...so in another thread there have been some questions about diazo emulsions, and waterbase/discharge. We have burned a dozen or so screens with our Starlight and I can post some findings!
...Our unit is made to burn a single 23x31 at a time. Vacuum drawdown does seem to be around 10 seconds, you can easily tell when its done.
...we use CCI WR14 emulsion, which is the faster replacement for WR25. With our previous unit (flo-tube), WR25 exposed at about 3:30-4:00, and when we switched to WR14, we did see exposure time drop to 2:30.
With the Starlight and WR14 emulsion, we have burned our screens as low as 15 sec and as long as 25 sec! I think we may settle on high mesh counts at 20sec, and lower mesh counts at 25sec. At these speeds, the mesh color seems to make a difference, too, so I think we will test all white mesh at 25 sec to be safe. Images are just as sharp (if not sharper) than our FL unit would produce. And I do seem to notice the screens seem to be burned more "thoroughly", for lack of a better term....by that I mean there is less noticeable interference from areas covered by the milky-clear blanks film areas vs areas of no film at all.
...we do not do much WB/DC, so I cant speak much of the durability factor of that. But the unit and the technology benefits us in ways that WE need it to:...
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Much shorter exposure time. In fact, I fount that by the time I pulled the film off of a freshly exposed screen and removed the tape from it, the next one was already done! So when I burned eight screens this morning, I just burned them all in a row and then washed/developed them all in a row.
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Power savings. I had my previous unit on the same electrical line as the dehumidifier, and running the two simultaneously would always trip the 20A breaker. This has not happened since, so I know its drawing less power (I couldn't find a spec plate for comparison anywhere on our FL unit, which was made by a company called SPEC). But I also know that the fact it runs a fraction of the time our old one did HAS to contribute to power saving. PLUS the labor savings in keeping me from walking across the whole shop to reset the damn breaker once a day...
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No heat. Even with a dehumidifier, its gets muggy and hot here in Americas Armpit. with the FL unit, films would start sticking to the screens after about five exposures, at which point the glass got hot. This glass will not get hot!
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Consistency. Knowing that the lamps will FAR outlive me and my shop means that I don't have to replace them, which can be expensive on some MH units. and the fact they don't degrade for such a long time means I don't hafta constantly watch how long things are burning. Set and forget!
...So for our situation, this is looking like the golden icket thus far. I will keep posting results as we go along, and hopefully get a DC run here at some point!
SIDE THOUGHT: Rich, do you think this is going to essentially end the need for MH units? Will you continue to produce them? I was thinking about this over the weekend. If the price for LED is comparable or better, and with all the seeming benefits, is there still a need for any other type in the future?
