EP0341749B1 - Improved arc tube for high pressure metal vapor discharge lamp, lamp including same, and method - Google Patents
Improved arc tube for high pressure metal vapor discharge lamp, lamp including same, and method Download PDFInfo
- Publication number
- EP0341749B1 EP0341749B1 EP89108640A EP89108640A EP0341749B1 EP 0341749 B1 EP0341749 B1 EP 0341749B1 EP 89108640 A EP89108640 A EP 89108640A EP 89108640 A EP89108640 A EP 89108640A EP 0341749 B1 EP0341749 B1 EP 0341749B1
- Authority
- EP
- European Patent Office
- Prior art keywords
- arc tube
- seal
- feedthrough member
- envelope
- fritless
- Prior art date
- Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
- Expired - Lifetime
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Images
Classifications
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
- H01J—ELECTRIC DISCHARGE TUBES OR DISCHARGE LAMPS
- H01J9/00—Apparatus or processes specially adapted for the manufacture, installation, removal, maintenance of electric discharge tubes, discharge lamps, or parts thereof; Recovery of material from discharge tubes or lamps
- H01J9/24—Manufacture or joining of vessels, leading-in conductors or bases
- H01J9/32—Sealing leading-in conductors
- H01J9/323—Sealing leading-in conductors into a discharge lamp or a gas-filled discharge device
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
- H01J—ELECTRIC DISCHARGE TUBES OR DISCHARGE LAMPS
- H01J61/00—Gas-discharge or vapour-discharge lamps
- H01J61/02—Details
- H01J61/36—Seals between parts of vessels; Seals for leading-in conductors; Leading-in conductors
- H01J61/366—Seals for leading-in conductors
Definitions
- the present invention relates to arc tubes, and more particularly to arc tubes used in high pressure metal vapour discharge lamps.
- the arc tube for a high pressure sodium (HPS) lamp typically comprises a translucent polycrystalline alumina (PCA) or yttria tubular envelope sealed at either end with a ceramic button fabricated from a similar material. Passing through this button is a feedthrough member (also referred to herein as "inlead") comprising niobium.
- the feedthrough member may be in the form of a tube or a wire.
- the feedthrough member may further comprise other metal additives such as, for example, zirconium.
- the feedthrough member performs the function of electrical inlead and electrode support.
- the end structure of the arc tube is hermetically sealed by means of a frit material. Frit materials typically comprise oxides of calcium and alumina. Frit materials may further include oxides of barium, magnesium, boron, strontium, beryllium, and/or yttrium.
- Buttons for arc tubes typically are constructed in one of three conventional designs: the monolithic design, the hat design, or the disk design. Examples of these three conventional designs are described and illustrated in US-A-4,713,580.
- the frit material used to form seals in the arc tube of a high pressure metal vapour discharge lamp must have a composition which does not react with the components of the fill gas. Additionally, the thermal expansion properties of the frit material should be within certain tolerances of those of the materials used to form the envelope seal button, and feedthrough member so that the seal formed will not crack upon thermal cycling. For practical reasons during sealing, it is desirable to minimize the melting point of the frit sealing material.
- High pressure metal vapour discharge lamps of the high pressure sodium type operate at seal temperatures of about 700°C. Although such a lamp has very high luminous efficiency, the colour of the light output is not satisfactory for many applications. Thus, there is a need to improve the colour of such HPS lamps.
- US-A-4,409,517 describes achieving improved colour in discharge lamps employing ceramic arc tubes which include metal halide fills.
- the document teaches of applying a halide resistant coating to that portion of one of the upper inleads which is in contact with the lamp fill. The coating protects the inlead from reaction with the halide vapours.
- an arc tube for a high pressure metal vapour discharge lamp comprising a tubular ceramic envelope, a chemical fill within the envelope, a seal button at each end of the envelope, the seal button having an aperture therethrough for receiving a feedthrough member, the feedthrough member having an electrode projecting therefrom passing through the seal button aperture and being oriented such that the electrode projects into the tubular ceramic envelope, the feedthrough member being sealed into the seal button by means of a fritless seal between the seal button and the feedthrough member, and sealing frit material sealing the seal buttons into the ends of the tubular ceramic envelope.
- the present invention is characterised in that the seal buttons comprise a ceramic material and have been shrunk onto said feedthrough member during firing to form the said fritless seals.
- the present invention provides a method for fabricating an arc tube for a high pressure metal vapour discharge lamp, the method comprising the steps of; forming fritless seals between seal buttons and feed-through members for each end of an arc tube envelope, permanently affixing an electrode to the feedthrough member of each fritless seal button/ feedthrough member assembly, sealing a first fritless seal button/feedthrough member assembly having the electrode attached thereto to one end of the arc tube envelope using frit material, depositing a chemical fill into the arc tube envelope sealed at one end, and sealing a second fritless seal button/feedthrough member assembly having the electrode attached thereto to the other end of the arc tube envelope using frit material characterised in that the seal buttons comprise a ceramic material, and in that said fritless seals are formed by shrinking the ceramic seal button onto the feedthrough member during firing of the ceramic seal button.
- Figures 1 and 2 illustrate preferred embodiments of the end structures of arc tubes of the present invention.
- Figure 3 illustrates an example of the structure of a high pressure metal vapour discharge lamp.
- the performance of arc tubes used in high pressure metal vapour discharge lamps is improved by eliminating a feedthrough member/frit material seal interface around the portion of the feedthrough member periphery which passes through the seal button aperture.
- the feedthrough member/frit material seal interface of a conventional ceramic arc tube typically extends from the point at which the feedthrough member projects into the arc tube to the point where the feedthrough member projects from the seal button to the exterior of the arc tube.
- the present invention is directed to employing a brazeless, fritless hermetic seal between the ceramic seal button and feedthrough member of a ceramic arc tube assembly.
- the seal button for the arc tube represented in Figure 1 is of a monolithic design.
- a disk shaped seal button 1 is joined to the feedthrough member 2 by means of a fritless seal.
- An electrode 3 is attached to the feedthrough member 2 and projects into the interior of the arc tube 5.
- the seal button/feedthrough assembly is sealed to the arc tube envelope 6 by fused frit material 7.
- Figure 2 illustrates, in cross-section, the end structure of an alternative embodiment of the present invention.
- the seal button for the arc tube represented in Figure 2 is of a hat design.
- a hat shaped seal button 1 is joined to the feedthrough member 2 by means of a fritless seal.
- An electrode 3 is attached to the feedthrough member 2 and projects into the interior of the arc tube 5.
- the seal button/ feedthrough assembly is sealed to the arc tube envelope 6 by fused frit material 7.
- fritless seals are formed between the ceramic seal buttons and feedthrough members for each end of the arc tube envelope, an electrode is attached to the feedthrough member of each fritless ceramic seal button/ feedthrough member assembly.
- One fritless ceramic seal button/feedthrough member assembly having the electrode attached thereto is sealed to the arc tube envelope using frit by known techniques.
- the fill material is then added to the arc tube, and the other fritless ceramic seal button/feedthrough member assembly having the electrode attached thereto is sealed to the arc tube envelope using frit material by known techniques.
- the present invention represents a simplified fabrication procedure over that described in US-A-4,545,799.
- the present invention advantageously facilitates easy attachment of the electrode to the feed-through member.
- the electrode can be attached to the feedthrough member following the fritless sealing of the feedthrough member to the seal button without having to insert and weld the electrode to feedthrough member by operating through the axial hole passing therethrough.
- the present invention permits the fill to be added to the arc tube after sealing one end of the arc tube and prior to sealing the second end of the arc tube envelope.
- Such a preferred method for preparing fritless ceramic seal button/feedthrough member assemblies includes forming a cylindrical ceramic piece to the required green dimensions, calcining the ceramic to oxidize the binder and provide minimal strength, and then high firing to near maximum density.
- the green ceramic can be pressed to size or machined from a blank after isostatical pressing.
- the diameter of the hole into which the feedthrough member is placed is chosen to provide a predetermined interference to the free shrinkage of the ceramic. Determination of such interference is routine to one having ordinary skill in the art.
- the interference must be sufficiently large that the ceramic deforms and conforms to the metal but not so large as to excessively distort the shape of the end cap.
- the surface of the feedthrough member is most preferably free of grooves or unevenness to which the ceramic is unable to conform.
- buttons were 8.64mm (0.34") OD and 3.81 mm (0.15") thickness.
- the interference of the feedthrough member with free shrinkage of the button hole was chosen to be 4%, 7%, or 10% of the green hole diameter (i.e., the hole diameter would have closed by an additional 0.20mm, 0.36mm or 0.51mm (0.008", 0.014" or 0.020" respectively) if the inlead had not been present).
- the fired composition (designated type D) of the seal buttons comprise alumina, 1.7% yttria, and 0.05% magnesia, added originally as nitrates prior to spray drying, so as to produce a significant amount of liquid phase during sintering of the button.
- Fritless seal button/feedthrough assemblies were sealed to both ends of four 8.89mm (0.350”) OD arc tubes with PF frit in the standard manner.
- PF frit refers to a sealing frit material comprising, prior to sealing, 45.6% Al 2 O 3 , 39.0% CaO, 8.6% BaO, 5.2% MgO, and 1.6% B 2 O 3 .
- the arc tube fill was 150 mg Tl, 30 mg Cd,and 20kPa (150 torr) of argon.
- the arc tubes were placed inside evacuated quartz tubes and heated in a tube furnace so that the seals were maintained at 945-955°C. No leakage of fill was observed during the 1375 hours at temperature.
- Four controls were run the same way, but having the buttons joined to the inlead with PF frit, began to leak fill at an average of 120 hours and lost all their fill well before 1000 hours.
- Hat type seal buttons as shown in FIGURE 2, comprising a disk portion 8 and sleeve portion 9 (also referred to herein as sleeve) were joined to polished Nb/1% Zr inleads of 2.16mm (0.085”) or 3.12mm (0.123”) OD or Nb wire of 1.02mm (0.040") diameter.
- the seal buttons were first calcined at 1250°C for 5 hours in air and then shrunk onto the inleads by firing for 20 minutes at 1860°C in purified argon. All of the seal buttons had 1.27mm (0.05") sleeves and button thickness of either 1.52mm (0.06”) or 4.32mm (0.17").
- the interference on the inlead ranged from 1% to 10%.
- the seal buttons were made not only with type D formulation but also with a high alumina composition (designated type A) containing less than 0.1% oxides as sintering aids and grain growth inhibitors.
- the fired seal button contained 0.05% magnesia and 0.02% yttria. Allowance was made for the different shrinkage of composition types D and A.
- the fritless seal button/feedthrough member assemblies having electrodes attached to the feed-through members were sealed to each end of eight 8.89mm (0.350") OD arc tubes with PF frit and a fill of 150 mg Tl, 30 mg Cd, and 2.67 kPa (20 torr) of argon.
- the completed arc tubes were heated as in Example 1, except that the seal temperature was 1020°C.
- Four tubes went 2290 hours and four were held 3220 hours without any sign of leakage. A control tube at this same temperature began to leak its fill at 40 hours.
- the seal buttons used in this set of experiments were fabricated from the aforementioned type D composition.
- the dimensions of the seal buttons after firing were 13.0mm (0.51”) OD by 5.33mm (0.21") thick.
- Three pairs of buttons had 3% interference and three had 6% interference on the Nb/1% Zr feedthrough member.
- the three pairs of seal buttons with 3% interference were treated as one group, and the three pairs of seal buttons with 6% interference were treated as a second group.
- the feedthrough members which were used with two of the pairs of seal buttons in each group were polished to remove surface roughness.
- the feedthrough members used with the other pair of seal buttons of each group were used as manufactured.
- Each arc tube had a fill of 0.48 mg Na, 11.0 mg Hg, 15.4 mg Cd, 82.0 mg Tl, and a starting pressure of 4kPa (30 torr) Xe.
- the PCA arc tubes of 10.3mm (0.405”) ID, 12.3mm (0.485”) OD, and 56.9mm (2.24”) cavity length, were sealed to the fritless seal button/feedthrough member assemblies using PF frit and a standard frit sealing procedure.
- the lamps were run at 250 W and the end of the arc tubes were insulated so that temperatures were in the 950-1000°C range.
- a lamp was made using hat seal buttons fabricated from the aforementioned type D composition. These seal buttons were joined to 2.16mm (0.085”) feedthrough members. Seal buttons having a length of 2.79mm (0.11") were used. These seal button sleeves stopped short of the weld between feedthrough member and the tungsten rod supporting the electrode. This lamp lasted over 1000 hours without leakage, whereas a control lamp with fritted seal button/feedthrough member seal lost sufficient fill by 500 hours to plate the jacket of the lamp with an opaque metallic film.
- the sleeve When seal buttons are used with longer sleeves, the sleeve has a tendency to develop radial cracks which lead to early failures. Short sleeves, such as were used in Example 2 present no problems. Care must be taken when the sleeve is longer as in this example. Resistance to cracking was shown by many experiments to be a function of sleeve diameter, feedthrough member diameter, sleeve length, and feedthrough member straightness. Ideally the sleeve should have a thick aspect ratio and small interference on the feedthrough member.
- the ceramic seal button used in the present invention is preferably composed of material resistant to reaction with the feedthrough member, in particular, reduction of any of its components, so that fill does not have a pathway along the feedthrough member surface to the exterior.
- the arc tube of the present invention can be used in high pressure metal vapour discharge lamps of the high pressure sodium type, or of the high pressure mixed metal vapour type.
- the details of the construction of these various types of lamps are well known to the artisan having ordinary skill in the lighting art.
- FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a high pressure metal vapour discharge lamp of the high pressure sodium type to which the invention is applicable.
- the lamp 51 comprises an arc tube 59 supported within an evacuated outer vitreous glass envelope 52, for example, borosilicate glass, having means for electrically coupling the lamp with a power source (not shown), such as a lamp base 53 with a terminal 54.
- Electrical conductors 62,63 are sealed within and pass through the outer envelope to provide electrical connections from the interior to the exterior of the glass envelope.
- the arc tube 59 containing a fill comprising sodium, mercury, and a rare gas is supported within the outer envelope 52 by support means 58 such as a metallic frame in a well known manner.
- Heat conserving means 55,56 may be wrapped about the arc tube 59 at each end thereof in the vicinity of the electrodes (not shown), in order to reduce the heat differential thereat from the center of the arc tube.
- Each end of the arc tube includes a fritless seal between the seal button and the feedthrough member according to the present invention.
- seal between the fritless seal button/ feedthrough member assembly having an electrode attached to the feedthrough member is formed from seal means comprising fused seal material, such as melted (or fused) glass ceramic frit.
- the sealing frit material can be any of the sealing frit materials typically used in the fabrication of arc tubes for high pressure sodium vapour discharge lamps, such as, for example, an alkaline-earth based seal material including Al 2 O 3 , CaO and BaO with replacements or additions of SrO, Y 2 O 3 , La 2 O 3 , MgO, and/or B 2 O 3 .
- an alkaline-earth based seal material including Al 2 O 3 , CaO and BaO with replacements or additions of SrO, Y 2 O 3 , La 2 O 3 , MgO, and/or B 2 O 3 .
- a high pressure metal vapour discharge lamp in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention may be of a saturated or unsaturated vapour type.
- the amounts of sodium and mercury required to dose either saturated or unsaturated type high pressure sodium lamps are known to those skilled in the art.
- a high pressure sodium discharge lamp may further include diffuse coatings on the inside of the outer bulb to increase source luminous size or reduce source luminance.
- the outer envelope may further include getters, 60,61.
Landscapes
- Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
- Manufacturing & Machinery (AREA)
- Vessels And Coating Films For Discharge Lamps (AREA)
Applications Claiming Priority (2)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
US19406088A | 1988-05-13 | 1988-05-13 | |
US194060 | 1988-05-13 |
Publications (3)
Publication Number | Publication Date |
---|---|
EP0341749A2 EP0341749A2 (en) | 1989-11-15 |
EP0341749A3 EP0341749A3 (en) | 1991-03-27 |
EP0341749B1 true EP0341749B1 (en) | 1997-01-02 |
Family
ID=22716141
Family Applications (1)
Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
---|---|---|---|
EP89108640A Expired - Lifetime EP0341749B1 (en) | 1988-05-13 | 1989-05-12 | Improved arc tube for high pressure metal vapor discharge lamp, lamp including same, and method |
Country Status (3)
Country | Link |
---|---|
EP (1) | EP0341749B1 (ja) |
JP (1) | JPH0265047A (ja) |
DE (1) | DE68927594T2 (ja) |
Families Citing this family (3)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US5426343A (en) * | 1992-09-16 | 1995-06-20 | Gte Products Corporation | Sealing members for alumina arc tubes and method of making the same |
JP3399103B2 (ja) * | 1994-07-25 | 2003-04-21 | 日本電池株式会社 | 不飽和蒸気圧形高圧ナトリウムランプ |
JP2010287555A (ja) * | 2009-05-15 | 2010-12-24 | Toshiba Lighting & Technology Corp | 高圧放電ランプ |
Citations (1)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US3531853A (en) * | 1966-11-30 | 1970-10-06 | Philips Corp | Method of making a ceramic-to-metal seal |
Family Cites Families (5)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US3564328A (en) * | 1968-07-29 | 1971-02-16 | Corning Glass Works | Ceramic articles and method of fabrication |
NL7511416A (nl) * | 1975-09-29 | 1977-03-31 | Philips Nv | Elektrische ontladingslamp. |
JPS534384A (en) * | 1976-07-02 | 1978-01-14 | Hitachi Ltd | High pressure sodium lamp |
US4545799A (en) * | 1983-09-06 | 1985-10-08 | Gte Laboratories Incorporated | Method of making direct seal between niobium and ceramics |
US4713580A (en) * | 1986-12-19 | 1987-12-15 | Gte Products Corporation | Sealing structure for metal vapor arc discharge lamps |
-
1989
- 1989-05-12 EP EP89108640A patent/EP0341749B1/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
- 1989-05-12 DE DE1989627594 patent/DE68927594T2/de not_active Expired - Fee Related
- 1989-05-15 JP JP11885589A patent/JPH0265047A/ja active Pending
Patent Citations (1)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US3531853A (en) * | 1966-11-30 | 1970-10-06 | Philips Corp | Method of making a ceramic-to-metal seal |
Also Published As
Publication number | Publication date |
---|---|
DE68927594T2 (de) | 1997-07-24 |
JPH0265047A (ja) | 1990-03-05 |
EP0341749A3 (en) | 1991-03-27 |
EP0341749A2 (en) | 1989-11-15 |
DE68927594D1 (de) | 1997-02-13 |
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