Illumination – Supports – Line-wire or cable-attaching support
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-21
2001-11-20
Husar, Stephen (Department: 2875)
Illumination
Supports
Line-wire or cable-attaching support
C362S249070, C362S260000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06318884
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention concerns a work light for construction purposes, and is in the form of a string of lights that is hung in a work area, typically in a building under construction, to illuminate the work space.
Currently, what is commonly used for construction lighting is a string of incandescent lamps, each of which is contained in a plastic safety cage. This arrangement using incandescent lamps has a number of limitations. First, fourteen-gauge wire cable is the largest that can be used, because larger cable, such as twelve-gauge, becomes too stiff for the workmen to move it from place to place. However, 14-gauge wire limits the total current through the wires to about 15 amps, for safety purposes. This means there is a limit of fifteen one-hundred watt lamps that can be used on a single string. Also, the incandescent lamps have to be protected, and OSHA requires that a safety cage (plastic) be placed over each lamp. Even so, these often fall off during the workday, leaving a bulb uncovered. The incandescent lamps will fail if dropped, even if protected by a cage, because the filament breaks. Even under the most ideal conditions, the lamps last only a few hundred hours, so bulb replacement is a continuing problem, often requiring the workman to climb up a ladder to replace the lamp.
There have been several worklights proposed previously, which incorporate fluorescent lamps. Bowen U.S. Pat. No. 5,493,482 involves a multiple-tube arrangement encased within a tubular case or shell, and where there is a female power receptacle provided so that a number of these can be strung together. Grooms et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,436,815 relates to a utility light that incorporates a U-shaped fluorescent tube. Burke U.S. Pat. No. 4,658,337 and Hocheim et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,132,885 relate to portable fluorescent lighting devices, which incorporate straight fluorescent tubes. None of these prior approaches has considered using compact fluorescent lamps to overcome the drawbacks of the conventional (i.e., incandescent) worklight strings, as discussed above.
OBJECT AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a worklight string that employs compact fluorescent lamps to overcome the drawbacks of conventional light strings, as described above.
It is another object to provide a worklight string that is relatively maintenance free, while being safer and more economical to use than conventional worklight arrangements.
Likewise, it is an object to provide a worklight arrangement that provides ten or more lamps on the string and with which one may connect more strings together on a single circuit.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a worklight string has a multiplicity of sockets, and up to six strings on one circuit, i.e., up to sixty lamps, and in some arrangements perhaps more. The lamps are situated at intervals along a power cord or cable, and for each socket there is a so-called compact fluorescent lamp of the type that has a standard Edison medium base (i.e., the same screw-in base as the incandescent lamp). Each compact fluorescent lamp has a plastic globe covering its fluorescent tube. Because the fluorescent lamp is more efficient, three to four times as many lamps can be used on a single circuit. That is, a 23 watt compact fluorescent lamp provides as much illumination as a 100 watt incandescent, so three to four times as many lamps can be used on a circuit. In one preferred arrangement, the string can have thirty or more lamps, and not be limited to the ten to fifteen lamps of the prior art. Moreover, the fluorescent lamps last many times as long, and there is no issue about safety in changing bulbs on the job. Furthermore, the plastic globe protects the workmen from the glass fluorescent tube, and so there is no need for the cage that has to be used with the incandescent lamps. The inventor has also observed that even if the string of lamps falls when it has been turned on, the lamps do not break or go out, and can just be re-strung in the workplace. Also, in a preferred arrangement there are eyes or loops on the sockets to permit them to be tied with tie wire to the ceiling joists or rafters, etc., of the area under construction. The compact fluorescent lamps can be used in temperature down to about minus 20 degrees F., and even in winter conditions these lamps will warm up to full power in about five to fifteen minutes.
While the preferred embodiment uses screw-in lamps, it is also possible to use other arrangements, if desired, such as compact fluorescent lamps and sockets with a bayonet or other configuration.
The above and many other objects, features, and advantages of this invention will be more fully appreciated from the ensuing description of a preferred embodiment, which is to be read in conjunction with the accompanying Drawing.
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Hibbard Carl W.
Hibbard Daniel J.
Hibbard Mark P.
Hibbard Terry J.
Husar Stephen
Molldrem, Jr. Bernhard P.
Patricia Electric, Inc.
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