New HPL 575w

[Ross]

A friend from another theatre in town told me to be aware that new HPLs were easier to break when relamping S4 caps because of a new manufacturing method or some such thing...anyone else hear/experience this? She said they come with a warning label to point the lamps away from your face, but I see that as being common sense regardless...

[Pie4Weebl]

Well first off you shouldn't be holding the glass or plugging the base in when it is not in the fixture, so even if they were more fragile you would never really encounter that while changing the lamp...

[len]

Originally Posted by Pie4Weebl

Well first off you shouldn't be holding the glass or plugging the base in when it is not in the fixture, so even if they were more fragile you would never really encounter that while changing the lamp...

How do you re-lamp an ETC that uses an HPL except to take the end cap off?

[soundlight]

What Pie is saying is that the tail cap should always be in the fixture when you plug it in to test the lamp in order to prevent the lamp from blowing up in your face. Much better to lose a reflector than your eye.

[MNicolai]

Look in an ETC User's Manual. There's a diagram which shows that the correct way to install a lamp is to point the quartz end away from you, with your thumbs on the rear of the cap, all other fingers on the inside of it on the heatsink of the HPL, and then you squeeze the two together until they are snug.

[len]

Originally Posted by soundlight

What Pie is saying is that the tail cap should always be in the fixture when you plug it in to test the lamp in order to prevent the lamp from blowing up in your face. Much better to lose a reflector than your eye.

Reading. It's FUNdamental.

I guess it would help if I read all the words. I blame it on the terrorists. Or the Pilsner Urquell. I got a flat tire. I had mud in my eye.

[derekleffew]

Originally Posted by Ross

A friend from another theatre in town told me to be aware that new HPLs were easier to break when relamping S4 caps because of a new manufacturing method or some such thing...anyone else hear/experience this? She said they come with a warning label to point the lamps away from your face, but I see that as being common sense regardless...

Ross, I'm guessing your friend is reacting to page 4 of this document, (Rev A, released 08/2007; Rev B, released 06/2008). Previous S4 User Manuals did not include such instructions. As other have said, with proper handling and usage, one never touches the envelope, so there is no evidence supporting your friend's claim. Nor have I seen such a warning label on any lamp box. Could you ask your "friend" to produce one?

[MNicolai]

I would guess that it refers more to the fact you're less likely to touch the quartz when you have it pointed away from you, as it doesn't mention anything about exploding lamps, but that's something I've never really thought of before.

Ship? Derek? Either of you know the odds that a lamp might explode simultaneous to being turned on? I know that it's a real possibility for a lamp to explode after it's been on for awhile, maybe there's an oil fingerprint or two on the quartz, but as a general practice, should you specifically avoid turning a lamp on while it's not in the reflector housing, or in the case of fresnels, while the lens assembly is closed?

It's generally accepted that you should never look at a lamp directly if it's not in the fixture, but say you want to test that it works before you put it back together, is that a practice that is just as dangerous, even if your face is turned away from the lamp as to avoid burning up your retinas?

[Sayen]

I was taught that if nothing else, you should replace the housing before applying power. You don't have to screw it into place, just set it back in the instrument.

[ship]

Here I thought this was another case of stump the wizard as it were. Sure have a few contacts, hear a few things, get a few pre-market samples and miss out on something I knew was coming in being announced. Somehow even signing up for the press releases don’t always get me info.

The new HPL the grape vine says is under development - a bit late in coming out if not out yet.

Otherwise I thought it about the new heat sink I heard one company has in being a sort of slippery fiber so as not to be effected by moisture in a potential short situation but very strong and easy to get into the socket bracket without breaking. Big debate in the HPL making industry about aluminum verses fiber sinks.

That or I thought in initially reading about any number of brands - brand not mentioned and probably for the best in not doing so - all brands have the same base globe/lamp very different packaging and sinks so brand neutral is often very safe. I had thought it was about the boxes from one of the four main brands under licence that if you drop the box, “Hi, I’m fumble fingers, I do the lamps”, that lamp has about a 3/4% chance of breaking. This as opposed to another box that falls apart if handled, develops mold if it gets wet and is only 50/50 in being dropped. Or another box that if a tab on one side or the other gets damaged or depressed and you pick it up with that side down, there slides out your lamp package and onto the floor breaks often the lamp. Packaging if together protects the lamp sufficiently but only four tabs holding in the lamp being the problem.

Heard about lamps just blowing? Tested and put into use all four main brands and never heard of such a thing - for me its more about lamp packaging more than anything else in getting the lamp to the fixture for a start. After that and once in the fixture, for me at least no difference though I do lament the days of aluminum sinks which is less a problem now that ETC I think refined their quality control.

This all given... yep no matter the brand or lamp type, turning it on without a protective housing is normally and or always a rather Darwin type way of dealing with lamps that even if you’ did everything right in installing could end your career in an instant short of following the proper precautions. IN general, no a lamp won’t explode - still it’s the 1:1000 lamps perhaps that do which will seriously injure you.