Light bar for installation in a household electrical appliance, shelf assembly and cooling appliance with such a shelf assembly
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional lighting solutions in refrigerators often fail to provide satisfactory illumination, especially for pull-out drawers due to limited withdrawal extent and opaque storage shelves, leading to difficulties in achieving effective illumination.
Innovation Solution
A light bar with a configuration of LED light elements, a light-impermeable reflector body, and a light-permeable window element, where a portion of the light beam is scattered by the reflector surface and another portion exits directly through the window, allowing for a combination of indirect and direct light to achieve optimal illumination with adjustable light distribution.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Illumination intensity
If conventional lighting solutions are used with opaque storage shelves, then the lighting structure is simple, but the illumination effectiveness in pull-out drawers is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The light beam is segmented into two distinct paths: direct light that travels straight from the LED to the window element, and indirect light that reflects off the reflector surface. This segmentation allows different portions of light to serve different illumination purposes, with direct light providing intense illumination and indirect light providing diffuse illumination, thereby resolving the contradiction between illumination effectiveness and structural simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
The reflector body acts as an intermediary element that redirects a portion of the light beam. By introducing this intermediary component, the system achieves enhanced illumination control without requiring complete structural redesign, balancing the need for effective illumination with reasonable structural complexity.
2Illumination intensity
If direct light is used for illumination, then the light intensity is high, but glare effects occur on glossy surfaces
Solution Approach 1:
Different regions of the light output have different qualities: the direct light portion maintains high intensity for illumination, while the indirect light portion provides diffuse, glare-free illumination. This local quality differentiation allows the lighting system to simultaneously achieve high intensity where needed and glare reduction where glossy surfaces are present, resolving the contradiction between light intensity and glare effects.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of using 100% direct light which causes glare, the system uses a partial amount of direct light combined with indirect reflected light. This partial action approach maintains sufficient illumination intensity while reducing glare effects by substituting some direct light with diffuse reflected light.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If indirect scattered light is used for illumination, then glare is reduced, but the illumination intensity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges two types of light - direct light and indirect reflected light - into a single illumination output. By combining these two light paths, the system achieves both glare reduction (from the indirect light portion) and sufficient illumination intensity (from the direct light portion), thereby resolving the contradiction between glare reduction and maintaining illumination intensity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This configuration ensures effective illumination of both the rear and front areas of the drawer, minimizing glare and maximizing visibility of stored items by balancing indirect scattered light and direct light proportions.
Implementation Method 1
a light-impermeable reflector body (60a, 60b, 60c) having a reflection surface (62a, 62b, 62c), the reflection surface configured to produce a diffusely scattering effect
Implementation Method 2
each light element (48a, 48b, 48c) is configured to produce a beam of light
Data Source
AI summary
A light bar includes an arrangement of several light elements reciprocally spaced behind one another in the longitudinal bar direction where each light element produces a light beam, a reflection surface formed on a light-impermeable reflector body and producing a diffuse scattering effect where a first portion of the light beam of each light element is directed at the reflection surface, a light-permeable window element at which light produced by the light elements exits the light bar. A second portion of the light beam that is different from the first portion is directed past the reflection surface onto the light exit window. The light radiated by the light bar is composed of a direct light proportion and a scattered light proportion, the relative ratio of which in a suitable configuration of the reflector body and the window element can be different in different radiation directions of the light bar.