Many sign people new to the industry associate electric signs with digital message boards or LED-lit boxes. Maybe some remember from childhood that there was something called “neon,” and not only to create “retro” designs. But many customers who want a unique sign today often ask a shop, “Can you do that in neon?” So, here I will explain some basics you should know – and some necessary steps for working with neon.

许多初入标识行业的新人容易将电子标识和电子信息板或是LED灯箱的概念弄混。也许有些人从小就记得有一种叫做“霓虹灯”的照明标识，霓虹灯的存在不仅仅是为了制作出“复古”的标识设计，如今许多想购买独特标识的客户也会经常像商店询问：“你能用霓虹灯技术设计出这个标识吗？”所以，在这里我将解释一些你应该知道的基本知识，以及一些在制作霓虹灯标识时会经历的必要步骤。

In short, a neon sign consists of one or more neon tubes and additional elements (structural and electrical). Every neon tube is a custom, hand-made electric lamp with particular properties, fabricated in a special neon glass shop (most sign companies now outsource glasswork to specialized shops).

简而言之，霓虹灯由一个或多个氖管和附加元件（结构部件和导电气体）组成。每个氖管都是一种手工定制的电灯，具有独一无二的性质，它们由专门的霓虹灯玻璃店制造（大多数的标识公司现在就会将玻璃制作的工作外包给专门业的商店去做）。

Neon tubes are essentially linear light sources (in contrast to the point light of LED) made out of glass tubing, the only material capable of with-standing the operating conditions inside. The glass tube can be bent into almost any shape. As with every electric lamp, it requires two electrical connections – electrodes – to become part of a closed electrical circuit. The electrodes are not luminous and fill roughly 1-2 in. at the ends, but the glass tube can be bent in a way that these electrodes are practically invisible.

氖管基本上是线性光源（这与LED的点光源特性相反），它由玻璃管制成，这是唯一能够承受其内部工作条件的材料。玻璃管可以弯曲成几乎任何形状，与每个电灯一样，它必须通过连接电极来成为闭合电路的一部分。电极不发光，并且填充在两端大约1-2英寸处，但玻璃管可以通过折弯成各种形状的方式将这些电极隐藏起来。

Neon tubes can be made to light in one of many colors; the final color (or spectrum) of the emitted light is created by the combination of the gas fill, eventually a fluorescent coating on the inside of the glass tube and maybe the use of colored glass acting as light filter. Every ionized gas lights in a characteristic color. Pure neon gas emits a reddish light, while fluorescent coatings on the inside of the glass tube and colored glass or different gases create other colors. Some (red, blue and pinkish-white) can be made in clear glass so that the tube is practically invisible when not in operation – an advantage for some designs (such as the window-hanging sign shown above).

点亮氖管的颜色选择多种多样，但最终的发光颜色（或光谱）以填充的气体为基础，并由玻璃管内部的荧光涂层或是彩色的玻璃作为滤光器来决定。每种电离的气体被点亮时发光不尽相同。纯氖气散发微红光，在玻璃管内部的荧光涂层和彩色玻璃或不同气体的影响下产生了其他颜色。一些（红色、蓝色、粉红色和白色）霓虹灯可以采用透明玻璃制作，这样在不发光时，你几乎看不见灯管，这样的设计能够很好地融入某些环境（如上面所示的窗户挂牌）。

As the electrical current flows through the gas inside the glass tube – always embarking on the shortest path – the glass tube between the two electrodes must remain a single, continuous path for the current, without forks or dead-end sidearms. Thus, while a block character “L” is simple, an “O” cannot be closed and must be made like a “C” with adjacent ends and a small gap.

当电流通过玻璃管内的气体时（一般都会选择最短的渠道），在两个电极之间的玻璃管道必须保持单一连续的电流通路，没有分叉和死路。因此，空心的字符“L”样式过于简单，由于不能完全闭合，“O”型字符样式也不太现实，只有制作成两端相邻和间隙较小的“C”型字符样式最为合适。

To execute a more-complicated “E” in a single piece, the tube starts with the bottom line, then the first half of the vertical stroke, then into the center horizontal line up to the end. There, the tube is bent back 180° exactly behind the center line – and thus invisible up to the point where the vertical stroke turns and continues to the top. Finally, the tube is bent back to the front and continues as the vertical, upper part before terminating to the right, as in the illustration above.

关于“E”字型灯管的制作，首先让我们从灯管的底部开始看起，折弯使灯管的上半部分呈垂直状，最后进入灯管的中央水平线。此时，管道向后折弯180°，恰好位于中心线下方，位于下方的玻璃管在经过折弯后向后延伸至“E”字型的中心，再折弯呈垂直状一直延伸到“E”字型顶端，这样之前的直线灯管便被很好的隐藏在整体灯管的下方。最后，如上图所示，将玻璃管折弯向前并在经过垂直处理之后，在右上方进行玻璃管的收尾工作。

Also, with smaller size text (up to 8 in. high) it is common not to make each character a separate tube, but to connect the characters (as in hand-written script). However, to make the interconnections invisible, they are painted black and called “blocked-out sections.”

另外，对于尺寸较小的标识（高约8英寸），通常不会将每个字符设置为单独的管道，而是使用拼接字符。但是，为了使相互连接的边缘不可见，它们的边缘就会被涂成黑色，被称为“封闭部分”。

Normally, the exact tube layout is created with the neon glass shop so that the glass shop will know the total stretched length of the neon tube. From the length and number of tubes, the electrical parts required are dimensioned; the size, weight and placement determine the structural design of the sign’s body.

通常情况下，霓虹灯管的准确布局是由霓虹灯玻璃商店来安排的，这样玻璃商店就会知道霓虹灯管的总拉伸长度。从玻璃管的长度和数量来看，所有需要的电气部件都是有尺寸规定的，大小、重量和位置决定了标识本身的结构设计。

As neon tubes are unique, the power supply must be matched to the tube – “one size fits all” does not apply here. The tube length, diameter (the smaller, the more restricted the electrical flow) and the type of filling gas (depending on the color) are the parameters necessary to calculate the correct power supply. Neon power supplies can be “core and coil” transformers or electronic power supplies.

由于霓虹灯管是独一无二的，因此电源必须与灯管相匹配——通用的尺寸在这里是不适用的。灯管的长度、直径（直径越小，电流越受限制）和填充气体类型（取决于颜色）是计算电源流通所需参数的几个基础要素。霓虹灯电源可以使用变压器或电子电源。

In contrast to LEDs, which work at a low voltage (commonly 12 or 24 V) and high currents of several amperes of direct current, neon tubes operate at higher voltages (a blue, 4-ft.-long tube of 15mm diameter takes 742 V to light) and lower amounts of alternating current (a standard operating current for neon is 0.025 amps only).

与在低电压（通常为12或24V）和高达几安培的直流电的情况下工作的LED相比，霓虹灯管则是在更高的电压（长约4英尺的15mm直径蓝色玻璃管需要742 V的电压点亮）和较低的交流电（霓虹灯的标准工作电流仅为0.025安培）的情况下工作。