U.S. patent number 3,831,894 [Application Number 05/334,123] was granted by the patent office on 1974-08-27 for overhead light suspension hanger.
Invention is credited to William D. Newton, II, Darrell L. Smith.
United States Patent |
3,831,894 |
Newton, II , et al. |
August 27, 1974 |
OVERHEAD LIGHT SUSPENSION HANGER
Abstract
This abstract describes a vertically adjustable appliance
support device, such as those which are used in television studios
for the support of lighting fixtures, etc. The device comprises a
housing which can be removably clamped to a support pipe hanging
from the ceiling of the studio. There is a vertically adjustable
elongated member or arm which passes through aligned openings in
the top and bottom walls of the housing. The lower end of the arm
includes fastening means to which appliances of various sorts such
as lighting fixtures can be attached. Inside the housing is a
locking means which comprises a hinged plate supported on the
bottom surface of the housing, and urged downwardly by means of a
helical spring pressing between the locking means and the top
surface of the housing. The locking means presses against the
vertically adjustable elongated member or arm and prevents its
downward movement. To release the locking member the arm is pushed
to the side so that the angle between the locking member and the
arm is now less than a value which is required to provide the
locking feature. At this smaller angle the arm is capable of
sliding down or up and therefore can be quickly adjusted to any
desired position.
Inventors: |
Newton, II; William D. (Tulsa,
OK), Smith; Darrell L. (Tulsa, OK) |
Family
ID: |
23305690 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/334,123 |
Filed: |
February 20, 1973 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
248/327 |
Current CPC
Class: |
F21V
21/34 (20130101); F16L 3/00 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
F16L
3/00 (20060101); F21V 21/34 (20060101); F16l
003/12 (); F21o 021/34 () |
Field of
Search: |
;248/327,333,337
;240/85A,85D,67,68,70 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Foss; J. Franklin
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Head and Johnson
Claims
What is claimed:
1. A vertically adjustable appliance support means comprising:
a. a housing including means to removably clamp said housing to an
upper support element;
b. a vertically adjustable elongated means passing through aligned
openings in the top and bottom of said housing;
c. hinged locking means inside said housing and normally urged
downwardly by a spring means, said locking means having an
engagable face at its free end which presses against said elongated
means, the angle between said locking means and said elongated
means greater than a selected angle "A," whereby said locking means
will grip said elongated means and prevent its downward movement;
and
d. said opening at said bottom of said housing elongated in the
direction towards said locking means to permit canting said
elongated means from the aligned vertical position so as to
decrease said angle to a value less than said selected angle "A,"
whereby said locking means will not grip said elongated means and
will permit vertical movement.
2. The support means as in claim 1 including appliance support
means on the lower end of said elongated means, said elongated
means comprising tubular means.
3. The support means as in claim 2 including electrical conductor
means passing through said tubular means for attachment to said
appliance.
4. The support means as in claim 1 in which said tubbular means is
square tubing.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention lies in the field of vertically adjustable appliance
supports. More particularly, it comprises a means for rapid
vertically adjusted support means for appliances such as lighting
fixtures in a television studio, for example.
In the prior art there are many designs of appliance support
fixtures. In general, however, each of these require a separately
operated clamping means so that in adjusting the vertical position
of the fixture it must be grasped in one hand and the locking means
grasped in the other hand so that when the locking means is
released the fixture will not drop to the floor.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is a principal object of this invention to provide a vertically
adjustable fixture for supporting appliances of one sort or another
at various vertical positions. More particularly it is an object of
this invention to provide a vertical support arm that can be
grasped in one hand and moved freely up and down simply by shifting
the vertical arm to the side, to release the locking means in which
position it is free to move up and down. Then by moving the arm to
a full vertical position, the locking feature takes control and
prevents the downward movement of the arm.
This and other objects are realized and other limitations of the
prior art are overcome in this invention by the use of a housing
which is clamped to a support member attached to the ceiling. A
vertically adjustable arm is inserted through the housing, through
vertically aligned openings in the top and bottom surfaces of the
housing. The bottom opening is elongated in a transverse direction.
A locking member is hinged to the bottom surface inside the housing
and is urged downwardly by a spring so that the locking edges,
which are in the form of a V notch, are at an angle to the
elongated member such that under the pressure of the spring the
locking member will grip the edge of the elongated member and
prevent its movement downwardly.
When the elongated member is pushed to the side (toward the locking
member) by means of the slot in the bottom surface, the angle
between the locking member and the elongated member is now less
than the critical value required to obtain locking action.
Therefore the arm is now free to move downwardly as desired. Thus,
an operator can grasp the bottom end of the arm with one hand, and
by pushing it to the side, he releases the locking member and then
can lower the arm to any desired position. The action of the
locking member is such that the elongated member can be pushed
upwardly without resistance at a time. Thus the operator with one
hand can control the position of the support arm and with the other
hand can be doing other necessary simultaneous actions. This use of
a single hand for unlocking and moving the support member is not
shown in the prior art. Furthermore the arm can be a tube and the
electrical cord supplying power to the appliance hanging from the
lower end of the arm can pass through the internal conduit of the
tubular arm.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
These and other objects of this invention and a better
understanding of the principles and details of this invention will
be evident from the following description taken in conjunction with
the appended drawings, in which:
FIGS. 1 and 2 show two side views of the complete apparatus.
FIGS. 3 and 4 show sectional views of the housing.
FIG. 5 shows a detail of the clamping means.
FIG. 6 shows a view of the overall assembly of this invention in a
typical application in a television studio.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Referring now to the drawings, FIGS. 1 and 2 show two views of the
assembly of this invention. It comprises a housing which is a
closed metal box, which has a C clamp attached to its top surface
by means of which the housing can be clamped to a support bar which
is supported from the ceiling of the room in which it is to be
used. This is shown in a schematic way in FIG. 6 in which the
housing 10 is clamped by means 24 to a horizontal pipe 52 which is
supported by vertical members 50 from a structure 58 attached to
the ceiling 56 of the room in which this device is to be used.
There is a vertically adjustable elongated member 12 which can be
called a vertical arm. This can be a solid rod or a tube. It is
preferably a tube, as shown in FIG. 5. The cross section can be
square as shown in FIG. 5 or rectangular or round as may be
desired. There are two openings 30 in the upper surface 36 (FIG. 3)
and 32 in the lower surface 38 of the housing 10. The lower
openings 32 is elongated and has a portion 34 to permit sideways
movement of the arm 12 at the lower opening. This sideways movement
at the lower end tilts the arm 12 as shown by the dashed line 12'.
Inside the housing is a hinged strap 41 which is adjustably
fastened by part 42 to the bottom surface 38 by means of bolts 44.
The locking member or blade 40 is welded to the strap 41, and can
move upwardly as shown by the dashed line 40' but is urged
downwardly by the spring 48.
In order to have a locking feature, the blade 40 must make an angle
with the arm 12 indicated by A which is greater than a minimum
value. If the angle is greater than this minimum value the blade
will lock the downward movement of the arm 12. When this angle A is
less than the minimum value, it will not lock and therefore the arm
12 can be released from the locking feature and can be moved freely
up and down. It will be clear that when the locking blade 40 is in
the position shown and the angle A is greater than the minimum,
then the arm 12 will be locked and its downward movement will be
prevented. However, by moving the lower end of the arm 12 to the
left as shown by the dashed lines 12' the locking blade 40 is
raised to the position 40' and the angle between the locking blade
and the arm 12 is now A', which is less than the required angle for
locking. The arm 12 is now capable of freely moving downward. To
adjust the vertical position of the arm 12, the operator can grasp
the lower end of the arm 12, push it to the side, and lower it to
the desired level then push it back to a vertical position where it
will again be clamped by the locking blade 40. The end of the blade
40 is in the shape of a V notch so as to better clamp and bite into
the surface of the arm 12.
Short pieces of rubber tubing 18 and 20 are provided on the top and
bottom end of the arm 12 as bumpers to prevent damage when the arm
is raised or lowered rapidly to its limiting position.
The lower end of the arm 12 carries a U-shaped member 14 which
supports a horizontal rod or pipe 16, to which may be clamped
fixtures of one sort or another such as the lamp fixtures 54 shown
in FIG. 6.
It is clear that by loosening the screw 26 the clamping means 24
attached to the housing 10 can be slid along the pipe 52 to any
desired position. A safety cord 28 can, of course, be provided to
loop around the pipe 52 and prevent the dropping of the entire
apparatus in case the clamp 24 should slip off the pipe 52.
The electrical cord 22 that is used to supply power to the fixtures
54 can be inserted down through the top end of the arm 12 and
through the tubing to the bottom where it can be attached to the
lighting fixtures.
While the arm has been described as a square tubing it is clear
that it can be a solid rod as well as a tubing, and may be of any
desired cross section such as square, rectangular or circular
provided the openings 30 and 32 are of appropriate shape. Also the
length of the bottom opening 32, 34, should be such that the angle
A' is less than the locking angle so as to permit downward movement
of the arm 12.
While the invention has been described with a certain degree of
particularity it is manifest that many changes may be made in the
details of construction and the arrangement of components. It is
understood that the invention is not to be limited to the specific
embodiments set forth herein by way of exemplifying the invention,
but the invention is to be limited only by the scope of the
attached claim or claims, including the full range of equivalency
to which each element or step thereof is entitled.
* * * * *