Strip lights and method of making same
AssigneeVista Manufacturing, Inc.
InventorDwayne A. Tieszen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A series of electric lamps spaced along the interior of a flexible vinyl tube, such lamps being connected in electric parallel with each other by a pair of insulated conductors that exit from the tube through an opening adjacent one end of the tube. A thermoplastic sealant having a vinyl content is applied by a special procedure into each of the ends of the tube to seal closed such ends of the tube as well as the point of egress of the conductors. The tube is disposed in a channel-like mounting bracket having a restricted entrance through which the tube is viewable. A special procedure is provided for connecting uninsulated leads of the lamps to insulated parallel conductors such that no additional insulation is required.
Claims14
For use in a strip light, a pair of insulated electrical conductors in closely spaced side by side relationship, a plurality of electric lamps spaced along said pair of conductors, each of said lamps having a pair of oppositely extending electric leads disposed in side by side relationship with said pair of insulated conductors and having first and second remote extremities respectively connected electrically and mechanically to one and the other of said pair of insulated conductors, said lamps having a spacing along the pair of insulated conductors sufficiently great that the electric leads of each lamp is spaced along such electric conductors from the electric leads of the lamps adjacent thereto, the arrangement being such that the lamps are connected in electrical parallel between the conductors and such that the electric leads need not be electrically insulated to avoid any electrical shorting path between the conductors, an elongated tubular member having a light transmitting characteristic, said insulated conductors and all of said lamps being disposed within and extending along the length of the hollow interior of the tubular member with said insulated conductors having an end portion that extends outwardly from the tubular member at a position of egress therefrom, and sealing means within the tubular member and adjacent the ends of the latter for preventing fluid communication between the exterior of the tubular member and the lamps within the tubular member, said tubular member having a lateral opening adjacent one end thereof at said position of egress, with said end portion of the insulated conductors extending through said lateral opening, and with said sealing means also sealing said lateral opening against fluid communication therethrough.
In light strip construction, an elongated tubular member having first and second ends, and being provided with a pair of insulated and flexible electric conductors extending from a position within the interior of the tubular member to the exterior thereof, a first sealing means transversely filling the tubular member at a location adjacent the first end thereof, a second sealing means transversely filling the tubular member and engulfing a portion of said pair of insulated conductors at a location adjacent the second end of the tubular member spaced from the first sealing means and to prevent fluid communication between space ambient to the tubular member and the interior of the tubular member between such second sealing means and the first sealing means so that a confined space is defined within the tubular member, a plurality of electric lamps longitudinally spaced from each other and disposed in said confined space, means within said confined space electrically connecting the electric lamps to said pair of insulated conductors to enable electrical energization of the former from the latter, and said tubular member having a lateral opening adjacent said second end, with the pair of conductors extending from within the tubular member to space ambient to the latter through the second sealing means and such lateral opening.
In light strip construction, an elongated tubular member having first and second ends, and being provided with a pair of insulated and flexible electric conductors extending from a position within the interior of the tubular member to the exterior thereof, a first sealing means transversely filling the tubular member at a location adjacent the first end thereof, a second sealing means transversely filling the tubular member and engulfing a portion of said pair of insulated conductors at a location adjacent the second end of the tubular member spaced from the first sealing means and to prevent fluid communication between space ambient to the tubular member and the interior of the tubular member between such second sealing means and the first sealing means so that confined space is defined within the tubular member, a plurality of electric lamps longitudinally spaced from each other and disposed in said confined space, means within said confined space electrically connecting the electric lamps to said pair of insulated conductors to enable electrical energization of the former from the latter, with said tubular member being a flexible synthetic resin possessing at least sufficient elasticity to substantially reassume its original transverse configuration following removal of transverse compressive force causing deformation thereof.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.