Crystal jewel assembly for chandelier
AssigneeSchonbek Worldwide Lighting Inc.
InventorGeorg Bayer
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The invention provides lighting fixtures, components for lighting fixtures and methods of assembling lighting fixtures. The invention involves the assembly of ornaments onto chandelier frame members without the use of hooks. The lighting fixture is sculpted by attaching ornaments to the frame in a fixed geometric pattern utilizing seating posts and retaining stops on the frame member. The frame member has an aligned position in which the retaining stops hold the crystals in place on the seating posts and a non-aligned position in which the retaining stops are moved whereby the ornaments can be placed on or off the seating posts without obstruction by the retaining stops. Preferably the chandelier is flexibly and elastically biasable into and out of the aligned and non-aligned position.
Claims42
A lighting fixture comprising:
- a plurality of ornaments,
- a frame member having a plurality of seating posts and a plurality of stop posts, the seating posts extending from and flexibly biasable with respect to a back-bone base, wherein each ornament is seated on a seating post with the seating post received in an opening within the ornament and wherein the stop post limits movement of the ornament off of the seating post.
A lighting fixture having a flexible frame member comprising:
- a back-bone base,
- a seating post extending from said base for insertion into an opening in an ornament,
- an insertion stop on said frame member for limiting the extent of insertion of the ornament on the seating post, and
- a retaining stop on the frame member for retaining the ornament on the seating post, wherein the frame member has a non-aligned position and an aligned position, said non-aligned position permitting said ornament to be inserted onto said seating post past said retaining stop, and
- said aligned position placing said retaining stop in juxtaposition to said ornament for retaining said ornament on said seating post.
A chandelier component comprising:
- a frame member having a seating post extending from a base,
- an ornament having at least one opening extending between opposing faces of the ornament, wherein the seating post extends into an opening of the ornament causing the ornament to be removably secured to the seating post,
- an insertion stop on the frame member restricting the extent that the seating post can extend into the opening,
- and a retaining stop on the frame member restricting movement of the ornaments off of the seating post.
A chandelier comprising:
- a frame member having a back-bone base and a plurality of elongate seating posts and stop posts extending contiguously from said back-bone base, wherein the stop posts extend from the back-bone base further than the seating posts and terminate in stop portions which extend toward the seating posts, the seating posts and stop posts constructed and arranged to removably secure ornaments to the frame member.
A chandelier comprising:
- a frame member having a back-bone base and a plurality of pairs of seating posts extending from the base,
- a plurality of ornaments, each ornament having a pair of openings, wherein each of said pairs of seating posts extends into a respective pair of openings, and
- means on the frame member for securing the ornaments to the seating posts.
A chandelier comprising:
- a string of at least five ornaments in a fixed geometric pattern, each ornament defining a central plane, and the ornaments being held in said fixed geometric pattern with respect to one another by a frame member having a base and extending from the base a plurality of seating posts received in opening in the ornaments, the posts having a length, a width, and a thickness dimension, the width dimension being of a greater dimension than the thickness dimension and each of the width dimensions lying in the same post plane, wherein the post plane is substantially perpendicular to the central planes defined by the ornaments.
A chandelier comprising:
- a string of at least five ornaments in a fixed geometric pattern, each ornament defining a central ornament plane, the ornaments held in the fixed geometric pattern by a frame member having a back-bone base which extends centrally of the ornaments in a plane transverse to the central ornament planes, wherein each ornament has at least one opening, wherein the frame member has a plurality of seating posts extending from the back-bone base, one seating post for each of said openings, and wherein said seating posts are received in said openings.
A method for constructing a chandelier comprising:
- assembling onto a back-bone base frame member a string of ornaments, the string of ornaments fixed on the back-bone base frame member against movement with respect to one another, and
- attaching said back-bone base frame member to a central chandelier frame member.
A method for attaching an ornament to a chandelier frame member comprising:
- flexing the chandelier frame member to a non-aligned position in which a stop is non-aligned with respect to a seating post,
- inserting the ornament onto the seating post via an opening in the ornament, and
- flexing the chandelier into an aligned position wherein the stop is moved into a position restricting movement of the ornament off of the chandelier frame, wherein the seating post is inserted only partially through the chandelier ornament
- and wherein (1) the seating post is a pair of seating posts or the stop is a pair of stops or (2) the seating post is a pair of seating posts and the stop is a pair of stops.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.