Hey guys ... catching the bug of design again.

Can someone give me some feedback on a possible light engine design? I have seen the patents and work done with light tunnels/tubes, and I am wondering whether tunnels could be used to aggregate point light sources with concentrating the heat.

What if two tunnels brought light together from, say, two 150w ceramics, and used small mirrors adjacent to each other to overlap their outputs. If the arcs were set vertical, but the mirrors aligned horizontally, you should be able to get a virtual arc that is close to a square or rectangle of light in size similar to some bulbs used currently. You could even, with the right bulb envelope, put the mirrors side by side with a third bulb.

I have found with my projector that I get a fair amount of wiggle-room for the bulb without really affecting my light output, so jamming the virtual/real arcs together should be a non-issue, I think?

Opinions?

I would think if you created an image of the arc...had the rays correctly aimed, and an even distribution, you could do this. And I had considered it. But mm adjustments aren't as easy for me to master as they should be....Thus I kinda scrapped the idea.

When you use a tapered lightpipe like in your sketch you need convergent rays from the bulb, otherwise the angle between the incoming rays and reflected rays get's smaller and smaller till the direction changes. With a long enough tunnel almost no light will come out anymore. Make a drawing of the reflections inside the tunnel and you will see what i mean.
You will also get diffuse light at the end (like a kaleidoscope with many light sources), but for the lenses we need a point light source.