Sun Swift Tanning Lamps

Tanning lamps (sometimes called tanning bulbs in the United States or tanning tubes in Europe) are the part of a tanning bed, booth or other tanning device which produces ultraviolet light responsible for tanning. While there are literally hundreds of different kinds of tanning lamps, they can usually be classified in two basic groups: low pressure and high pressure. Within the industry, it is common to call high pressure units "bulbs" and low pressure units "lamps", although there are many exceptions and not everyone follows this example. This is likely due to the size of the unit, rather than the type. Both types require an oxygen free environment inside the lamp.

Fluorescent tanning lamps require an electrical ballast to provide power. While an incandescent lamp, like a typical household light bulb uses a resistor filament to restrict the current inside the lamp, tanning lamps do not and instead produce negative resistance. They are plasma devices, like a neon sign, and will flow as much power as you make available to them, even to the point of self destruction.[1] Thus a ballast is needed to regulate the amount of electricity that flows to them.

High pressure bulbs

Typical high pressure bulb. Note the small specks, which are mercury droplets. This is the more common 400W "clip in" or ceramic style.High pressure bulbs are 3 to 5 inches long and typically powered by a ballast with 250 to 2000 watts. The most common is the 400 watt variety that is used as an added face tanner in the traditional tanning bed. High pressure lamps use quartz glass, and as such do not filter UVC. Because UVC can be deadly, a special dichroic filter glass (usually purple) is required that will filter out the UVC and UVB. The goal with high pressure tanning bulbs is to produce an ultra high amount of UVA only. Using a tanning bed or other device with high pressure bulbs but no filter glass is extremely dangerous and should never be done. UVC is used in germicidal lamps, for water purification, and it damages human skin.

The contents of a high pressure lamp are inert gas (such as argon) and mercury.[2] There are no phosphors used, and the mercury is clearly visible if it is not in a gaseous state. Care must be taken when handling the high pressure bulb (and any other quartz bulb) and you should never touch it with your fingers. Leaving even a small amount of oil from your hands will cause premature failure of the bulb, and can even cause it to break, due to the extreme heat generated at normal use, which can cause the oil deposited on the bulb to boil. Because the bulb contains mercury, great care should be used if a bulb is broken, to prevent accidentally exposing yourself to the toxic mercury. Most commercial replacement bulbs come with a special pocket wipe, usually containing alcohol, to clean the bulb in case it is accidentally touched when installing..

 

 

 

Low pressure lamps


Low pressure lamps more closely resemble the common fluorescent lamp used in offices everywhere (see image at top of page). The lamps are sized by using common codes for fluorescent lamps such as F71T12BL50BP In this example, the F71 denotes the length, nominally 71 inches. The T12 section refers to the width of the lamp in 1/8th increments, making a T12 lamp 1.5 inches in diameter. The other numbers are optional, but commonly used, with the BL standing for a blue phosphor when the lamp is active, the 50 indicating a 5% UVB (95% UVA) rating, and the BP indicating bi-pin ends, which all F71 lamps have. Lamps with RDC, or Recessed Dual Connector (or Recessed Dual Contact) lamp ends may have the code RDC on them, and are typically found in F73 and more rarely F72 and F74 sizes. The RDC connector is actually a plastic piece that fits over the two bi-pins and allows the lamps to be installed in telescopic lamp ends. These are less common as the lamp end parts are significantly more expensive for the tanning bed manufacturer to use.

Like all fluorescent lamps, low pressure tanning lamps work when the ballast directs enough potential to the lamp that a plasma is generated inside the lamp. The lamps are coated on the inside with special phosphors and contain a small amount of mercury (20mg typical). Unlike high pressure lamps, the glass that is used in low pressure lamps automatically filters out all UVC. Once the plasma is fully flowing (less than one second), the plasma literally strips away the outer electrons from the mercury, sending them into the phosphor, which produces photons in the proper spectrum for tanning. The electrons, now in a lower energy state, will jump back into place onto the first mercury atom they find with an electron missing.