Smk Corporation

Sony Corporation

Smk Co., Ltd.

Taketo Takata

Naoyuki Ono

Seiichi Morikawa

Parts exchange or the like is not easy with an LED illumination apparatus that uses an LED attached to a socket of a conventional fluorescent light fixture. Other problems also exist such as unfavorable operability and reliability, and necessitating additional parts. Provided herewith is an LED illumination apparatus including a cap having a terminal electrically coupled to a socket of a fluorescent light fixture and a main body having an end coupled with the cap, where the main body includes an LED and a coupler to electrically couple the terminal to the LED, the terminal being fitted in the coupler.

LED illumination apparatus

Parts exchange or the like is not easy with an LED illumination apparatus that uses an LED attached to a socket of a conventional fluorescent light fixture. Or if there is no problem in parts exchange, other problems exist such as unfavorable operability and reliability, and necessitating additional parts. Provided herewith is an LED illumination apparatus including: a cap having a terminal electrically coupled to a socket of a fluorescent light fixture; and a main body having an end coupled with the cap, where the main body includes: an LED; and a coupler to electrically couple the terminal to the LED, the coupler being fitted in the cap, the cap includes a cap-side connecting section having flexibility or elasticity to electrically couple the terminal to the coupler, the coupler includes a main-body-side connecting section to electrically couple the LED to the cap-side connecting section, and by means of the flexibility or the elasticity, the cap-side connecting section removably couples the cap to the coupler.

The terminal portion 83 of a contact 82 is of a groove type, with a larger diameter than the lead wire diameter, and includes small holes 84 drilled and installed in the bottom of the groove. By such a construction, when the solder 19 flows in between the terminal portion 83 and the lead wire by the surface tension, the air between the terminal portion 83 and the lead wire discharges through the small holes 84, thus preventing formation of an air layer between the terminal portion 83 and the lead wire. The holes 84 permit solder to enter the holes to discharge the air, but are sufficiently small to prevent solder from flowing therethrough and dripping out of the groove. By observing whether or not the solder has flowed into the small holes 84 it is possible to confirm whether the solder has entered the clearance between the lead wire and the terminal.

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Toyama, Japan

Taketo Takata