US3626359A

US3626359A - Lamp socket

Info

Publication number: US3626359A
Application number: US48913A
Authority: US
Inventors: Don L De Lano
Original assignee: VARE CORP
Current assignee: VARE CORP
Priority date: 1970-06-17
Filing date: 1970-06-17
Publication date: 1971-12-07
Anticipated expiration: 1988-12-07

Abstract

The socket is releasably supported at the rear face of a lamp housing with a socket sleeve containing bayonet recesses for orienting the filament of the lamp therein with the socket oriented on the housing and sealed thereto.

Description

United States Patent Don L. De Lano Mount Clements, Mich.

June 17, 1970 Dec. 7, i971 Vare Corporation New York, N.Y.

Continuation of application Ser. No. 748,858, July 30, 1968. This application June 17, 1970, Ser. No. 48,913

inventor Appl. No. Filed Patented Assignee LAMP SOCKET 3 Claims, 8 Drawing Figs.

U.S. Cl

int. Cl. Field of Search References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Thomas Churchill Summerer....

Heller Mouat... De1ano.....

Fitzgerald..... De Lano Primary Examiner-Richard E. Moore Attorney-Harness, Dickey & Pierce ABSTRACT: The socket is releasably supported at the rear face of a lamp housing with a socket sleeve containing bayonet recesses for orienting the filament of the lamp therein with the socket oriented on the housing and sealed thereto.

PATENTEDDEE mm 31626359 SHEET 2 [IF 2 INVENTOR.

LAMP SOCKET CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 748,858, filed July 30, 1968. A somewhat similar socket is claimed in the inventor's copending application, Ser. No. 753,409, filed Aug. 16, 1968, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,518,619, for Lamp Socket" which was assigned to the assignee of the present invention.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The field of the invention is that for lamp sockets for automobiles, particularly to a lamp socket which may be removed from the rear of the lamp housing and so sealed thereto that it can be located in the wheel wash area.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The lamp socket of the present invention is received in an aperture at the rear of a lamp housing which contains positioning notches herein illustrated as three in number which orient the socket relative to the housing by having the notches offset relative to each other with at least one notch of shorter length. The socket has alamp-receiving sleeve which is flanged outwardly at the top and reversely rolled at the ends over the prongs of a spring washer which contains projecting, locating and attaching fingers. A ring of elastomeric material is bonded to the reversely bent portion for engaging the rear face of the lamp socket about the receiving aperture for sealing the socket thereto when supported thereon. The socket sleeve contains a spring-pressed washer having a tab extending into a slot in the sleeve which orients the washer and the contacts thereon relative to the contacts of the lamp. The conductor is sealed within a sleeve which extends over and is bonded to the bottom of the socket sleeve so that the socket is completely sealed to the body of the conductor carrying the wires and to the lamp housing to prevent the entrance of moisture even to the wheel wash of the automobile.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a view in elevation of a socket attached to a lamp housing, a portion of which is shown in section;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of the structure illustrated in FIG. 1, as viewed from point 2 thereof;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the structure illustrated in FIG. 2, taken on the line 3-3 thereof;

FIG. 4 is a broken sectional view of the structure illustrated in FIG. 2, taken on the line 4-4 thereof;

FIG. 5 is a broken sectional view of the structure illustrated in FIG. 2, taken on the line 55 thereof;

FIG. 6 is a broken view of structure, similar to that illustrated in FIG. 2, showing another form of the invention;

FIG. 7 is a sectional view of the structure illustrated in FIG. 6, taken on the line 7-7 thereof, and

FIG. 8 is a broken sectional view of the structure illustrated in FIG. 6, taken on the lines 8-8 thereof.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring to FIGS. 1 to 5, it will be noted that a lamp housing 11 is made of plastic material having a central aperture 12 communicating with outwardly extending

notches

13, 14 and 15.

Stop projections

16, 17 and 18 extend inwardly from the edge of the aperture 12. A socket 21 is removably attachable to the housing 11 and so constructed as to accurately locate the filament of the lamp at a desired position therewithin. The socket has a socket sleeve 22 provided with diametrically located bayonet recesses 23 by the outward deformation of the material of the wall of the sleeve. Midway between the bayonet recesses 23 a recess 24 is provided for receiving an extending nib 25 of an insulating disc 26 which carries contacts 27 accurately oriented thereon. An inwardly directed flange 28 at the bottom of the sleeve 22 supports one end of a spring 29, the other end of which engages the disc 26 and is located relative thereto by a shouldered extension 31. The

spring maintains the contacts 27 in firm fixed relation to the contacts 32 of the lamp.

The upper end of the sleeve 22 contains an outwardly extending flange 33 which has its end reversely bent at 34 over spaced tabs of a spring washer 35. The outer periphery of the washer 35 is lanced and positioning

fingers

36, 37 and 38 are bent upwardly therefrom and sloped inwardly at 39 at the top for guiding the fingers into the aperture 12 for centering the socket in the housing 11. Between the positioning

fingers

36, 37 and 38, fingers 40 are bent upwardly and flanged outwardly to form clamping and locking

members

41, 42 and 43 which have clamping sections 44 and locking sections 45, the latter being produced by a slot 46 in the flanges. The clamping section 44 has the forward end 47 bent upwardly to form a ramp for riding over the material of the housing at the

notches

13, 14 and 15. The locking sections 45 are of concave shape as illustrated in FIG. 5, to engage an arcuate recess 48 in rear of the

stop projections

16, 17 and 18 when the forward ends 47 of the clamping sections 44 are in engagement therewith.

The member 41 is located substantially 1 15 from member 42, which is located substantially from member 43 to correspond with the location of the

slots

15, 13 and 14 from each other. It will be further noted that the slot 13 is of shorter length conforming to the shorter length of the locking member 42. With this arrangement, the socket 21 is accurately oriented relative to the lamp housing 11 after being inserted in the aperture 12 and rotated until the forward ends 47 of the stop projection abut the

projections

16, 17 and 18. The forward ends 47 of the clamping sections 44 raises the sections onto the inner surface of the lamp housing 11 between the slots and the projections, causing the spring washer to be deflected upwardly an amount depending upon the thickness of the wall of the housing which may vary substantially. The locking sections 45 of the

clamping members

41, 42 and 43 are defiectable acting as leaf springs to also allow for variation in panel thickness. The tension provided by the spring washer 35 and the locking sections 45 compresses an elastomeric sealing ring 4Q which is bonded to the reversely bent portion 34 of the flange 33 to thereby seal the socket 21 to the rear face of the housing 11 irrespective of the wall thickness thereof. The socket 21 is retained in stop position relative to the housing by the tension of the arcuate portions of the locking sections 45 by the friction of the elastomeric material of the sealing ring 49.

A sealing sleeve 51 has an enlarged end portion 52 which extends over and is bonded to the bottom portion of the sleeve 22 which has a tapered extending portion 53 which is stretched over a body 54 containing conductors 55 which pass through the disc 26 in conducting engagement with the contacts 27. The sleeve 51 is preferably heat sealed to the body 54 of the conductors 55 to provide positive sealing against the entrance of moisture. In this manner the conduit end of the sleeve 22 is sealed against the entrance of moisture while the lamp end is sealed by the elastomeric ring 49 when in engagement with the rear face of the housing 11. By rotating the socket 21 counterclockwise, the

members

41, 42 and 43 will be located adjacent to the

respective slots

15, 13 and 14 permitting the socket 21 to be removed from the lamp housing 11. Similarly, by inserting the

respective members

41, 42 and 43 in the respective notches l5, l3 and 14 and by turning the socket 21 clockwise until stop position is reached, the socket 21 will be locked in oriented position within the housing 11.

In FIGS. 6, 7 and 8 a slightly modified form of construction is illustrated that wherein a lamp housing 61 is formed of metal instead of the plastic material employed in the housing 11 of the above-described FIGS. With this arrangement the rear face of the lamp housing is provided with the socketreceiving aperture 12 above described, and with the

notches

13, 14 and 15. In place of the

stop projections

16, 17 and I8, flanges 62 are bent from the rear wall of the lamp housing 61 inwardly from the aperture 12. The forward ends 47 of the

members

41, 42 and 43 strike the flanges 62 in the same manner as they struck the stop projections in the aforementioned FIGS. In place of the recesses 48, depressions 63 are stamped into the inner face of the metal of the housing 61 outwardly of the aperture 12 for receiving the locking section 45 of the members. The length of the upstanding fingers 40 of the spring washer 35 is shortened so as to conform to the thinner metal of the housing 61 when drawing the socket 21 against the outer face thereof to compress the sealing ring 49 and form a seal against the rear face of the housing. Otherwise, the structure is the same as that above described with regard to FIGS. 1 to 5.

lclaim:

1. In a lamp socket for acceptance in a complementary aperture in the wall of a lamp housing, the improvement comprising a cylindrical sleeve having a radially outwardly extending flange at one end thereof, a spring washer secured in juxtaposed relation to the flange of said sleeve, said spring washer having a plurality of circumferentially spaced, axially extending guide fingers for engaging the edge face of the aperture in the lamp housing, and a plurality of circumferentially spaced axially extending locking fingers on said spring washer between said guide fingers, said locking fingers having cantilevered flanges. respectively extending radially outwardly in spaced parallel relation to the flange on said sleeve so as to be engageable with the wall of the lamp housing on the opposite side thereof from the flange on said sleeve, one radially extending edge portion of the flanges on said locking fingers having an axially and circumferentially extending slope so as to form a ramp for camming engagement with the wall of the lamp housing thereby to apply an axial bias to said sleeve upon rotation of said socket relative to the lamp housing.

2. A socket as recited in claim 1, wherein the cantilevered flanges on said locking fingers are provided with a detent engageable with a recess on the inner face of the lamp housing upon a predetermined relative rotation between said socket and housing.

3. A socket as recited in claim 2, wherein the detent on said cantilevered flange is disposed on a cantilevered circumferentially extending portion thereof.

Claims

1. In a lamp socket for acceptance in a complementary aperture in the wall of a lamp housing, the improvement comprising a cylindrical sleeve having a radially outwardly extending flange at one end thereof, a spring washer secured in juxtaposed relation to the flange of said sleeve, said spring washer having a plurality of circumferentially spaced, axially extending guide fingers for engaging the edge face of the aperture in the lamp housing, and a plurality of circumferentially spaced axially extending locking fingers on said spring washer between said guide fingers, said locking fingers having cantilevered flanges, respectively, extending radially outwardly in spaced parallel relation to the flange on said sleeve so as to be engageable with the wall of the lamp housing on the opposite side thereof from the flange on said sleeve, one radially extending edge portion of the flanges on said locking fingers having an axially and circumferentially extending slope so as to form a ramp for camming engagement with the wall of the lamp housing thereby to apply an axial bias to said sleeve upon rotation of said socket relative to the lamp housing.