JPH07169401A - Manufacture of metal halide lamp and its illumination method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To manufacture a metal halide lamp with good startup capability, less blackening due to electrode loss, and long service life that may be achieved by completely ejecting the moisture adsorbed in an additive. CONSTITUTION:A crystal tube 11 is heated, gass is pressed into the tube, a jig is brought into contact with the outside of the tube to form a bulb section 12, and the opened side of an additive holding tube 18 with one end closed is connected to the bulb section 12. An exhaust tube 14 with both its ends opened is put in connection, the respective electrode parts are inserted into both ends of the bulb section 12 and pinch-sealed, and an additive 16 is inserted into the additive holding tube 18. While the air inside the bulb section 12 is vacuum-discharged from the opening of the exhaust tube 14, the additive holding tube 18 is heated, the additive 16 is evaporated, driven into the bulb section 12 cooled from the outside, and coagulated in the bulb section 12. Rare gas is sealed in the bulb section 12 and the additive holding tube 18 and the exhaust tube 14 are cut by melting.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a manufacturing method and a lighting method of a metal halide lamp.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, metal halide lamps have been widely used as light sources for general lighting such as store lighting and road lighting as well as optical equipment. Although there are various types of metal halide lamps, they generally have a quartz glass arc tube and a pair of electrodes provided in the arc tube for causing a discharge. A conventional manufacturing method of the metal halide lamp will be described with reference to FIG.

First, as shown in FIG. 4A, the quartz tube 2
1 is heated by a burner (not shown), gas is pressed into the quartz tube to swell the quartz tube, and a jig is brought into contact with the quartz tube from the outside to form a bulb portion 22 serving as a light emitting portion.

Next, as shown in FIG. 4B, the tube portion 2
The central portion of 2 is heated by a burner (not shown), gas is introduced into the tube portion 22 and the heated portion of the tube portion 22 is blown away to form the exhaust pipe mounting hole 23. Further, the end portion of the exhaust pipe 24 and the exhaust pipe mounting hole 23 are heated and melted by a burner and connected as shown in FIG. And FIG.
As shown in (d), the electrode part 25 is inserted into the bulb portion 22 to seal both ends of the bulb portion 22, and mercury and an additive 26 such as iodide are sealed from the exhaust pipe 24. . Finally, after exhausting the inside of the bulb portion 22 through the exhaust pipe 24, a rare gas such as argon gas is filled in, and the exhaust pipe 24 is tipped off by a burner, so that the arc tube 27 shown in FIG.
To manufacture.

[0005]

However, in the conventional method for manufacturing a metal halide lamp, the bulb part is stored during the storage of the additive, or when the additive is enclosed in the bulb part from the storage container, or the bulb part is evacuated. When connected to a vacuum device, a rare earth metal iodide or an alkali metal iodide, which is an additive, often adsorbs a small amount of water present in the atmosphere.
Water adsorbed to the additive enters the tube together with the additive,
When water is present in the arc tube, as is well known in conventional lamps, water is decomposed into oxygen and hydrogen near the high temperature electrode, and this oxygen oxidizes tungsten, which is the electrode material, and vaporized tungsten oxide. However, there is a problem that the vapor life is reduced near the tube wall by the hydrogen and adheres to the inside of the tube wall to promote blackening of the arc tube, resulting in a shortened lamp life. In addition, the presence of water causes problems such as generating a spike voltage at the time of starting to make the starting unstable and accelerating the devitrification phenomenon of the arc tube.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned conventional problems, and provides a method for manufacturing a metal halide lamp and a method for lighting a metal halide lamp, which is free from wear of a tungsten electrode due to a steam cycle, has good starting characteristics, and has a long lamp life. It is an issue.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the method for manufacturing a metal halide lamp of the present invention is characterized in that the quartz tube is heated and softened, gas is forced into the tube, and a jig is contacted from outside the tube. A step of forming a bulb part in a quartz tube, a step of connecting the open side of an additive holding tube made of quartz glass and closed at one end, and an exhaust pipe made of quartz glass with both ends open to the bulb part A step of inserting each electrode part at both ends of the bulb part and performing pinch sealing, a step of inserting an additive into the additive holding pipe, and an inside of the bulb part from an opening of the exhaust pipe. While evacuating, the step of heating the additive holding tube to vaporize the additive and driving it from the outside to drive it into the tube ball portion to condense in the tube ball portion, and a rare gas in the tube ball portion. The additive holding tube and the Characterized by a step of blowing the trachea.

A method for lighting a metal halide lamp according to the present invention is a metal halide lamp manufactured by the method for manufacturing a metal halide lamp according to claim 1, in which electrodes facing each other are held horizontally and a fusing portion of an additive holding tube is used. It is characterized in that it is installed and lit so that the line connecting the and the fusing part of the exhaust pipe is substantially horizontal.

[0009]

The method of manufacturing the metal halide lamp of the present invention is
Since the additive is inserted into the additive holding tube, it is possible to heat the additive holding tube while cooling the bulb part and heat the additive in it, and to absorb water during storage and manufacturing. The moisture adsorbed on the easily added additive is discharged to the vacuum system through the exhaust pipe by heating the additive holding pipe. In this case, since the inside of the tube is evacuated, the boiling point of the water inside the tube is lowered, and even if the tube is cooled, the water does not solidify and is exhausted to the outside of the tube. To be done. However, since the boiling point of the additive, that is, the vaporization temperature, is maintained at the cooling temperature of the bulb portion or more even if the gas is evacuated, the vaporized additive remains trapped in the cooled bulb portion and finally In the tube part,
That is, it is possible to manufacture a metal halide lamp that has no water in the arc tube, only the additive remains, does not cause the tungsten electrode to be worn due to the steam cycle, has good starting characteristics, and has a long lamp life.

In the method for lighting a metal halide lamp according to the present invention, since the bulb portion of the metal halide lamp according to the present invention has two fusing portions, that is, an additive holding tube and an exhaust tube, the electrodes facing each other should be horizontal. When lighting horizontally, by installing so that the line connecting the two fusing parts is horizontal,
It is possible to avoid that both of the two fusing parts are located at the lowest point which is the coldest point. In general, when the metal halide lamp is horizontally lit, the temperature of the coldest spot at the lowest point of the bulb portion determines the light emission characteristics of the metal halide lamp. Therefore, when the above-mentioned fusing part is located at the lowest point, the amount of quartz glass in this fusing part is large and the amount thereof is also varied, so that the coldest spot temperature is varied and the emission characteristics of the lamp are varied. On the other hand, if the line connecting the two fusing parts is installed horizontally as described above, the distance between the lowest point and the fusing part can be maximized, so that the lamp emission characteristics due to the influence of the fusing part. Can be avoided.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the method for manufacturing a metal halide lamp of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a manufacturing process drawing of the metal halide lamp in this embodiment.

First, while rotating the quartz tube 11, the central portion thereof is heated and softened by a burner (not shown). next,
The outside of the heat-softened central portion of the quartz tube 11 is sandwiched by a pair of jigs, an inert gas such as argon gas is pressed into the quartz tube 11, and the quartz tube 11 is inflated to form a bulb portion 12 which becomes a light emitting portion. Molding is performed as shown in FIG.

Next, as shown in FIG. 1B, the tube portion 1
A part of 2 is heated and softened by a burner (not shown), and an inert gas is press-fitted into the tube to blow away the heated and softened part to form the additive holding tube mounting hole 17. Further, the additive holding tube mounting hole 17 and the opening of the additive holding tube 18 made of quartz glass and closed at one end are heated and melted by a burner and connected as shown in FIG. 1 (c). The quartz glass used is a glass containing very few OH groups inside.

Further, an exhaust pipe mounting hole 50 is formed at a position facing the additive holding pipe 18 attached to the tube bulb portion 12 in the same manner as in FIG. 1B, and this exhaust pipe mounting hole 50 and quartz glass are formed. One end of the exhaust pipe 14 is heated and melted by a burner, and
Connect as shown in (d). The exhaust pipe 14 is open at both ends. The connection position of the exhaust pipe 14 is not limited to the facing position of the additive holding pipe 18, and the connecting position may be shifted from the facing position, but if they are too close, the additive inserted into the additive holding pipe 18 is heated and vaporized. In the process, the vaporized additive does not spread into the tube portion 12 and is exhausted from the exhaust pipe 14 in the immediate vicinity.

Then, the electrode parts 15 are inserted into the tube portion 12 and the both ends are pinch-sealed. Then, as shown in FIG. 1E, 20 mg of mercury, 1 mg of dysprosium iodide, 1 mg of neodymium iodide, and 1 mg of cesium iodide were added as additives 16 from the opening of the exhaust pipe 14 to the bulb portion. It passes through the inside of 12 and drops into the additive holding tube 18 at the opposite position. Moisture contained in the atmosphere is adsorbed on these additives 16 during storage and operation.

Further, the additive 16 in the additive holding tube 18 is heated and vaporized while the opening of the exhaust pipe 14 is connected to a vacuum system and the interior of the tube portion 12 is evacuated to about 10 ^-4 Pa. Let At this time, by cooling the tube portion 12 with water,
The vaporized additive 16 is trapped in the tube portion 12, but the water adhering to the additive 16 is depressurized to about 10 ⁻⁴ Pa and the boiling point of the water is lowered. Exhausted to a vacuum system.

That is, since the vaporization temperature of the additive 16 is higher than the temperature of the bulb portion 12 which is water-cooled even when it is evacuated, the additive 16 having a high purity containing no water is condensed to condense the bulb portion. Remain within 12. After the degree of vacuum has risen to about 10 ⁻⁴ Pa, argon gas is passed through the exhaust pipe 14 to about 2 × 10 6.
⁴ Pa was filled, and the additive holding tube 18 and the exhaust tube 14 were blown by heating on the side of the bulb portion 12 with a burner to manufacture an arc tube 19 as shown in FIG. 1 (f).

Since the lamp manufactured as described above has no moisture in the bulb portion 12, no spike voltage was observed at the time of starting and the starting characteristics were good. DC voltage 250V
In a test in which the lighting probability was investigated by applying a pulse voltage to the lamp by superimposing it on the lamp, it was 1 in the lamp manufactured by the conventional manufacturing method.
A pulse voltage of 8 kV or more was required to obtain a lighting rate of 00%, but the lamp manufactured in this example has a pulse voltage of 5 kV.
It was possible to achieve a lighting rate of 100% with the pulse voltage of. Further, the wear of the electrode after lighting for 10,000 hours was obviously less than that of the lamp manufactured by the conventional manufacturing method having the same initial characteristics. Therefore, the life characteristic is 1600 after 10,000 hours for the initial total luminous flux of 20000 lm.
Maintains 0lm, about 30% compared to conventional lamps
The luminous flux maintenance rate increased, and the degree of devitrification of the arc tube was obviously small.

In this embodiment, the electrode component 15
The electrode is made of tungsten, the electrode and the molybdenum rod are connected by a molybdenum foil for performing the above-mentioned pinch seal, and the molybdenum foil portion is pinch-sealed. The electrode portion is pinch-sealed so that it is parallel to the line connecting the joining positions of the exhaust pipe 14 and the additive holding pipe 18 to the bulb portion 12. However, as shown in FIG. Pinch seals may be used, and the angle of displacement can be set freely.

The additive holding pipe 18 may be connected to the bulb portion 12 after the exhaust pipe 14 is connected first.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view showing a method of lighting the above metal halide lamp.

FIG. 3A is a perspective view showing the installation direction of the metal halide lamp, and FIG. 3B is a view seen from the X direction. In the metal halide lamp manufactured in the above embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, the additive holding pipe 18 and the fusing part 13 of the exhaust pipe 14 are present in the bulb part 12. In the lighting of the metal halide lamp, the metal halide lamp is installed so that the line connecting the two fusing parts 13 becomes horizontal as shown in FIG. 3 when the facing electrodes are turned on horizontally. By installing and lighting in this way, the two fusing parts 13 do not come to the bottom of the lamp, which is the coldest point, and the distance from the lowest point of the lamp to the fusing part 13 is maximized. Therefore, the coldest spot temperature is not influenced by the variation in the shape and size of the fusing part 13 during processing, and the variation in the light emission characteristics of the lamp due to these factors can be suppressed.

[0024]

The lamp according to the method for manufacturing a metal halide lamp of the present invention is such that an additive holding tube made of quartz glass and having one end closed is connected to the bulb portion, while cooling the bulb portion with water.
Since the additive inserted into the additive holding tube is heated and vaporized into the bulb part that is evacuated, the water adhering to the additive can be completely discharged from the bulb part, and water vapor It is possible to effectively suppress the blackening of the bulb portion due to the wear of the electrode caused by the cycle, and to prolong the life of the bulb. Further, since the residual water is eliminated, the starting characteristics are improved.

Further, the lighting method of the present invention, when the metal halide lamp manufactured by the manufacturing method of the present invention is lit horizontally with the electrodes facing each other being horizontal,
Since the lines connecting the fusing parts at the locations are installed horizontally, variations in the shape and size of the fusing parts do not affect the temperature of the coldest spot at the bottom, and the factors that affect the emission characteristics of the lamp Variation can be suppressed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a process drawing in an example of a method for manufacturing a metal halide lamp of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the metal halide lamp in the above embodiment.

FIG. 3A is a perspective view showing the installation direction of the metal halide lamp, and FIG. 3B is a view of the metal halide lamp seen from the X direction.

FIG. 4 is a process drawing of a conventional method for manufacturing a metal halide lamp.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 Quartz Tube 12 Tube Sphere 13 Fusing Section 14 Exhaust Pipe 15 Electrode Part 16 Additive 17 Additive Holding Tube Mounting Hole 18 Additive Holding Tube 19 Arc Tube

Front page continuation (72) Inventor Masayuki Wakamiya 1006 Kadoma, Kadoma City, Osaka Prefecture Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A process of softening and heating a quartz tube to press a gas into the tube and contacting a jig from the outside of the tube to form a bulb portion on the quartz tube, and the bulb portion is made of quartz glass and has one end. A step of connecting the open side of the additive holding tube closed and a step of connecting an exhaust tube made of quartz glass with both ends open, and a step of inserting each electrode part at both ends of the bulb part and performing a pinch seal And a step of inserting the additive into the additive holding tube, while evacuation of the inside of the bulb portion from the opening of the exhaust pipe, heating the additive holding tube to vaporize the additive, and the outside Characterized in that it has a step of driving into the bulb portion being cooled from the above to condense in the bulb portion, and a step of enclosing a rare gas in the bulb portion and fusing the additive holding pipe and the exhaust pipe. Method for manufacturing metal halide lamp. 2. A metal halide lamp manufactured by the method for manufacturing a metal halide lamp according to claim 1, wherein the electrodes facing each other are held horizontally, and the fusing part of the additive holding pipe and the fusing part of the exhaust pipe are provided. A method of lighting a metal halide lamp, which is characterized by installing and lighting so that the connecting lines are substantially horizontal.