Working Principle of a Tube Light

What is Tube Light?

Tube shaped fluorescent lamp is termed as tube light. Tube light is a lamp that
works on low pressure mercury vapor discharge phenomenon and converts ultra
violate ray into visible ray with the help of phosphor coated inside glass tube.

Material Used Inside the Tube Light

The materials used to build a tube light are given below.

1. Filament coils as electrodes

2. Phosphor coated glass bulb
3. Mercury drop
4. Inert gases (argon)
5. Electrode shield
6. End cap
7. Glass stem

Auxiliary Electrical Components along with Tube Light

The tube light does not work directly on power supply. It needs some auxiliary
components to work. They are-

● Ballast: It may be electromagnetic ballast or electronic ballast.

● Starter: The starter is a small neon glow up lamp that contains a fixed
contact, a bimetallic strip and a small capacitor.
Working Principle of Tube Light
● When the switch is ON, full voltage will come across the tube light
through ballast and fluorescent lamp starter. No discharge happens
initially i.e. no lumen output from the lamp.
● At that full voltage first the glow discharge is established in the starter.
This is because the electrodes gap in the neon bulb of starter is much
lesser than that of inside the fluorescent lamp.
● Then gas inside the starter gets ionized due to this full voltage and
heats the bimetallic strip that is caused to be bent to connect to the
fixed contact. Current starts flowing through the starter. Although the
ionization potential of the neon is little bit more than that of the argon
still due to small electrode gap high voltage gradient appears in the
neon bulb and hence glow discharge is started first in starter.
● As voltage gets reduced due to the current causing a voltage drop
across the inductor, the strip cools and breaks away from the fixed
contact. At that moment a large L di/dt voltage surge comes across the
inductor at the time of breaking.
● This high valued surge comes across the tube light electrodes and
strike penning mixture (mixture argon gas and mercury vapor).
● Gas discharge process continues and current gets path to flow through
the tube light gas only due to low resistance as compared to resistance
of starter.
● The discharge of mercury atoms produces ultra violet radiation which in
turn excites the phosphor powder coating to radiate visible light.
● Starter gets inactive during operation of tube light.
 Automobile Ignition System: Mechanism, Components and
Working
An ignition system is used in internal combustion engines to create an electric spark
in the engine combustion chamber to ignite a petrol and air mixture. It is an integral
component of automobiles often treated as the sub-section of the
engine-management system.

What Is the Function of Ignition Systems in Automobiles?

The main function of a vehicle's ignition system is to ignite the air-fuel mixture in its internal
combustion engine. To do this, it creates a high-voltage spark using its spark plugs which
makes a car fuel burn, causing its pistons to turn its wheels.

An automobile ignition system must work in tandem with all other parts of an engine. So,
igniting the fuel at the right time is necessary to make a vehicle function smoothly. The timing
of a high-voltage electric spark depends on a vehicle’s load, speed and other factors.

How Do Automobile Ignition Systems Work?

● In a conventional ignition system, there are two main sets of
windings/circuits—primary and secondary. The primary circuit works on
battery current and is responsible for carrying low voltage. Some breaker
points and an ignition switch control this primary circuit. When a driver turns
on the ignition key of a vehicle, its battery supplies 12 volts of current to its
ignition coil through the contact breaker points. This flow of current creates a
magnetic field around this coil.
● The secondary circuit is not electrically connected to the primary circuit. It has
secondary windings in its coil and high tension lead between the distributor
and coil wire on external coil distributors. Furthermore, it also consists of a
distributor rotor, a distributor cap, spark plug leads and spark plugs. The
engine's rotation turns the distributor shaft cam which separates the breaker
points, which, in turn, stops the current flow. This leads to a collapse of the
magnetic field around this coil.
● When these contacts break, a high voltage current of 20,000-25,000 volts
passes through the secondary winding. Then, the current flows through the
high-tension cable and reaches the distributor cap, which moves along the
drive shaft’s direction. Its movements are aligned with the high-tension cables
corresponding to each spark plug. This alignment enables the cam lobes to
open all contact points after each compression stroke of the cylinder. This lets
the high-voltage current pass to the respective spark plug, ultimately creating
a spark.