Neon light

Thursday, 04 January 2007

Neon lighting, which is produced by the electrical stimulation of the electrons in the low-pressure neon gas-filled glass tube, has been a main stay in advertising and for outlining channel letters and building structures for many years. Neon lighting has been a popular architectural enhancement in many decorating schemes and in commercial sign applications. Neon lights are well-known as providing a rather stable, reliable, and a wide variety source of high-intensity lighting. Neon lights are generally chosen for their neon affect or glare which demands the viewer's attention. In a neon lamp the tubing encompassing the gas has an even glow over its entire length irrespective of the viewing angle. This characteristic makes neon lighting adaptable for many advertising applications, including script writing and designs, because the glass tubing can be fabricated into curved and twisted configurations simulating script writing and intricate designs. The even glow of neon lighting being typically devoid of hot spots allows for advertising without visual and unsightly distractions. Since neon provides a unique type of bright glowing light, which can be created in various colors, neon is effective during daylight as well as nighttime. Neon lights are widely used in commercial applications as decorative enhancements, information communicators and back lights. For example, they are used to highlight architectural features or to display names, logos and the like. Various motor vehicle neon lamp devices are known, and used for illuminating the number plate of a variety of motor vehicles. These neon lamp devices commonly use a power transformer to connect the battery power supply of the motor vehicle to the neon tube. Neon lights are attractive for vehicular application since they reach full illumination substantially quicker than incandescent lights. Neon light fixtures are used in commercial business establishments such as restaurants, taverns, beauty shops, department stores, liquor stores, drugstores and delicatessens. The neon advertising signs can be made more attractive and interesting by means of a circuit control system, which is connected with the neon lamp so as to cause the neon lamp to glow intermittently. These fixtures take on many forms such as wall fixtures, suspended ceiling fixtures, stand-alone fixtures, billboards, and window signs. Neon fixtures come in all types of designs, shapes and sizes.

Three basic types of light sources are available. They are incandescent lamps, fluorescent lamps and gas lamps. Incandescent lamps produce light by electrically heating high resistance filaments thereby causing the filaments to glow. The filaments are usually formed as coiled tungsten wires and heated to incandescence by an electrical current passing through the filaments when the lamp is operating. Filling an incandescent lamp with inert gas rather than normal atmospheric gases reduces tungsten evaporation and allows higher operation temperature of the filament. Fluorescent lamps provide better energy efficiency than incandescent lamps because they convert more electrical energy into light energy and less into thermal energy. Fluorescent lamps are often preferred over incandescent lamps to reduce power consumption and heat generation. While the use of these fluorescent lighting systems is an improvement over incandescent lamps, these fluorescent systems still have drawbacks. A fluorescent lamp circuit usually requires a ballast device. Ballast devices suitable for this purpose may be relatively large. Sometimes a starter device is also needed for fluorescent lamps. Since both of these devices can be somewhat bulky they can hamper the mounting of fluorescent lamps in some locations where it would be useful to save energy. Illuminated display means, such as art boxes, billboards and other frame structures, are common in the prior art, but most such structures use light generated from incandescent or fluorescent light bulbs. Unfortunately, light generated from the latter sources is generally uniform and not sufficiently intense to enhance a display or selected portions thereof. Thus, rather than incandescent or fluorescent lamps, other lamps using inert gases are sometimes used. Helium, neon, argon, krypton, radon, and xenon are elements which may serve as the inert gases for these lamps. Neon and argon are used in lighting tubes such as arc discharge tubes. Discharge lamps of the gas discharge type produce light by establishing an arc between two electrodes in an atmosphere of the gas at low pressure. Electrodes may also be used in high intensity gas discharge lamps. Neon is useful as a filling gas in lamps and luminous sign tubes. Neon is produced by the cryogenic distillation of air wherein a stream from a cryogenic air separation plant is passed through a neon purification train including a neon column and a cryogenic adsorption system to produce a crude neon product which is then passed to a neon refinery to produce refined neon product. A neon lamp is formed of an evacuated glass tube confining an ionizable gas and a small amount of mercury, electron emitting cathodes, and having electrical terminals at each end. Upon application of the proper electrical voltage to the terminals, the gas becomes ionized and an electrical arc is established between the cathodes through the gas inside the tube, evidenced by the arc. Neon lamps emit different colors of light, according to the composition of the gas.

Neon light displays comprise a plurality of neon tubes that have illuminating conductive gases within the tubes. The neon tubes are electrically connected in series with the electrodes being interconnected by high voltage wire. Typical neon sign lamps use long tubes about one or two centimeters in diameter, that contain the diffused gaseous neon plasma light source. These lamps typically have inputs from 1100 to 1200 volts, at a few milliamps of power. A regular neon lamp is equipped with positive and negative electrodes sealed within a glass bulb containing neon at a low pressure. The electrodes emit electrons whenever a sufficient voltage difference is applied across them. With a sufficiently high voltage difference between the electrodes, the velocity of electron flow is high enough to ionize the neon gas nearest the negative electrode of the lamp, thereby causing the neon gas to flow. Neon signs comprise glass tubes which are bent into various configurations and have electrodes sealed into their opposite ends. The color of the light which is emitted when a high electric potential is applied across the electrodes depends on the particular inert gas with which the tube is filled. Neon light signs are typically comprised of a base on which the tube supports are mounted in a pattern that conforms to the configuration of the neon tube. Neon signs comprise frames or panels on which the configured gas filled glass tube is supported by means of standoffs or insulating supports. These supports are designed to hold the neon tubing in a fixed position and also to act as shock absorbers which function to allow the neon filled glass tubing to flex a little rather than fracture when the sign is subjected to a distorting or a vibrational force. In the neon sign industry, the luminescent tubes of a neon sign are typically permanently attached to a back plane or other support structure. This is typically the case because the neon tubes have a very long life span compared to other light sources such as incandescent or fluorescent light bulbs. However, neon lighting is recognized as being fragile in nature. Because of the fragility and heavy weight, primarily due to its supporting infrastructure, neon lighting is expensive to package and ship. Moreover, it is extremely awkward to initially handle, install, and/or replace.

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