GB1076824A - Improvements in apparatus for manufacturing electric lamps and tubes - Google Patents

Abstract

1,076,824. Manufacturing electric lamps. PHILIPS ELECTRONIC & ASSOCIATED INDUSTRIES Ltd. July 8, 1964 [July 11, 1963], No. 28160/64. Heading H1J. In an apparatus in which the envelopes of components such as electric lamps and discharge tubes are conveyed in holders with their axes horizontal in a direction at right angles to their axes, pairs of heads connected to an evacuating system being associated with each holder and receiving the exhaust tubes of the envelopes, one head of each pair is formed with a supply chamber having an inlet and an outlet for mercury, a predetermined quantity of which is received from a stationary dispenser, and the head has means for closing the inlet after the supply of mercury, for evacuating the envelope, and for opening the outlet so that the mercury falls to a predetermined position in the evacuation path, means also being provided for blowing the mercury into the envelope. The last step is preferably effected by a momentary supply of rare gas. In one form, the exhaust tube 11 of the envelope 1 is held in a plug 19 in the head 15 and connected by a bore 21 to a chamber 53 connected by a pipe 23 to the evacuating means. At one station in the cycle, mercury is supplied by a fixed dispenser to a funnel 43 whence it passes by a cock 41 into a groove 31 in a piston 33. At the next station the cock is closed and the envelope 1 is exhausted. At a further station, the piston is moved to the right by a solenoid 37 and the mercury falls to a position 59 at the end of the bore 21. At the next station a momentary supply of rare gas e.g. argon is provided through the tube 61 connected to the bore 21 to blow the mercury into the envelope. In a modification, the mercury is supplied by a cock to a chamber connected to the bore 21 through a valve which is opened at the appropriate station to allow it to fall to a point at the end of the bore.