The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 13, 1997
Filed:
Dec. 07, 1995
Kelvin B Belle, Willoughby Hills, OH (US);
Jozsef Fulop, Budapest, HU;
David J Kachmarik, North Olmsted, OH (US);
Robert S McFeely, Valley View, OH (US);
Ferenc Papp, Budapest, HU;
Brian M Ronald, New Philadelphia, OH (US);
Istvan Wursching, Budapest, HU;
General Electric Company, Schenectady, NY (US);
Abstract
A lamp cathode-to-ballast interconnect is provided in combination with a lamp having elongated cathodes and ballast circuitry for supplying power to the cathodes. The lamp cathode-to-ballast interconnect comprises a plurality of conductive clips connected to the ballast circuitry. Each clip has a generally flat portion connected at a first end to ballast circuitry and has a pinching groove formed through the flat portion and extending to a cathode-receiving opening at a second end. The interconnect further comprises a loom for holding the lamp cathodes. The loom comprises, for each cathode, a pair of cathode-receiving support grooves separated by a space in which a second end of an associated conductive clip is to be received. Walls of each of the pair of cathode-receiving support grooves grip therein-received portions of the cathode with sufficient force to enable a gas-tight contact to be made with its associated conductive clip when the cathode is received within the pinching groove of the clip. In a method of connecting elongated cathodes from a lamp to ballast circuitry for a lamp, the cathodes are gripped and inserted by machine implementation into respective pairs of cathode-receiving support grooves of the loom. A conductive clip is moved into a respective clip-receiving space in the loom so that the pinching groove of the clip receives and pinches a cathode and completes a gas-tight connection between the clip and the cathode.