Various practical situations present the need for making electrical connections to a rotating element, and one particular application has to do with providing electrical energy connection to a tubular fluorescent lamp which must rotate on its axis in use. Such an arrangement is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 2,875,677 wherein the lamp serves both as the exposure source in a photocopying machine, and also as a roller in the transport system for the copy sheet. Illustrated in that patent is a receptacle having a fixed support portion and a rotor for making contact with the lamp pins, plus slip ring means providing for electrical connection to the lamp pins during the lamp's rotary motion. The device, however, is constructed of a large number of differently shaped parts, expensive both to make and to assemble. Furthermore, the arrangement is such that portions of differing electrical potential in the circuit are in such close proximity by direct air path that a short circuit hazard is present, and extensive change, presumably introducing even more structural complexity, would apparently be required to improve the condition.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds