LOW-PRESSURE ARC DISCHARGE LAMP HAVING PARALLEL DISCHARGE TUBES WITH AN ARC-CONTAINING INTERCONNECTING CHANNEL; AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURING SAME

摘要

A method of manufacturing a low-pressure arc discharge lamp formed by interconnecting two or more parallel glass discharge tubes, each tube being sealed at one end. A hermetically sealed arc-containing channel between the two adjacent tubes is formed by heating opposing sections of the two tubes to soften a first and second site on each of the respective tubes. Then, one of the tubes is pressurized until a glass bubble forms from the softened site: the bubble is blown toward and onto the other tube about the softened site thereof. The pressure in the first tube is then released, and pressure is applied in the second tube to form a second glass bubble which fuses with the first glass bubble and bursts into the first tube thereby forming the sealed arc-containing channel between the two tubes. The technique may be applied to multiple tube assembled by alternating the end of the tube at which the joint is formed. Once the tubes are joined, they may be processed by current manufacturing techniques to produce low-pressure arc discharge lamp.