Electric lamp or space discharge component or device manufacturi – Apparatus – Assembly means
Reexamination Certificate
2001-04-19
2003-01-07
Bradley, P. Austin (Department: 2833)
Electric lamp or space discharge component or device manufacturi
Apparatus
Assembly means
C445S073000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06503118
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to a multi-functional vacuum processing apparatus and in particular to one which enables ordinary operators to carry out vacuum processing with fully or semi-automatic operation, thereby improving the vacuum processing quality of products and increasing the production rate. Further, the multi-functional vacuum processing apparatus can provide protection, safety, troubleshoot and inspection functions.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Although neon lights have been invented for more than 100 years, the production method has not changed, and has not been improved upon. Their application ranges from the neon signs on the wall to the neon advertisement on the top of a building, to outdoor neon advertisement signs to the indoor neon hanging lights and some architecture with neon light decorations on the outside of the building. Neon lights play an important role in daily life, and in architecture.
Except for the material for making neon lights, the production and quality of neon lights have not changed a lot. There has been little change in the apparatus for the manufacture of neon lights. The conventional method of manufacturing can only produce straight neon lights, and some manufacturers use this automatic bending equipment to produce curved and circular neon lights. The conventional way to bend the neon lights is finished by manual operation.
The conventional vacuum processing apparatus is shown in FIG.
13
. As shown, the vacuum processing apparatus includes a vacuum pump
1
and exhaust pipe
11
, an argon pipe
21
, a neon pipe
31
, and a blowing pipe
41
.
The pipes
11
,
21
,
31
and
41
are controlled by valves
12
,
22
,
32
and
42
(see
FIGS. 14 and 15
). A mercury meter
5
for measuring vacuum degree is connected between the two valves
32
and
42
. The main pipe
43
is extended from the blowing pipe
41
and the main pipe is connected with two branch pipes
431
, which are each connected with a neon light
6
. The exhaust pipe
11
is connected to the vacuum pump
1
. The argon pipe
21
is connected with an argon tank. The neon pipe
31
is connected with a neon tank
3
. The blowing pipe
41
is connected with a flexible pipe so that an operator can blow air through the flexible pipe into the neon lights
6
via the branch pipes
431
. This is to prevent the neon lights
6
from being broken A vacuum degree is represented by tort:
Low vacuum
760~1
torr
Medium vacuum
10
−1
~10
−2
torr
High vacuum
10
−3
~10
−5
torr
Superhigh vacuum
below 10
−7
torr
The vacuum degree obtained by the conventional vacuum processing apparatus can only reach 10
−2
torr. The vacuum degree is important to the service life and the illumination intensity of neon lights. Therefore the manufacturers have tried to improve the production equipment to obtain a high vacuum degree in order to obtain high quality products. One of the commonly used methods is using a diffusing pump, which is heated by silicon oil to produce silicon molecules. The silicon molecules will evaporate when heated, and will feed back when cooled. The diffusing pump uses this kind of feedback power to increase vacuum degree to a measure of 10
−3
torr.
On the other hand, some manufacturers replace the conventional valve with solenoid valves, in association with an automatic operation system, in order to improve the manufacture of neon lights. But these kind of improvements do not have any influence on the vacuum degree.
From the above, it can be seen that although there is some improvement in the neon light production equipment, there has been no technical breakthrough in the increase of vacuum degree. Therefore the conventional neon light production equipment is not ideal in operation and suffers from the following drawbacks:
(1) It cannot provide fully automatic and semi-automatic functions, so that the setting and control of the equipment rely on the experience of the operators. Hence, quality and service life of the neon light depends on the technical knowledge of the operators, so that it is difficult to lower the defect rate of products, costs and the personal operation fee costs. Furthermore, an operator can only control production equipment—the manufacture, production and efficiency cannot be effectively increased.
(2) As such production equipment is not designed for various processing procedures, the quality, service life and illumination intensity of the neon lights are not ideal.
(3) Such equipment cannot measure the temperature of neon lights and cannot sense whether the temperature sensing claim is mounted correctly.
(4) The heating temperature produced by the transformer is fixed and not variable. As to the small (such as a diameter of 5 mm) or larger thin neon light with a diameter of 5 mm or large neon light with a diameter of 18 mm-25 mm, so that the thin neon light cannot be manufacture with this equipment because the thin neon light will melt at high temperature and the impurities with the large neon light cannot be effectively decomposed into molecules at low temperature. Although some equipment have variable micro ampere meter to adjust the heating temperature, the adjustment is operated by a steering wheel, which is bulky in volume and inconvenient to operate.
(5) Such equipment can only detect large leakage. If the leakage is small, it cannot be immediately sensed. It often takes a few days to detect the leakage, thereby influencing the vacuum degree.
(6) Such equipment does not have safety means and a high voltage transformer is exposed, so that the people who are close to it will be in danger.
(7) Such equipment cannot show the operation and production times so that the operator will often forget to maintain the equipment
(8) The water vapor produced by such equipment is generally drained off by opening a cover, thereby making it inconvenient to operate.
(9) Such equipment does not have waste collectors on the exhaust pipe, so that when the neon light is vacuumed, the impurities and shards of glass will be sucked into the neon light, causing damage.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a multi-functional vacuum processing apparatus which can obviate and mitigate the above-mentioned drawbacks.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is the primary object of the present invention to provide a multi-functional vacuum processing apparatus for manufacturing neon tubes, glass containers, food containers and cosmetic containers, which includes a rectangular body frame for receiving primary components, said body frame having a control panel on which are mounted relevant control members, indicators, setting members . . . etc., a platform extending from a rear portion of said body frame for placing workpieces to be processed, a transformer having an output electrode line extending through said body frame to be connected in series with a workpiece to be processed, a vacuum pump having an exhaust pipe which is connected at the intermediate portion and an end thereof with normal open valve and normal closed valve, a turbine vacuum pump connected with two exhaust pipes having an end connected with exhaust pipes connected with the front and rear sides of the normal open valve, said two exhaust pipes each having a normal closed valve, a main pipe having an end connected with a normal closed valve and an intermediate portion connected with an argon pipe, a helium pipe, a neon pipe, a sensor pipe, a vacuum meter pipe and a blowing pipe and having branch pipes at another end connected with a workpiece to be processed, gas tanks including an argon tank, a helium gas and neon tank which are connected with pressure gauges, pneumatic valves, gas micro-adjustable valves and switches which are in turn connected to pipes, a vacuum degree meter having two hot cathode vacuum sensors and a cold cathode vacuum sensor, a turbine controller connected with said vacuum degree meter and said turbine vacuum pump, a thermometer for measuring temperature of a workpiece to be processed, a
Hammond Briggitte
Rosenberg , Klein & Lee
LandOfFree
Multi-functional vacuum processing apparatus does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Multi-functional vacuum processing apparatus, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Multi-functional vacuum processing apparatus will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3055231