JPH031796B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a discharge lamp lighting device for selectively lighting a plurality of discharge lamps.

This type of lighting device is suitable for use in traffic signals, advertisements, etc. For example, traffic lights generally use light bulbs as light sources, but if the light bulbs could be replaced with discharge lamps, it would be extremely beneficial in terms of luminous efficiency. In particular, hot cathode discharge lamps such as fluorescent lamps have relatively simple lighting devices, short start-up times, and long lifespans, making them ideal for replacing the above-mentioned light bulbs. However, it has been found that the following problems arise when a hot cathode discharge lamp is directly replaced with a light bulb. That is, sufficient filament preheating is required to start a hot cathode type discharge lamp, and if this filament preheating is insufficient, the discharge lamp may not start quickly or its life may deteriorate. Meanwhile, the traffic lights are red,
There is only a common power supply line for the blue and yellow light sources, and three power supply lines to which the energizing voltage of the light sources is sequentially applied. Before lighting, power is not supplied to this red light source, and the filament of this red light source cannot be preheated. On the other hand, it is possible to install a special power supply line for filament preheating, but in this case, the number of wiring increases and the cost increases, and if wiring work is completed, a new power supply line for filament preheating may be required. must be provided. This problem is not limited to the case of the above-mentioned traffic lights, but only the power supply lines corresponding to each discharge lamp are provided for multiple discharge lamps, and these power supply lines have time-divided energizing voltages. A similar phenomenon occurs when applying . Therefore, in this type of device, how to preheat the filament of the discharge lamp is an important issue.

The present invention was made in consideration of the above circumstances, and
It is an object of the present invention to provide a discharge lamp lighting device which selectively lights a hot cathode type discharge lamp and which can sufficiently preheat a filament without increasing the number of wiring lines.

In the present invention, an energizing voltage is applied intermittently to one discharge lamp among a plurality of discharge lamps, but a voltage is continuously applied to all discharge lamps (for example, one traffic light). This was done by focusing on the fact that the power supply lines are provided corresponding to a plurality of hot cathode type discharge lamps, and the energizing voltage of the discharge lamps is applied to each other in a time-sharing manner. The present invention is characterized in that a filament preheating device is provided which inputs divided voltages and continuously outputs filament preheating power to each of the discharge lamps by synthesizing the voltages in a time-divided manner.

Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to sufficiently preheat the filament of each discharge lamp without particularly increasing the number of wiring lines, and it is possible to achieve quick lighting and to prevent shortening of the service life.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention is suitable as a light source device for traffic signals, advertisements, etc. For example, by using a 24W fluorescent lamp to replace a traffic signal that conventionally uses a 70W light bulb, it is possible to obtain the same light output and significantly reduce power consumption.
However, the present invention can be applied to other uses as well, as long as a plurality of light sources are selectively turned on.

In the present invention, the energizing voltage of the discharge lamp applied to the power supply line may be either an alternating current voltage or a direct current voltage. In the case of DC voltage, it is preferable to convert it to AC voltage. In this case, a well-known high frequency inverter can be used.

Further, in the present invention, the plurality of power supply lines are
The number may be two for each discharge lamp, that is, a total of multiple pairs, or a plurality of first power supply lines, one for each discharge lamp, and a second power supply line common to each discharge lamp. It may also be configured by a power supply line. When the power supply line is constituted by the first and second power supply lines as described above, the filament preheating device may be connected at one end to each of the first power supply lines and at the other end common to the second power supply line. The discharge lamp can be constructed by a transformer having a plurality of primary windings connected to each other and a plurality of pairs of secondary windings connected to the filament of each of the discharge lamps. Further, the filament preheating device can also be constructed from a plurality of rectifiers and an inverter that is provided in common to each of these rectifiers and has a plurality of output sections. This can be applied to any of the above configurations of the power supply line, and is particularly suitable when a DC voltage is supplied to the power supply line. However, the filament preheating device can be modified in various ways other than the above.

Furthermore, in the present invention, applying a voltage to a plurality of power supply lines in a time-divisional manner means, when focusing on one power supply line, that an energizing voltage is intermittently applied to this power supply line. Therefore, the time when voltage is applied to two or more power supply lines may partially overlap, or the time when voltage is applied to one power supply line and the time when voltage is applied to the next power supply line may partially overlap. It is okay to have a few pauses. Further, the order, period, etc. in which voltages are applied to each power supply line are arbitrarily determined. Synthesizing time-divisional voltages means eliminating or reducing individual voltage application pause periods when a common time axis is used for each individual intermittent voltage.

Furthermore, the number of hot cathode discharge lamps may be two or more. Furthermore, power may be supplied to two or more grouped discharge lamps, such as two lamps connected in series, through a common power supply line. In this case, the grouped discharge lamps may be connected to one discharge lamp. It can be considered as an electric light, and the present invention also includes such a light. Furthermore, although means for applying voltage to power supply lines in a time-division manner is not directly related to the present invention, a plurality of power supply lines are provided in parallel to a common power supply, and voltage application to these power supply lines is applied in a time-division manner. Alternatively, a power source may be provided for each power supply line.

Next, the basic configuration of the present invention is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.
This will be explained with reference to the figures. 1, 2, and 3 are hot cathode type discharge lamps, and FIG. 1 shows a case where there are three hot cathode type discharge lamps. Reference numerals 4, 5, and 6 are regulators for each of the discharge lamps 1, 2, and 3. These ballasts 4, 5, and 6 may be well-known devices such as a chiyoke coil, a leakage transformer, or a combination of a chiyoke coil and a capacitor. In addition, in FIG. 1, three ballasts 4, 5, and 6 are provided corresponding to the discharge lamps 1, 2, and 3, but as will be described later, one ballast is provided for a plurality of discharge lamps.
It can also be made into an individual. 7 to 10 are power supply lines provided corresponding to the respective discharge lamps 1, 2, and 3. In FIG. 1, power supply lines 7 to
10 is provided with first power supply lines 7, 8, 9 corresponding to each discharge lamp 1, 2, 3;
A common second power supply line 10 is provided for the power supply lines 2 and 3. In addition, each of the power supply lines 7
10 are time-divisionally applied with energizing voltages for the discharge lamps 1, 2, 3, and in the case of FIG. Switching devices 11, 12, which are provided relatively far from 3.
The opening/closing devices 11, 12, and 13 are connected to an AC power source 14 via an AC power source 13, and are opened and closed by a control device 15 at the timings shown in FIG. 2a, b, and c, respectively. That is, Fig. 2a,
The times T ₁ , T ₂ , and T ₃ of b and c are the switchgear 1, respectively.
1, 12, and 13, that is, the voltage application time to the power supply lines 7, 8, and 9.
The above-mentioned times T ₁ , T ₂ , T ₃ closing order, closing timing, etc. are not one at a time but one and two, combinations, etc. are pre-programmed in the control device 15 or manually operated, etc. This is arbitrarily determined by the following. 16 is a filament preheating device.
This filament preheating device 16 inputs the time-divisional voltages of each of the power supply lines 7 to 10, and by combining the time-divisional voltages, filament preheating power of each of the discharge lamps 1, 2, and 3 is continuously supplied. This is what is output. That is, each power supply line 7,
Voltages 8 and 9 are applied only intermittently as shown in FIG. 2a, b, and c, but when these application times are combined, they become continuous as shown in FIG. 2d. Therefore, the filament preheating device 16 can continuously input voltage, and as a result, can also continuously output filament preheating power. Incidentally, reference numerals 17, 18, and 19 are starting devices for the discharge lamps 1, 2, and 3 that are used as needed, and any known device can be used.

Next, we will discuss the effect. Now, assuming that an energizing voltage is applied to the power supply line 7, the discharge lamp 1 lights up, but at this time, the filament preheating device 16
It also receives voltage input and outputs filament preheating power. Therefore, not only the filament of the discharge lamp 1 that is lit is heated, but also the filaments of the discharge lamps 2 and 3 that are not lit are preheated.
Next, when a voltage is applied to the power supply line 8, an energizing voltage is applied to the discharge lamp 2, but since the filament of the discharge lamp 2 has been preheated before this, it can be lit quickly, and the so-called I have never experienced a decrease in service life due to a cold start. During the period when the discharge lamp 2 is on, that is, when the voltage is applied to the power supply line 8, voltage is also input to the filament preheating device 16, so the filaments of the discharge lamps 1 and 3 that are off are preheated. . From then on,
Since a continuous voltage is input to the filament preheating device 16 as shown in FIG. 2d, the filament of the discharge lamp that is off is preheated even when any discharge lamp is on. . In addition,
In the one shown in FIG. 1, the filament preheating device 1
It is also possible to obtain 6 inputs from the output side of each ballast 4, 5, 6.

A specific embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The same parts as in FIG. 1 are given the same reference numerals, and their explanation will be omitted. In this embodiment, the ballasts 4, 5,
6 each consists of a chiyoke coil. Further, the filament preheating device 16 includes three primary windings 21,
22, 23, and a plurality of pairs of secondary windings 24-29 corresponding to the discharge lamps 1, 2, 3.

In this embodiment, the filament preheating device 16
outputs filament preheating power to all of the secondary windings 24 to 29 if voltage is applied to any one of the primary windings 21, 22, and 23, so any of the discharge lamps 1, 2, and 3 While this discharge lamp is energized, the filaments of other discharge lamps that are turned off are preheated.

FIG. 4 shows another specific embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, a DC voltage is applied to a plurality of, for example, three first power supply lines 101, 102, 103, and the power supply lines 101, 102, 103 are
102, 103 are switchgear 104, 105, 10
6 to the positive electrode of the DC power supply 107. Further, the second power supply line 108 is connected to the negative electrode of the DC power supply 107. The opening/closing devices 104, 105, and 106 are controlled by a control device 109 similar to that shown in FIG. 11
0, 111, and 112 convert the DC voltage supplied by an inverter as a ballast into a high-frequency AC voltage, and power the discharge lamps 113, 114, and 1, respectively.
15, and each discharge lamp 113, 11
It also has a stability function of 4,115. The filament preheating device 116 in this embodiment includes three rectifiers 117, 118, 119 corresponding to the first power supply lines 101, 102, 103,
An inverter 123 is provided on the output side of these rectifiers 117, 118, 119 and has three output sections 120, 121, 122 corresponding to the discharge lamps 113, 114, 115.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. When a voltage is applied to each power supply line 101, 102, 103 in a time-division manner, the corresponding inverter 110, 11
1 and 112 operate while voltage is applied to light up the discharge lamps 113, 114, and 115. on the other hand,
Since the filament preheating device 116 is supplied with power to the inverter 123 via the rectifiers 117, 118, 119 regardless of the voltage applied to any of the power supply lines 101, 102, 103, the filament heating of the lit discharge lamp is prevented. Of course, it is possible to preheat the filament of a discharge lamp that is turned off. In this embodiment, components such as the inverters 110, 111, 112, etc. can be placed on a printed wiring board (not shown), and in this case, the first power supply line 10
1, 102, 103 and second power supply line 10
8 can be used as a wiring pattern.

FIG. 5 shows another embodiment of the present invention, in which a filament preheating device 200 of this embodiment is provided with full-wave rectifiers 201, 202, and 203 in place of the rectifiers 117, 118, and 119 shown in FIG. It is something. 204 is an output section 205, 206, 207
This is an inverter with Further, 212 is a smoothing capacitor provided as necessary.
The filament preheating device 200 of this embodiment is suitable for a device to which an alternating current voltage is applied to a power supply line as shown in the first diagram, and is effective in that it can be made smaller than a device configured with a transformer. In this case, the smoothing capacitor 212 is effective in reducing ripples in the output from the full-wave rectifiers 201, 202, and 203, and also reduces the time required to apply voltage from one power supply line to the next. This is effective in compensating for downtime if there is a downtime.

FIG. 6 shows yet another embodiment.
The same parts as in FIG. 1 are given the same reference numerals, and their explanation will be omitted. In this embodiment, power supply lines 30 to 35
Two of them are provided for each of the discharge lamps 1, 2, and 3, and are connected to the power source 14 via switching devices 36, 37, and 38, respectively. The opening/closing device 3
6, 37, and 38 each have a pair of interlocking contacts and are controlled by the control device 15.
In addition, the filament preheating device 2 in this embodiment
00' is the same as that shown in FIG. 5 except that one input terminal of each rectifier 201, 202, 203 is not common but is separate. Since the operation of this embodiment is easily understood, the explanation will be omitted. In addition,
In the case of this embodiment, the AC power source 14 may be provided individually instead of being common.

FIG. 7 shows yet another embodiment.
In this embodiment as well, the same parts as in FIG. 1 are given the same reference numerals. In this embodiment, the ballast 40
is common to discharge lamps 1, 2, and 3.
That is, the ballast 40 is connected to the power source 14 of the switchgear 41.
When the switching device 41 selectively connects one of the power supply lines 7, 8, and 9 to the AC power source 14, the ballast 40 connects the discharge lamp to be energized and the AC power source 14. There will be an intervention between them.

As detailed above, the present invention provides a plurality of power supply lines corresponding to a plurality of hot cathode discharge lamps, and applies energizing voltages for the discharge lamps to these power supply lines in a time-sharing manner. In addition, a filament preheating device is provided which inputs the time-divisional voltages of each of the power supply lines and continuously outputs the filament preheating power of each of the discharge lamps by synthesizing the time-divisional voltages. It is possible to provide a discharge lamp lighting device that can sufficiently preheat the filament without particularly increasing the number of wires, can quickly light the discharge lamp, and can reduce the deterioration of the life of the discharge lamp. .

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the basic configuration of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the operation of FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram showing a specific embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 4 is a circuit diagram showing still another embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 6 is a circuit diagram showing a main part of another embodiment of the invention, and FIGS. 6 and 7 are circuit diagrams showing still another embodiment of the invention. 1, 2, 3... hot cathode discharge lamp, 4, 5,
6, 40, 110, 111, 112...ballast,
7, 8, 9, 10, 30, 31, 32, 33, 3
4, 35, 101, 102, 103, 108...
Power supply line, 16, 116, 200, 200'...
…Filament preheating device.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A plurality of hot cathode discharge lamps, ballasts for these discharge lamps, and ballasts for these discharge lamps, which are provided corresponding to each of the discharge lamps and apply energizing voltages to the discharge lamps in a time-sharing manner to each other. a plurality of power supply lines, and a filament preheating device that inputs time-divisional voltages of each of these power supply lines and continuously outputs filament preheating power for each of the discharge lamps by combining the time-divisional voltages. A discharge lamp lighting device characterized by comprising the following. 2. The plurality of power supply lines are comprised of a plurality of first power supply lines corresponding to each of the plurality of discharge lamps, and a second power supply line common to each of the discharge lamps. A discharge lamp lighting device according to claim 1. 3. The filament preheating device includes a plurality of primary windings each having one end connected to the first power supply line and the other end connected to the second power supply line, and each filament of the plurality of discharge lamps. 3. The discharge lamp lighting device according to claim 2, wherein the discharge lamp lighting device is constituted by a transformer having a plurality of corresponding pairs of secondary windings. 4. The filament preheating device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the filament preheating device comprises a plurality of rectifiers and an inverter provided on the output side of these rectifiers and having a plurality of output parts. Electric light lighting device.