Light distributor
AssigneeA.C.A. Products Inc.
InventorsGeorge N. Kringel, Nicholas E. Sachuk
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A light distributor is described for use in distributing light from a source in a generally uniform manner across an edge, to for example, illuminate an array of light sensitive elements. The light distributor can be made of a transparent plastic material and is formed with a light guide and a lamp supporting segment. The light guide has a pair of planar faces bounded by sides of a curvature, which bears a particular relationship with a light source region in the lamp supporting segment so as to distribute light therefrom across the edge. A cost effective efficient light distributor is described, particularly for use in activating photocells arranged in an array in a shaft encoder.
Claims25
A light distributor to provide a desired distribution of light from a lamp comprising
- a lamp supporting segment, said lamp supporting segment including a light source region in which said lamp can be placed with said light source region having a predetermined dimension along a light guiding direction;
- and
- a generally planar light guide extending along the light guiding direction to intercept and guide light from the lamp supporting segment to a longitudinal guide edge, said light guide having planar faces bounded by sides at least one of which sides, commencing in the vicinity of the lamp supporting segment, diverges from the lamp supporting segment along a predetermined curve, said curve being selected so that light intercepted by the light guide from the light source region in the lamp supporting segment and incident upon said at least one side is reflected from said at least one side in a generally uniform manner across the longitudinal guide edge to establish at and emit from said edge at even distribution of light emanating from the light source region of said lamp supporting segment.
The light distributor as set forth in claim 3 wherein said longitudinal edge is beveled to reflect light along a band of one face of said light guide.
In a bathroom scale employing a battery powered digital scale weight indicator wherein light from a lamp powered by the battery is distributed over an array of light sensitive cells used to measure the mechanical deflection of the scale, the improvement comprising
- a lamp supporting segment to which said lamp can be mounted;
- a generally planar light guide extending along a light guiding direction from a light intercepting location in the vicinity of the lamp supporting segment to a longitudinal light emitting edge operatively disposed to activate said light sensitive cells, said light guide having planar faces bounded by sides, at least one of which sides, commencing in the vicinity of the lamp supporting segment, diverges from the latter segment along a predetermined curve, said curve being selected so that light intercepted between the planar faces of the light guide and incident upon said one side is reflected therefrom in a generally uniform manner across the longitudinal light emitting edge to establish at and emit from said latter edge an even distribution of light emanating from the lamp supporting segment.
A light distributor for use in a bathroom scale employing a battery powered digital scale weight indicator wherein a light from a lamp powered by the battery is distributed over an array of light sensitive cells used to measure a mechanical deflection of the scale, comprising
- a light conducting plastic molded light distributor having a lamp supporting segment and a generally planar light guide extending from the lamp supporting segment along a light guiding direction to a longitudinal light emitting edge of the light guide operatively disposed to activate the light sensitive cells,
- said light guide being of generally planar shape with planar faces bounded by sides which, commencing in the vicinity of the lamp supporting segment, diverge therefrom along a predetermined curve, said curve being selected so that light intercepted by the light guide from the lamp supporting segment and incident upon the diverging sides reflected therefrom in a generally uniform manner across the longitudinal light emitting edge of the light guide to establish at said edge an even distribution of light emanating from a lamp mounted at said lamp supporting segment, said light guide being provided with a beveled edge between the planar faces and oriented to reflect light guided by the planar faces and the sides towards one of said planar faces along said longitudinal light emitting edge.
In a bathroom scale employing a digital scale weight indicator wherein light from a lamp is distributed over an array of light sensitive cells used to measure the amount of rotation of an optically coded disc rotated in light intercepting relationship with respect to the light sensitive cells in response to the mechanical deflection of the scale, the improvement comprising
- a lamp support to which said lamp can be mounted;
- a light guide extending along a light guiding direction from a light intercepting location in the vicinity of the lamp support to a longitudinal light emitting edge operatively disposed with respect to the light sensitive cells for their activation, said light guide having upper and lower faces bounded by lateral sides, at least one of said sides diverging in a predetermined manner from the vicinity of the lamp support and relative to the light guiding direction so that light intercepted between the upper and lower faces of the light guide and incident upon said at least one side is reflected therefrom for guidance by the light guide to and along the longitudinal light emitting edge to establish from said edge a distribution of light sufficient to activate the light sensitive cells in the array.
A light distributor for use in a bathroom scale employing a battery powered digital scale weight indicator wherein light from a lamp powered by the battery is distributed over an array of light sensitive cells used to measure the amount of rotation of an optically coded disc rotated in light intercepting relationship with respect to the light sensitive cells in response to the mechanical deflection of the scale, comprising
- a lamp support to which said lamp can be mounted;
- a light guide extending along a light guiding direction from a light intercepting location in the vicinity of the lamp support to a longitudinal light emitting edge operatively disposed with respect to the light sensitive cells for their activation, said light guide having parallel faces bounded by sides;
- said sides, commencing in the vicinity of the lamp support, diverging relative to the light guiding direction along a direction which is selected so that light intercepted between the parallel faces of the light guide and incident upon said sides is reflected therefrom for guidance by the light guide to and along the longitudinal light emitting edge to establish from said edge a distribution of light sufficient to activate the light cells in the array.
In a bathroom scale employing a battery powered digital scale weight indicator wherein light from an incandescent lamp having a filament and powered by the battery is distributed over an array of light sensitive cells used to measure the amount of rotation of an optically coded disc rotated in light intercepting relationship with respect to the light sensitive cells in response to the mechanical deflection of the scale, the improvement comprising
- a lamp support on which said lamp is operatively mounted with the lamp filament in a light source region;
- a light guide extending along a light guiding direction from the light source region to intercept and guide light from the lamp filament to a longitudinal light emitting guide edge;
- said latter edge being located in alignment with the array of light sensitive cells for their activation;
- said light guide having parallel faces bounded by sides which, commencing in the vicinity of the lamp support, diverge with respect to the light guiding direction and from each other along a direction which is selected so that light intercepted between the parallel faces of the light guide at the light source region and incident upon said sides is reflected therefrom for guidance by the light guide to and along the longitudinal light emitting edge to establish from said edge a distribution of light from the light source region sufficient to activate the light sensitive cells in the array.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.