Modular Compact Fluorescent Lamp
- Description
- One method that companies have long used to minimize production costs is to design products that use many of the same parts. In the early 1990s Duro-Test Lighting used this approach in a series of modular compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs).
- Modular CFLs are designed so that specific parts can be replaced if they fail. This allows the reuse of expensive parts that still work. In this particular lamp, the fluorescent tube and the reflector enclosing it are made as one piece; the base-unit that houses the ballast and starter are another. In addition to allowing one to replace the tube assembly if it failed, one could swap different assemblies. The reflector lamp could be changed to a decorative lamp for example, without having to remove the base-unit.
- Since the price of electronic components has dropped since this lamp was made, the economic reasoning behind this feature is less persuasive.
- Lamp characteristics: Two-piece, modular compact fluorescent lamp including a base-unit and a tube assembly. The base-unit has a medium-screw base-shell with plastic insulator, and a plastic skirt that houses a ballast and a starter. A socket on top accepts a plug-in base. Tube assembly includes plastic plug-in base, a fluorescent tube with two electrodes, mercury, and a phosphor coating. A glass R-shaped envelope with silvered coating serves as a reflector and is glued to the tube assembly's base.
- Object Name
- discharge lamp
- fluorescent lamp
- Date made
- January 1991
- 1991-01
- manufacturer
- DURO-TEST Corporation
- Physical Description
- glass (overall material)
- plastic (overall material)
- mercury (overall material)
- metal (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 8 1/2 in x 5 in; 21.59 cm x 12.7 cm
- Place Made
- United States: New Jersey, Bloomfield
- ID Number
- 1997.0062.09
- catalog number
- 1997.0062.09
- accession number
- 1997.0062
- subject
- Energy & Power
- See more items in
- Work and Industry: Electricity
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- Credit Line
- from Duro-Test Corporation
- depicted
- staff. 1986 Progress Report
- Publication title
- Lighting A Revolution
- Publication URL
- http://americanhistory.si.edu/lighting/
- Additional Media
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