"And to Tim's question we're really facing a series of issues around the ability for manufacturers to produce a reliable burner that will last. The shapes we are now testing are simpler forms that take on board the manufacturing constraints but we are still being told they are problematic to produce. I don't really understand why our alternate shapes can create such a problem?"
Obviously, these are probably manual labor involved to produce the shape. How is the phosphor applied evenly inside the bulb? I can see on the bottom of the normal CFL helixes that there is a thicker layer of phosphor that appears to impede the transfer of light from the UV-activated phosphor exposed to the plasma discharge; maybe there is problem in applying the phosphor after the shape is made? Or is the phosphor applied before the tube is bent? Can phosphors survive the temperatures used to bend glass? Knowing nothing about CFL bulb production, exactly HOW is the phosphor applied? Is it like the phosphor screen to an imaging tube e.g. the phosphor is apparently in an aquatic suspention and the water allowed to evaporate, leaving the phosphor grains uniformly distributed? Is that the problem?
If so, maybe the production bottleneck is in applying the phosphor?
Maybe a production apparatus could be developed where the a flexible tube could be inserted into the CFL bulb, with one end having an applicator that would spray out the phosphor solution in the form of a fine mist while a mechanism would uniformly move the mister through the CFL tube? How would you create a phosphor mist? A mechanism that would use an ultrasonic crystal where you would shoot the phosphor liquid on so that it would shatter into a zillion pieces?
