Other

Peter W Farner

Franklin H Cocks

A multistep process is disclosed which enables hermetically sealed, durable, long-lasting illumination devices which utilize electrical discharges through inert gas and inert gas/mercury vapor mixtures to be produced in an essentially flat-plate configuration without the use of glass tubing to contain the discharge. This process utilizes plates of glass having a particular range of thermal expansion coefficients for the preparation of these display devices through the discovery of a heating/cooling process that enables these thick glass assemblies to be produced rapidly yet without cracking and without significant residual air or water vapor contamination and which includes the heat sealing of a evacuation/backfilling tubulation in the same sequence and also includes the unique feature of the inclusion of finely divided powder in the inert gas chamber which, when subjected to the heating/cooling cycle, acts to getter residual air and water vapor from the inert gas. This process also utilizes a special means for preventing the adhesion of the flat plates to the platens used for their support during the thermal fusing treatment that is required to form the gas discharge channels. An interrupt step, introduced after fusion bonding is complete, enables the usage of a low softening point glass having a thermal expansion coefficient compatible with that of the window glass to produce the evacuation and gas filling tubulation port.

Process for producing flat plate illumination devices

An illumination device utilizes an electrical discharge through inert gas especially neon, argon, and mercury vapor or mixtures thereof, the electrical discharge being contained within two or more vitreous plates and confined within one or more channels within the vitreous plates. These channels, in combination with evacuation and gas filling means, provide one or more ionization chambers, the chambers being further provided with integral electrodes in combination with means for both thermally shielding the integral electrodes from the vitreous plates and for prevention of adhesion of the electrodes from the vitreous plates during the thermal sealing of the vitreous plates to form the ionization chamber or chambers. Special conditions for the relationship between the level of thermal shielding and the electrical power supplied to the electrode together with the design of the electrode assembly and electrode chamber and the use of infrared emissive coatings on the electrodes have been discovered which enable these electrodes to be contained integrally within the body of the illumination device rather than in chambers separate from, although attached to the body of the illumination device, and to be capable of continuous operation without causing cracking of the glass plates.

Glass plate illumination device sign with integral electrodes of

This invention provides an illumination device capable of producing large animated displays using glowing neon or other noble gases without the need for a source of high voltage as is required in normal neon signs. By means of large numbers of electrode pairs, gas discharge across the gas passage rather than along the gas passage enables low voltages to excite the flowing gas discharge while still giving the appearance of the continuous discharge seen in normal neon signs. The use of mixtures of luminescent phosphors of different luminescent decay times allows the hue of the illumination device to be electrically controlled by means of the frequency with which the discharge is excited. The controlled, sequential activation of any given electrode pair further allows the illumination device to give the appearance of animation, and the use of front and rear mirrors enables an infinite series of multiple, animated, illuminated images to be displayed. The simultaneous use of controlled illumination sequence and illumination frequency allows the display to achieve the appearance of sequential, smoothly continuous waves of different color hues sweeping across an animated display.

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Kalamazoo, MI, United States of America

Peter W Farner