Discharge tube supporting structure, supporting member, discharge tube, ferrule, lighting device, display device and television receiver
AssigneesSharp Kabushiki Kaisha, Japan Aviation Electronics Industry, Limited
InventorsYoshiki Takata, Kenichi Iwamoto, Takaaki Kudo, Naofumi Ikenaga
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Discharge tubes, each of which includes a glass tube and a ferrule that has a substantially cylindrical shape and is fitted to each end portion of the glass tube, are supported by a plurality of pairs of relay connectors (or supporting members) provided on the front side of a chassis having substantially a plate-shaped configuration. When a discharge tube is supported by relay connectors, stoppers provided on the relay connectors lock the ferrules so that axial movement of the discharge tube relative to the relay connectors is restricted.
Claims24
A discharge tube supporting structure for supporting a discharge tube using a supporting member, said supporting member comprising:
- a conductive portion including a pair of elastic pressing portions that are elastically deformable, the pair of elastic pressing portions including facing surfaces arranged to face each other and to support the discharge tube therebetween to provide a conductive connection to said discharge tube;
- and
- a protector portion that is spaced away from one of the elastic pressing portions and adjacent to a back surface of another one of the elastic pressing portions that is opposite to the facing surface of the another one of the elastic pressing portions, the protector portion being arranged to restrict said conductive portion from being excessively pushed to open, wherein
- said conductive portion and said protector portion are made from metal and integrally provided as a single monolithic member.
A supporting member for supporting a discharge tube, comprising:
- a conductive portion including a pair of elastic pressing portions that are elastically deformable, the pair of elastic pressing portions including facing surfaces arranged to face each other and to support the discharge tube therebetween to provide a conductive connection to said discharge tube;
- and
- a protector portion that is spaced away from one of the elastic pressing portions and adjacent to a back surface of another one of the elastic pressing portions that is opposite to the facing surface of the another one of the elastic pressing portions, the protector portion being arranged to restrict said conductive portion from being excessively pushed open, wherein
- said conductive portion and said protector portion are made of metal and integrally provided as a single monolithic member.
A lighting device comprising:
- at least one discharge tube;
- and
- a chassis including at least one supporting member arranged to support said discharge tube, wherein:
- said supporting member includes a conductive portion including a pair of elastic pressing portions that are elastically deformable, the pair of elastic pressing portions including facing surfaces arranged to face each other and to support the discharge tube therebetween to provide a conductive connection to said discharge tube, and a protector portion that is spaced away from one of the elastic pressing portions and adjacent to a back surface of another one of the elastic pressing portions that is opposite to the facing surface of the another one of the elastic pressing portions, the protector portion being arranged to restrict said conductive portion from being excessively pushed open;
- and
- said conductive portion and said protector portion are made from metal and integrally provided as a single monolithic member.
A television receiver including a display device, the display device comprising:
- a lighting device;
- and
- a display panel arranged on a front side of said lighting device;
- wherein
- the lighting device comprises:
- at least one discharge tube;
- and
- a chassis including at least one supporting member arranged to support said discharge tube;
- said supporting member includes a conductive portion including a pair of elastic pressing portions that are elastically deformable, the pair of elastic pressing portions including facing surfaces arranged to face each other and to support the discharge tube therebetween to provide a conductive connection to said discharge tube, and a protector portion that is spaced away from one of the elastic pressing portions and adjacent to a back surface of another one of the elastic pressing portions that is opposite from the facing surface of the another one of the elastic pressing portions, the protector portion being arranged to restrict said conductive portion from being excessively pushed open;
- and
- said conductive portion and said protector portion are made from metal and integrally provided as a single monolithic member.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.