Lamp socket locking insert in combination with a medium screw lamp base
US6494730B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Sep 17, 2001 |
| Grant date | Dec 17, 2002 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Sep 17, 2021 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC Y)Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
- CPC primaryY02B20/00
- WIPO fieldElectrical machinery, apparatus, energy
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
An apparatus that prevents the interchange or replacement of an expensive compact fluorescent lamp with a standard inexpensive incandescent bulb to diminish thefts of the more expensive lamp, by using a locking lamp socket insert in combination with newly designed screw lamp base that permits the operation of the compact fluorescent lamp. Should the compact fluorescent lamp be substituted with a standard inexpensive incandescent bulb, the center contact in the base of the incandescent bulb cannot touch the centrally located leaf-spring contact of the lamp socket, thereby preventing the incandescent bulb from operating. The lamp socket insert is a rigid plastic material such as nylon, shaped as a flat disk with three tangential cantilever, spaced apart vanes. A pointed end of each tine permits the insert to rotate upon insertion, but a counterclockwise rotation causes the tines to bite into the interior socket sidewalls preventing its counter-rotation and removal.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.