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HI volt section

in 2010 we had a really nice visit to a neon sign factory called GLASBLĘSERIET
Ronnie was really friendly and gave us the full round trip, we saw it all, how signs are desighed, how glass tubes are heated and bended and welded together
we learned a bit about vacum and gasses and hi voltage and mercury
we even tried to melt and bend glass our self, not that easy but loads of fun.
Here are a few pictures from that visit

1 Amazing glass dont transfer heat well, so the glass tube can be held by fingers close to the point where it is 700 C hot.

2 Me trying to learn the fine art of glass bending and blowing, OK this require serious training !

3 Ronnie in action, making perfect angles and bends to create a large F letter for our demo

4 a perfect thinn layer of glue is added to the inside of the transparent glass, using tiny glass balls with glue

5 a special fluresent powder is glued to the inside of the tube, different kinds makes different colours when lit

6 our demo F is filled halve ways from each side with diffent types of powder, and a space in the middle is left transparent

7 Cutting glass tubes can be done using several special tools, like this wire heater

8 mounting the electrodes is a delicate proces, using both hands and mouth at the same time

9

10 The vacum and gas filling station

11 A tiny drop of mercury was added

12 only glass connections are used at the filling station, so a bit of glass "soldering" is done to connect things

13 using the right vacum level, and right gas mixture and amount of gas, made the neon sign lit up bright and clear

14 after manufacturing a burn-in time of 24 hrs is needed both to be sure the quality is good and full coverage of the tube

15 the secret powder for green and blue was used

16 the nice shine of this tube is a lot better seen in real life, it is hard to take pictures of so bright things