Point-of-use water treatment system
First Claim
1. A method of detecting the intensity of UV light produced by a bulb assembly, the method comprising:
- providing a bulb assembly having first and second ends and an intermediate portion extending therebetween, the first and second ends having respective filaments therein;
providing a light pipe having a flourescent dye therein, the light pipe including a bulb face, a filament face and an emitting face, the light pipe being configured to direct light incident upon the bulb face toward the emitting face;
orientating the bulb face to primarily receive light from the intermediate portion of the bulb assembly;
exciting the bulb assembly to produce UV light and visible light;
directing UV light from the intermediate portion of the bulb assembly to strike the bulb face thereby causing the light pipe to fluoresce and visible light to be emitted from the emitting face of the light pipe while light from the at least one of the first and second filaments strikes the filament face; and
detecting the relative intensity of the visible light emitted from the emitting face of the light pipe.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention is directed to a point-of-use water treatment system (WTS) unit (20) for filtering and treating contaminants in water. WTS unit (20) may include a first primary coil (74) located in a base unit (22) which inductively power a secondary treatment device such as a UV lamp assembly (24). Secondary treatment device (24) may be a lamp assembly (24) which includes a condensing element (84) to condense mercury in a bulb in the arc path between filaments (444). Maintaining the condensed mercury between filaments (444) serves to reduce the time needed for lamp assembly (24) to produce light emissions of a predetermined intensity upon subsequent energization as compared to allowing the mercury to condense outside the arc path. A reflector assembly (402) may be used in lamp assembly (24) to focus radiation upon conduits (80) carrying water therethrough and away from returning to a bulb assembly (82) from which the radiation was originally emitted. An outer enclosure or housing (400) surrounds the bulb and reflector assemblies (82, 402) such that lamp assembly (24) becomes a generally closed pressure vessel. Also, a light pipe (250) impregnated with a florescent dye may be used to convert UV light into visible light for ease of monitoring the light output intensity of lamp assembly (24). Light pipe (250) also serves as a filter to primarily emit light of a particular wavelength (green) while significantly inhibiting light transmission through light pipe (250) of other wavelengths.
67 Citations
6 Claims
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1. A method of detecting the intensity of UV light produced by a bulb assembly, the method comprising:
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providing a bulb assembly having first and second ends and an intermediate portion extending therebetween, the first and second ends having respective filaments therein;
providing a light pipe having a flourescent dye therein, the light pipe including a bulb face, a filament face and an emitting face, the light pipe being configured to direct light incident upon the bulb face toward the emitting face;
orientating the bulb face to primarily receive light from the intermediate portion of the bulb assembly;
exciting the bulb assembly to produce UV light and visible light;
directing UV light from the intermediate portion of the bulb assembly to strike the bulb face thereby causing the light pipe to fluoresce and visible light to be emitted from the emitting face of the light pipe while light from the at least one of the first and second filaments strikes the filament face; and
detecting the relative intensity of the visible light emitted from the emitting face of the light pipe. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
at least one of the bulb face and the emitting face are polished to enhance light transmissivity.
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3. The method of claim 2 wherein:
the fluorescent dye is green.
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4. The method of claim 3 wherein:
the intensity of the UV light output by the bulb assembly is directly proportional to the intensity of the light emitted by the emitting face.
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5. The method of claim 4 wherein:
the bulb face is focused toward the intermediate portion of the bulb assembly.
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6. The method of claim 4 wherein:
the filament face is generally curved to mate about a cylindrical bulb.
Specification