Light assembly
AssigneeLucas Industries public limited company
InventorPhilip A. Baker
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
To retain a lamp in a reflector body of a light assembly, a wire retaining clip is provided which has a U-shaped anchor portion disposed as a friction fit in a recess in the body. Arms of the clip extend in cantilever fashion from the anchor portion and engage against a flange on the lamp so as to urge an abutment surface on the lamp into engagement with a corresponding abutment surface in the reflector body. The arms of the clip are resiliently biassed in the same direction as that required to bring said abutment surfaces into mutual engagement and are also resiliently deformable outwardly so as to facilitate snap-engagement of the lamp into a lamp-receiving aperture in the reflector body.
Claims12
A light assembly comprising a dished reflector body having an axis formed by a moulding operation with a lamp-receiving aperture, a formation adjacent said lamp receiving aperture and a rearward facing abutment surface;
- and a retaining device for urging a forward-facing abutment surface on a lamp in a first direction against said rearward-facing abutment surface on said body, said retaining device including a resilient element having an anchor portion secured to said formation on said body to be non-pivotal about an axis transverse to said reflector and said anchor portion defining a projection for engagement in a recess in said body with said recess extending in a first direction in said body parallel to the body axis, and at least one arm extending in cantilever fashion from said anchor portion, said arm being disposed so as to urge the forward-facing abutment surface on the lamp and the rearward-facing a butment surface on the body into mutual engagement, wherein said formation extends in the direction of draw of said body from a mould used for the formation of said body.
An assembly as claimed in claim 21, wherein said resilient element has a pair of spaced arms extending from said anchor portion.
A light assembly comprising a dished reflector body;
- a sleeve extending rearwardly from said body, said sleeve defining a lamp-receiving bore which extends from an inner surface of said body to a rearward end of said sleeve;
- a rearward-facing abutment surface on said sleeve;
- means defining at least one undercut in said lamp-receiving bore, said undercut extending from said inner surface of said body to a location rearwardly of said rearward-facing abutment surface;
- and a retaining device for urging a forward-facing abutment surface on a lamp into engagement with said rearward-facing abutment surface, said retaining device including a resilient element having an anchor portion non-pivotally secured to said body and at least one arm extending in cantilever fashion from said anchor portion, said arm being biassed so as to be disposed away from the bore to allow assembly of the lamp into said bore but being movable inwardly of said sleeve and forwardly with respect to said body to a position in which a portion of said arm engages said undercut to retain said arm releasably in a position in which in use, the forward-facing abutment surface on the lamp is urged into engagement with said rearward-facing abutment surface on said sleeve.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.