube is detachably connected by a clamping collar 4. The base 2 comprises two sections 5 and 6 of aluminium tube connected together to form a T-shape and a platform 7. Three castors 8 are mounted at the three extremities of the base 2. The lamp 9 is mounted on the support member 3 by a movable carriage 10 to which the lamp 9 is attached by a tubular steel arm 11, and is adjustable in height by movement of the carriage 10 along the support member 3.
Referring to FIG. 2, the carriage 10 has a square-section steel outer casing 11A surrounding the support member 3 and containing a weight 12, two polyurethane brake pads 13 and 14 and two rotatable rollers 15 and 16. In addition a counterbalance weight 17 located in the hollow space within the support member 3 is coupled to the carriage 10 by a wire cable 18 passing over a pulley 19 which projects through a slot at the upper end of the support member 3. A cable hanger 20 is connected to the carriage 10 for supporting the power cable 20A (see FIG. 1) of the lamp.
When the lamp is attached to the arm 11 by a quick release assembly including a removable steel pin 21, as will be described more fully below with reference to FIG. 3, the carriage 10 is fixedly held in position on the support member 3 by virtue of the fact that the weight of the lamp acts to t
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patent: 4463413 (1984-07-01), Shirley
patent: 4651263 (1987-03-01), Hancock
patent: 4803606 (1989-02-01), Rotter
patent: 5023755 (1991-06-01), Rosenberg
Cariaso Alan B.
Ellis Moss Patents Limited
Lazarus Ira S.
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