The Self-Ballasted Compact Fluorescent Lamp of an “A60” Bulb Shape

• Published in: Journal of Light & Visual Environment Vol. 24; no. 2; pp. 2_1 - 2_7
• Main Authors: YASUDA, Takeo, NISHIO, Kiyoshi, SHIBAHARA, Yusuke, HAKUTA, Shinya
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Tokyo The Illuminating Engineering Institute of Japan 2000; Japan Science and Technology Agency
• Subjects: "A60"-shape; amalgam; diffusion equation; luminous run-up; self-ballasted compact fluorescent lamp
• ISSN: 0387-8805; 1349-8398
• DOI: 10.2150/jlve.24.2_1

Self-ballasted compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) have been developed and improved in these twenty years. In Japan, the CFLs that have diffusive glass globes to replace incandescent lamps have been developed, but their sizes were too large to fit in the luminares of incandescent bulbs. Thus, we have developed the self-ballasted CFL of an "A60" bulb shape, which has the maximum diameter of φ60 mm and the length of 123 mm. This lamp could be substituted for a 60 W incandescent lamp. In order to realize this lamp size, we optimized the discharge tube diameter, filling gas type and pressure, the shape and making-process of the discharge tube. After all, the triple-"U" connected tube is selected, which has a decisive advantage against a multi-folded tube on the luminous maintenance during life, but also has a disadvantage on the luminous run-up characteristics. We investigated the behaviors of mercury, especially the mercury diffusion phenomenon released from the auxiliary amalgam-flags after ignition by both experiments and calculation. The luminous run-up characteristic has been much improved.