WO1996031388A1 - Bicycle lamp - Google Patents

Abstract

A new battery lamp, particularly for use as a bicycle lamp, is characterized in comprising a bowl shaped base part (2), which houses both the bulb socket and the batteries (4) and is covered by a removable, transparent cover (10) that enables a free light emission from the bulb (6), but then also enables a free insight to the batteries. This latter effect, however, is prevented in that behind the portion of the cover covering the battery section there is placed a cheap plate or sheet member, which is exchangeable for providing the lamp with a desired front side colour. The lamp may appear as a set of lamps, comprising also a rear lamp which, upon removal from the bicycle, can be coupled together with the front lamp for formation of a unitary lamp structure, whereby the user can handle the two lamps as a single unit between the consecutive uses thereof.

Description

Bicycle lamp

The present invention relates to a battery la_^mp, primari¬ ly for use as a bicycle lamp. Thus, the lamp is of a quite ordinary type, which should comprise a battery housing, typi¬ cally a flat box portion for receiving a plurality of small batteries and provided with a removable cover for enabling a change out of the batteries, and connected with a lamp por¬ tion containing a bulb socket and a reflector and designed so as to enable an exchange of the bulb. These basic conditions have resulted in rather 'stiffened' lamp designs, which, in principle, have not undergone any renewal through many years. In the present connection, however, it has been realised that yet it is possible to provide for attractive improvements or simplifications and at the same time introduce novel possi¬ bilities of variation, here with specific reference to the dominating colour of the lamp, inasfar as the invention pro¬ vides for a possibility of the lamp not appearing as a to¬ tally independently looking unit, concurrently with the lamp having a simplified design.

The invention departs from the consideration that both the batteries and the bulb socket can be housed in a rear lamp housing portion, which may then, as a whole, be covered by a single, removable front member, which should of course be made of a transparent material in order to let out the light from the bulb. Thus, the entire lamp housing need not consist of more than these two portions, as the removable front member will provide for exchange access to both the batteries and the bulb.

This construction will be very simple, but it may be ob¬ jectionable in that visually it is not particularly attrac- tive, because there will be insight directly to the package of batteries in the battery housing portion. However, just at this point it is possible to reject the objection and at the same time establish a colour adaptation of the lamp to the colour of the bicycle, viz. in mounting a suitably coloured sheet or plate element as an internal filling out of the part of the front member which covers the battery section of the housing. This will be the major part of the front side of the lamp, i.e. the more visible part, and this portion, there- fore, can in a simple manner be brought to assuiqe a colour at least reasonably matching the colour of the bicycle frame.

The lamp may be sold with an accessory in the form of a moderate number of differently coloured insert sheets or plates, or the buyer or user may cut and mount such a cover sheet of a suitable colour. In use, the insert will be pro¬ tected in that it can be mounted at the inside of the trans¬ parent front member.

In the following the invention is described in more de- tail with reference to the drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective exploded view of a front lamp according to the invention,

Figs. 2 and 3 are detailed views of the lower end of the lamp, Fig. 4 is a perspective view of a rear lamp according to the invention,

Fig. 5 is a detailed view thereof, and

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of the two lamps in a mutu¬ ally joined condition. The lamp shown in Fig. 1 is made of a rear half box ele¬ ment 2 having means for conductively receiving a number of batteries 4 and means for the holding of an upper lamp bulb 6 to be actuated b a switch unit 8.

As a cover for this half box 2 there is provided a front half box element 10 made of a transparent material, such that the light from the bulb will be directly visible from the outside.

The front element 10 comprises outstanding side walls which are made with a slightly undercut shape, such that they can serve to retain a sheet or plate piece 12 for internally covering the transparent front face outside the entire bat¬ tery section. With the respective dimensions this will imply that the plate piece 12 fills out the majority of the front face of the lam] , i.e. the colour of the plate piece will largely determine the look of the lamp. The lamp may be de¬ livered or supplemented with sheet or plate pieces 12 of dif¬ ferent colours, such that the user may adjust the colour as desired. The pieces 12 may be made with imprintv e.g. a logo or trade mark.

At its top portion the front element is provided with widened side walls, viz. such that the bulb 6 may light on or through these walls in order to make the actuated lamp visi¬ ble also from the sides.

Along its free edge the front element is shaped with a protruding, countersunk edge portion 14, Fig. 3, which fits into the front opening of the rear element 2. At the top, this edge portion has a pair of upwardly projecting knobs which, by the mounting of the front element, can engage a pair of holding recesses 16 in the internal edge portion of the rear element, whereafter the front element may be tilted home. At the bottom, the edge portion 14 is provided with a hole 18 which, by snap action, is brought into engagement with an upstanding rib 20 at the bottom side of the rear ele¬ ment.

As shown in Figs. 2 and 3, this bottom side is provided with a throughslot 22 which enables a local pressing up or in of the bottom area behind this slot, and as shown in Fig. 3 such a pressing up will imply that also the free end of the edge portion is pressed upwardly, whereby this portion is pressed free of its engagement with the rib 22. Thereby, the lamp will be quite easy to open, without this happening un- deliberately.

Moreover, the said bottom side, Fig. 2, is provided with a pair of rearwardly open, undercut grooves 24, which will be discussed below.

Based on siirάlar principles, the invention also provides for a rear bicycle lamp, Fig. 4, which, however, is somewhat lower than the front lamp, because it shall hold fewer bat¬ teries. On its underside, this part of the entire set of lamps is shaped with undercut ribs 26 fitting in the grooves 24 of the front lamp, such that the two lamps can be joined into a coherent unit when they are not in use, see Fig. 6.

The rear lamp is preferably provided with a diode lamp 28 which as shown in Fig. 5 may be partly embedded in a depres¬ sion in the transparent front element, whereby the latter may act as a light conductor to enable also this lamp to radiate light from parts of the side faces. Preferably, the transpar¬ ent front element is made as a unit of red plastics, without any coloured inner cover, next to the diode, the plastic may be shaped as a lense, which concentrates the light from the diode rearwardly from the bicycle.

A weak item of many battery lamps is the mechanical, man¬ ual switch, which may give problems with respect to the ease of operation. In connection with the invention, therefore, it is considered to make use of remotely controlled switches, inasfar as such control systems have been developed to high efficiency and low costs for other purposes of use, e.g. for the actuation of central lock systems in motor cars.

According to the invention it may even be advantageous to use such a radio based remote control system in connection with another important function in bicycles, viz. the unlock¬ ing of an otherwise ordinary bicycle lock, which, after man¬ ual tightening, may then be brought to opening without having any releasing means accessible from the outside, only by sim- pie use of a releaser button on an associated remote control. This control will not even have to be "remote", as the bicy¬ cle owner may well bring the loose control unit into close contact or direct touch contact with a receptor area e.g. at the side of the lock housing, whereby it is possible to transfer the required operation energy from a battery in the control unit to the built-in releaser mechanism via an induc¬ tive coupling or a direct galvanic contact. The lock itself would then not need to house a battery, and it should only be ensured that a signal filter inside the lock will only accept such signals which are transmitted from the particular con¬ trol unit, whether this transmission be frequency or pulse determined. Optionally, the user will have to accept that an actuation may take some time, when only few seconds, e.g. for the building up of a capacitor charge sufficient to effect the release operation.

Claims

oC A I M S :

1. A battery lamp, primarily for use as a bicycle lamp, with a base portion for holding a battery holder and a bulb socket, and designed so as to be openable for providing ac- cess to the batteries and the bulb, respectively, character¬ ized in that the base portion is made as a rear element shaped as a flat, open bowl, with an openable cover member of a transparent material covering both the bulb and the battery section of the lamp, whereas between the outside of the bat- tery section and the inside of the cover member there is ex- changeably inserted a non-transparent insert plate or sheet member for visually covering the battery section and showing the front side colour of the lamp.

2. A lamp according to claim 1, characterized in that the cover member, at the inner edge of the portion thereof which covers the battery section, is provided with knob or rib por¬ tions for holding one or more insert plate or sheet members.

3. A lamp according to claim 2, characterized in that it is factory mounted with more insert plate or sheet members with different colours, preferably with different colours on the respective opposite surfaces of each of these members.

4. A lamp set comprising a front lamp preferably as claimed in claim 1 and an associated rear lamp also made with a bowl shaped base portion having a fully front covering cover element, characterized in that the two lamps are made with substantially the same cross sectional shape, and that on side portions, preferably their bottom sides, they are provided with complementary engagement means enabling them to be joined into a single unit.

5. A rear lamp for a set of lamps preferably according to claim 4, characterized in that a light diode is received in an inner, inwardly open cavity in the lamp cover element such that this element is in light conducting connection with the diode for lateral transmission of the light to the side faces of the cover element.