Light fixture with removable lens

Claim 1

A light fixture characterized by its economy of construction, ease of assembly and maintenance and attractive appearance comprising, in combination, an elongated body member formed by an extrusion process having ends and lateral edges including overlapping portions, said body member including a recessed central region intermediate said lateral edges, a longitudinally extending lens retaining groove defined in said body member adjacent each lateral edge by said overlapping portions and extending the length of said body member, said grooves each having an opening extending toward said central region, longitudinally extending base elements formed on said body member defining fixture support surfaces, a lamp mounted on said body member recessed central region, an end cap mounted on each end of said body member having a width and height substantially corresponding to the width and height of said body member, a rectangular light transmitting lens mounted on said body member extending over said lamp and formed of a sheet material manually bendable upon applying manual forces thereto in a direction transverse to the plane of the material and resistant to manual bending upon applying forces in a direction substantially parallel to the plane of the material, said lens being of a dished configuration including a rectangular central base region, four planar peripheral wall regions depending from said base region transversely disposed to said base region and substantially perpendicularly disposed to the adjacent wall regions, and a peripheral lip outwardly extending from at least two of said wall regions located on opposite sides of said base region and spaced from said base region, said lips each including an outer edge, a central region and end regions, said lips on opposIte sides of said base region being parallel to each other constituting lateral lips extending in the longitudinal direction of said body member and the spacing between the outer edges of said lateral lips'' central regions being greater than the spacing between said body member overlapping portions whereby said lateral lips'' central regions are received within said lens retaining grooves, said lateral lips'' end regions being of reduced width with respect to the associated lip central region whereby said reduced width end regions are removed from said grooves and the length of the wall regions disposed transversely of the body member length are defined by the reduced width of said lateral lips'' end regions and is no greater than the spacing between said overlapping portions, manual deformation of said lateral lips and their associated wall regions toward each other removing said central regions within said grooves from said grooves for releasing said lens from said body member.