JPH0447946B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to a curved tube-shaped fluorescent lamp formed by forming an arc tube bent into a U-shape into an annular shape.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

A curved tube fluorescent lamp is made by bending an arc tube into a roughly U-shape with a mount stem sealed at both ends, and then forming it into an annular shape in a direction perpendicular to a plane that includes this U-shape. It is called an annular fluorescent lamp.
Already known.

Conventionally, this type of curved tube fluorescent lamp has mounts 1 and 1 at both ends, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.
A straight arc tube 2 having a sealed luminescent tube 1 is bent into a substantially U-shape at the center between its both ends 3, 3, and the above-mentioned U-shape is formed between the bent part 4 and both ends 3, 3. By bending it into an annular shape in a direction perpendicular to a plane containing It is constructed by sealing mercury and rare gas into the tube 2 through the exhaust pipe 5 of the mounts 1,1. This fluorescent lamp can be constructed by extending the cap 6 across both ends 3, 3 and the bent portion 4, and by inserting the cap pins 7 of the cap 6 into the socket, the luminous tube 2 can be left exposed. Lights are meant to be used.

By the way, in such a curved fluorescent lamp, when evacuating the arc tube 2 and filling it with mercury or an incurable gas, the mercury or incurable gas is drawn out from both ends 3, 3 as shown in FIG. Although it is necessary to connect the exhaust pipe 5 to the exhaust head 8, it is necessary to connect the exhaust pipe 5 to the exhaust head 8.
Because the bent portion 4 and both end portions 3, 3 are closely opposed to each other, the exhaust pipe 5 must be bent once in the middle to avoid the bent portion 4, which has the disadvantage of increasing costs. . Moreover, the size of the lamp after being formed into an annular shape is extremely small compared to a normal annular fluorescent lamp, so this drawback is significant.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention has been made based on the above circumstances, and aims to provide an inexpensive curved tube fluorescent lamp that eliminates the need for a specially shaped exhaust pipe, allows for common use of mounting parts.

[Summary of the invention]

That is, in order to achieve the above object, the present invention
The arc tube is characterized in that at least both ends of the opposed end parts and the bent part are bent toward the outside in the radial direction of the annular part bent into an annular shape.

[Embodiments of the invention]

The first embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 4 to 8.
This will be explained based on the diagram.

In the figure, 11 is a speaker made of soft glass or the like, and mounts 13, 1 are attached to both ends 12, 12 of the speaker.
A stem 14 is sealed to 3. Lead wires 15a and 15b are sealed in the stem 14, respectively, and a filament coil 16 is installed and disconnected between the tips of the lead wires 15a and 15b. The arc tube 11 is bent into a substantially U-shape at the center between the two end portions 12 and 12 to form a U-shaped bent portion 17.
A pair of annular parts 18, 18 are formed by bending the space between the ends 12, 12 into an annular shape in a direction perpendicular to the plane including the U-shape, and both end parts 12, 12
and the bent portion 17 are closely opposed to each other. After such molding, both end portions 12, 12 and bent portion 17 are bent toward the outside in the radial direction of the annular portions 18, 18, as shown in FIG. They are provided substantially parallel to each other at a certain distance on the same plane as the plane containing 18. A predetermined amount of mercury and a rare gas for starting are sealed inside the arc tube 11 via an exhaust pipe 19 extending in a straight line from the stem 14. A light body 20 is applied.

Therefore, in the arc tube 11 having the above-mentioned shape,
A cap assembly 21 is mounted so as to straddle between both ends 12, 12 and the bent portion 17. The mouthpiece structure 21 will be explained with reference to FIGS. 5 to 7. Reference numeral 22 denotes its main body, which is shaped like a hollow box with one side open. Opening 2 of this main body 22
A hollow cylindrical cylindrical portion 24 is erected at the center of the bottom surface on the opposite side from the cylindrical portion 3, and a base 25, such as an E26 type, is attached to the outer peripheral surface of the cylindrical portion 24. A board 26 is fitted and fixed in the opening 23 of the main body 22, and this board 26
The sealed end surfaces of both ends 12, 12 and the top of the bent portion 17 of the arc tube 11 face the surface opposite to the main body 22, and are fixed with an adhesive 27. Lead wires 15a and 15b led out from the sealed end surface of the arc tube 11 and an exhaust pipe 19
is inserted through a through hole 28 formed in the board 26 and introduced into a space 29 surrounded by the board 26 and the main body 22, and a lighting tube 30 and a capacitor 31 are inserted into this space 29. A starting device 32 is housed in which the starters are connected in parallel. This starting device 32
is the filament coil 1 on the substrate 26.
One lead wire 15a, 15a connected to 6, 16
When the board 26 is fitted into the opening 23 of the main body 22, the lighting tube 3
0 is inserted and disposed within the cylindrical portion 24. Further, the other lead wires 15a, 15b connected to the filament coils 16, 16 are connected to the shell and eyelet terminals of the base 25, respectively.

Such a fluorescent lamp can be installed by screwing the base 25 into a socket (not shown) on the lighting equipment side.
It is connected to a power source 34 via a ballast 33 on the side of the irradiation device, and lighting becomes possible.

According to the fluorescent lamp having such a configuration, both end portions 12, 12 and bent portion 17, which are closely opposed to each other, are bent toward the outside in the radial direction of the annular portions 18, 18, respectively. These both ends 12,
12 and the bent portion 17 are substantially parallel to the plane containing the annular portions 18 and 18 on the same plane. Therefore, both ends 1
Since the sealed end surfaces of 2 and 12 and the bent part 17 do not face each other, there is no need to bend the exhaust pipe 19 just before the bent part 17 as in the conventional case. No longer needed, mount 1
It is possible to use three parts in common, and cost reduction can be realized.

Furthermore, since the sealed end surface of the arc tube 11 and the substrate 26 are parallel to each other, the lead wires 15a and 15b can be immediately guided into the base structure 21 as they are.
Therefore, the work of bending and changing the direction of the lead wires 15a, 15b is unnecessary, so that the work of connecting the wires to the cap 25 and the starting device 32 can be easily performed. In this case, if the arc tube 11 and the starter 32 are integrally assembled on the base plate 26 in advance and the base plate 26 is fitted into the opening 23 of the main body 22 in this state, the arc tube 11 and the starter 32 can be assembled into the base structure 21. 11 can be easily assembled, improving work efficiency.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the first embodiment described above, and for example, the arc tubes 41 of the second embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 9 and FIG. bent part 17 and both ends 1
The same effect can be obtained even if only the both end portions 12, 12 of the annular portions 18, 12 are bent toward the outside in the radial direction of the annular portions 18, 18. And in this case, arc tube 4
1 and the cap structure 21 is achieved by fixing both ends 12, 12 of the arc tube 41 to the substrate 26 with an adhesive 27, and locking the bent portion 17 to a hook portion 42 protruding from the substrate 26. This is done by

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention described in detail above, the sealed end surface of the arc tube and the U-shaped bent portion do not face each other.
For this reason, there is no need to bend the exhaust pipe led out from the sealed end face while avoiding the bending part as in the conventional case, and therefore a specially shaped exhaust pipe is no longer necessary. Therefore, it becomes possible to use common mounting parts, and it is possible to reduce costs.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figures 1 to 3 show conventional examples, where Figure 1 is a perspective view of the arc tube, Figure 2 is a perspective view with the cap attached, Figure 3 is a side view showing the shape of the exhaust pipe, and Figure 3 is a side view showing the shape of the exhaust pipe. 4 to 8 show a first embodiment of the present invention,
Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the arc tube, Fig. 5 is a perspective view with the cap assembly attached, Fig. 6 is a sectional view, Fig. 7 is a sectional view showing the assembly procedure, Fig. 8 is a circuit diagram, 9 and 10 show a second embodiment of the present invention, with FIG. 9 being a perspective view of the arc tube and FIG. 10 being a side view. 11, 41... Arc tube, 12... Both ends, 13
...Mount, 17...Bent part, 18... Annular part.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An arc tube formed by sealing a mount with an exhaust pipe attached to both ends thereof is bent in a U-shape between the two ends to form a bent part, and the bent part In a curved tube-shaped fluorescent lamp, a pair of annular portions are formed by forming a ring between the two end portions and the two end portions, and the two end portions and the bent portions are closely opposed to each other. A curved tube-shaped fluorescent lamp characterized in that at least both end portions of the annular portion and the bent portion are bent toward the outside in the radial direction of the annular portion.