GB2068523A

GB2068523A - Marker light with adjustable optical system

Info

Publication number: GB2068523A
Application number: GB8002316A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: Toshiba Electric Equipment Corp
Current assignee: Toshiba Electric Equipment Corp
Priority date: 1980-01-23
Filing date: 1980-01-23
Publication date: 1981-08-12
Also published as: GB2068523B

Abstract

In a marker light e.g. for a runway, the light source (56), reflector (57) and lens (59) are fixed on a base member (32) via support frames 60, 61 so that their relative position is adjustable. This optical unit is provided within a metal box 1 having a sealed construction and a light transmitting window (53) through which the light emitted from the light source (56) is outwardly projected. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Marker light This invention relates to marker light used for airports and general roads.

The marker light which is installed at airports and the like usually has an optical system comprising a light source lamp, a reflector for forwardly reflecting light emitted from the light source lamp and a prism or a lens for controliing light from the reflector through a filter, and these component parts are progressively accommodated in an optical system casing having a sealed structure. In these prior-art marker lights, however, only the light source lamp and reflector are fixed on a base, with the other components made of glass being directly secured to openings or windows formed in the casing made of a casting of iron, aluminum or the like.Therefore, the characteristics of the optical system cannot be grasped before it is completely assembled, and the adjustment requires troublesome steps of disassembling the casing, carrying out adjustment of the individuai component parts and confirming the adjustments after the system is reassembled.

Accordingly, the invention has an object of permitting the adjustment. of the optical system to be done before the optical system is assembled in an optical system casing and also permitting accurate adjustment to be made by mounting the individual component parts of the optical system on a base member.

In an aspect of the present invention there is provided a marker light comprising an optical system box having a sealed construction and a light transmitting window, a base member provided within the optical system box, a light source, a light reflector and a light control member, and fixing means for fixing the light source, light reflector and light control member on the base member in the state that their relative position is adjusted thereby constituting an optical, whereby the light from the light source is projected from the window to the outside of the optical system box through the light reflector and light control member.

This invention can be more fully understood from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is a sectional view showing a marker light according to an embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 2 is an exploded perspective view showing an optical system unit and support member of the marker light; and Fig. 3 is an exploded perspective view of a lamp holder.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1 shows a sectional view of the marker light in the assembled state, and Fig. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the light. Referring to the Figures, designated at 1 is a metal vessel accommodating a transformer 2. The vessel 1 has a cylindrical form open at one end, and its side wall is formed with a code hole 3. A ring-like support member 5 having four threaded holes 4 is provided on the upper open end of the vessel 1. A ring-like auxiliary member 6 is provided above the vessel 1. A holding member 7 is secured to the support member 5 by four screws 8 screwed in the threaded holes 4 of the support member 5.

The holding member 7 is a casting of iron, aluminum or the like and has a flat disc-like form with the upper surface having a tapered portion near the periphery. It has a central accommodation space 9 and four elongate holes 10 for passing screws 8, around the space 9, which are open both at the top and bottom surfaces. In the upper surface formed with a light projection guide groove 11 communicating with the accommodation space 9 and upwardly inclined toward the outer periphery. An annular projection 1 2 is formed on the bottom surface of the holding member 7 and its lower outer periphery is contacted with the inner periphery of the support member 5. An annular recess 14 is formed in the bottom surface of the annular projection 13, which contact with the corresponding inner end outer edge portions of the upper surface of the support member 5.In the portion of the contact surface 1 3 between the projection 12 and groove 14 is formed an annular groove 1 5, in which an O-ring 16 is fitted to seal the gap between the holding member 7 and support member 5. The accommodation space 9 consists of a rectangular upper recess 1 7 open at the top surface of the holding member 7 and a circular lower hole 1 9 extending from a bottom support surface 18 of the upper recess 17 and open at the bottom surface.Threaded holes 21 are formed in the support surface 1 8 near the four corners thereof, and a chamfer 22 is formed at the upper end of the inner periphery of the support surface 1 8. An optical system unit 24 is mounted on the holding member 7 with an O-ring 23 interposed therebetween, by screws 25 screwed in the threaded holes 21.

The optical system unit 24 comprises an optical system casing 30 including lower and upper casing halves 26 and 27 sealed to each other by an O-ring 28 and assembled by screws 29, a base member 32 disposed within the optical system casing 30 and secured thereto by screws 31 and an optical system 33 attached to the base member 32.

The lower casing half 26 is formed by drawing a metal sheet, and has a cylindrical portion 34 with a bottom wall, fitted in the lower hole 1 9 in the holding member 7 and an integral flange portion 35 fitted in the rectangular upper recess 17 in the holding member 7. The bottom of the cylindrical portion 34 is formed with an inwardly projecting raised portion 36 having a central hole and a plurality of outwardly projecting portions 37, and the flange portion 35 is formed near its four corners with screw holes 38 and 39 for respectively receiving the screws 25 and 29.An insulating plate 40 is attached by screws 41 on the top of the raised portion 36 with lower portion downwardly extending through the central hole and has terminals 45 buried in it for connecting leads 42 from the transformer 2 and leads 44 from a lamp socket 43, and the outer space within the raised portion 36 is filled with a heat-resistant resin 46 such as epoxy resin or silicone resin.

The upper casing half 27 is a casting of iron, aluminum or the like having a rectangular form to fit the rectangular upper recess 17 of the holding member 7. The half 27 has a central circular recess 47 formed in the bottom surface to define a sealed circular accommodation space 47 together with the lower casing half 26. Its bottom surface is also formed around the central recess 47 with threaded holes 49 for receiving the screws 31, an annular groove 50 for receiving the O-ring 28, and screw holes 51 near four corners for receiving the screws 25 and threaded holes 52 for receiving the screws 29. The side wall of the recess 48 is formed with a rectangular light projection window 53 with rounded corners, and a water-proof glass plate 54 of aflat plate is secured to the light projection window 53 by means of an adhesive.

The base member 32 has a ring-like metal plate having an outer diameter slightly smaller than the inner diameter of the cylindrical portion 34 of the lower casing half 26, and is formed with screw holes 55 for receiving the screws 31.

The optical system 33 includes a light source lamp 56 such as a halogen lamp, a reflector 57 having a paraboloidal or ellipsoidal form, a filter 58 and a light control member 59 such as a lens or a prism. The light source lamp 56 and reflector 57 are supported by a first support frame 60 mounted on a rear portion of the base member 32, and the filter 58 and light control member 59 are supported by a second support frame 61 mounted on a front portion of the base member 32.

The first support frame 60 includes a reflector mounting plate 63 slits extending in a forward direction at its opposite sides and fixed on the base member 32 by screws 62 inserted through the slits such that its position relative to the base member 32 is adjustable and a central portion supporting the open end of the reflector 57, and an integral lamp mounting plate 65, which has a channel-shaped form with its opposite legs connected to the opposite sides of the back surface of the reflector mounting plate 63 and supports and carries a central lamp holder 64 supporting the light source lamp 56.

As most clearly shown in Fig. 3, the lamp holder 64 includes three lock pins 105 inserted in the respective pin holes 102 formed in the lamp mounting plate 65 and each having a rear end portion 104 having a tapered portion 103, a ring like coupling plate 108 coupling the forward ends of the three lock pins 105 tied thereto by clamping or nuts 106 and having an operating piece 107, and three coil springs 109 fitted on the respective lock pins 105 between the coupling plate 108 and lamp mounting plate 65.The light source lamp 56 has a base 56a fitted in the lamp socket 43 and a flange 56b provided adjacent to the base 56a and formed with three engagement holes 56e each consisting of a circular hole portion 56C having a diameter slightly greater than the diameter of the rear end portion 104 of the lock pin 105 and an elongate hole portion 56d continuous to the circular hole portion 56C and having a smaller diameter dimension.

The second support frame 61 has slits extending in a forward direction at its opposite sides and fixed on the base member 32 by screws 66 inserted through the slits such that its position relative to the base member 32 is adjustable. The frame 61 includes a light control member case 67 accommodating the light control member 59 and ears 69 projecting from the opposite sides of the rear end of the light control member case 67 and formed with respective threaded holes 68. Ears 71 of a filter case 70, in which the filter 58 is mounted, are secured by screws 72 to the ears 69.

The method of assembly and operation of the above construction will now be described.

The vessel 1 is buried at the time of the construction work of pavement or by digging a hole with a cutter in case when it is installed after the completion of the pavement work. The holding member 7 is placed on the support member 5 of the vessel 1 in this state and secured thereto by inserting the screws 8 through its elongate holes 10 from above and screwing them into the threaded holes 4 of the support member 5. Since the elongate holes 10 of the holding member 7 have different angles, the holding member 7 can be mounted in correct orientation, and also its orientation can be adjusted by virtue of the elongate holes 10.

The light source lamp 56 is mounted with the circular hole portions 56C fitted in the flange 56b on the lock pins 105 by gripping the base 56a, and then the base 56a is turned such that the lock pin is relatively moved from the circular hole portion 56C toward the elongate hole portion 56d As a result, portions of the flange 56d adjacent to-the elongate hole portions 56d are locked by the tapered portions 103 of the lock pins 105 which are forwardly biased by the springs 109. At this time, it may happen that rotation of the light source lamp 56 after insertion thereof in the lamp holder 64 cannot be smoothly made due to the fact that the springs 109 are given a compressive force above a predetermined value for providing a lamp locking force. In such a case, the operating piece 107 is rearwardly nioved against the springs 109, whereby the gap between the tapered portion 103 of each lock pin 105 and lamp mounting plate 65 is increased to permit ready installation of the light source lamp 56. The lamp socket 43 is then fitted on the base 56a of the light source lamp 56.

The filter 58 is also mounted by the screws 72 on the ears 71 of the second support frame 61 and in this state the optical system 33 mounted on the base member 32 is adjusted. The center of the filament of the light source lamp 56 is principally set at the focal point of the reflector 57.

The interrelation among the light source lamp 56, filter 58 and light control member 59 is adjusted by moving the first and second support frames 60 and 61 against the base member 32.

Subsequently, the base member 32 is secured by the screws 31 to the bottom surface of the upper casing half 27, and then the lower casing half 26 is secured by the screws 29 to the upper casing half 27 with the O-ring 28 fitted in the annular groove 50 in the upper casing half 27 thus completing the optical system unit 24. In the optical system unit 24 in this state, the interior of the optical system casing 30 is perfectly hermetically sealed since the O-ring 28 is provided along the boundary between the upper and lower casing halves 27 and 26.

Then, the O-ring 23 is fitted on the cylindrical portion 34 of the lower casing half 26, and then the optical system unit 24 is inserted into the accommodation space 9 of the holding member 7 and secured thereto by the screws 25.

Consequently, the holding member 7 and optical system unit 24 are secured to each other with the O-ring 23 between the chamfer 22 and the outer surface of the lower casing half 26, so that rain water or dust will never enter the interior of the vessel 1.

While the optical system unit 24 has to be removed from the holding member 7 at the time of repair after the installation, even if dust intrudes into the rectangular lower space 1 7 in the holding member 7 and is collected in the neighborhood of the O-ring 23 at the time when the optical system unit 24 is removed, it can be readily cleaned since the surfaces necessary for positioning the optical system unit 24 relative to the holding member 7 are only the taper surface 22 and flat support surface 18. Meanwhile, the optical system unit 24, when it is removed and placed on the road surface, will never accept dust since the optical system casing 30 is hermetically sealed.Besides, when it is placed on the load surface or the like, the leads 42 will not be bent because the terminals 45 do not project, that is, because the bottom of the lower casing half 26 is provided with the projection 37.

Considering now the installed state of the marker light which has been assembled in the above way, while the holding member 7 is slightly moved by a wheel of an airplane or a vehicle in the direction of running thereof since the upper portions of the holding member 7 and optical system unit 24 project from the road surface, the road surface will not be damaged by the outer periphery of the holding member 7 since the projection 12 of the holding member 7 engages with the inner periphery of the support member 5.

In addition, although the holding member 7 receives vertical load when an airplane or the like runs over it, the support member 7 has no drawback in view of the mechanical strength since it is supported its inner and outer contact surfaces 1 3 with respect to the support member 5.

Although in the above mentioned embodiment the first and second support frames 60, 61 are removably and shiftably attached to the base member 32, these supports may be integrally formed to the base member.

As has been shown, according to the invention all the optical system component parts are mounted on the base member to constitute an optical unit and then received within the optical system casting, so that the adjustments of these parts regarding the direction of light projection and so forth can be made before they are assembled within the optical system casing, thus permitting very ready adjustment work and also repair and maintenance. In addition, because the optical system component parts are mounted on the base member, the direction of light projection can be desirably altered without altering the optical system casing at all but by merely altering relevant optical system component parts. Further, even in case if the optical system casing is deformed by an airplane or the like running over it, the inside optical system parts will never be damaged.

Claims

1. A marker light comprising: a housing having a sealed construction and a light transmitting window; a support member provided within the housing; and a light source, a light reflector and a light control member the light source, light reflector and light control member being supported by the base member in the state that their relative position is adjusted thereby constituting an optical unit, whereby the light from the light source is projected from the window to the outside of the optical system box through the light reflector and light control member.

2. The marker light according to claim 1, wherein said housing includes an upper half having said light transmitting window and supporting the support member, a lower half, and a sealing member for sealing the interspace between the upper and lower halves, these halves defining a space therebetween for receiving the optical unit.

3. The marker light according to claim 1, wherein said lower half has a cylindrical body with a circular recess for defining said space, and said support member has a ring shaped plate with a center hole fitted in the circular recess of the lower half.

4. The marker light according to claim 3, wherein said upper half includes a substantially rectangular body having a bottom plane surface with a ring shaped groove for receiving said seal member, and said lower half includes a rectangular flange with an upper plane surface contacted with the bottom plane surface of the upper half.

5. A marker light according to claim 4 wherein said lamp, reflector and light control member constitute an optical unit.

5. The marker light according to any one of preceding claim 4 which further includes a cylindrical vessel having a top opening and a ring shaped support block closing the top opening of the vessel and having an inner peripheral wall with a stepped portion for supporting the housing with the lower half received therethrough.

6. The marker light according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said support member includes a first support portion for fixing the light source and light reflector, a second support portion for fixing the light control member, the positions of the first and second support portions being adjustable to be each other.

7. The marker light according to claim 6, wherein said first support portion includes a reflector mounting plate, light source mounting plate connected to the reflector mounting plate, slots formed in the reflector mounting plate and screws for fixing the reflector mounting plate to the base member through the slits, and said second support portion includes a light control member mounting plate, slits formed therein and screws for fixing the light control member mounting plate through the screws.

8. The marker light according to claim 7, wherein said light control member includes a lens or prism and said second support portion further support a filter.

9. The marker lamp according to claim 7, wherein said first support is coaxially arranged in the space of the housing.

10. The marker light according to claim 6, 7, 8 or 9, wherein said first support portion includes through holes formed in the light source mounting plate, engaging pins each extending through the hole and having a tapered portion near the one end, a connecting plate fixing the other ends of the engaging pins and compression spring provided between the light source mounting plate and the connecting plate, and said light source includes a flange having engaging holes, each engaging hole having a larger diameter portion to pass the tapered portion of the engaging pin and a smaller diameter portion to be engaged with the tapered portion thereof.

11. The marker light according to claim 5, wherein the stepped portion of the vessel includes a chamfer and which further includes an O-ring interposed between the chamfer of the stepped portion and the flange of the lower half to seal therebetween.

12. Marker light, substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

New claims or amendments to claims filed on 2/6/80.

Superseded claims 1-5.

New or amended claims:

1. A marker light comprising; a housing adapted to be embedded in or adjacent a runway, and having a flange on the upper portion formed with a circular series of apertures; a mounting frame positioned on the flange with the upper surface exposed from the ground, the mounting frame including a circular series of arcuate slots formed along the outer periphery, an annular recess formed on the inner periphery and a plurality of threaded holes formed in the annular recess; a plurality of fasteners extending through the arcuate slots in said mounting frame and apertures in said flange, and operable to fixedly clamp the mounting frame to the flange so that the position of the mounting frame is adjustable in a horizontal plane;; a casing including a peripheral portion positioned on the annular recess, so that the casing is supported by the mounting frame, the casing including a window for directing a beam radially, said window being formed in the upper portion, a plurality of apertures formed in the peripheral end, corresponding to said threaded holes in the annular recess, and a sealed chamber; and a lamp and light control member which are disposed in the sealed chamber whereby a light emitted from the lamp is projected from the window through the light control member.

2. A marker light according to claim 1 wherein said flange of the housing has a plurality of screw holes arranged in a circular relationship corresponding to the arcuate holes formed in the mounting frame, and said fasteners are inserted through the arcuate holes from the upper side and screwed in the apertures formed in the flange.

3. A marker light according to claim 1 or 2 which includes a supporting plate fixed to the casing and housed in the sealed chamber, a first supporting member, a reflector fixed to the supporting plate through the first' supporting member, and a second supporting member fixing; the lamp to the supporting plate at a focusing point of the reflector.

4. A marker light according to claim 3 wherein said supporting plate includes a ring shaped plate with an inner periphery surrounding the reflector.