The present invention generally refers to a built-in electrical device with uniform brightness and, more particularly, relates to a new "active" electrical plate, which is able to integrate and enlarge the home automation functions of a plurality of coupled electronic devices and which also can be used as a lighting appliance for indoors, as well as a lighting appliance which can be combined with the so-called “civil series” commercial frames.

The electrical controlling and operating devices of the so-called "civil series", such as switches, diverters, sockets and other electrical elements, are usually assembled in a modular way on support frames that are fixed to rectangular boxes, said boxes being almost always built into the walls or mounted outside said walls. In order to have a correct aesthetic finishing and to protect the inner parts, suitable covering frames, the so-called covering “plates”, are used and said covering frames are shaped so as to allow access to the switches and other appliances.

The above plates are passive elements made with techno-polymers, types of metals, wood and/or other materials, and are made in various forms, thus having many different aesthetic solutions; in practice, each manufacturer of electrical appliances defines his/her own detailed shapes and mechanical dimensions of said appliances and, consequently, of the covering plates.

Known plates are able to cover the fastening elements of electrical appliances but said plates do not integrate control, actuation and signaling devices, thus not having the possibility of integrating the operation of additional electronic control devices.

Furthermore, built-in covering plates configured to be used as indoor lighting devices are still not available on the market.

The object of the present invention is therefore to provide a built-in electrical device, which allows to obtain various building automation commands and functions and which can be used, at the same time, as an indoor lighting fixture, thus obtaining homogeneous and uniform luminance.

Another object of the invention is to provide a multi-purpose built-in electrical device, which can be combined with any type of support frames of the so-called electrical "civil series".

A further object of the invention is to obtain a built-in electrical device, which is effective, reliable and safe with low operating costs, with respect to the prior art, also considering the advantages achieved. These and other objects, which will be more clear in the following description, are obtained by a built-in electrical device with uniform and homogeneous luminance, according to the attached claim 1 ; other detailed technical features of the electrical device which is the object of the present invention are present in the other dependent claims.

Advantageously, the device according to the present invention includes a plate which has a uniform lighting system for providing luminance from its front surface, said system being also able to synthesize colored light of any shade by means of RGB LEDs.

The luminance of the plate has thus both aesthetic and functional purposes, since said plate is also able to show the status of the device (if connected to other building automation systems) and its functional evolution; in fact, the device is able to integrate an electronic circuit with strong interaction functions with the user and with similar devices placed in a building, so as to integrate and enlarge the functions of known electrically-operated devices.

Finally, the device of the present invention can be coupled with all types of commercial plates, for example the “503” boxes civil series, and has further functions of "home automation" and "intelligent building".

Further characteristics and advantages of the present invention will become more clear from the following description, relating to a preferred embodiment of the built- in electrical device, which is the object of the present invention, and from the attached drawings, in which:

figure 1 shows a front view of a first embodiment of the built-in electrical device with uniform luminance, according to the present invention;

figure 2 shows a side view of the built-in electrical device of figure 1 , according to the present invention;

figure 3 shows a bottom view of the built-in electrical device of figure 1 , according to the present invention;

figure 4 shows a perspective view of the built-in electrical device of figure 1 , according to the present invention;

figure 5 shows a first exploded view of the built-in electrical device of figure 1 , according to the present invention;

figure 6 shows a second exploded view of the built-in electrical device of figure 1 , according to the present invention;

figure 7 shows a front view of one of the components of the built-in electrical device of figure 6, according to the present invention; figure 7A shows a perspective view of a light guide used in the built-in electrical device, according to the present invention;

figure 7B is a top view of the light guide of figure 7A, according to the present invention;

figure 7C is an enlarged view of a portion of the light guide of figure 7A, according to the present invention;

figure 7D is an enlarged view of a further portion of the light guide of figure 7A, according to the present invention;

figure 8 is a front view of another embodiment of the built-in electrical device with uniform luminance, according to the present invention;

figure 8A is a rear view of the built-in electrical device of figure 8, according to the present invention;

figure 8B is a perspective view of the built-in electrical device of figure 8, according to the present invention;

figure 8C is a section view taken along the line B-B of figure 8, according to the invention;

figure 8D is a section view taken along the line A-A of figure 8, according to the invention;

figure 8E shows an enlargement view of the portion indicated with C in figure 8D.

With reference to the attached figures, the built-in electrical device, according to the present invention, substantially comprises a front finishing plate 10, which is coupled to a commercial-series built-in fruit-holding frame 12 and to a functional frame 13, through the possible interposition of a spacer 14.

The spacer 14 has different heights, in order to compensate for different heights of the commercial fruit-bearing frames 12.

The plate 10 has a space or opening 38, preferably a central space, delimited by a possible inner frame 15, inside which any electrical appliances coupled with respective control buttons are housed; in particular, the inner frame 15, which is fixed to the plate 10 by means of suitable hooks, enables the central opening 38 to be adapted for the passage of electrical appliances (“fruits”) having typical commercial dimensions.

The device can be applied to a flush-mounted box 1 1 of the so-called "civil series", through specific known centering systems.

The plate 10 can also have a microphone 24, a gas sensor 25, a light sensor 26 (a photodiode for measuring the environment light) and an environment temperature sensor 28 (which can be placed in a hinged drawer 27 placed in the lower part of the outer frame 16); said microphone and sensors are used to integrate the device with other building automation systems.

The installation of the environment temperature sensor 28 on the hinged drawer 27 allows the temperature sensor to correctly measure the environment temperature without being affected by the temperature of the installed electrical appliances and, in particular, without being affected by the heat produced inside the device.

The functional frame 13 is made with techno-polymers and has internally a power supply unit, which converts the 230V AC voltage to low voltage for operating the plate 10 and the other electronic circuits, and all the electronic devices used for a possible integration with a building home automation system, such as an actuation relay for controlling external electrical means, a battery for supplying the plate 10 for a few hours when the mains power fails, a microcontroller for controlling and managing the device, a Bluetooth® transmitter-receiver configured to communicate with external devices conforming to the standard, a Spread Spectrum DSSS/Wi-Fi receiver-transmitter configured to provide a communication based on the Wi-Fi standard, an RFID TAG with NFC communication suitable for reading and writing by an enabled smart-phone and a plate temperature sensor 10.

The functional frame 13 has two shaped portions 17, which are ultrasonically welded together, so as to form a single mechanically resistant casing, which is not accessible by a user.

The device according to the invention also includes an optical assembly, coupled to the functional frame 13 possibly by pins or hooks and substantially formed by a light guide 20, which covers the upper surface or aesthetic cover 21 and which is made of transparent PMMA with diffusing microspheres so as to draw the light in a controlled way and to send said light towards the outside.

The light guide 20 can be permanently coupled (for example, by ultrasonic welding 22) to the upper surface 21 of the plate 10, which, in turn, is made of opaque and colored techno-polymer, so as to give a desired color to the plate 10 when the light guide 20 is not powered and, at the same time, so as to hide the inner technical portions of the device.

The optical assembly of the electrical device according to the invention comprises at least one further light guide and, in particular, comprises two further light guides 29, located along respective parallel directions and on opposite portions of one of the shaped portions 17 of said frame 13.

The light guides 29, which are transparent and with high diffusion, are able to collect the light coming from a plurality of LED diodes 23, which are placed at the inlet of each guide 29, so that the light emitted by the LEDs 23 is carried by the guides 29 and sent to the light guide 20; a remarkable uniformity of luminance is thus obtained along the longer sides 32, 33 of the guides 29 by placing the LED diodes 23 on one of the shorter sides 34 of said guides 29.

Advantageously, the light guide 29 is made of transparent material, preferably of transparent PMMA with high transmittance; moreover, the light guide 29 can be made of the same material as the light guide 20 is made of.

Again advantageously, the light guide 29 is shaped like a parallelepiped and, in preferred embodiments, has an elongated and tapered shape, in particular a rectangular prism or tapered prism shape, and/or a generally elongated and/or segmented shape.

Each light guide 29 has, in particular, an inlet and/or coupling surface 35 with LEDs 23, a surface 36 placed at one of the longer sides 33 and suitably shaped or structured ("textured"), and a surface 37 placed at the other longer side 32, from which the light radiation with uniform luminance exits.

The LED diodes 23 are positioned so that the coupling with the guide 29 is as efficient as possible at the inlet surface 35, even if the LEDs 23 are as close as possible to each other.

The surfaces 35, 36, 37 perform the function of guiding the light radiation; in fact, thanks to the fact that the refractive index of the transparent material of the guide 29 is greater than the refractive index of the air, a total internal reflection takes place on the inner surfaces of the guide 29, which allows the light to be trapped and guided from the inlet surface 35 to the opposite surface 39.

The surface 36 is also designed so as to extract the light radiation in a controlled manner during its travel along the guide 29 (as it moves away from the LED diodes 23).

In particular, said surface 36 is advantageously and preferably provided with a series of teeth having acute and obtuse angles of variable heights (depending on the inlet areas 40 or intermediate areas 41 of the surface 36), which constitute secondary sources able to emit reflected and diffused light inside the guide 29, said light being also directed towards the exit surface 37; it is also possible to take advantage of refraction effects that occur in the deeper grooves of the teeth, so as to obtain that the light comes out and returns immediately inside the guide 29. The light-emitting surface 37, opposite to the surface 36, is not only affected by the total internal reflection process, which allows light to be distributed along the entire length of the guide 29, but said surface 37 also allows a light refraction, so that the light is transmitted towards outside.

A certain amount of residual light is also spread on the surface 39, which is opposite to the surface 35 coupled with the LED diodes 23 and said residual light can effectively be recovered at the output of the guide 29 by applying a plate or label of reflective and/or diffuser material, preferably with high reflectance.

Advantageously, the light guide 20 and the upper surface 21 of the plate 10 face each other, but they are not intimately joined, so as not to let the light escape from the contact areas; therefore, point-like supports 31 have been provided between the guide 20 and the surface 21 , so as to always leave a space of about 0.10 mm. between the two parts, so that said parts are in contact only at the point-like supports 31 .

Still advantageously, as mentioned, the light guide 20, which constitutes the frontal closing element of the device, is also permanently connected to the underlying surface 21 of the plate 10 by means of ultrasonic welding 22 performed at the perimeter of the inner frame 15 and at at least two sides of the plate 10, both to create a mechanically integral structure and to seal the space between the parts from the dust inlet, which, settling on the inner surface of the light guide 20, would determine the exit of the light radiation from the guide 20, thus giving rise to streaks and anti-aesthetic bright spots.

A plurality of centering pins 32A can also be provided, which allow the functional frame 13 to be coupled to the fruit-holding frame 12; moreover, said pins 32A held together the functional frame 13 and the fruit-holding frame 12, leaving in any case to the latter a small adjustment capacity.

Other tabs 35A engage the flush-mounted box 1 1 and allow a relative adaptation inside it.

The steps for assembling a built-in electrical device with uniform luminance, according to the present invention, are substantially the following:

- positioning a power supply module (connected by electric wires to the electronic components contained inside the functional frame 13) inside the flush-mounting box 1 1 ;

- positioning the functional frame 13 on the flush-mounting box 1 1 ;

- (possible) positioning one or more spacers 14 (for mounting the device of commercial series requiring said spacers); - positioning the fruit-bearing frame 12 on the functional frame 13 by means of the centering pins 32A, and fixing the frames 12 and 13 on the flush-mounting box 1 1 by means of the tabs 35A;

- (possible) fixing one or more aesthetic frames 15 on the plate 10 by means of suitable hooks;

- fixing the plate 10, complete with the light guide 20, on the functional frame 13 by means of hooks.

From the above description, the technical features of the built-in electrical device with uniform luminance, according to the present invention, are clear as well as the relative advantages are also clear.

Finally, it is clear that numerous other variants may be applied to the electrical device of the present invention, without departing from the novelty principles as expressed in the appended claims.