EN IEC 60188 High Pressure Mercury Vapor Lamps - Performance Characteristics

The standard "EN IEC 60188 High-pressure mercury vapor lamps - Performance characteristics", which is based on a European standard and subsequently published by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), specifies the performance requirements for high-pressure mercury vapor lamps for general lighting purposes, with or without a red-corrected fluorescent coating. For some of the requirements given in this standard, reference is made to the relevant lamp data sheet. For some lamps, these data sheets are included in this standard. For other lamps covered by this standard, the relevant data is provided by the lamp manufacturer or the responsible vendor. The requirements of this standard relate only to type testing.

The requirements and tolerances permitted by this standard correspond to the testing of a type test sample provided by the manufacturer for this purpose. In principle, this type test sample should consist of units with characteristics specific to the manufacturer's production and as close as possible to the production centre point values. With the tolerances given in the standard, products manufactured in accordance with the type test sample can be expected to conform to the standard for the majority of production. However, due to the spread of production, it is inevitable that products will occasionally fall outside the specified tolerances. The standard "IEC 60410 Sampling plans and procedures for inspection by attributes" applies for guidance on sampling plans and procedures for inspection by attributes.

A mercury vapor lamp is a high intensity discharge lamp that uses an arc passed through vaporized mercury in a high pressure tube to create very bright light directly from its arc.

For the purposes of this standard, in addition to the terms and definitions given in “IEC 60050-845 International electrotechnical dictionary (IEV) - Part 845: Lighting”, the following apply:

• A high-pressure mercury (vapor) lamp is a high-intensity discharge lamp in which most of the light is produced, directly or indirectly, by radiation from mercury operating at a partial pressure above 100 kilopascals. The term includes clear, phosphor-coated (mercury fluorescent) and mixed lamps. In a fluorescent mercury discharge lamp, light is produced partly by mercury vapor and partly by a phosphor layer excited by the ultraviolet radiation of the discharge.
• Nominal value is an approximate quantity used to specify or describe a lamp.
• The nominal value is the quantitative value for the characteristic of a lamp for specified operating conditions.
• Lamp starting voltage is the voltage at the lamp terminals where the lamp starts.
• Minimum open circuit voltage for stable operation is the minimum open circuit voltage to be provided by the inductive ballast for stable operation of the lamp.
• The first readings are the starting and warm-up characteristics of a lamp measured before aging and the electrical and photometric characteristics of a lamp measured at the end of the aging period.
• The red ratio is the ratio of the luminous flux emitted by the lamp in the red part of the visible spectrum to the total luminous flux of the lamp. For the purposes of this standard, the red part is defined as the part of the visible spectrum containing wavelengths above 600 nm.
• A reference ballast is a special inductive type ballast designed to provide comparison standards for use in testing ballasts, selecting reference lamps, and testing regular production lamps under standardized conditions.
• The calibration current of a reference ballast is the value of the current on which the calibration and control of the reference ballast is based.
• Type testing is a test or series of tests performed on a type test specimen for the purpose of checking whether the design of a particular product conforms to the requirements of the relevant standard.
• A type test sample is a sample consisting of one or more similar units submitted by the manufacturer or responsible vendor for a type test purpose.

The lamp requirements are specified in this standard as follows:

• A lamp claiming conformity to this standard must comply with the requirements of the standard “IEC 62035 Discharge lamps (excluding fluorescent lamps) - Safety features”.
• A lamp shall be designed to perform reliably under normal and accepted use. In general, the requirements given apply to 95 percent of production.
• For the purposes of this standard, the following definitions are used as a classification according to the nominal voltage at the lamp terminals:
  • Lamp voltage range 70 Volts - 180 Volts
  • Lamp voltage range at least 180 Volts
• The dimensions of a lamp must comply with the values ​​specified in the relevant lamp data sheet.
• The cover on a finished lamp must comply with the IEC 60061-1 standard.
• A lamp must start and remain lit for at least 1 minute within the start-up time specified in the relevant lamp data sheet.
• A lamp must reach the warm-up voltage at the lamp terminals within the warm-up time specified in the relevant lamp data sheet.
• Tests should be carried out before ageing using the measurement method given in the annex of this standard (Annex A).
• Normally, at 100 percent of the nominal supply voltage, lamps should be expected to start satisfactorily at temperatures down to minus 18 degrees.

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