LED Bulbs Already Failing

[Homer]

come on guys, somebody in texas has to have a Starlight that they can load in the back of their car and take to Alan's shop...  (or even let him bring some screens to image in their shop)

Anybody in my neck of the woods (chicago) is more than welcome to bring your screens, film, emulsion, etc to our shop to test with.

from what I recall, Al had a starlight in there for a while? thought he did some testing before.

Starlight + DTS = move on to other areas, you have screens covered.

this is turning comical. I can't believe this is still an issue..sell that turd and buy a real unit.

[screenprintguy]

Alan, maybe put in a request with Ron H for a demo, he's really cool, has been in the imaging industry for dam near a life time and would show up right at your shop with a unit to use as you want for the afternoon.

[IntegrityShirts]

Exposure calculators, test strips, percent dot held & lost, D-max, all that crap doesn't mean anything right now based on THAT picture. That's just unacceptable unless the emulsion is bad.

[jvanick]

Exposure calculators, test strips, percent dot held & lost, D-max, all that crap doesn't mean anything right now based on THAT picture. That's just unacceptable unless the emulsion is bad.

I agree... that's SEVERE under exposure, even up at 60 seconds...

I'm wondering if Vastex got a bad batch of LEDs in your unit.

[GKitson]

OK, when you can't find something where you expect to find it, you start looking everyplace else.

Gonna take a pointer from the 'puter tech support guys, "Is it plugged in?" is the first question when it won't run.  Second question is what is the power company giving you, get out your multimeter and check voltage.  Are you getting 110, or 102, or 114?  Lets cover the basics....

Then the question becomes if voltage is not correct how does that effect UV output, what happens?  Is voltage drop directly proportionally to UV output?  5% drop would be 104 volts = 385 UV, not so good for our photopolymers I would guess.

Does the problem only happen when the compressor is running, could be changing the leg on 3 phase could eliminate that variable if your service is close to maxed out.

Pierre you were a voltage jockey in the Navy, your opinion?

Remember, looking for reasons other than the obvious...

[DannyGruninger]

come on guys, somebody in texas has to have a Starlight that they can load in the back of their car and take to Alan's shop...  (or even let him bring some screens to image in their shop)

Anybody in my neck of the woods (chicago) is more than welcome to bring your screens, film, emulsion, etc to our shop to test with.

I'm fixing to end this and just go buy alan a new unit LOL....... Who is with me and is willing to pitch in 

[Colin]

If I could, I would jump in with ya Danny.

[RonH]

Since a couple of you have suggested that I take the Starlight into Alan's shop,I have to speak up and let you know that I took the Starlight into Alan's shop several months ago and he made several screens on it.  He seemed to be very pleased with the results, even when really hitting it with the pressure washer and rubbing the emulsion to see if any of the color would rub off on a white t-shirt.  He checked it very thoroughly and said it was holding dots that he had not been able to hold before.  He seemed to be impressed with the speed, saying that even at one screen at a time on the Starlight that he could easily get more throughput on the Starlight.  I have taken the Starlight to many shops across the country and into Canada and it does the job.  We still manufacture MH units, have been since the early 70's, so I am not trying to say that MH is old school or fading away.  There could be areas where the MH is a better choice, but there are a lot of things to like about the Starlight.  From many demos that I have done and followups with customers, I can tell you that the Starlight is doing a great job in many shops across the globe.

Ron Hopkins
NuArc Sales Mgr.
M&R Sales and Service Co.
ron.hopkins@mrprint.com
847-997-2487

[Vastex]

We were a little curious with the rub test on the squeegee side of the screen so we threw a screen outside in direct sunlight for 2.5 minutes with Murakami Aquasol. I rubbed 3 times with relatively light pressure. The photo attached is what we ended up with. Luckily we have a nice, sunny day today to give this a shot. Nothing came off on the shirt side that was directly facing the sun. This was not by far any kind of scientific test, but we wanted to put it out there anyway.

-Paul

[markvas]

I'll chip in on the new machine.

[GKitson]

I'll chip in on the new machine.

Mark, Mark, Rich, Richard how about your opinions on my voltage questions?

[UnderPressureSP]

Alan if I were in your shoes I would send these results over to vastex and ask them what they would recommend for emulsion for there unit?  I would also test the voltage on your unit to see if you are losing power when the LEDs turn on but I doubt it.  Green Galaxy did make a emulsion for LED use but I don't know how it will work on your unit.  We got a free sample a week or so back that we our testing this week.   At 60 secs on a 305 you shouldn't be getting these results since LEDs are suppose to burning faster than a 6k lamp.  What emulsion are  you using? 
It seems like the LED philosophy is that you burn the screen and than post harden it with light but with diazo emulsion you only get one chance to create this link.  So it seems like post exposure is what your missing.  I am against post exposure with diazo but  it does work with pure photopolymers. 

[jvanick]

I just ran the swab test on a screen here with Saati PHU2... until I rubbed super hard, i got no color transfer.

[mimosatexas]

We were a little curious with the rub test on the squeegee side of the screen so we threw a screen outside in direct sunlight for 2.5 minutes with Murakami Aquasol. I rubbed 3 times with relatively light pressure. The photo attached is what we ended up with. Luckily we have a nice, sunny day today to give this a shot. Nothing came of on the shirt side that was directly facing the sun. This was by far any kind of scientific test, but we wanted to put it out there anyway.

-Paul

I have done this test (and others like 21 step test) a few times exposing HV outside before I had my large vacuum frame when it was my only option for exposing my flag screens.  With Aquasol HV exposed outside under film and a sheet of 1/4 plexi (all I had at the time to hold the film down) here in Austin on a "normal" sunny day I got zero rub off full exposure after around 30-45 seconds of exposure.  I was usually able to get usable screens anywhere from 15 to 45 seconds, but going for a full minute or longer would almost always cause issues with washout of the image as the UV would simply expose through the dark areas of the film.  I was hardly scientific about it as the art was massive spot colors (not a halftone or fine line in site) and printed purposefully distressed on rough canvas, but rub test results did not result in blue at 30ish seconds or more (usually).  I can't imagine a 2.5 minute exposure outside on a sunny day resulting in that kind of rub test failure.  I wouldn't even get that kind of rub test failure on my DIY flo bulb unit after 2.5 minutes...

Not doubting your results or implying anything, just commenting that the HV is a fairly fast exposing emulsion in my experience, especially in direct sunlight.

[Vastex]

We were a little curious with the rub test on the squeegee side of the screen so we threw a screen outside in direct sunlight for 2.5 minutes with Murakami Aquasol. I rubbed 3 times with relatively light pressure. The photo attached is what we ended up with. Luckily we have a nice, sunny day today to give this a shot. Nothing came of on the shirt side that was directly facing the sun. This was by far any kind of scientific test, but we wanted to put it out there anyway.

-Paul

I have done this test (and others like 21 step test) a few times exposing HV outside before I had my large vacuum frame when it was my only option for exposing my flag screens.  With Aquasol HV exposed outside under film and a sheet of 1/4 plexi (all I had at the time to hold the film down) here in Austin on a "normal" sunny day I got zero rub off full exposure after around 30-45 seconds of exposure.  I was usually able to get usable screens anywhere from 15 to 45 seconds, but going for a full minute or longer would almost always cause issues with washout of the image as the UV would simply expose through the dark areas of the film.  I was hardly scientific about it as the art was massive spot colors (not a halftone or fine line in site) and printed purposefully distressed on rough canvas, but rub test results did not result in blue at 30ish seconds or more (usually).  I can't imagine a 2.5 minute exposure outside on a sunny day resulting in that kind of rub test failure.  I wouldn't even get that kind of rub test failure on my DIY flo bulb unit after 2.5 minutes...

Not doubting your results or implying anything, just commenting that the HV is a fairly fast exposing emulsion in my experience, especially in direct sunlight.

How was your screen coated? Mine was actually relatively thick because the Aquasol is a fairly thin emulsion. I had a 3/2 coat with the rounded edge of the scoop coater. I'm sure the sun is a little brighter as well since you are in Texas. We are in Pennsylvania so our intensity will be a lot different.