why do fluorescent tubes have to be round?

[ColJack]

couldn't they make them thin and flat? is there a specific reason that they are round in section?

thin, flat and about 3 inches wide.. think of the ceiling lights you could make with those....

 

[big-all]

anything over a few inches would be so brittle that you couldnt use them even oval would be quite weak if you went say to when the thin side was half the wide edge

 

[Spark123]

Round is the strongest shape given they are pressurised gas.

 

[ColJack]

but you'd just use thicker glass.. or plastic..
why don't they make tubes out of plastic?

 

[ColJack]

Round is the strongest shape given they are pressurised gas.

they are at 0.3 atmospheres.. so a lower than air pressure..

 

[Spark123]

That is about 4.35PSI below atmosphere - round is still strongest.

 

[ColJack]

fair enough..
the talk on the LED thread about OLED panels got me thinking why they couldn't make a flat fluorescent panel..

 

[DCC]

Nothing to do with pressure if you ask me... the discharge needs a nice clear route - if you made it flat you'd need to make it think enough that the plasma(?) had somewhere to go without hitting the sides.

 

[ColJack]

I have these brain farts every now and again and do nothing about them.. then a few years later I see a product that is very similar to the idea I had..

take the recent "blade runner" tool.. I thought of something like that about 6 years ago...
and they now make plastic conduit boxes that have interchangeable "ports" on them so you can make up ends, tees, straight throughs, 90's angles etc with a mix and match of 20 or 25 ways.. and they can be altered in situ to extend a run etc....

 

[Taylortwocities]

Same here:

cats eyes, the internet, post-it notes, WD-40

all my ideas, just didn't around to getting them to market.


PS the C5 was not one of mine

 

[333rocky333]

Little vid on how they make U tubes.

http://www.jimonlight.com/2009/09/15/how-fluorescent-tubes-are-made/

 

[big-all]

Little vid on how they make U tubes.

http://www.jimonlight.com/2009/09/15/how-fluorescent-tubes-are-made/[/QUOTE]

utube in u tube lol

 

[ericmark]

I seem to remember a tube with dimples many years ago. A very thick tube. Seem to remember 4 pins each end? Never considered why.

Also you can get tubes with built in reflectors.

 

[johnnykc]

I thought of an ingenious way to squeeze the last toothpaste out of the tube.......

 

[ColJack]

me too, but my idea is more like make the toothpaste in little sachets, like the brown sauce comes in.. rather than put it in tubes..