*Finally*: some real miniature ceramic MH lamps

[JB]

Wandering round the Light & Building show at Frankfurt this week and I'll
admit to spending rather more time than I exepcted in the 'Chinese Halls'.
Small booths with very, very interesting lighting technology. Being a
lamp/ballast engineer by training, I have a keen interest in new lamp or
gear technologies. Saw the Luxim lamp >close up< for the first time. Lovely
small 'arctube' but embedded in massive block of ceramic/ali
heatsink/microwave generator. I think I prefer working with the old Sulphur
lamp despite it's problems.
I did however come across one of my 'holy grails': Ultra miniature ceramic
metal halides. These are sub-10W arc tubes which are manufactured by
Yasuhiro Electrical in China (but I believe the company's director/CTO is
Japanese?). These lamps are a thing of beauty. Unfortunately technical data
is very thin on the ground but I did see working samples. I'd love to know
what the lamp life and spectral properties are though. This was being kept
very much under wraps.
Another lamp technology which seems to have been progressed further by the
Chniese is induction lamps. I've used the Philips QL and Osram Endura in
luminaire designs since their first launch years ago now. I'd always wanted
more power/lumens for our specific applications (HID replacement in
difficult maintenance areas), but the best we could get was ~15000Lm. Three
Chinese manufacturers were offering 400W (~35kLm) lamp/ballast packages and
even a 200/250W 'QL' type source (with their own US Patent already granted
too!!). I've got some samples coming over next month so we'll see how they
shape up in the integrating sphere/spectrometer. I suppose the real test
will be how well they meet the "100,000hrs" lamplife claims. I'll probably
be dead and buried before I get those life tests done.
On the whole, I'd say the Far Eastern manufacturers have made a very big
leap forward in techmnology in the last 3-4yrs and the gap between them and
the Euro/US manufacturers is closing very, very rapidly indeed. Ineteresting
times........

JB

 

[JB]

Thanks for the info JB. If I were you, I'd always carry with me a small
portable
spectroscope.

Wait. I do, regardless ;o)

According to many of my colleagues, they think I might need to "get out
more" ;>)

JB

 

[JB]

Thanks for the info. Sounds very interesting. Do you have a
patent number for the QL-type lamp? I find it a bit
remarkable that there is anything left to patent in these
lamps, other than small tweaks that have little value but
might be used to get a patent.

I assume the lamps operated at 2.54 MHz. Can you confirm?
Do they claim to meet CISPR and FCC regs? (I've seen other
Chinese induction lamps that have no EMI control at all and
would fail dramatically under FCC Part 18.

The datasheets are in the lab at work so I can't give you the links etc
until i'm back there in a weeks time. The 'Endura' style induction lamps are
all 250kHz (just like the Osram types) but the QL types are in the GHz
bracket (again as per the Philips lamps). I simply can't remember the exact
operating freqs off the top of my head. There is however an image on their
website showing the patent front sheet in good enough detail to read the
number. I'll dig it out on my return.
As far as I can remember, all their control gear was UL/CSA listed but not
much by way of Euro approvals (CE/VDE/EN... etc)


JB

..
--

 

[JB]

Philips QL and GE Genura operate in the band that was
established for lighting: 2.51 MHz to 3.0 MHz in the US per
FCC part 18.307. I believe CISPR is the same, but don't
have the regs handy.

My mistake. As you correctly stated, it's MHz, not GHz.

JB

 

[JB]

Thanks for the info. Sounds very interesting. Do you have a
patent number for the QL-type lamp? I find it a bit
remarkable that there is anything left to patent in these
lamps, other than small tweaks that have little value but
might be used to get a patent.

I assume the lamps operated at 2.54 MHz. Can you confirm?
Do they claim to meet CISPR and FCC regs? (I've seen other
Chinese induction lamps that have no EMI control at all and
would fail dramatically under FCC Part 18.

Back in the lab now so here are the links:

Induction lamps:
www.amko.co.tw (QL and Endura type induction lamps)
www.fjjk.com (Endura and QL types. 'QL' type US patent no. US6,940.232B1)

CMH:
www.yasuhiro-elec.com (miniature ceramic metal halides. Dr. Koichi Hayashi.)

JB

 

[JB]

<Snip

Thanks. The first link does not work.

The QL type lamps for the second company are claimed to
operate at 250 KHz instead of 2.7 MHz. This can be made to
work, but only for the large lamps that they make. The
patent seems to cover only a thermally conducting element
placed in the reentrant cavity to cool the coil. I'm not
sure that this is even novel as I believe I have seen such
devices in older patents.

I'll check the first link when I'm back in the office tomorrow. For the
record, when did a 'small piece of prior art' ever stop a US Patent being
granted? ;>)


JB

 

[JB]

Thanks. The first link does not work.

corrected link: www.amko.com.tw


JB