US3839658A - Discharge-lighting apparatus - Google Patents

Discharge-lighting apparatus Download PDF

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Publication number
US3839658A
US3839658A US00324712A US32471273A US3839658A US 3839658 A US3839658 A US 3839658A US 00324712 A US00324712 A US 00324712A US 32471273 A US32471273 A US 32471273A US 3839658 A US3839658 A US 3839658A
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United States
Prior art keywords
lamps
switching
discharge
actuating
pulse
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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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US00324712A
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English (en)
Inventor
G Graham
J Fillion
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Stone Platt Crawley Ltd
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Stone Platt Crawley Ltd
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    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H05—ELECTRIC TECHNIQUES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • H05B—ELECTRIC HEATING; ELECTRIC LIGHT SOURCES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS FOR ELECTRIC LIGHT SOURCES, IN GENERAL
    • H05B41/00—Circuit arrangements or apparatus for igniting or operating discharge lamps
    • H05B41/14—Circuit arrangements
    • H05B41/30—Circuit arrangements in which the lamp is fed by pulses, e.g. flash lamp
    • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
    • F21—LIGHTING
    • F21W—INDEXING SCHEME ASSOCIATED WITH SUBCLASSES F21K, F21L, F21S and F21V, RELATING TO USES OR APPLICATIONS OF LIGHTING DEVICES OR SYSTEMS
    • F21W2111/00—Use or application of lighting devices or systems for signalling, marking or indicating, not provided for in codes F21W2102/00 – F21W2107/00

Definitions

  • This invention concerns improvements relating to discharge-lighting apparatus, particularly but not exclusively condenser-operated xenondischarge lights used for flashing navigational aids.
  • lighting apparatus including two or more discharge lamps, switching means arranged to send an actuating pulse to each of said lamps in turn during each switching cycle, means being provided to alter the order in which the said actuating pulses are applied to the respective lamps in successive switching cycles, a single rechargeable power supply means being connected in common to said lamps and arranged to be discharged by the first actuated lamp to correctly operate.
  • the relationship between the life of each discharge lamp and the operative or duty cycle may then be made such that the possible unattended life of equipment incorporating the apparatus can be increased by a factor in excess of the number of lamps provided.
  • the apparatus may, furthermore, be so devised that when one discharge tube eventually fails, its duty is taken over by the other or another, so that the total performance of the equipment is' not affected until the ultimate failure of the other or last tube.
  • the delay between the applications of the triggering pulse to the tubes is made such that, if the main tube is in serviceable condition, triggers correctly and discharges the condenser, the triggering pulse will be applied to the standby tube at a time subsequent to such discharge of the condenser but prior to its recharging from the power-supply circuit.
  • the tubes may be disposed as interwound helices.
  • two tubes may be interwound with two similar turns each about a common horizontal axis.
  • use may be made of tubes of inverted U-shape with one bridging another at an angle, giving a cross formation in plan view in the case of two tubes.
  • trigger transformers associated with respective tubes may be encapsulated together with the tube terminations in the plug base, so that only the low voltage supply to the said transformers is conducted through the plug-in connection.
  • trigger transformers in the body of the lighting apparatus and to conduct the triggering pulses through the said connection.
  • FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram of a flashing-light navigational aid
  • FIG. 2 is a top plan view of a lamp structure showing one arrangement of a pair of discharge tubes
  • FIG. 3 is a partially sectioned side view of the lamp structure shown in FIG. 2,
  • FIG. 4 is a top plan view of a second example of a lamp structure showing an alternative arrangement for the pair of discharge tubes.
  • FIG. 5 is a top plan view of a third example of a lamp structure.
  • FIG. 6 is a side view of a complete flashing light unit.
  • the circuit illustrated in FIG. 1 is intended for the supply and control of two Xenon tubes 1 and 2 connected across a source of power 3 at, say, 500 volts in parallel with a main storage condenser or condensers 4. Triggering auto-transformers S, 5 are incorporated in a common base lamp as will be described below.
  • Timing pulses at a frequency with which the equipment is required to flash are supplied from additional circuitry (not shown), at 6 to a bistable unit 7 of which the two halves 7, 7 can be alternately, and mutually exclusively, on and off. Whenever a pulse is applied at 6, the bistable unit changes state.
  • the bistable unit 7 may be of any known kind.
  • the two unit halves 7, 7 are connected by way of respective delay circuits, comprising resistors 8, 8 and capacitors 9, 9 respectively, to NAND gates l0, 10 which also have imputs directly from 6. Each gate will provide an output, of negative sign, only if both of its inputs are energized with a signal of positive sign.
  • the outputs of the gates 10, 10 are applied to the bases of transistors 11, 11 respectively whose outputs are coupled through resistors l2, l2 and parallel connected capacitors 13, 13 and resistors 14, 14 to the gates of thyristors 15, 15 which control the discharge of capacitors 16, 16 connected to the transformers 5, 5 respectively for supplying trigger-pulse energy thereto.
  • the capacitors l6, 16 are maintained charged through diodes l7, 17, potential dividers 18, 18 and diodes l9, 19 respectively.
  • the manner of operation is as follows, assuming that the bistable unit half 7 is on when a timing pulse is supplied at 6. The pulse will be applied to only one input of the gate 10, but to both inputs of the gate 10 whose output turns on the transistor 11 coupled to the thyristor 15. The thyristor discharges the capacitor 16 through the primary part of the transformer 5, thus triggering the tube 2, through which the condenser 4 is discharged to produce a flash.
  • the same timing pulse supplied at 6 will also change the state of the unit 7, turning 7 off and 7 on.
  • the gate 10 will energize the transistor 11.
  • the tube 1 will be triggered by the action of the thrysistor 15, but by this time the condenser 4 has been discharged, assuming that the tube 2 fired correctly. If, however, the tube 2 had failed to fire for some reason, the tube 1 will fire, so that the equipment duly functions.
  • the unit half 7 When the next pulse is supplied at 6, the unit half 7 is on, so that the tube 1 will be triggered first, followed after the delay determined by the components 8, 9 by the triggering of the tube 2.
  • Capacitors 20 and 20 co-operate with the diodes 17 and 17 to prevent interaction of the trigger circuits with each other and with the condenser 4.
  • the capacitors 13, 13, between the transistors 11, 11 and the thyristors 15, 15 respectively prevents damage to the gates of the latter due to the relatively long duration of the pulse applied to the transistor for that tube which is the standby tube for the time being.
  • each of the discharge tubes 1 and 2 and their associated transformers 5 and 5 respectively is not in the form of a plug and socket connection.
  • the transformers 5 and 5 are positioned in a base housing of the lamp structure, being surrounded by an insulating silicone rubber compound 21.
  • the transformers 5 and 5 and the tubes 1 and 2 are then permanently connected in accordance with the circuit diagram shown in FIG. 1 and then connected to appropriate ones of a series of four pins 22 extending from the base of the housing 20.
  • the two tubes 1 and 2 are shown in side by side relationship. It is preferable however that both tubes should lie as close as possible to the focal point of any lens system with which they are employed, and at the same time obscure one another to a minimum extent.
  • the two tubes 1 and 2 may be disposed as interwound helices as shown in FIG. 4.
  • the tubes 1 and 2 may be of inverted U- shape, and arranged in a cross formation as shown in FIG. 5.
  • FIG. 6 is a side view of a complete light unit in which a lamp structure 23 containing the two tubes 1 and 2 is plugged into the top of a sealed housing 24.
  • the capacitor 4 is preferably mounted in the upper part of the housing and the remainder of the circuitry is connected to circuit boards (not shown) positioned in the base of the housing.
  • a lighting apparatus including at least two discharge lamps, cyclically operable switching means arranged to send an actuating pulse to each of said lamps at different times respectively during each switching cycle thereby to actuate all of said lamps in turn during each switching cycle, said switching means including means for automatically altering the order in which the said actuating pulses are sent to the respective lamps in successive switching cycles thereby to alter the sequence in which said lamps are actuated in successive ones of said switching cycles, a single rechargeable source of power connected in common to said lamps and arranged to be discharged by the first actuated lamp which correctly operates during a given switching cycle, and means for recharging said single source of power subsequent to discharge thereof, the time interval between the first and last actuating pulses in each switching cycle being shorter than the time required to recharge said source of power once said source has been discharged thereby to assure that one only of said lamps is operated from said single source of power during a given switching cycle notwithstanding that all of said lamps are actuated during said given cycle.
  • said delay circuits each comprise a series connected resistor and capacitor connected between one output of said bistable unit and ground respectively, the said other input of each NAND gate being connected to the interconnection between the resistor and capacitor in an associated one of said delay circuits.
  • each of said switching transistors is connected respectively to a thyristor in said actuating circuit for switching on said thyristor when the transistor is rendered conductive, and means responsive to the switching on of the thyristor in said actuating circuit for applying an actuating pulse to the discharge lamp associated with said actuating circuit.
  • the acutating circuit for each lamp includes a rechargeable capacitor connected between said thyristor and a transformer, said transformer being connected to said lamp, the switching on of said thyristor being operative to discharge said capacitor through said transformer thereby to apply an actuating pulse to the lamp connected thereto via said transformer.
  • each discharge lamp and its associated transformer are permanently connected as a unit which is in the form of a plug-in unit to the remainder of the circuit.
  • dis- I charge lamps are each of inverted U-shape, and wherein the lamps are positioned in crossed formation.

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  • Circuit Arrangements For Discharge Lamps (AREA)
  • Discharge-Lamp Control Circuits And Pulse- Feed Circuits (AREA)
US00324712A 1972-01-26 1973-01-18 Discharge-lighting apparatus Expired - Lifetime US3839658A (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
GB372672A GB1360906A (en) 1972-01-26 1972-01-26 Discharge-lighting apparatus

Publications (1)

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US3839658A true US3839658A (en) 1974-10-01

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Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
US00324712A Expired - Lifetime US3839658A (en) 1972-01-26 1973-01-18 Discharge-lighting apparatus

Country Status (7)

Country Link
US (1) US3839658A (cg-RX-API-DMAC7.html)
JP (1) JPS4883674A (cg-RX-API-DMAC7.html)
CA (1) CA981323A (cg-RX-API-DMAC7.html)
DE (1) DE2303084C3 (cg-RX-API-DMAC7.html)
FR (1) FR2169176A1 (cg-RX-API-DMAC7.html)
GB (1) GB1360906A (cg-RX-API-DMAC7.html)
SE (1) SE389789B (cg-RX-API-DMAC7.html)

Citations (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US2936387A (en) * 1958-06-24 1960-05-10 Steele Stroboscope illumination
DE1291136B (de) * 1964-11-19 1969-03-20 Licentia Gmbh Lichtblitzstroboskop
US3504339A (en) * 1967-02-14 1970-03-31 Safety Products Co Signal lamps
US3673462A (en) * 1969-07-09 1972-06-27 Orthotron Flashing electric lamp

Patent Citations (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US2936387A (en) * 1958-06-24 1960-05-10 Steele Stroboscope illumination
DE1291136B (de) * 1964-11-19 1969-03-20 Licentia Gmbh Lichtblitzstroboskop
US3504339A (en) * 1967-02-14 1970-03-31 Safety Products Co Signal lamps
US3673462A (en) * 1969-07-09 1972-06-27 Orthotron Flashing electric lamp

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
FR2169176A1 (cg-RX-API-DMAC7.html) 1973-09-07
DE2303084A1 (de) 1973-08-16
GB1360906A (en) 1974-07-24
DE2303084B2 (de) 1975-05-15
JPS4883674A (cg-RX-API-DMAC7.html) 1973-11-07
CA981323A (en) 1976-01-06
SE389789B (sv) 1976-11-15
DE2303084C3 (de) 1976-01-02

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