Vastex entering world of LED exposure units

[ScreenPrinter123]

As you know we were looking for a new exposure unit.  It seems like this aspect of the industry could change drastically with these LED units coming out so we are going to hold off for a little while to see what comes of it.  If they work well the savings in bulb purchases and electricity are quite appealing.

[Frog]

And, of course, our own Pierre was one of the first to try and report on the first of these by one of our members, the Baby Joe 2000 from LDTRONIX.
We have a thread here from February. http://www.theshirtboard.com/index.php/topic,7229.0.html

It was inevitable that this new technology would  catch on.

[ScreenPrinter123]

I remember that thread well.  I wonder how those units have been fairing now that some shops have been able to use them long enough to give a good evaluation.

[GKitson]

And, of course, our own Pierre was one of the first to try and report on the first of these by one of our members, the Baby Joe 2000 from LDTRONIX.
We have a thread here from February. http://www.theshirtboard.com/index.php/topic,7229.0.html

It was inevitable that this new technology would  catch on.

LED exposure is going to be more of a game changer than retensionable frames or CTS imaging.  The next 2-3 years will see huge improvements in screen cycle time.

~Kitson

[Admiral]

I'm interested in seeing how these fare as well.

It would be a purchase for us not just to save on electricity / bulbs but redundancy with our old unit.  We use a CTS so I wouldn't even need the vacuum.  I could almost make an LED exposure unit myself with how simple it would be. We've already made and wired our own LED backlights for the washout booths.

The things the baby joe didn't have that I would want would be storing many more presets and 1/10ths of a second setting.

[DannyGruninger]

Lawson already has their new led out, we might be getting one to do some testing on here soon since we use their dts machine.... They have a vertical unit that mounts to the wall next to the dts machine so everything can be in one area.....

http://www.lawsonsp.com/screen-printing-equipment/auxiliary-equipment/exposure-units/led-5000

[Gabe]

That great teammates
my question for these LED`s vs. metal hallide compare in real time
 exposure time, quality imaging for instance
clearly I`m in the dark here

[Frog]

The thread I linked to a few posts back covers some of that from Pierre's test drive of the Baby Joe

[blue moon]

I'm interested in seeing how these fare as well.

It would be a purchase for us not just to save on electricity / bulbs but redundancy with our old unit.  We use a CTS so I wouldn't even need the vacuum.  I could almost make an LED exposure unit myself with how simple it would be. We've already made and wired our own LED backlights for the washout booths.

The things the baby joe didn't have that I would want would be storing many more presets and 1/10ths of a second setting.

while it might be easy to put some bulbs together, getting the proper light distribution is a bit more work. The problem is that the light has to be uniform across the whole exposure area. While it might sound simple to think you just space the light sources evenly, the problem is that the light intensity drops with the square of the distance so the outer edges of the cones will produce less light than the centers. An easy way around that seems to be to overlap the light sources similar to the bottom image, but then the light is coming from 5 different directions (under, front, back, left and right) or potentially even more adjacent bulbs and undercutting is introduced. The intensity of the bulbs will dictate the proper distance  to the screen, the angle of the light distribution dictates the distance between the bulbs. All of this has to be done right and somehow measured to confirm the uniformity of the light field (which Lou from LD tronix has done). It seems easy, but it really does take more than wiring LEDs on the backing board to get good results.

As much as I believe I could figure most of these things out and build it myself, it just seems to make a lot more sense to buy it from Lou or Vastex. . .

pierre

[blue moon]

http://www.vastex.com/Literature/BB-0826_LED.pdf

[Screened Gear]

The great thing about our industry is there is so many screen printers and suppliers that its only a matter of time before these are super affordable new and used. Pierre is right about building one of these. The materials are cheap but the time and trial an error is not worth the cost of one of these. That is until they jump the price to like $4000 or more. (if they haven't yet) Like I said the competition between the vendors is only going to bring down the price and that is great for us screen printers. It’s about time we win one.

[Binkspot]

I see Vastex is also suggesting an insert to convert existing units to LED, kind of wish I didn't sell our old Atlas exposure unit, might start looking for a used one to convert and try out.

[ScreenFoo]

I'm interested in seeing how these fare as well.

It would be a purchase for us not just to save on electricity / bulbs but redundancy with our old unit.  We use a CTS so I wouldn't even need the vacuum.  I could almost make an LED exposure unit myself with how simple it would be. We've already made and wired our own LED backlights for the washout booths.

The things the baby joe didn't have that I would want would be storing many more presets and 1/10ths of a second setting.

while it might be easy to put some bulbs together, getting the proper light distribution is a bit more work. The problem is that the light has to be uniform across the whole exposure area. While it might sound simple to think you just space the light sources evenly, the problem is that the light intensity drops with the square of the distance so the outer edges of the cones will produce less light than the centers. An easy way around that seems to be to overlap the light sources similar to the bottom image, but then the light is coming from 5 different directions (under, front, back, left and right) or potentially even more adjacent bulbs and undercutting is introduced. The intensity of the bulbs will dictate the proper distance  to the screen, the angle of the light distribution dictates the distance between the bulbs. All of this has to be done right and somehow measured to confirm the uniformity of the light field (which Lou from LD tronix has done). It seems easy, but it really does take more than wiring LEDs on the backing board to get good results.

As much as I believe I could figure most of these things out and build it myself, it just seems to make a lot more sense to buy it from Lou or Vastex. . .

pierre

Any of these multisource strips, panels, or whatever will only be approximations of 'collimated' light, but with the proper spec of LED it would be an excellent one.

For me, the photo-polymer emulsion is the deal killer.  If theirs is good enough to quickly and properly expose thicker dual cure stencils, I would be more likely to think of it as something I might want...

[ZooCity]

I will totally buy one of these if they truly can perform as well as a point source halide.  Glad to see vastex has one, they build solid equipment.   My benefit would be space, our exposure/screen/washout area is freaking cramped.  With a unit the size and thickness of a fluoro bulb expo unit I can open things up a lot more.  Also, no light flooding everywhere on a little self contained unit like this v. our big vac frame and Olec.  And I would hope they incorporate an "inspection" mode, i.e., light table which would save even more space.

What's ballpark pricing on the largest models?  I would need at least a 60"x50". 

[ZooCity]

Has LED exposure been tested on long run discharge screens?