Illumination – Light source and modifier – Including translucent or transparent modifier
Reexamination Certificate
2001-04-06
2003-10-07
Husar, Stephen (Department: 2875)
Illumination
Light source and modifier
Including translucent or transparent modifier
C362S257000, C362S317000, C362S310000, C362S326000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06629768
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
A lamp with an unpolished surface is herein described. The lamp comprises a closed body which comprises a source of light adapted to be connected to a source of power, contacts to connect said source of light to a source of power, and a cover. The cover is configured and disposed to permit light to exit the lamp when connected to a source of power. The cover comprises an inner surface facing the interior of the lamp and an outer surface facing away from the lamp. At least the outer surface facing away from the lamp comprises unpolished glass configured to provide the unpolished surface. The invention also relates to radiant source lamps such as halogen lamps with a transparent cover for the radiant source.
2. Background Information
Lamps should be easy-to-clean so as to present an appealing appearance of the assembly.
Lamps are usually comprised of a filament in a closed body containing the filament. Such closed body is usually sealed to provide a tight envelope, for example, to retain a gas disposed in the closed body.
There are further provided contacts to connect the lamp to a source of power, as well as electrodes connecting the filament and the contacts.
Such lamps are typically comprised of a base element, which base element serves to hold a bulb or the like source of light which is connectable to a source of power.
Covers are proposed for such lamps, which covers can be made of transparent glass to radiate the energy emitted by the source of light.
Thus, such covers include a first surface which is facing the source of radiant light, and they include a second surface which faces away from the source of light.
Such second surface of the cover facing away from the source of light is prone to collect dust and dirt and this accumulation becomes quite difficult to remove with time, particularly in the case of a lamp having a surface that is rather rough to the touch.
To alleviate such roughness, hitherto it has been suggested to furnish the glass of such covers with a polished surface, that is, the second surface facing away from the source of light is comprised of a polished glass.
Production of such polished surface in the float glass process requires a ribbon of glass to be drawn from the glass-melting furnace and then, to smooth the surface, the glass, while still deformable, is drawn over a metal bath, for example, consisting of molten tin.
Of course, such polished surface provides for an easy-to-clean surface of the surface of the cover which faces away from the source of light.
However, in order to achieve a polished surface of glass there will be required extra processing steps in the production of the lamp assembly, particularly in the manufacture of the pertaining cover with at least one polished glass surface that is to face away from the source of light.
Thus, the production of polished glass surfaces for a cover for a lamp entails additional expenses in the production of the pertaining glass cover with a polished surface which affect the economics of the lamp assembly as such.
There exists, accordingly, a problem in terms of providing for cleanliness and economics.
Lamps, including halogen lamps, arc discharge lamps and the like light emitting lamps, are well known in the art.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,497,753 issued to Huston, Jr. on Feb. 24, 1970 and entitled “Incandescent lamp”, refers to a single-ended quartz halogen lamp having a connecting member at the end of a filament leg to physically support the filament and provide the electrical connection to a lead-in wire. A coil at the end of the filament leg encircles and connects to a coaxial end of the connecting member. Another coil on the other end of the connecting member encircles and connects to the terminus of the lead-in wire. The terminus of the lead-in wire is disposed in a centrally located exhaust tube tipoff, thereby aligning the filament coaxially within the lamp envelope.
The prior art according to Huston, Jr. also shows small quartz halogen lamps in which lead-in wires are supported only by a seal at the base of the lamp. As lamp sizes increases, it becomes necessary to provide additional support for the lead-in wires and filaments, especially in lamps where the filament is mounted coaxially within the lamp envelope. In some of these lamps, the end of a lead-in wire is positioned within the residual fused tip of the exhaust tube and the filament leg is directly connected thereto. This construction is satisfactory for lower wattage lamps, but in higher wattage lamps the fused tip can overheat and this could lead to premature failure. If the distance between the filament and the envelope tip were increased by, for example, increasing the length of the filament leg, the resultant construction would be generally too weak to maintain the filament in coaxial alignment for the life of the lamp. In addition, in those filaments in which the filament body, leg, and coil are machine wound from an integral piece of wire, there exists a practical limit imposed by the coiling equipment to the length of the leg that could be produced and to the diameter of the coil at the end of the filament leg. Where connection is established by inserting the end of the lead-in wire into the coil at the end of the filament leg, the diameter of the lead-in wire that could be used is limited to the inside diameter of the coil. This can result in the use of a lead-in wire that does not have sufficient rigidity to maintain the filament in a position that is substantially coaxial and stable throughout the useful life of the lamp.
For a fluorescent lamp bulb according to U.S. Pat. No. 4,303,290 issued to Tsunekawa et al. on Dec. 1, 1981 and entitled “Method of evacuating a fluorescent lamp bulb”, a lamp bulb is first decompressed to a pressure level higher than a prescribed final seal pressure, and a desired gas is introduced into the bulb and is expelled, while maintaining the intrabulb pressure at a level attained in the first decompression step. Then the intrabulb pressure is reduced from the maintained pressure level to the prescribed final seal pressure.
Sealed-beam type electric bulbs of the type comprising a tungsten halogen lamp according to U.S. Pat. No. 4,342,142 issued to Nieda et al. on Aug. 3, 1982 and entitled “Method for manufacturing sealed-beam type electric bulb”, have the advantages of high efficiency, long service life and high-power application, compared to bulbs in which tungsten filaments are sealed directly in an air-tight container. However, the former has drawbacks in that, when installing a tungsten halogen lamp in an air-tight container, complicated work is involved in mounting the tungsten filaments of the tungsten halogen lamp at or at a spot a predetermined precise distance from the focus of the reflector formed on the container inner surface. The precision of the mounting of the tungsten filaments is not high. The reason for this is that it is difficult to precisely fix the relative positions of the tungsten halogen lamp bulb external surface, the filaments, and the external lead wires for each tungsten halogen lamp bulb for manufacturing each sealed-beam electric bulb. These tungsten halogen lamps thus have to be installed in air-tight containers under visual checking of the filament position for each bulb. The external bulb or air-tight container of a conventional sealed-beam type electric bulb comprises a borosilicate glass reflector coated with a reflecting film on its inner surface, and a lens formed with the same glass material. A ferrule made of an Fe—Ni alloy is attached to the reflector. To install a tungsten halogen lamp bulb in this air-tight container while each external lead wire for the tungsten halogen lamp bulb is inserted in the ferrule, the bulb is shifted while visually checking the position of the lamp filaments. When the predetermined filament position is obtained, the external lead wires are soldered to the ferrule. This soldering work is complicated and has the danger of a slight shift in the external wire position relative to the f
Melson Sabine
Nass Peter
Husar Stephen
Nils H. Ljungman & Associates
Payne Sharon
Schott Glas
LandOfFree
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