8mm Forum: maintenance of a GS 1200 Xenon

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Topic: maintenance of a GS 1200 Xenon

Tom A. Pennock
Master Film Handler

Posts: 250
From: Battle Creek, MI. USA
Registered: Apr 2004

posted April 17, 2008 10:19 AM

I think John Clancy made an EXCELLENT point about using our projector's. Yes, it is indeed about like driving classic car's every so often to keep them in top shape. I have six Bell & Howell 16mm "brand new" unit's and two Eumig's and one Elmo. I think I probably should take ALL the brand new Bell & Howell's out of the factory sealed cartons and indeed run them. I thought about just leaving them "brand new" in the factory boxes for the future. But they probably should be run without any film at all to just keep them going every so often. I think I will indeed keep a chart in regard's to this and run the unit's every so often.

Thank's John for this excellent idea. Otherwise I think the brand new unit's might very well lock up even when never ever used.

Best, Tom

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Hugh McCullough
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 156
From: Old Coulsdon. Surrey. UK
Registered: Oct 2006

posted April 17, 2008 05:13 PM

Video of a cold exploding Xenon lamp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVpD8SWzKFM

The idiots involved were very lucky not to have had more damage inflicted on them.

I had a brand new 4K lamp explode in the lamphouse between changeover cue dots.
It would happen on a Premiere, but luckily I was running on reels, and had a third machine so I did not have to replace the lamp, and diachroic mirror in a hurry.

If handled properly, and only exceeding the lamp life by about 25%, the modern lamp seems to be very stable.

--------------------
EIKI Ex 6100 xenon machine.

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Graham Ritchie
Film God

Posts: 4001
From: New Zealand
Registered: Feb 2006

posted April 17, 2008 08:02 PM

Hugh
That is one very scary video I got a call one night from the cinema as the projectionist that was on had one go "BOOM" as he dropped it while handling it outside its protective sleeve although he had put a welding shield on which is not enough protection he landed up at A/E with cuts and stiches to his hand. The next day I came in and found bits of glass everywhere [Eek!]

and as far away as 30ft, he was very lucky I alone now look after the Xenon lamp changes, if a piece of glass was to hit someone say in neck on a main artery that person could be dead in minutes although the chance of of one going "BOOM" is slim accidents can still happen.

Graham.

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David Kilderry
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 963
From: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Registered: Feb 2006

posted April 18, 2008 04:51 AM

I should have said earlier that the smaller the xenon (like GS 1200), the more stable the lamp ie less chance of an unexpected explosion. We used 350 watt xenons in the Hokushin 35mm slide projectors for years in various cinemas.

Striking difficulty generally means the lamp is nearing the end of its life, but does not necessarily mean it is about to explode. The lamp should strike first go, big or small.

All xenon lamps lose light output as they age, the larger the lamp the steeper the fall-off curve. Xenon lamps do not like hot strikes, they need to cool for around 10 mins and strike cold to preserve their life.

When I was part of the worlds largest cinema operator outside the US, we had Ushio (Christie is USA) from Japan work with us direct on xenon training seminars and had access to their factory labs for some of our failures. They are a very professional organisation with decades of xenon manufacturing experience. We learnt a great deal from them; after all back then we purchased thousands of xenon lamps every year!

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Kevin Faulkner
Film God