Electric Lampmaking - bulb sealing

This is a small machine I built to facilitate the sealing of all kinds of lamps by hand. The filament or arc tube mounted on a glass stem assembly is placed on a steel pin taken from an old sealex production machine, and the bulb is suspended from above by a vacuum chuck. The two are connected to a parallel drive assembly via a splined shaft which rotates them simultaneously, the speed being adjustable by a motor controller on the front panel. In the background is a set of three multijet premix fires fed by gas, wind and oxygen - these do the main work of preheating, glass sealing and annealing. In the foreground is a pair of single jet pinfires, which attain much higher and concentrated temperatures to sever the lower cullet portion of the bulb after it has been fused to the glass stem of the inner mount assembly. The gas flow rates are set by valves and venturi injectors on the front panel, the flow to each being switched on or off via solenoids controlled in the necessary sequence by a rotary electrical switch on the front panel. This small and flexible machine is not fast, but allows the sealing of pretty much any lamp type with the necessary mechanical adjustments of bulb height and gas flow to the fires.

[@kevxsi16v]

Nice work Mr H!

[@seanwarner2360]

Brilliant work

[@thepurdychannel8866]

The science behind making lights

[@randacnam7321]

Only improvement I see is adding spark ignitors for the jets so you don't have to fiddle with a lighter. Also, I want one.

[@jamesdhooker]

Brilliant observation! In fact in the mean time I added a small steel tube at the face of each burner, to provide a hydrogen flame pilot light and perform the same function. Thanks to the high flame speed of hydrogen it does not blow out, and also does not create soot that would otherwise foul the adjacent main burners.

[@FrontSideBus]

Fantastic!

[@cremationpete]

Mercury vapour?