US3419714A - Air handling troffer - Google Patents

Description

Dec. 31, 1968 s u 3,419,714

AIR HANDLING TROFFER Filed Dec. 1, 1965 JR] w ll v 33 32 zs 30 35 RICHARD G. SLAUER INVENTOR.

BY C

ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,419,714 AIR HANDLING TROFFER Richard G. Slauer, Forest Hill, W. Va., assignor to Sylvania Electric Products Inc., a corporation of Delaware Filed Dec. 1, 1965, Ser. No. 510,768 2 Claims. (Cl. 240--9) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An air-handling lighting fixture, the lower longitudinal edges of which are provided with an air handling control chamber and having a pair of linear control vanes disposed therein.

This invention relates to lighting fixtures and more particularly to that class or group of lighting fixtures designed to include air handling means. These fixtures are identified many times as air handling troffers.

Over the years, architects and others associated with building construction and more particularly commercial buildings have generally viewed lighting problems and systems as something separate and distinct from air handling problems and systems. Thus the fixtures designed to provide for lighting and air handling have generally been separate and independent units. in more recent years these same people have been looking with favor on the integration of the lighting fixture and the air handling fixture into a single unit. However, a number of problems have been encountered in efforts to obtain this integration satisfactorily.

In one of the early air handling troffers, an air supply system was connected to the top of a lighting fixture chassis, the top surface of which was provided with a plurality of apertures through which the air was caused to pass. In this arrangement the temperature-conditioned cooling air was caused to pass directly over the fluorescent lamps with which these lighting fixtures are usually provided. Experience with this arrangement demonstrated that certain functional characteristics of the lamps were being affected adversely. In consequence thereof, a number of different baffling arrangements were developed to re-direct the air flow away from the lamps.

Another problem encountered concurrently with the aforesaid lamp cooling problem was the design of the plenum chamber to be integrated into the lighting fixture to provide a unitary air handling troffer lighting fixture. Limitless amounts of space are not available either in the areas above or on the side of the troffer lighting fixture as it is normally installed in a false or drop ceiling. Ideally from a space efficiency viewpoint, the plenum chamber should fit as snugly as possible on the chassis of the troffer lighting fixture. However, to mention but two or three of the problems, adequate means must be provided to get an adequate supply of air into the plenum chamber, adequate and convenient means must be provided to permit adjustment of the air flow being discharged from the plenum chamber, and the space requirements for the discharge openings from the air handling troflFer into the room or other area must be kept at a minimum, particularly insofar as substantially increasing the overall width of the unit as it fits in the ceiling or other supporting structure is concerned.

In view of the foregoing, one of the principal objects of this invention is to provide an efiicient, compact, structurally-simple air handling troffer.

Another object of this invention is to provide a readilyaccessible, readily-adjustable regulating device for controlling both the volume and the direction of the air flow through the unit.

3,419,714 Patented Dec. 31, 1968 These and other objects, advantages and features are attained, in accordance with the principles of this invention, by providing each of the lower longitudinal edges of an air handling troffer with an air handling control chamber formed integrally as part of the lighting fixture component and preferably "having a pair of linear control vanes disposed therein. The linear control vanes are readily accessible and readily adjustable through the elongated mouth which characterizes each of the lower longitudinal edges of the air handling troffer and through which the controlled air is caused to flow.

In the specific embodiment of the invention illustrated in the accompanying drawing, FIGURE 1 is a bottom perspective view of a portion of an air handling troffer, a transverse section being taken near the longitudinal center thereof.

FIGURE 2 is an end elevational view of the air handling troffer as illustrated in FIG. 1.

In the specific embodiment of the invention illustrated in the accompanying drawing, the air handling troffer comprises two basic components, an air diffuser 10 mounted astride a troffer-type lighting fixture 20.

The air diffuser 10 is a fabricated sheet metal member having walls defining a plenum chamber 11. which is provided with an entry duct 12 and discharge orifices 13. The entry duct 12 may be of the top entry type as shown in FIG. 1 or of the side entry type as shown in FIG. 2. The discharge orifices 13, as shown particularly in FIG. 2, are defined by the lower longitudinal edges of the converging side walls 14 and 15. The side walk 14 and 15 join with the top walls 16 and 17 to define the plenum chamber 11. The entry duct 12 comprises an opening formed in the top wall 16 or the side wall 14 and is provided with a collar 18 fitted therein and to which a suitable air supply system may be connected.

The trotfer type lighting fixture 20, astride which the air diffuser 10 is mounted, comprises a substantially channel-shaped reflector 21 defining a light chamber 22 within which a pair of fluorescent lamps 23 are disposed. Electrical control apparatus 24 is enclosed within a chamber defined by the top wall of the reflector 21 and a cover 25 secured thereto. The walls of the reflector 21 and the cover 25 which face the lamps 23 are provided with a light-reflecting surface.

The lower portion of each side of the channel-shaped reflector 21 is stepped to define a somewhat laterally extending shelf or ledge 26 and a substantially vertical Wall 27. Each shelf 26 is provided with an elongated slot in order to receive therein the converging side walls 14 and 15 of the air diffuser 10. Side trim 28 is attached to the vertical walls 27 which define the lower longitudinal edges of the channel-shaped reflector 21. A baflile 29, disposed substantially vertically, is secured along a longitudinal edge thereof to each side wall of the reflector 21 immediately above the stepped portion thereof. The free longitudinal edge of each baflie 29 is shaped to define a hook 30 to thereby support a light-diffusing panel or plate 31 therebetween. The baffle 29, the shelf 26 and the wall 27 define an air handling control chamber 32 within which a pair of longitudinally extending linear control vanes 33 are disposed. The vanes 33 are pivotally supported in brackets 34 which span the chamber 32 and are attached to baffle 29 and wall 27.

The advantages of the foregoing structure will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art. Highly efficient space utilization and structural simplicity are obtained by having the air handling control chamber 32 formed in the troffer lighting fixture 20 rather than in the discharge orifice 13 formed by the converging side walls 14 and 15 of the air diffuser 10. The pair of pivotally mounted, longitudinally extending linear control vanes 33, located within each air handling control chamber 3 2, are readily accessible through the mouth 35 of the chamber 32. As illustrated in FIG. 2, the pair of vanes 33 on the right side are ShOWn in one position whereas the pair of vanes 33 on the left side have been adjusted to provide for a different volume and direction of air flow. Not only are the vanes readily accessible and easily adjustable but they also provide for both volume and direction control in a single operation involving but one control device. Here tofore volume control and direction control were accomplished by two separate devices, each requiring separate adjustment manipulation. In accordance with the principles of this invention, the vanes may be adjusted to effect both volume and direction control by inserting a screwdriver or similar tool into the mouth 35 of the air handling control chamber 32 and locating it between the vanes 33, such as on the right side of FIG. 2 for example. A simple twisting movement or rotation of the tool then enables one to spread the vanes the desired amount, such as to the disposition thereof as shown on the left side of FIG. 2 for example, thereby to adjust both the volume and the direction of the air flow. Additional directional control can be obtained by providing the side trim 28 or the wall 27 and the batfie 29 with inwardly inclined walls a and b which function as baflies for air moving through the chamber 32 generally as well as air directed thereagainst by one or both of the vanes 33.

What I claim is:

1. An air handling troffer comprising: a lighting fixture including a substantially channel-shaped reflector defining a light chamber and having stepped sides, each of said stepped sides being defined by a substantially laterally extending shelf having an elongated slot formed therein and a substantially vertical Wall which defines a lower longitudinal edge of said channel-shaped reflector, and a baffle secured to each side of said reflector and extending longitudinally thereof, said bafile being substantially parallel to said substantially vertical wall and being spaced therefrom by said shelf, said baffle, shelf and wall defining an air handling control chamber having a mouth; a substantially channel-shaped diffuser having a pair of spaced walls defining the top thereof and each side having a pair of spaced walls defining the sides thereof, said diffuser having an entry duct and being mounted astride said channel-shaped reflector with the lower longitudinal edges of said side walls extending through the slot in each of said shelves and into each of said air handling control chambers; and side trim attached to each of the lower longitudinal edges of said channel-shaped reflector, said side trim and said baffle having inwardly inclined wall portions which constrict the mouth of said air handling control chambers.

2. The combination of claim 1 and a pair of adjustable air control vanes disposed in each of said air handling control chambers.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,960,602 11/1960 Kurth et al. 2,991,708 7/1961 \Falk et al. 3,103,157 9/1963 Quin. 3,185,068 5/1965 Straub et al. 3,246,137 4/1966 Zagel.

NORTON ANSHER, Primary Examiner.

J. F. PETERS, JR., Assistant Examiner.

U.S. Cl. X.R.

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