JPS6154149A - Metallic vapor discharge lamp - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To ensure a stable starting property although a glow tube is short-circuited, by furnishing a starter consisting of a glow tube, a resistance unit, and a thermoreaction element houed in an enclosure, parallel to a luminous tube which is in a gas-sealed outer tube. CONSTITUTION:A metallic halide lamp, etc. are formed by housing a luminous tbue 1 in a gas-sealed outer tube 11, and, parallel to the luninous tube 1, a startter 9 consisting of a series circuit of a glow tube 2, a resistance unit 3, and a thermoreaction element 10 housed in a vacuum or gas-sealed enclosure is connected. When the glow tube 2 is short-circuited, the resistance unit 3 is heated by the current through the glow tube 2, the heat activates the thermoreaction element 10 to cut the circuit within the starter 9, and a pulse voltage is applied to the luminous tube 1 to light on. Thus, by using a thermoreaction element which is not affected by gas, a stable starting can be secured with improved reliability, even though the glow tube be short-circuited.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to a metal vapor discharge lamp, such as a metal halide lamp, which has an arc tube inside an outer bulb and is filled with gas.
In particular, the starter installed in the outer tube is a series body consisting of a glow tube, a resistor, and a thermally responsive element housed in a sealed envelope, and when the glow tube is short-circuited, the heat of the resistor The thermally responsive element operates to start the arc tube.

[Conventional technology]

Metal halide lamps are examples of metal vapor discharge lamps that have an arc tube inside an outer bulb and are filled with gas. In such lamps, one of the reasons why gas is sealed inside the outer bulb is to reduce the amount of photoelectrons that are emitted from metal parts such as the frame line inside the outer bulb and adhere to the outer surface of the luminous tube due to the so-called photoelectron effect. It is.

Therefore, a starter such as a bimetal nuitchi that is housed inside the outer tube of IJ Umlung cannot be used, so a starter isolated from the inside of the outer tube such as a glow tube is used. There is.

This is because glow tubes generate a continuous voltage.

It is effective as a starter for metal vapor discharge lamps that require a large amount of energy, such as metal halide lamps (l
Isukai 56-65456).

In such a glow tube, when the luminous tube reaches a stable lighting state,
Because the heat of the arc tube causes a short circuit, a paper-type Mekulno-Ride Lang circuit inside the starter is used, as shown in Figure 2. In FIG. 2, a lamp voltage is applied between the electrodes 6 and 6a of the light emitter 1 via the choke 8 (applied between A).

A starter 9 (indicated by a dotted line (!!I)) is connected between the electrodes 6 and 6a. The connection point between the thermally responsive element 4 and the resistor 3 is connected to an auxiliary electrode 7 via the resistor 5, and the auxiliary electrode 7 is provided in the arc tube 1 near the pole 6a. .Outer tube 1 filled with gas
A luminous tube 1, a resistor 5, and a starter 9 are housed in the chamber.

In FIG. 2, when the glow tube 1 reaches a stable lighting state, the glow tube 2 becomes short-circuited due to the heat of the glow tube 1. Generally, the thermally responsive element 4 is connected to the glow tube 2 and the resistor 3 in series.

That is, in this FIG. 2, the thermally responsive element 4 is used because when the lamp voltage increases and the glow tube 2 approaches the operating voltage, if the lamp remains lit, the thermally responsive element 4 activates the starter 9. This is because the malfunction of the glow tube 2 during lighting is eliminated because the circuit is cut off, and when the glow tube 2 becomes short-circuited, the resistor 3 generates heat due to the short-circuit current.
This is to operate the thermally responsive element 4, cut off the circuit of the starter 9, and cool the glow tube metal 2 to return it to its original state.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

However, for example, when the starting voltage of the arc tube 1 is high, the glow tube 2 operates continuously and the glow tube 2 is short-circuited due to the heat of glow discharge. Due to self-heating caused by the 1! current flowing through the metal thermally responsive element 4 in the tube 2, the glow 1'R2 remained short-circuited, making it difficult to start.

Furthermore, when the glow tube 2 is short-circuited, a pulse is generated at both ends of the choke 8 due to the interruption current, but since the evacuation gap of the thermally responsive element 4 is in the gas inside the outer tube 11, the generated nocellus is almost non-existent. The gas is absorbed by the gas in the outer tube 11 and is hardly applied to the arc tube 1.

The present invention was made to solve such problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a metal vapor discharge lamp that can obtain stable starting characteristics even if the glow tube is short-circuited.

[Means for solving problems]

The metal vapor discharge lamp according to the present invention includes a luminous tube housed in an outer envelope filled with gas, a glow tube electrically connected in parallel with the luminous tube, a resistor, and a sealed envelope sealed with vacuum or force. It is equipped with a starter in which thermally responsive elements housed inside are connected in series.

[Effect]

In this invention, when the glow tube is short-circuited, the current flowing through the glow tube generates heat in the resistor, and the heat of the resistor operates the thermally responsive element, interrupting the circuit in the starter and causing the glow tube to heat up. Apply a pulsed voltage across the arc tube sufficient to start the arc.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the metal vapor discharge lamp of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram showing the configuration of one embodiment. In FIG. 1, when describing the configuration, parts that are the same as those in FIG. 2 will be given the same reference numerals and their explanation will be omitted, and parts different from those in FIG. 2 will be described with emphasis on all parts.

This first figure? As is clear from comparison with Figure J, 2,
In FIG. 1, the thermally responsive element body 10 in the starter 9 is replaced by the thermally responsive element 4 in FIG. 2.

The other configurations are the same as in FIG. 2.

The thermally responsive element body 10 uses a normally closed type thermally responsive element, is housed in a normally closed envelope filled with vacuum or gas, and is installed near the resistor 3.

As a device in which a normally closed state-responsive element such as a normally-closed bimetal is housed in a sealed envelope, a device as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 56-65456, filed by the same applicant as the present invention, has already been proposed. has been done.

Such a thermally responsive element body 10 is effective because it does not depend on the outside atmosphere and the characteristics of the thermally responsive kJJ element body can be utilized as they are.

This generation uA is an application of the thermally responsive NJJ element body 10 described above, and when the glow tube stops operating after a year, the thermally responsive element body 10 is activated by the heat of the resistor 3 due to the short circuit current. I try to do that.

Next, the operation will be explained. First, when power is applied across A, the power supply voltage is supplied to the glow tube 2 of the starter 9 through the choke 8, causing the glow tube 2 to glow discharge. The glow tube 2 that has started glow discharge performs the normal operation of the glow tube 2, generating a high voltage across the choke 80 of the ballast outside the rung, and this high voltage causes the arc tube 1 to start discharging (
start).

When the arc tube 1 starts discharging, the voltage applied to the glow tube 2 becomes about the lamp voltage, which is lower than the operating voltage of the glow tube 2, so the glow tube 2 stops operating.

Furthermore, when the glow tube 2 is short-circuited, the short-circuit current causes the resistor 3 to generate heat, which causes the thermally responsive element body to
The thermally responsive element 0 operates and generates a high voltage across the choke 8, but the blocked space is in a vacuum or in the outer tube 11.
Since the gas is different from the gas inside, a pulse voltage sufficient to start the arc tube 1 can be supplied to the arc tube 1.

When we prototyped a starter for a 1000W metal halide lamp using the circuits shown in Figures 1 and 2 and compared the nocellus voltage, we found that in the starter with the conventional circuit shown in Figure 2, the pulse voltage of the glow tube 2 was 1000V. The degree was 9, whereas the 1st
In the starter 9 according to the present invention shown in the figure, in addition to the pulse voltage of 1000V from the glow tube 2, the pulse voltage of 2000V from the thermally responsive element body 10 is added, resulting in an average pulse voltage of 1500V.

In addition, we produced 10 prototype metal halide lamps each with starters as shown in Figures 1 and 2, and flashing life test I-(15
When the starter 9 in Fig. 2 flashed 3,000 times and two lights failed, the starter 9 of the invention shown in Fig. 1 blinked 6,000 times. No abnormalities were observed even when the lights were flashing.

After applying more pressure and using the starter shown in Figure 2 after 3,000 cycles, I replaced the defective starter with a starter that had been used for 6,000 cycles, and the light came on without any problems.

Although the present invention has been described in detail using a metal halide lamp, it goes without saying that other metal vapor discharge lamps may also be used.

Further, the inside of the envelope of the thermally responsive element body 10 may be a vacuum,
An appropriate amount of gas such as Ar may be filled in.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, this invention connects a starter to an outer tube filled with gas in parallel with a luminous tube, and connects the starter to a glow tube, a resistor, and a vacuum or a thermally responsive element in a sealed envelope filled with gas. A thermoresponsive element body housing a lamp is connected in series, and when the glow tube is short-circuited, the heat generated by the resistor activates the thermal element body and applies a surface pressure pulse voltage to the arc tube. Therefore, even if the glow tube is short-circuited, stable starting characteristics can be obtained, and the reliability of the starter is improved.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram of an embodiment of the metal vapor discharge lamp of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram of a conventional metal vapor discharge lamp. 1... Arc tube, 2... Glow tube, 3... Resistor,
9... Starter, 10... Thermal response element body, 11...
outer tube. Note that the same reference numerals in the drawings indicate the same or equivalent parts.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A luminous tube, a glow tube and a resistor housed in an outer tube filled with gas, and a vacuum tube or a hermetically sealed envelope filled with gas, is activated by the heat generated by the resistor when the glow tube is short-circuited, and generates a high-voltage pulse. A metal vapor discharge lamp comprising a series circuit with a thermally responsive element body for applying voltage to an arc tube, and comprising a starter electrically connected in parallel with the arc tube.