JP2887196B2 - Phosphorescent luminous body - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a luminous body which can be used in a dark place.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a phosphorescent material containing zinc sulfide as a main component is used for a dial for a timepiece, an illuminant for an hour hand and a minute hand. And, from a design point of view, a pigment of a special color is mixed in the phosphorescent material. The phosphorescent color of zinc sulfide is yellow-green. The coloring reduces the luminance and shortens the afterglow time. When used in a dark place, characters and the like cannot be read on a clock face in about 20 minutes.
Therefore, conventionally, in order to prevent the afterglow time from being shortened, a spontaneous emission is combined with a radioactive substance such as promethium to maintain a luminance of, for example, 0.3 mcd or more that can be visually recognized by a human.

[0003]

However, since the conventional luminous body maintains the brightness by adding a radioactive substance, the radiant amount is reduced to 10 by the regulation of the "Radiation Disorder Prevention Law".
It is limited to 0 microcurie or less. Therefore, it cannot be used for a wall clock having a large dial area and a large amount of usage, and its use has been limited to a clock having a small dial area, such as an alarm clock. In addition, enormous management costs are required due to the regulation of the aforementioned “Radiation Disorder Prevention Law”.

Accordingly, the applicant of the present application has proposed a phosphorescent light-emitting device which is easy to manage, has a long afterglow time, and is easy to see, and which can be used in a wide variety of applications. And a transparent phosphorescent layer made of a metal oxide ceramic such as alumina containing an alkaline earth metal was proposed (Japanese Patent Application No. 5-338).
No. 169).

The light-emitting device emits light for a predetermined period of time by storing energy in response to light of a predetermined wavelength, for example, a fluorescent lamp or a sunlight having a lot of ultraviolet rays. The brightness is higher than that of the conventional phosphorescent light-emitting device made of zinc sulfide, and the afterglow time is more than 10 times longer than that of the phosphorescent light-emitting material made of zinc sulfide.
Time is maintained. Therefore, it can be sufficiently applied to an alarm clock and the like. Further, by changing the printing color or the coating color of the underlayer to a desired color, there is an advantage that a luminous body similar to a colored one can be artificially produced.

However, in this light emitting device, since the transparent luminous layer is disposed on a flat ground plate, the light incident path is limited, and the amount of excitation light from the outside is restricted. The luminescence duration was limited. Increasing the thickness of the transparent luminous layer increases the amount of external excitation light and can extend the luminance and the light emission duration. However, this increases the cost to obtain satisfactory luminance and the like.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object to improve functions, to facilitate management, to have a long afterglow time, to be easy to see, to have practicality, decorativeness, and playability. An object of the present invention is to provide a phosphorescent light-emitting body excellent in safety and safety.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, a luminous phosphor according to the present invention comprises a luminous body obtained by adding a rare earth element to a metal oxide-based sintered material in an optically transparent container. A first granular material and an optically transparent second granular material are mixed and sealed.

[0009]

According to the luminous body of the present invention, since the first granular material mixed with the second granular material is sealed in a three-dimensional container, light of a predetermined wavelength serving as excitation light can be obtained. The incident path is not restricted, and the excitation light is incident into the container from the entire periphery of the container. As a result, the first particulate matter receives a large amount of light from the added rare earth element and is in a highly excited state. Therefore, the first granular material emits light radially with high luminance. This light is transmitted directly or through the second granular material, or is diffusely reflected and emitted out of the container. Thus, the entire luminous body emits light with high luminance when viewed from any direction.

[0010]

1 and 2 are views showing one embodiment of a luminous body according to the present invention. FIG. 1 is a perspective view thereof, and FIG. 2 is an enlarged sectional view of FIG. The phosphorescent light-emitting body in the present embodiment shows a configuration example applied as a timepiece hand.

As shown in FIG. 1, the present phosphorescent luminous body includes a pipe-shaped container 1 made of, for example, transparent glass or plastic, bushings 2a and 2b for sealing the inside of the container 1, and the like.
Dark-colored tapes 3a and 3b wound around the periphery of both ends of container 1, first granular material 4 as a luminous body sealed in container 1, first granular material in container 1 4 and a second granular material 5 made of glass beads having a diameter of about 100 to 200 μm. Then, an hour and minute hand pipe (not shown) is attached to the hole 6 formed on one end side. The first granular material 4 and the second granular material 5 sealed in the closed space of the container 1 are mixed at a ratio of, for example, 3: 7. Further, the colors of the tape bodies 3a and 3b wound around the peripheral portions at both ends of the container 1 are dark based on a white character plate in consideration of the fact that the time is easy to see regardless of day or night.

The first granular material 4 as a luminous body is, for example, a sintered oxide of a metal and an alkaline earth metal element,
pm, a small amount of rare earth element is added, and a sintered oxide of a metal and an alkaline earth metal element functions as a luminous body, and functions as a catalyst for transition of the rare earth element to an excited state. . Here, aluminum (Al) is used as the metal of the sintered oxide, and strontium (Sr) is used as the alkaline earth metal. The sintered oxide in this case is represented by the following chemical formula. Sr _x · Al _y · O _Z

Such a phosphorescent material is a little yellow-green and has higher transparency than conventional zinc sulfide, and as shown in FIG. 3, zinc sulfide (ZnS) which is a conventional general phosphorescent material.
Longer afterglow and higher brightness. In addition, the light storage material stores energy in response to a fluorescent light or sunlight having a large amount of ultraviolet light. A good wavelength is about 370 nm.

FIG. 4 is a graph showing the measurement results of the afterglow time of the present luminous body, the conventional phosphorescent luminous body made of zinc sulfide, and the self-luminous luminous body to which promethium is added. 4, the horizontal axis represents the irradiation time and the afterglow time, and the vertical axis represents the afterglow luminance. In the figure, the curve indicated by A-1 indicates the characteristics of the luminous body using the phosphorescent material according to the present invention disposed on the white background printing color, and the curve indicated by A-2 indicates the yellow-green color on the white background printing color. The characteristics of the luminous body using the phosphorescent material according to the present invention in which the pigment of the present invention is contained are shown in A-3.
The curve shown by represents the characteristics of the luminous body using the luminous material according to the present invention arranged on the color printing color, the curve shown by B represents the conventional luminous body using zinc sulfide, and the curve shown by C represents self-luminous. The characteristics of the mold luminous body are shown. As can be seen from FIG. 4, the present luminous body has higher brightness than the conventional luminous body,
The afterglow time is about 5 to 8 hours, which is 10 times or more longer than that of the phosphorescent light-emitting body made of zinc sulfide. As described above, since the luminous body has a long-lasting afterglow characteristic, the luminous body can be sufficiently applied as a decorative body even at night or the like when the illumination is turned off.

In the light-storing type luminous body having such a configuration, the luminous body is formed by mixing a three-dimensional pipe-shaped container 1 with a second granular material 5 made of glass beads having good light transmittance. Since the first granular material 4 is enclosed,
The incident path of light having a predetermined wavelength (370 nm in this embodiment) serving as the excitation light is not limited, and the excitation light is incident on the container 1 from the entire periphery of the side surface of the container 1. As a result, the first granular material 4 receives a large amount of light from the added rare earth element and is brought into a highly excited state. Therefore, the first particulate matter 5 emits light radially with high luminance. This light is transmitted directly or through the second granular material 5, or is irregularly reflected, and
Radiated out. Thus, the entire luminous body emits light with high luminance when viewed from any direction.

As described above, according to this embodiment,
A phosphorescent luminous body is made of a pipe-shaped container 1 made of transparent glass or plastic, bushes 2a and 2b for sealing the inside of the container 1, and a dark color wound around peripheral portions at both ends of the container 1. Tape bodies 3a and 3b, a first granular material 4 as a luminous body formed by adding a rare earth element to a metal oxide-based sintered material sealed in the container 1, and a first granular material in the container 1 Since it is composed of the object 4 and the second granular material 5 made of a glass bead material sealed in a mixing ratio of 3: 7, the function can be improved, the afterglow time is long, and the practicality is easy to see.
A phosphorescent luminous body excellent in decorativeness, playability and safety can be realized. In addition, since it is safe without using a radioactive substance, it can be applied to a large light emitting device, can be used for decoration and the like, and can reduce member management costs.

In this embodiment, the cylindrical container 1 is described as an example. However, various embodiments such as a rectangular parallelepiped container as shown in FIG. 5 are possible. Further, the container is not limited to a straight one, and for example, a container meandering in a sine wave shape or a rectangular wave shape can be used. In this case, the movable range of the first granular material 4 and the second granular material 5 enclosed in the container 1 is limited to a predetermined range, so that the entire container has uniform brightness. There are advantages such as being able to be configured to emit light. Further, the application example of the luminous type luminous body has been described using a clock hand as an example. However, as shown in FIG. 6, for example, a transparent acrylic is fixed as the container 1a of the dial 10 and used as a time scale. Is possible. Reference numeral 11 denotes a rubber bush.

[0018]

As described above, according to the present invention,
It is possible to realize a luminous hourglass with improved functions, a long afterglow time, and easy to see, and excellent in practicality, decorativeness, playability, and safety. Further, since a radioactive substance is not used, it can be applied to a large light-emitting device. Further, since the colorant is not mixed into the phosphorescent material, there is an advantage that the afterglow time and the luminance can be maintained high.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing one embodiment of a luminous phosphor according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged sectional view of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for comparing the afterglow time of the phosphorescent light-emitting body according to the present invention and a conventional phosphorescent light-emitting body using zinc sulfide.

FIG. 4 is a graph showing the results of measuring the afterglow time of the luminous body according to the present invention, the conventional phosphorescent luminous body made of zinc sulfide, and the self-luminous luminous body to which promethium is added.

FIG. 5 is a view showing another configuration example of the container according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining another application example of the luminous body according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Container 2 ... Bush 3 ... Tape body 4 ... 1st granular material 5 ... 2nd granular material 6 ... Hole

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-48-84788 (JP, A) JP-A-49-79524 (JP, A) Jikai Sho-63-29184 (JP, U) (58) Field (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) G09F 13/20 C09K 11/64 CPM

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. An optically transparent container comprising a first granular material composed of a phosphorescent material obtained by adding a rare earth element to a metal oxide-based sintered material and a second optically transparent granular material. A phosphorescent luminous body that is mixed and sealed.