EP3575684B1 - Light strip system - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a light strip system with several luminaires arranged in series, the luminaires being electrically and mechanically coupled to one another, a male connector being provided in one luminaire and a female connector being provided in the other luminaire for the electrical coupling of two luminaires a mechanical and an electrical coupling through the electrical connector, the two male and female connectors can be brought into engagement with one another in such a way that the two connectors are positively connected to one another in the longitudinal direction of the light band, the male connector having a first housing with male plug contacts, the male plug contacts are arranged in a recess of the first housing.

Light line systems are primarily used for basic or illumination of areas, for example in shops. In particular in shops where fruit and vegetables, possibly also meat, are sold, it has been found to be advantageous if special radiators are provided which are arranged above the goods to be sold, for example the vegetables, in order to provide the consumer with the color of the vegetables to suggest that the goods are particularly fresh.

Since the areas to be illuminated are relatively large, the trunking systems have a large number of luminaires arranged one behind the other, which are both electrically coupled to one another and mechanically. This means that when the corresponding trunking systems are installed, the individual lights are each separately electrically coupled to one another and also mechanically connected to one another. Plugs are provided for the electrical coupling of the luminaires to form the trunking system; the mechanical connection is made using appropriate locking systems that can be operated more or less easily.

From the WO 2015/041530 A1 a trunking system according to the preamble of claim 1 is known.

The object on which the invention is based is to reduce the assembly times of such light line systems and, overall, to make assembly simpler and to control the desired conductors L1, L2, L3.

To achieve the object, it is provided according to the invention that the housing of the male connector has a phase selector switch through which a desired conductor L1, L2 or L3 can be controlled.

As already explained at the beginning, such trunking systems are presented as several luminaires arranged in a row, the mechanical and electrical coupling taking place in that both the electrical contacting and the mechanical locking are made through the plug connectors of the two luminaires to be connected. This means that there is no separate mechanical locking and electrical contacting. The mechanical locking takes place in the longitudinal direction of the luminaires, as the luminaires of the trunking system are also arranged in series with one another.

With respect to the male connector, a first housing with male plug contacts is provided. Both the mechanical connection and the electrical connection to the female connector are established by the male plug contacts. In detail, it is also provided in this context that the male plug contacts are arranged in a recess of the first housing. Corresponding to this, the female connector advantageously has a second housing, the second housing having female plug contacts for receiving the male plug contacts, the second housing being receivable through the recess of the first housing. The recess of the first housing is approximately U-shaped and thus receives the second housing in a form-fitting manner in two spatial directions. In this respect, the second housing is held in a guided manner in the first housing.

Furthermore, the housing of the male connector has a phase selector switch, by means of which the desired conductor L1, L2 or L3 can be controlled. The phase selector switch can advantageously be actuated from the outside in the fully assembled state of the trunking system, that is to say without dismantling the trunking system or the lights. To control the desired conductors L1, L2 or L3, the phase selector switch has three contact fingers on its circumference, each of which is arranged in the phase selector switch so that it can rotate at a distance from one another. The position of the contact fingers correlates with the course of the conductors L1, L2 or L3. This means that each finger can be brought into contact with a single conductor.

Advantageous features and configurations of the invention emerge from the subclaims.

In particular, it is provided that the male and female connectors of two lights to be coupled are aligned horizontally in such a way that the lights to be connected can be connected to one another transversely to the longitudinal axis of the trunking system. In this case, the plug connectors can advantageously be connected to one another in a form-fitting manner in the vertical direction, that is to say in the Z direction, in order to make the mechanical coupling in addition to the electrically conductive connection. This prevents the two lights from being pulled apart lengthways after coupling. In particular, it is provided in this context that the process of connecting or separating the two lights to one another takes place in the vertical direction, that is, the connection takes place at the moment when two lights are mounted on the ceiling.

According to a further advantageous feature of the invention it is provided that the male and female connectors on the end faces two lights to be connected are arranged. It is provided in particular that projections are provided in the area of the end faces of the two lights to be connected, which overlap when two lights are assembled, with the connectors for electrical contacting and mechanical connection being provided in the area of the projections of the two lights.

To fix the lights in the contacted and overlapping state, the lights are interlocked in the area of the overlapping projections in the Z direction, in particular releasably interlocked in the Z direction.

According to a further feature of the invention, the lamp has a lamp body, wherein the lamp body has two spaced apart, parallel to one another and extending essentially over the length of the lamp body first and second electrical conductor systems, which with the male and female plug contacts in Connection can be brought. These conductor systems, which can also be referred to as busbars, ultimately connect the male and female plug contacts arranged at the end of the lamp body. However, these ladder systems can also be used to connect consumers, for example spotlights to illuminate the corresponding goods. Specifically, with regard to the conductor systems, it is provided that the first conductor system comprises three conductors L1, D- and N, and the second conductor system comprises three conductors L2, D + and L3. The conductors L1, L2 and L3 are used, for example, for the power supply, for example a spotlight, as has been described above, or also other consumers. At the same time, however, the conductors L1, L2 and L3 also serve as the power supply for a power supply unit, which is used to supply the light strips with low-voltage power. The other conductors D + and D- take care of the as part of a bus wiring Control of the lights. In principle, however, the control can also take place via a simple analog signal through the wires D + and D-. N is the neutral conductor, i.e. the ground.

According to a further feature of the invention, the male connector has contact sockets which are electrically connected to the two conductor systems and which serve to supply power, in particular to the power supply unit for supplying power to low-voltage illuminants in the lamp body. In this case, the contact sockets are advantageously in electrical connection with the two conductor systems through the male plug contacts, the conductor systems being connected to the 220 V network.

Fig. 1

zeigt schematisch als Ausschnitt ein Lichtbandsystem mit zwei Leuchten;

Fig. 2

zeigt eine Darstellung zweier Leuchten in entkoppeltem Zustand gemäß Fig. 1, wobei die Leuchten im Bereich ihres Vorsprunges zum Zwecke der Verriegelung einander übergreifend ausgebildet sind;

Fig. 3

zeigt den männlichen Steckverbinder einer Leuchte in einer perspektivischen Darstellung von oben;

Fig. 4

zeigt den weiblichen Steckverbinder in einer perspektivischen Darstellung von unten;

Fig. 5

zeigt schematisch die Verbindung zweier Leuchten;

Fig. 6

zeigt den männlichen Steckverbinder mit teilweise entferntem ersten Gehäuse, wobei der Phasenwahlschalter erkennbar ist;

Fig. 7

zeigt einen Schnitt durch die Leuchte, wobei hierbei die ersten und zweiten Leitersysteme erkennbar sind;

Fig. 8

zeigt die Anordnung der Leitersysteme gemäß Fig. 7 in einer Leuchte in vergrößerter Darstellung;

Fig. 8a

zeigt eine Variante in Fig. 8, wobei lediglich vier Leiter vorgesehen sind;

Fig. 9

zeigt eine Ansicht von oben auf den Phasenwahlschalter und die Leitersysteme;

Fig. 10

zeigt schematisch die Einzelheit "X" aus Fig. 4, Fig. 5

The invention is explained in more detail below by way of example in the appendix to the drawings.

Fig. 1

shows a schematic cutout of a trunking system with two lights;

Fig. 2

shows an illustration of two lights in the decoupled state according to FIG Fig. 1 , wherein the lights are formed overlapping each other in the area of their projection for the purpose of locking;

Fig. 3

shows the male connector of a lamp in a perspective view from above;

Fig. 4

shows the female connector in a perspective view from below;

Fig. 5

shows schematically the connection of two lights;

Fig. 6

shows the male connector with the first housing partially removed, the phase selection switch being visible;

Fig. 7

shows a section through the lamp, whereby the first and second conductor systems can be seen;

Fig. 8

shows the arrangement of the ladder systems according to Fig. 7 in a lamp in an enlarged view;

Figure 8a

shows a variant in Fig. 8 , with only four conductors being provided;

Fig. 9

shows a view from above of the phase selector switch and the conductor systems;

Fig. 10

shows the detail "X" schematically Fig. 4, Fig. 5

The trunking system, designated as a whole, shown as a section ( Fig. 1, Fig. 2 ) includes the two lights 3 and 4, which can be coupled to one another in the area of their end faces. The luminaire 3 here has an overlapping projection 5 on the front side, whereas the luminaire 4 has a correspondingly overlapping projection 6. The female connector designated 10 is located in the area of the overlapping projection 5, the overlapping projection 6 having the male connector 15. In the Fig. 2 the connectors are only shown schematically. The lights 3, 4 each have a light body 3a, 4a with the lighting means 7a, 7b. This means that the luminaire body and the light source form a unit. In the prior art, however, it is usually the case that the luminaire consists of a mounting rail that can be attached to the ceiling and a Functional part consists of the illuminants. The connection of the functional part with the mounting rail is relatively complex when mounting under the ceiling.

Out Fig. 3 results from the perspective view of the male connector 15; The male connector 15 has six male plug contacts 16, these plug contacts 16 being stored in a first housing 17, the housing 17 having a housing recess 17a in which the aforementioned male plug contacts 16 are received one behind the other in two parallel rows.

The first housing 17 of the male connector 15 also has contact sockets 18 which ensure the power supply to the male connector 15, for example through a power supply unit 25.

If you now consider the Fig. 4 , which shows the female connector 10 in a perspective view from below, one recognizes female plug contacts 11 corresponding to the male plug contacts 16 in a second housing 12, which are supported in a housing projection 12a of the second housing 12. It has already been in relation to the Fig. 4 referred to a housing recess 17a, this housing recess 17a serving to receive the housing projection 12a of the female connector 10. It can thus be seen that the fact that the male connector 15 is arranged in a protrusion 6 that extends below, the female connector 10, however, in an overlapping projection 5, the coupling of the two adjacent lights 3, 4 in the vertical direction, that is, in Z- Direction, is based on the arrangement of these lights on a ceiling. The housing recess 17a in the first housing 17 is held approximately U-shaped in the view, that is, the male plug contacts 16 in connection with the female Plug contacts 11 only have to provide locking, in addition to the electrical contacting in the direction of the open leg 12b of the U-shaped housing recess 17a. The two connectors are thus guided into one another at the side.

To fix the connection between two lights in the Z direction, there are 6 locking hooks 19 ( Fig. 3 ) provided with corresponding locking lugs 13 ( Fig. 4 ) work together. These act in the same direction as the connection of the male and female plug contacts, thus in the Z direction ( Fig. 2 ). This means that it is possible in a simple manner to assemble a light strip system with several lights, the connection being made both mechanically and electrically through the male and female plug contacts. This means that the mechanical and electrical connection is made exclusively through the male and female plug contacts. Thus, through the female and male plug contacts 11, 16, there is an electrical connection and a mechanical, form-fitting connection in the longitudinal direction of the lights (X direction).

Figures 7 and 8 show a section through a lamp, wherein the conductor systems 30, 35 can be seen. Each conductor system 30, 35 has three conductors, the conductor system 30 showing the conductors L1, D- and N, while the conductor system 35 has the conductors L2, D + and L3. The conductors D- and D + result for a bus system or bus wiring. These conductor systems 30, 35 are advantageously part of a housing 37. The connection of the conductors of the conductor systems 30, 35 to the female and male plug contacts of the respective conductor systems is shown in FIG Fig. 6 . It can be seen there that with respect to the male plug contacts 16, these each have a vertical leg 16a and a horizontal leg 16b, the respective horizontal leg 16b in contact with the conductor provided for this purpose of the ladder system 30, 35 is. In order to achieve stable electrical contact between the horizontal limb 16b and the conductors of the conductor systems 30, 35, each of these horizontal limbs 16b is under the load of a compression spring 27, which is supported in the center on a bar that is not shown ( Fig. 6 ).

If you look again at the Fig. 7 , it can be seen that the luminaire bodies 3a, 4a of the luminaires 3, 4 trapezoidal recesses 7 are used to accommodate light sources, for example LED modules 7a, the power supply of the LED modules being provided by a power supply unit (low-voltage supplier).

The conductors of the conductor systems 30, 35, which carry a voltage of 220 V, can also be contacted directly with a consumer, for example with a light source 7b with which special goods are illuminated as a spotlight. However, it is also conceivable to arrange any other consumption, e.g. B. in the form of sockets to tap electrical energy.

Fig. 5 shows schematically the assembly of two lights by coupling in the Z-direction. Here, a snap lock 50 is provided on one lamp with a tongue 51 with a projection 52 that runs into the snap opening 55 of the other lamp and thus ensures locking, especially during assembly, i.e. especially before the second lamp to be mounted on the ceiling is attached.

Out Fig. 6 the phase selector switch 40, which is located in the area of the male connector 15, can also be seen. The phase selector switch 40 protrudes with its lower end from the first housing 17 of the male connector 15 so that it is of outside so is accessible from outside the luminaire and thus operable. Such a phase selector switch has contact fingers 42 that can be opened out at different heights ( Fig. 9 ), which are each arranged in the phase selector switch so that they can rotate at a distance from one another. The position of the contact fingers 42 correlates here with the conductors L1, L2, L3. This means that each contact finger can be brought into contact with a single one of these conductors in order to connect the illuminants with different phases.

As a modification of the Fig. 8 show the Figure 8a an embodiment in which only four conductors are provided.

L ₁ , L ₂ , L ₃ and N conductors are provided. If a bus system with four conductors is still possible, conductors L ₁ and L _{2 are} replaced by D + and D-. In this case, the power supply is only provided by phase L ₃ .

If only four conductors are provided, correspondingly fewer female plug contacts 11 are to be provided, namely only four, which can be seen directly in FIG Fig. 4 opens up. The same then also applies to the male plug-in contacts, which is also directly apparent Fig. 3 results.

List of reference symbols:

1

Trunking system

3

lamp

3a

Luminaire body

4th

lamp

4a

Luminaire body

5

overarching lead

6th

undercut

7th

Recess

7a

Bulbs

7b

Bulbs

10

female connector

11

female plug contact

12th

casing

12a

Housing protrusion to accommodate female plug contacts

12b

open leg of the housing recess 17a

13th

Latch for latching hook

15th

male connector

16

male plug contact

16a

vertical leg of the plug contact

16b

horizontal leg of the plug contact

17th

casing

17a

Housing recess

18th

Contact socket

19th

Locking hook

25th

power adapter

27

Compression spring

30th

Ladder system

35

Ladder system

37

casing

40

Phase selector switch

42

Contact finger (phase selector switch)

50

Snap lock

51

tongue

52

Protrusion on the tongue

55

Snap opening

L1

ladder

L2

ladder

L3

ladder

D -

ladder

D +

ladder

N

ladder

Claims (11)

1. A light strip system (1) having a plurality of illuminants (3, 4) arranged in a row, wherein the illuminants (3, 4) are electrically and mechanically couplable to one another, wherein a female plug connector (10) is provided at the one illuminant (3, 4) and a male plug connector (15) is provided at the other illuminant (3, 4) for the electrical coupling of two illuminants (3, 4), wherein, for the provision of a mechanical and an electrical coupling by the two electrical plug connectors, the two plug connectors (10, 15) can be brought into engagement with one another such that the two plug connectors (10, 15) are connected to one another by shape matching in at least the longitudinal direction of the light strip,
   and wherein the male plug connector (15) has a first housing (17) having male plug contacts (16), with the male plug contacts (16) being arranged in a cutout (17a) of the first housing (17), characterized in that
   the housing (17) of the male plug connector (15) has a phase selector switch (40) by which a desired conductor L1, L2, or L3 can be controlled.
2. A light strip system (1) in accordance with claim 1, characterized in that
   the plug connectors (10, 15) of two illuminants (3, 4) to be coupled are horizontally oriented such that the illuminants (3, 4) to be connected are connectable to one another transversely to the longitudinal axis of the light strip system (1).
3. A light strip system (1) in accordance with claim 2, characterized in that
   the illuminants (3, 4) to be connected are pluggably connectable to one another transversely to the longitudinal axis of the light strip system in the vertical direction.
4. A light strip system (1) in accordance with one of the preceding claims,
   characterized in that
   the male and female plug connectors (10, 15) are arranged at the front sides of two illuminants (3, 4) to be connected.
5. A light strip system (1) in accordance with one of the preceding claims,
   characterized in that
   the female plug connector (10) has a second housing (12), with the second housing (12) having female plug connectors (11) for receiving the male plug contacts (16), and with a housing projection (12a) of the second housing (12) being receivable by the cutout (17a) of the first housing (17).
6. A light strip system (1) in accordance with claim 5, characterized in that
   an illuminant (3, 4) has a light fixture (3a, 4a), with the light fixture (3a, 4a) having two first and second conductor systems (30, 35) that are arranged spaced apart from one another, that run in parallel with one another, that extend substantially over the length of the light fixture, and that are in contact with the female (11) and male (16) plug contacts.
7. A light strip system (1) in accordance with claim 6, characterized in that
   the male plug connector (15) has contact sockets (18) electrically connected to the two conductor systems (30, 35) for a power supply, in particular by a power pack (25).
8. A light strip system (1) in accordance with claim 7, characterized in that
   the contact sockets (18) are in electrical contact with the two conductor systems (30, 35) by the male plug contacts (16).
9. A light strip system (1) in accordance with one of the preceding claims,
   characterized in that
   the illuminants overlap one another at the end sides so that a respective female (10) and male (15) plug connector are contactable to one another in a manner disposed above one another.
10. A light strip system (1) in accordance with one of the preceding claims 3 to 9,
    characterized in that
    the illuminants (3, 4) are connectable to one another in a latching manner at the end sides in the vertical direction, in particular releasably in a latching manner in the vertical direction.
11. A light strip system (1) in accordance with one of the preceding claims
    characterized in that
    the phase selector switch (40) is actuable from the outside in the fully mounted state of the light strip system.

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