Lamp cathode-to-ballast interconnect and method

Abstract

A lamp cathode-to-ballast interconnect is provided in combination with a lamp having elongated cathodes and ballast circuitry for supplying power to the cathodes. The lamp cathode-to-ballast interconnect comprises a plurality of conductive clips connected to the ballast circuitry. Each clip has a generally flat portion connected at a first end to ballast circuitry and has a pinching groove formed through the flat portion and extending to a cathode-receiving opening at a second end. The interconnect further comprises a loom for holding the lamp cathodes. The loom comprises, for each cathode, a pair of cathode-receiving support grooves separated by a space in which a second end of an associated conductive clip is to be received. Walls of each of the pair of cathode-receiving support grooves grip therein-received portions of the cathode with sufficient force to enable a gas-tight contact to be made with its associated conductive clip when the cathode is received within the pinching groove of the clip. In a method of connecting elongated cathodes from a lamp to ballast circuitry for a lamp, the cathodes are gripped and inserted by machine implementation into respective pairs of cathode-receiving support grooves of the loom. A conductive clip is moved into a respective clip-receiving space in the loom so that the pinching groove of the clip receives and pinches a cathode and completes a gas-tight connection between the clip and the cathode.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.