All devices manufactured at our company use a product called Betalight. A Betalight is a sealed capsule, internally coated with phosphor and filled with a low energy radioactive gas called tritium, which activates the phosphor to produce light. All product is manufactured to strict procedures and inspected at all stages of production to drawing and customer requirements.
The first step in the manufacturing process consists of molding raw glass tubing to shapes and sizes specified by the customer. This process is quite time consuming, and must be performed by trained glass blowers with the use of glass torches and other glass forming tools. Following completion of the glass molding process, all capsule must be annealed (heated and cooled) to a prescribed schedule to remove stresses within the glass. The next stage in the manufacturing process involves coating the capsules with phosphors of colours and requirements specified by the customer. This process is very meticulous and repetitive, requiring a lot of patience from the operators. All tubes are first washed with an acid and water solution in order to remove any foreign particles within the units. A type of adhesive or bonding solution is then prepared and a specific quantity is distributed on the inner walls of each capsule. Next, phosphor is inserted and bonded to the adhesive. The capsules are then cleaned of excess phosphor.
The next process is the most technically advanced of all, as the Betalights or capsules are then loaded at a gas tritium filling rig where each is evacuated of air and filled with the appropriate amount of tritium gas to enable customer brightness requirements to be met. Betalights are then sealed with a glass torch. The sealing process may also require a secondary stage as straight tubes of small diameters may also be sealed in smaller sections with a CO2 laser cutting machine.
All Betalight products are then subjected to a series of tests. A thermal test is performed where Betalights are subjected to high temperatures to ensure each unit does not experience a significant reduction in luminance or depict any anomaly with the phosphor coating. Betalights are then washed in a chemical solution and tested for radiological cleanliness. Only then are Betalights assembled into a variety of products or shipped directly to the end user for assembly.