Old Exposure unit times?

[3Deep]

I know most of you have jumped on the bandwagon and gone LED exposures, but for those of us still in the dark ages I would like to know this.

  I 've heard people talk about there old exposure taking 6 to 16 minutes some maybe a tad more, so what unit and light type, coating style and emulsion used.

  I have an old Atlas 5 Way unit 1000 watt halogen with two black lights, emulsion I use  is Prochem HXT from CCI and Image Mate DC 521 dual cure

  I coat 1:1 sharp edge with both emulsions
HXT  mesh from 110 to 330.... 3 minutes yellow and 2 minutes for white mesh
DC 521  mesh from 110 to 330.... 6 minutes yellow and 4 minutes for white mesh

   I know those times seem whoa dude you need to a LED your losing money and wasting time, but really I don't burn that many screens a day and we are just two people here,  so whats your time on your old unit and if your in my same boat would an LED unit benefit you, how much coin would you save in a year or lets say 2 years or would you just want to have one because it's the hot thing right now

darryl

[tonypep]

For accuracy you should be using an integrater which measures light units. As the bulb dims exposure will take longer.

[cleveprint]

we run a Nuarc 40-1K (mercury vapor bulb i believe??). we use Aquasol HPV, mostly white meshes. ours is typically set at 18.0. this equals about 4-5 minutes i would guess (never really timed it). detailed screens or high meshes we usually get down to around 13.0. our bulb is about 7 months old right now, so everything is leaning towards the slow side. when we pop a new bulb in, times will usually go down to 15.0 for normal screens and 11.0 for detailed ones.

on our unit, bulb age typically determines how fast its working...

[Shanarchy]

NuArc MSP3140
1200 watt metal halide

Ulano EZ film (50 micron capillary film)

White mesh:
Non-WP film: 55 light units
Waterproof film: 85 light units

Dyed mesh:
Non-WP film: 75 light units
Waterproof film: 120 light units

1 Light Unit = 1 second with a new bulb

It looks like I would stand to save somewhere between 35-100 seconds per screen with LED.

[IntegrityShirts]

Olec 5k lamp about 40" from glass.

Aquasol HVP
Yellow mesh: 38LU
White mesh: 22LU

1LU=about 1 second

The light integrator I'm using now auto calibrates/adjusts for bulb age.

[Sbrem]

Violux 5000S 5K Metal Halide. Ulano Orange, 81 - 230, 1 over 1, 140 sec. - 40 sec. respectively. Saati HU42, 81 - 355, still 1/1, 400 - 38 respectively. 81 - 150S is white, the rest is yellow (a few orange left over from the old days)
The higher the mesh count, the thinner the coat, less time... (not news to anybody here I don't think)

Steve

[alan802]

Richmond Solarbeam, 10K Watt  Aquasol HVP

All screens coated using glisten method and round edge.  If we coated 1/1 with the sharp edge we'd probably burn everything around 10-20 seconds, that's a thin stencil for the higher mesh counts.  With a new bulb, a 305 coated 1/1 sharp, 5 second exposure no doubt, maybe faster.

Our bulb needs replaced badly, it's toast right now so our LU's are about 12-14 seconds per and a new bulb is about 4-5 seconds per LU.  The LU's count down unevenly for some reason and in the morning our exposures are faster and by late afternoon it counts down slower. 
83-140 mesh counts and everything in between:  6 LU's= about 70 seconds
150-205: 4 LU's=50 seconds
225: 3 LU's=30 seconds
280-305: 1-2 LU's=12-20 seconds

[Inkworks]

All screens costed glisten method:

My flip-top nuark 3000 watt instant start with Autotype 8000 diazo emulsion does

110 - 46 seconds
156 - 37 seconds
220 - 30 seconds
300 - 22 seconds

With Saati HU42 Diazo emulsion:

110 - 29 seconds
156 - 24 seconds
220 - 19 seconds
300 - 14 seconds

With Aquasol HVP and a 1/2 load of Diazo:

110 - 20 seconds
156 - 19 seconds
220 - 15 seconds
300 - 11 seconds

The bulb in the unit is over 15 years old. I can only imagine what it would do with a new bulb, but for us there is no need for any faster than that. They make a 6K fliptop that I maintain would make one of the very best and fastest units out there.

We also have an Olec 8K and wall frame which is 4-5 times as long for everything.

[3Deep]

Richmond Solarbeam, 10K Watt

All screens coated using glisten method and round edge.  If we coated 1/1 with the sharp edge we'd probably burn everything around 10-20 seconds, that's a thin stencil for the higher mesh counts.  With a new bulb, a 305 coated 1/1 sharp, 5 second exposure no doubt, maybe faster.

Our bulb needs replaced badly, it's toast right now so our LU's are about 12-14 seconds per and a new bulb is about 4-5 seconds per LU.  The LU's count down unevenly for some reason and in the morning our exposures are faster and by late afternoon it counts down slower. 
83-140 mesh counts and everything in between:  6 LU's= about 70 seconds
150-205: 4 LU's=50 seconds
225: 3 LU's=30 seconds
280-305: 1-2 LU's=12-20 seconds

Dang Alan, your getting exposure times already comparable to an LED unit, this what I was trying to see if our old units are still worth hanging onto or jump on the bandwagon

[sqslabs]

I have the same unit as Alan and haven't been able to find a reason to upgrade to LED unless it was integrated into a CTS unit.  In addition to the comparable burn times, it also burns two 23x31's at once, essentially cutting the burn time in half. 

On the other side of the coin, it looks like all MH based units are currently plummeting in resale value as LED's take center stage, which is bad news for owners like me, but good for anyone who wants to pick up a used unit which burns close to LED speeds at a fraction of the up-front cost.  Granted, there's more electrical needed, high replacement bulb cost, etc, but I'd be interested to see just how much that plays into the overall picture when weighing the two options.  My bulb hasn't needed to be replaced in the six years I've been using it, although I only burn 10-20 screens per day so I may not be the best reference on that.

[Shanarchy]

I was planning on upgrading to LED at the ISS show earlier this year. My thought was to sell my current unit before they took a major hit. I ended up passing because the time savings for me were not that huge and I can already expose quicker than I can wash out. I'm a pretty small shop, so it's really me just wanting the new cool toy. I'm sure I'll eventually upgrade, but for now there are more important places for me to put the money, and this gives more time for the manufacturers to make any small improvements over time.

[Inkworks]

I can already expose quicker than I can wash out.

Bingo, tackle the biggest bottlenecks first.

[Shanarchy]

I can already expose quicker than I can wash out.

Bingo, tackle the biggest bottlenecks first.

If I was going to get one, I would need to invest in a larger washout booth to reap the benefits.

One day...

[alan802]

All screens costed glisten method:

My flip-top nuark 3000 watt instant start with Autotype 8000 diazo emulsion does

110 - 46 seconds
156 - 37 seconds
220 - 30 seconds
300 - 22 seconds

With Saati HU42 Diazo emulsion:

110 - 29 seconds
156 - 24 seconds
220 - 19 seconds
300 - 14 seconds

With Aquasol HVP and a 1/2 load of Diazo:

110 - 20 seconds
156 - 19 seconds
220 - 15 seconds
300 - 11 seconds

The bulb in the unit is over 15 years old. I can only imagine what it would do with a new bulb, but for us there is no need for any faster than that. They make a 6K fliptop that I maintain would make one of the very best and fastest units out there.

We also have an Olec 8K and wall frame which is 4-5 times as long for everything.

Those are pretty amazing burn times.  If a bulb will last that long and you can get those burn times there would never be a reason for you to think about LED.  Our bulb goes down quite a bit faster than I'd like but one thing I've noticed after using HVP for a long time (18 months is a LONG time for us to use one product) is it seems to be getting better and better every batch.  I know I did exposure tests correctly a year ago and now we can burn HVP about 40-50% faster than my first tests.  And the exposure latitude is unbelievable.  I can burn a 305 for 10 seconds or 5 minutes and it will still develop just fine.  I don't know if the latitude has gotten better over the years because I never really tested it but today it seems to be as good as a dual cure in exposure latitude. 

[Sbrem]

I think the real enticement here for LED is the lower operating costs that go with it, and the overall lack of heat output from it. But, I see no need to rush into it if you're not burning a lot of screens per day. On the other hand, time marches on, and LED looks to be where we will all be someday, so if not necessarily an early adopter, don't be the last either.

Steve