Pivoting Gear Tray Hinge for Single-Person Luminaire Installation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Luminaires with gear trays are cumbersome to install and maintain due to their weight and require multiple personnel for assembly, impeding accessibility to lighting components.
Innovation Solution
A luminaire design featuring a gear tray pivotally connected to the luminaire body via a hinge with a pin element and receiving slot, allowing for easy assembly and secure attachment, enabling single-person installation and maintenance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If the gear tray is fixed to the luminaire body by screws before mounting, then the lighting components are securely assembled in a single unit for easy handling, but the luminaire becomes quite heavy for installation and subsequent accessibility to lighting components is impeded
Solution Approach 1:
The gear tray is divided into a modular unit that can be separately assembled with lighting components and then attached to the luminaire body. This segmentation allows the gear tray to be pre-assembled on the ground with full accessibility, then mounted as a complete module, resolving the contradiction between secure assembly and maintenance accessibility.
2Ease of operation
If the luminaire body is mounted before fixing the gear tray, then accessibility to lighting components is maintained, but two persons are required for installation and maintenance time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The gear tray is pre-assembled with all lighting components before being mounted to the luminaire body. This preliminary assembly action allows the entire gear tray unit to be installed as one piece using a single person, eliminating the need for two-person coordination and reducing overall installation time while maintaining accessibility during the pre-assembly phase.
3Stability of the object's composition
If the gear tray is securely fixed to the luminaire body, then the luminaire structure is stable, but installation and maintenance require multiple personnel to simultaneously hold and fix the gear tray
Solution Approach 1:
The hinge connection enables the gear tray to dynamically transition between an open assembly position and a closed operational position. During installation, the gear tray can be freely positioned and adjusted; once mounted, it automatically secures in a stable closed position. This dynamic mechanism eliminates the need for multiple personnel to simultaneously hold and fix the gear tray while maintaining structural stability.
Data Source
Figure 1
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AI summary
The present invention is directed to a luminaire (1) comprising a gear tray (3) having a mounting section (30) for carrying lighting components (4), a luminaire body (2) defining a lighting space (5) for receiving the gear tray (3), and a hinge (6) for connecting the gear tray (3) to the luminaire body (2) in a manner to be pivotable about a pivot axis (X). The hinge (6) comprises a pin element (7) having a flat cross-section when viewed along the pivot axis (X), with a first dimension D1 along a first axis (A1) being oriented orthogonally to the pivot axis (X), and a second dimension D2 along a second axis (A2) being oriented orthogonally to the pivot axis (X) and the first axis (A1), wherein D1 < D2. The hinge (6) further comprises a receiving element (8) having a receiving slot (80) for receiving and pivotally supporting the pin element (7). The receiving slot (80) comprises a pivoting section (81) for receiving the pin element (7) in a freely rotatable manner about the pivot axis (X), the pivoting section (81) having a minimum extension P orthogonal to the pivot axis (X) at any rotation angle about the pivot axis (X) of P > D2. The receiving slot (80) further comprises an insertion section (82) leading, along an insertion axis (I), into the pivoting section (81) for inserting the pin element (7), in an assembling state, into the receiving slot (80) and further sliding it along the insertion axis (I) into the pivoting section (81), the insertion section (82) having a slot width W of D1 < W < D2 so as to prevent the gear tray (3) from being freely rotatable, relative to the luminaire body (2), about the pivot axis (X). The hinge (6) is designed such that, when the pin element (7) is received in the pivoting section (81), the gear tray (3) can be pivoted, in the freely rotatable manner, at least between the assembling state and an operational state in which the gear tray (3) is completely received in the lighting space (5) and the pin element (7) be tilted relative to the insertion axis (1) so as to prevent the pin element (7) from entering the insertion section (82).