The fascinating composition of tanning bed bulbs

So you're curious what actually makes a tanning bed bulb a tanning bed bulb? And how are they different from the fluorescent lights you sit under all day at work? Well, there are seven major components of a tanning bed bulb, and as you'll see, a few that make these bulbs unique to the rest of them.

• Base connects the tanning bed bulb to an external source of power.
  
• Lead-In Wires connect the base to the cathode, which is like an electrical conductor, and emits the electrons during the tanning bed bulb operation.
  
• Stem Press is the cathode support structure that helps to keep it in place. This is also how the bulb ends are hermetically sealed.
  
• Exhaust Tube is how the fill gas and mercury are introduced into the bulb during processing, after which, it is closed off for the remainder of the tanning session.
  
• Fill Gas is an inert gas (meaning that it's not chemically active) that aids in starting and operating the tanning bed bulbs.
  
• Mercury Atoms are in the form of a vapor in the tanning bed bulb, and are struck by electrons. When this happens, the electrons are excited from their ground state to a higher state for a very short time. When they relapse from this 'high', they produce UV photons with short wavelengths.
  
• Phosphor absorbs the UV produced by the Mercury atoms and electrons, and converts it into longer wavelengths, namely UVA, UVB and UVC (although the harmful UVC rays never make it through the glass of the bulb). Phosphor is coated onto the inside of the tanning bed bulb during manufacturing.

It's important to remember that this is just the general composition of tanning bed bulbs, and that each manufacturer has various styles of bulbs for reasons such as brand recognition or achieving specific tanning results.