General Electric Company

Thomas M Golz

Rolf S Bergman

John M Davenport

Gary Robert Allen

Richard L Hansler

Thomas G Parham

Frederic F Ahlgren

Mark E Duffy

Tianji Zhao

Frederick W Dynys

Carl V Gunter

Denis A Lynch

Yutao Zhou

Rajasingh Schwartz Israel

Frank E Zalar

Ashfaq Chowdhury

A parabolic reflector lamp is provided wherein lamp efficiency is improved by more substantially approximating the shape of a complete parabola at the inner reflective surface. In a first embodiment, the heat shield is placed at the mouth of the opening at the base of the lamp, thereby &ldquo;filling in&rdquo; the opening and substantially completing the parabolic shape of the reflector. In a second embodiment, the opening at the base of the lamp is narrowed to minimize its cross-sectional area and maximizing reflective surface area. In a third embodiment, the glass shell of the lamp is provided in a two-piece configuration, allowing the size of the hole through the base of the glass shell to be reduced. The openings required to accommodate electrodes (and an exhaust tube in sealed lamps) are located in a second cup-shaped piece attached via a flange to the main body of the glass shell.

Reflector lamps

A low voltage display lamp is provided for use in standard threaded lamp sockets. The lamp has an IR-reflective layer, preferably gold, coated on the convex side of the reflector to reflect infrared radiation (IR) away from the ballast to reduce the ballast's operating temperature. The IR-reflective coating is effective to reflect IR radiation away from the lamp housing.

Display lamp with reflector having IR-reflective coating

A low voltage display lamp is provided for use in standard threaded lamp sockets. The lamp has a heat shield to reflect infrared radiation (IR) away from the ballast to reduce the ballast's operating temperature. The surface of the heat shield is optically curved to direct the reflected IR back through the front of the lamp such that it exits through the transparent cover rather than being reflected into the lamp housing.

Display lamp with optically curved heat shield

The invention is related to a reflector lamp comprising a parabolic primary reflecting section, a parabolic or spheric secondary reflecting section joined to the primary reflecting section, a parabolic or spheric tertiary reflecting section joined to the secondary reflecting section, and an incandescent or discharge light source. The secondary and tertiary reflecting sections have faceted surfaces which longitudinally extend along the surface thereof so that most (at least 50%) or substantially all the light reflected by the faceted surfaces avoids the light source and thus the light, which would be absorbed or scattered by the light source, is minimized or substantially eliminated.

Reflector lamp having a reflecting section with faceted surfaces

A lenticular lens containing a multiplicity of multi-sided lenticules useful with reflector lamps provides improved light distribution by having the lenticules oriented to avoid parallelism with a projected light image and distributed in a plurality of zones or bands concentric about said optical center. The size and light-spreading ability of the lenticules in each zone is selected to provide the desired light distribution. Parallelism is avoided by having the lenticules arrayed in a plurality of wedge-shaped sections circumferentially arranged in a circle around the optical center of the lens and extending through the zones with the lenticules in each section arrayed in a uniform, close-packed hexagonal array of parallel rows with the longitudinal axis of one of the rows being radially aligned with respect to the optical center of the lens, so that none of the sides of the lenticules are parallel to the light source image projected off the reflector.

Lenticulated lens

An interference filter or coating is provided in a predetermined pattern on a lamp envelope. The coating is comprised of alternating layers of high and low index of refraction materials applied to a vitreous outer surface of a lamp envelope. The coating may be geometrically symmetric or asymmetric, continuous or discontinuous with respect to the coating itself or the envelope to which it has been applied. The envelope can be masked prior to deposition of the coating so that removal of the mask leaves the filter in the desired pattern. The preferred process for forming the coating includes forming a boric oxide mask on a portion of the envelope, applying the coating over the mask and removing the coating from masked areas of the envelope by dissolving the mask in an aqueous solution.

Patterned optical interference coatings for electric lamps

Patterned optical interference coatings for only a portion of a high

Lenticulated lens with improved light distribution

For mounting a lamp that comprises a glass envelope including a seal and a glass exhaust tube having a tip projecting from the seal, there is provided a base having a cavity for receiving the seal and the exhaust-tube tip. Within the cavity about the seal and the tip is a hard cement for fixedly positioning the envelope within the cavity. Surrounding the tip and located between the tip and the adjacent cement is a thin layer of soft material that can yield in response to forces developed thereon by thermal expansion and contraction of the cement, thereby protecting the tip from being cracked by these forces. The hard cement extends into contact with the glass seal about a substantial portion of the seal's exterior surface so that the hard cement is able to fixedly position the envelope relative to the base without interference from the softer material about the tip.

Cement-type mount for a lamp including means for protecting the lamp

This headlamp for a motor vehicle comprises a lens that has a front surface that slopes backwardly from bottom to top of the lens. In localized regions of the lens, there are spread flutes, each comprising alternating ridges and grooves on the back surface of the lens. The individual ridges extend in a direction between the top and bottom of the lens and are characterized by having the form of a segment of an inverted, base-up cone. The individual grooves extend in a direction between the top and bottom of the lens and are characterized by having the form of a segment of an upright, base-down cone. The coniform configuration of the individual ridges and grooves serves to lift the edges of the light beam passing therethrough and thereby compensate for the tendency of the beam to droop at its edges as a result of the backward slope of the front surface of the lens.

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Willoughby Hills, OH, United States of America

Thomas M Golz