“Wall illuminating light fixture”

Details “Wall illuminating light fixture” “Wall illuminating light fixture”

1999-01-07

2001-01-16

Sember, Thomas M. (Department: 2875)

Illumination

With static structure

Wall or ceiling

C362S223000, C362S225000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06174069

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a ceiling mounted light fixture for illuminating a wall and/or a room interior.
2. Description of the Related Art
Classrooms, meeting rooms and conference rooms often have blackboards, white boards or bulletin boards mounted on a wall for viewing by students or others in the room. Map, charts, artwork and other displays may also be mounted on a wall for viewing. Lighting for such rooms often is provided as down lighting so that the light is directed into the interior regions of the room, leaving the walls darker than the interior room areas. This results in eye strain and difficulty in seeing the wall mounted displays.
It is common practice to provide a separate light fixture to illuminate the wall mounted displays. Recessed lighting is used for the separate wall directed light fixtures when aesthetics are taken into consideration. Recess directional lighting utilizes incandescent lamps, which use more power than flourescent lamps. The mounting of such additional lights obviously results in additional cost for structurally mounting of the additional lights in or on the ceiling.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of present invention is to provide illumination of a wall display such as for a blackboard, white board, bulletin board, map, diagram without requiring separate and additional light installations.
Another object of the invention is to provide glare-free, low-contrast-ratio lighting of a wall space while being energy efficient.
These and other objects and advantages of the invention are provided by a light fixture having a first portion for providing main illumination in an interior of a room and a second portion providing a separate illumination of a wall space of the room. The present light fixture provides a wash of a vertical surface with a sheet of light by utilization of an auxiliary light in a main light fixture. In one embodiment of the invention, the main light fixture is a suspended light fixture while in another embodiment the main light fixture is a ceiling mounted light fixture.
A reflector and/or refractor lens is provided for the auxiliary light at a side portion of a light fixture for focusing a wash of light on a vertical surface. The light refractor or reflector is, in one embodiment, provided with a separate light source in the side of the main light fixture. It is also possible to utilize light output from the main light fixture to transmit light through the side directed lens and over the vertical surface.
The housing for the light fixture is similar in appearance to fixtures having only the main down lighting and so provides a pleasing aesthetic appearance. The auxiliary light is preferably a fluorescent bulb to provide energy savings.


REFERENCES:
patent: 4625267 (1986-11-01), Mikalonis
patent: 5658067 (1997-08-01), Engle et al.
patent: 5743627 (1998-04-01), Casteel

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