JPH05205641A - Manufacture of electrodeless discharge lamp - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate the drop of the quality of an electrodeless discharge lamp due to slipping-off of amalgam and enhance the yield by fixing the amalgam to a specified position certainly. CONSTITUTION:A stem 6 and a bulb 5 are attached sealedly using a burner and set so that an evacuation pipe 11 is facing up, and pellets 13 of amalgam- based metal are inserted from the open end of the evacuation pipe 11. The pellets inserted 13 reach an amalgam accommodation part 14. Then heating and evacuation, of the lamp are conducted in the attitude as it is, and the evacuation pipe 11 is chipped off. If thereafter the lamp is upset and so that the pipe 11 faces down, the pellets 13 move to the chipped-off part at the tip of the pipe 11, so that the amalgam-based metal 13 is fused and attached in this position by heating externally.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing an electrodeless discharge lamp which has no electrode inside the lamp and discharges and emits a discharge gas inside the lamp by an external high frequency electric field.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Various discharge lamps that have been put to practical use for lighting have been mainly incandescent bulbs, fluorescent lamps, and HI.
It is classified into D etc.

Among them, the fluorescent lamp is for emitting the phosphor coated on the inner surface of the tube by ultraviolet rays generated by the discharge of mercury vapor or a rare gas enclosed in the tube.
This type of lamp is widely used because it has features such as high efficiency, long life, and low cost. Initially, it was limited to the straight pipe type or the ring type, but recently, a compact type with a smaller size and higher output has been developed and put into practical use.

Particularly in recent years, an electrodeless discharge lamp, which eliminates the electrode of the original fluorescent lamp and emits light by a high frequency electromagnetic field, has been developed and put into practical use. Since this type of lamp does not have an electrode, it has achieved dramatically smaller size, higher output, and longer life than a conventional electrode type fluorescent lamp.

For example, according to the electrodeless discharge lamp disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-71957, as shown in FIG. 3, the lamp 1 has a coil 3 close to the outer periphery of a substantially spherical bulb 2. Since the light emitting area of the lamp 1 is small, that is, a light source of small size and high brightness can be provided, it is possible to provide a lighting fixture whose optical design is relatively free, and has a long life and high efficiency. It also has features.

FIG. 4 shows a specific example of the actual manufacturing of such a lamp. The lamp 4 is formed by a glass bulb 5 for a general light bulb and a glass stem 6, and a predetermined amount of mercury and a rare gas are enclosed in an internal airtight space 7 formed of these. A phosphor coating 8 is provided on the inner surface of the bulb 5.

When mercury is used as the discharge gas as described above, the operating characteristics of the lamp are determined by the mercury vapor pressure in the bulb, and this mercury vapor pressure changes depending on the coldest spot temperature of the lamp. This is well known, and such a characteristic is shown in FIG. In the figure, the solid line shows the mercury vapor pressure and the broken line shows the lamp efficiency. As can be seen from this figure, the low-pressure discharge lamp using mercury shows the maximum efficiency when the coldest spot temperature is about 40 ° C. Therefore, this type of lamp has an ambient temperature of room temperature (25
It is designed so that the coldest spot temperature is about 40 ° C when the lamp is rated at (° C).

Since the electrodeless discharge lamp is characterized by its small size and high brightness, in order to realize this, the input density is often increased as compared with a general low pressure discharge lamp (for example, a fluorescent lamp). .. Therefore, the tube wall load becomes higher, and it becomes extremely difficult to set the coldest spot temperature to about 40 ° C. This presents a greater problem when the lamp is used in a closed fixture.

As a means for solving such problems, a method of using amalgam instead of elemental mercury is known. Amalgam is obtained as a compound of mercury and another metal, and under the same temperature, the mercury vapor pressure is generally suppressed as compared with elemental mercury. As an example of this, Bi-In-Hg
The temperature characteristics of the system amalgam are shown in FIG. By using such an amalgam, an optimum mercury vapor pressure can be obtained even at a relatively high temperature.

Next, an example of a manufacturing process when introducing amalgam into the lamp as shown in FIG. 4 will be described with reference to FIG. In addition, the stem 6 includes a mount portion 9 and a flare portion 1.
0 and an exhaust pipe 11, and the mount part 9 has an exhaust pipe 1
A through hole 12 communicating from 1 to the inside of the valve 5 is provided.

First, as shown in FIG. 7A, the exhaust pipe 1
The pellet 13 of amalgam base metal (which does not yet contain mercury) is inserted from the open end of the exhaust pipe 11 so that 1 is on top. The inserted pellet 13 is introduced into the valve 5 through the through hole 12. After the introduction, the pellet 13 is moved to the vicinity of the sealing portion of the valve 5 and the stem 6 (see FIG. 6 (b)), and the pellet 13 is heated and melted from the outside by a gas burner or the like, so that the glass surface at that position is formed. It is fixed (see FIG. 7C).

As a method of enclosing mercury to be combined with the base metal in the lamp, there is a method using a mercury dropper, a mercury dispenser, or the like, but the description thereof is omitted here.

[0013]

By the way, in this way, the amalgam base metal is melted on the glass surface by itself,
When adhered, the adhesive strength is relatively weak and often comes off due to external shock such as vibration or shock. As a result, the amalgam base metal fragments roll in the lamp, and depending on the existing position at that time, not only the original lamp characteristics cannot be obtained, but also the fragments damage the fluorescent film, impairing the appearance and reducing the light amount. The inconvenience occurs.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to reliably fix an amalgam at a predetermined position in an electrodeless discharge lamp using the amalgam to prevent the amalgam from falling off. An object of the present invention is to provide a manufacturing method capable of improving yield without deteriorating quality.

[0015]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a method of manufacturing an electrodeless discharge lamp according to the present invention is directed to an opening end of a glass bulb, which is coaxial with the exhaust pipe on the side opposite to the exhaust pipe. After sealing a glass stem having a cylindrical bottomed amalgam accommodating portion that is in communication with and is not easily fixed to the amalgam base metal, the exhaust pipe is set so as to face upward, and the amalgam base is opened from the open end of the exhaust pipe. After inserting the metal and placing it in the amalgam storage part, heating and exhausting as it is, after chipping off the exhaust pipe, reverse the valve and make the exhaust pipe downward so that the amalgam base metal is exhaust pipe It is characterized in that the amalgam base metal is melted and fixed at this position by external heating at this position.

[0016]

According to the present invention, the amalgam base metal is fixed to the tip-off portion of the exhaust pipe which is suitable for the temperature at the time of lighting,
An amalgam is formed with the separately enclosed mercury, and mercury vapor suitable for discharge is supplied to the lamp discharge space.

[0017]

EXAMPLES An example of the manufacturing method according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG.

FIG. 1 (a) shows an example of a glass stem used in the present invention. The difference from the conventional stem is that the amalgam housing having a cylindrical shape with a bottom and communicating with the exhaust pipe 11 is provided on the opposite side of the exhaust pipe 11. By providing the portion 14, the amalgam storage portion 1
Reference numeral 4 is integrally formed coaxially with the exhaust pipe 11, and a layer 15 made of a material which is not well-fitted (bad wet, does not adhere) even when the amalgam base metal is melted is formed on the inner surface thereof. In this embodiment, nickel plating is applied.

The stem 6 and the glass bulb 5 thus constructed are sealed with a burner by a usual method, and the exhaust pipe 11 is set so as to face upward as shown in FIG. 1 (b).
An amalgam base metal pellet 13 is inserted from the open end of the exhaust pipe 11. The inserted pellet 13 is shown in FIG.
As shown in (c), the amalgam storage portion 14 is reached.

Next, the lamp is heated and exhausted in this posture, and the exhaust pipe 11 is chipped off (see FIG. 1D). Thereafter, when the exhaust pipe 11 is turned down by reversing the lamp, the amalgam base metal pellet 13 moves to the tip-off portion at the tip of the exhaust pipe 11, so that the amalgam base metal pellet is heated at this position by external heat. Melt and fix 13

By adopting such a manufacturing method, the amalgam base metal 13 can be melted and fixed to the tip-off portion at the tip of the exhaust pipe 11 which is suitable as an amalgam arranging position without any trouble in the lamp manufacturing. That is, the exhaust pipe 1
The inner diameter of 1 is thin (usually around 2 mm), and the amalgam melted and fixed to this part is unlikely to come off due to external shock such as vibration or shock, and the temperature at the time of lighting this part is Since the temperature of the sealed portion of 5 and that of the stem 6 are approximately the same, the temperature becomes the coldest point in this lamp, and the original lamp characteristics are obtained.

The glass stem used in the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, a glass tube 14a in which the amalgam storage portion 14 is integrally formed with the exhaust pipe 11 and the glass tube 14a are formed. It may be configured by a stainless steel bottomed cylindrical cap 14b inserted from the opening end.

[0023]

EFFECTS OF THE INVENTION When an electrodeless discharge lamp is manufactured according to the present invention, the amalgam can be securely fixed at a predetermined position, that is, in the vicinity of the coldest point temperature of the lamp without any trouble in manufacturing. It is possible to provide an electrodeless discharge lamp which is good and has no deterioration in quality due to amalgam loss, and which can improve the yield.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a process chart showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a simplified diagram showing a different embodiment of the glass stem used in the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a simplified diagram showing a basic configuration of a conventional electrodeless discharge lamp device.

FIG. 4 is a partial cross-sectional front view showing an example of a conventional electrodeless discharge lamp.

FIG. 5 is a temperature characteristic diagram of a low pressure discharge lamp using elemental mercury.

FIG. 6 is a temperature characteristic diagram of a low-pressure discharge lamp using amalgam mercury.

FIG. 7 is a process chart showing a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 5 Glass Valve 6 Glass Stem 11 Exhaust Pipe 12 Through Hole 13 Amalgam Base Metal 14 Amalgam Storage

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A glass stem having a cylindrical amalgam accommodating portion at the opening end of the glass bulb, which is coaxial with the exhaust pipe and communicates with the inside on the side opposite to the exhaust pipe, and which is hard to adhere to the amalgam base metal. After sealing, the exhaust pipe is set to face upward, the amalgam base metal is inserted from the open end of the exhaust pipe and placed in the amalgam storage part, and heating and exhaust are performed in this state, and the exhaust pipe After chip-off, move the amalgam base metal to the tip-off part of the exhaust pipe by reversing the valve so that the exhaust pipe is at the bottom, and at this position heat the outside to melt and fix the amalgam base metal. Of manufacturing an electrodeless discharge lamp.