A Housing for an Illuminating Apparatus and an Illuminating Apparatus Having the Housing

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a housing used for an illuminating apparatus and capable of preventing condensation of water vapor therein. In addition, the present invention fur- ther relates to an illuminating apparatus having the housing of the above type .

Background Art

An outdoor illuminating apparatus is usually provided with a waterproof and dustproof housing due to the characteristics of the environment where the illuminating apparatus is used. A lighting assembly such as LED lighting assembly of the illuminating apparatus is placed in a corresponding assembling cavity of the housing, while the temperature in the assembling cavity will be quite high since the lighting assembly, especially the LED lighting assembly, generates a lot of heat in operation. When the temperature outside is very low,, the humid air in the assembling cavity will be condensed so as to be gathered together on a transparent cover of the housing, affecting output of light. What's more important is the con- densed humid air might rust and corrode metal parts in the housing, and even short-circuits the LED lighting assembly.

Summary of the Invention Therefore, the present invention provides a housing for an illuminating apparatus. The housing can prevent the phenomenon of humidity condensation therein while it can be waterproof and dustproof . In addition, the present invention fur- ther provides an illuminating apparatus having the housing of the above type .

The first object of the present invention is accomplished via a housing for an illuminating apparatus through the following solution. The housing comprises: two housing portions assem- bled together and a transparent cover, the two housing portions and the transparent cover jointly defining a cavity, wherein a transparent separator is provided in the cavity for separating the cavity into an assembling cavity and a isolated cavity sealed with respect to each other, and the as- sembling cavity is configured to mount a lighting assembly of the illuminating apparatus, and wherein the isolated cavity is defined jointly by the transparent cover and the separator. In one solution of the present invention, heat generated by the elements in the assembling cavity will not be easily transferred to an area of the transparent cover by separating the assembling cavity from the isolated cavity, thus reducing a difference in temperature between both sides of the transparent cover, so as to reduce a risk of humidity condensation in the housing to a great extent, prevent rust or corrosion of metal parts in the housing, and even avoid short circuit of the lighting assembly.

Preferably, the isolated cavity is vacuum. The vacuum isolated cavity can well insulate heat, which further prevents the heat from the assembling cavity from being transferred to the transparent cover, and the risk of humidity condensation in the isolated cavity will be absolutely eliminated since there is no air in the isolated cavity.

According to the present invention, a plurality of lenses are arranged at one side of the separator facing the assembling cavity and each of them is assigned corresponding to one lighting assembly of the illuminating apparatus. In one solution of the present invention, the illuminating apparatus preferably is an LED illuminating apparatus. Each lighting assembly, i.e., each LED chip, of the LED illuminating appa- ratus is provided with an individual lens, which is favorable for the lens to processing independently the light from the LED chip, so as to realize an expected optical illuminating effect .

Preferably, the lenses and the separator are formed in one piece, which greatly reduces the number of parts in the housing, and relative locations between the lenses and the lighting assembly can be simply determined when the separator is mounted since the locations between the lenses and the separator are fixed, which prominently reduces the mounting dif- ficulty.

According to another preferred solution of the present invention, one side of the separator facing the assembling cavity is provided with a plurality of reflectors each corresponding to one lighting assembly of the illuminating apparatus. Such reflector also can adjust the light from the lighting assembly, especially the LED chip, so as to realize an expected optical illuminating effect.

According to the present invention, one housing portion which is from the two housing portions and not mounted with the transparent cover is configured as a heat sink. To configure the heat sink as one housing portion is favorable to further reducing the number of parts of the housing. At the same time, since the heat sink itself is one portion of the housing, heat from the lighting assembly of the illuminating apparatus directly thermally connected with the heat sink can be directly discharged to the surrounding environment through the heat sink, which improves the thermal dissipating per- formance of the housing to a great extent.

According to a preferred solution of the present invention, the separator is formed in one piece with one housing portion that is from the housing portions and provided with the transparent cover, which reduces the number of parts of the housing, so that the housing is assembled completely when the two housing portions are assembled together, greatly reducing the assembling difficulty.

Preferably, the separator and the transparent cover are made from a glass or plastic, and of course, also can be made from other types of transparent materials.

The other object of the present invention is accomplished via an illuminating apparatus through the following solution. The illuminating apparatus has the housing of the above type and is capable of effectively reducing the risk of humidity condensation therein.

Brief Description of the Drawings

The accompanying drawings constitute a part of the present Description and are used to provide further understanding of the present invention. Such accompanying drawings illustrate the embodiments of the present invention and are used to describe the principles of the present invention together with the Description. In the accompanying drawings the same components are represented by the same reference numbers. As shown in the drawings :

Fig. 1 is a sectional view of a first embodiment of a housing according to the present invention; Fig. 2 is an enlarged schematic diagram of region A of the housing of the first embodiment;

Fig. 3 is a sectional view of a second embodiment of a housing according to the present invention; and

Fig. 4 is an enlarged schematic diagram of region A of the housing of the second embodiment.

Detailed Description of the Embodiments

Fig. 1 is a sectional view of a first embodiment of a housing according to the present invention. As can be seen from the figure, the housing 1 has two housing portions 2a, 2b that are assembled together, wherein the housing portion 2b is provided with a transparent cover 3, the housing portion 2a is configured as a heat sink, and the two housing portions 2a, 2b and the transparent cover 3 jointly define a cavity. As further can be seen from the figure, in the cavity is pro- vided a transparent separator 4 separating the cavity into an assembling cavity 5 and a isolated cavity 6 sealed with respect to each other, wherein in the assembling cavity 5 are provided a printed circuit board 10 and a plurality of lighting assemblies 9 and other elements mounted on the printed circuit board 10. In the present embodiment, the illuminating apparatus is configured as an LED illuminating apparatus, and then the assembling cavity 5 is provided with an LED chip, a driver, etc.

It further can be seen from Fig. 1 that the isolated cavity 6 is defined jointly by the separator 4 and the transparent cover 3. That is to say, viewing from a light path of light emitted from the lighting assembly 9, a isolated cavity 6 is formed in front of the assembling cavity 5, thus heat from the lighting assembly 9 in the assembling cavity 5 will be blocked by the isolated cavity 6 and will not be transferred onto the transparent cover 3. Therefore, a too big difference in temperature will not occur to the inside and outside of the transparent cover 3. In addition, even if there is a too big difference in temperature between the inside and outside of the transparent cover 3, a phenomenon of humidity condensation will not take place on the transparent cover 3 since the isolated cavity 6 is vacuum.

Besides, in a first embodiment of the present invention, a plurality of lenses 7 are arranged at one side of the separator 4 facing the assembling cavity 5 and each of them is assigned to one lighting assembly 9. In the present embodi- ment, the lenses 7 and the separator 4 are formed in one piece (see Fig. 2) . Fig. 2 is an enlarged schematic diagram of region A in Fig. 1. As can be seen from Fig. 2, the printed circuit board 10 of the illuminating apparatus is provided with the lighting assemblies 9, and light from the lighting assembly 9 is emergent passing through the lens 7 and the separator 4. In the present embodiment, the transparent cover 3, the separator 4 and the lenses 7 are formed in one piece from plastic or glass, and of course, these parts also may be formed individually.

Fig. 3 is a sectional view of a second embodiment of the housing according to the present invention. The difference between the second embodiment and the first embodiment merely lies in that a plurality of reflectors 8 are arranged at one side of the separator 4 facing the assembling cavity 5 to replace the lenses 7 in the first embodiment, and each of the reflectors 8 is assigned to one lighting assembly 9. Fig. 4 is an enlarged schematic diagram of the region A in Fig. 3.

The above is merely preferred embodiments of the present invention but not to limit the present invention. For the person skilled in the art, the present invention may have various alterations and changes. Any alterations, equivalent substitutions, improvements, within the spirit and principle of the present invention, should be covered in the protection scope of the present invention.

List of reference signs

1 housing

2a housing portion

2b housing portion

3 transparent cover

4 separator

5 assembling cavity

6 isolated cavity

7 lens

8 reflector

9 lighting assembly

10 printed circuit board