StarLight

[ebscreen]

Two exposure units.

PG&E, the local power monopoly, puts us on time of use metering starting November. Luckily the majority
of our utilities is gas, but still.

[3Deep]

Here are prints of the films we shot this morning the deer is my art and was a simprocess film seped at 55lpi  25 angle back then...the dolphin was from Scott Fresner seped at 55lpi and at 25 angle.  the deer was burn on a 305 yellow mesh screen,  the dolphin on a 160 white mesh (which called for a 305) both look good the deer better because of the right mesh count but the dolphin didn't do bad being on the wrong mesh, both burn at 9 seconds each washout very easy ( no pressure washer, garden hose sprayer)

[Sbrem]

are those the white underbases printed in black?

Steve

[ZooCity]

We're getting a Starlight 3140. 

Two reasons:

• Takes up less space in the screen room than our big MH + 2up vac frame setup.
• Uses far less power.

Side benefit is we don't have light all over the place when shooting screens, an enclosed unit is nice in certain layouts and will really dovetail with coating, pinning film where needed and running CTS all in one space.

We'll save about $3k up front as dropping the 23-29a draw of the Olec 5k will keep us from needing to run more power into the space.  Not to mention we aren't drawing that 23a for hours at a go and running up the meter.  The Olec's and prob most MH units with a shutter do kick down to a low power mode with the shutter closed but it doesn't help us too much as some of our burn times are well up in the minutes, not seconds with certain screens. (HSA primarily)

I wondered about DC/WB durability but that appears to be resolved at this point (pun?).

I also wondered about detail and edge shape.  I watched some video someone posted to when I was sick in bed and had nothing to do about a month or two back.  It had I think Scott Fresner and Richard Greaves talking about new gear they saw at an expo.  Greaves did a MH v. LED and saw only a very slight difference between them that he felt would have zero impact on textile printing and only be a real concern for very high detail flatstock, etc.  Nuf said for me, I respect Richard's opinion above all when it comes to stencils. 

Anatol's unit makes a lot more sense in it's size (runs 2 screens at up to 23x33 at once) and with the vac pressure triggering the exposure v. a drawdown timer.  I don't understand why the Starlight 3140 is just a few inches shy of being able to shoot (2) 23x31 screens, seems weird they wouldn't just add a few inches so it could do this.  We shoot 2up all day in here and it would save a lot of time on our longer burning stencils.   Regardless, I'm not buying anything from Anatol ever again and I did mention these two things to my M&R rep so maybe they'll take it into consideration.   

[244]

I would kill to see a close up (loupe) photo of the same film burned with a MH and a LED unit.
Then same thing with CTS and film. Of course having exposure dialed in for both units would
be necessary though.

I might could pull this off if we slow down a little bit.  I can take some stuff to Kevin's at River City if he's got a working demo of the Vastex unit and maybe he'll let me run some tests.  I can't promise anything but if at all possible I will do it, with Kevin's consent of course.  Doesn't a few of the starlight owners have their old MH units that they could test or is most everyone coming from a much lower powered light source to the LED?

Again, I'd kill to see this. So just name the person....

We run two metal halide units to keep up with diazo/demand. So as long as quality is the same or better it's a no brainer,
but I've yet to see the visual proof there unfortunately. I understand that exposing screens hundreds of times faster is
going to be exciting no matter what, but excitement without attention to the proofs doesn't sell me. Too many variables
involved in our process to add more for the sake of speed.

You have no risk with our unit. If you are not 100% happy with it we will take it back and give you all your money back(including freight). If you are going to use comparisons on m.v, to LED do yourself a favor and use the data from the Starlight. All LED units are not the same.

[T Shirt Farmer]

Take a few minutes to check out the Vastex unit... fits 2 frames and is a few thousand $ less than M&R

[ebscreen]

We use 25x36" frames, so it will only fit one of ours unfortunately. I'll be taking a close look at all available options
but would love it if the manufacturers had close up pics of what there unit is capable of. Exposure can be such a mystery...

[Gilligan]

Eb, you can do this yourself.  Is all your work fine details and halftones?

If not then replace ONE of your MH units with an LED unit and do the side by side yourself.  Even if it isn't good enough for you, you could still run all the "basic" stuff that the LED would work for and run the fine high brow stuff on old faithful.  Best case scenario it's everything you ever wanted in an exposer unit, worst case scenario is you have best of both worlds.

You already take up two spots with exposure units now... This would also provide you with the backup you need if something were to go wrong.

Get table top version and if it's all that and the bag of chips, then slap it on top of the exposure unit you will keep as a backup and you regain one exposure units floor space.

Send me a pizza for all the money and time I just saved you.

[ebscreen]

Genius! Your address for your pizza prize?

[Orion]

We are ditching our dual cure emulsion for diazo, SP-1400 to be exact, do the LED units have the broad spectral output needed for this?

[244]

We are ditching our dual cure emulsion for diazo, SP-1400 to be exact, do the LED units have the broad spectral output needed for this?

Cant answer for others but our will work great on SP-1400

[jvanick]

I use sp1400 with our starlight with no problems at all.

160 mesh screens at around 40 sec.
200-230 mesh screens at around 27 sec.
305 mesh screens at around 21 sec.

we've run 1000+ pc discharge orders with no breakdown in the screens whatsoever.

[RonH]

We are ditching our dual cure emulsion for diazo, SP-1400 to be exact, do the LED units have the broad spectral output needed for this?

The Starlight units have been tested by several emulsion manufacturers and many customers, so far we have not found an emulsion that it would not work with.  SBQ (pure Photopolymer) emulsions will be  faster, but it works just as good with the Diazos and Dual-Cures when the correct exposure time is dialed in.   Because there are some major differences between the different LED units in the field, this statement applies to the Starlight units.

Daryl, it was great to get to make some screens with you and visit with you this morning. 

Ron Hopkins
NuArc Sales Mgr
M&R Sales and Service Co.

[dirkdiggler]

Ron, how are exposure times with the starlight without glass as compared with?  I have no glass in my Starlight and my times with emulsions mentioned above are way different.  When can you come by my shop?

[jvanick]

We run glass in ours, until we get our I-Image.

what are your times like for SP1400 without glass?