Display panel with expansible, metallic capsule containing mercury and method of making said capsule

Abstract

A mercury capsule comprises a mercury-filled metal tube, of measured capacity, having closed ends, each of which includes end portions which are cold welded and resistance welded to form an hermetic seal and intermediate portions, which are crimped closed. The length of the intermediate crimped portions of each capsule is designed to permit the mercury within the capsule to expand and stress the lightly crimped portions, during processing operations of a device in which a capsule is mounted, without opening the hermetically sealed end portions of each capsule. The method of the invention comprises filling a metal tube with mercury, closing the open end, and forming light crimps in the tube at spaced locations to form individual capsules, each of which is filled with a measured quantity of mercury. The crimped portions of the tube are processed to form lightly sealed portions on each side of the chamber which contains the mercury and tightly closed portions adjacent to the lightly closed portions at the ends of the capsules. The two closed portions have different resistance to opening under mercury vapor pressure at elevated temperatures, with the lightly closed portion being able to open at a temperature at which the tightly closed portion will not open.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.