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Topic: Use Your Safety Gear

Aaron Mehocic
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 804
From: New Castle, PA, USA
Registered: Jun 99

posted 02-05-2000 09:59 AM

Just a quick note to tell the new people, and some of you old guys in the booths around the world to use your face masks when changing bulbs. If you don't have face masks, then GET SOME. Last Wednesday I was changing a bulb when it blew up in my face! Fortunately, my glasses shielded my eyes from the flying pieces of sharp bulb glass, but I would have felt more safe if I had on a face mask. Nothing like a trip to hell to show you what its really like. Be careful out there!

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John Walsh
Film God

Posts: 2490
From: Connecticut, USA, Earth, Milky Way
Registered: Oct 1999

posted 02-05-2000 10:59 AM

That's damned spooky; glad you're OK. I do get a little careless sometimes. I wear glasses, too, a little luck there. What was it like: did the glass cut your face or hands?

Never had a bulb explode while I was handling it. You know how there's a club for people who have saved their lifes by using a parachute? Well, maybe we should have one for people who have a bulb explode on them while handling!

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Bruce McGee
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1776
From: Asheville, NC USA... Nowhere in Particular.
Registered: Aug 1999

posted 02-05-2000 11:36 AM

I have a xenon Eiki 16 with the 350 watt bulb. When I got the machine, the bulb had exploded during a change and bits of quartz had gotten in the face of the fellow doing the work. Luckily, he too, wore glasses. The parabolic mirror was destroyed too.

I hope this never happens to me. I have major respect for xenon and the high pressure involved.
I'm glad nobody was blinded here by the thing.

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Christopher A Kerr
Film Handler

Posts: 43
From: Oakville, Ontario, Canada
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 02-05-2000 12:00 PM

I have seen the result of a bulb exploding inside a lamphouse, and if the exlosion can do that to steel mirrors and the case. I don't want it doing that to my face. I ALLWAYS WEAR MY SAFTEY GEAR WHEN I OPEN THE LAMPHOUSE!!!!!! If a bulb exlosion can send shards of quartz out with such force as to embed them in the solid steel dowser, think what it could do to your fragile little eyes. Glad you are OK Aaron.

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Randy Loy
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 156

Registered: Aug 1999

posted 02-05-2000 12:41 PM

A friend who operates theatres and owns a cinema supply company demonstrated the dangers of xenon bulbs to me this past summer. He took a well used 2000 watt bulb to a vacant field and tossed it high up into the air. When the bulb landed it exploded with much force and a sound much like a shotgun blast. We found very tiny pieces of glass everywhere. That experience very quickly made me a believer in the need for safety equipment!

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Dave Williams
Wet nipple scene

Posts: 1836
From: Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 02-05-2000 01:46 PM

On Christmas eve of just this last year, I had a 2000W Xenon explode just two seconds after it lit up. When these things go up when they are lit they have much more explosive force then when they are cool.

The force created a shock wave that threw me back four feet into the wall. The sheetrock crumbled when I hit it. The sound of it was so loud the Police next door came over. They found me in the booth but I was out cold. I came to after about five minutes or so.

It took six hours to repair and overhaul the lamphouse. But the damndest thing, the reflector was UNDAMAGED. Everything else was toast. It was like a stick of dynamite. If it wasnt for the fact that the lamphouse was well constructed I am sure I would have been killed. And this was just lighting it.

During the overhaul I found that this same lamphouse had an explosion in the past, as there were pieces of reflector and bulb everywhere. And from that it caused damage to the electrical systems that was never repaired, causing the system to short out and overload the bulb, and the second explosion.

SO WARNING, make sure your lamphouses are well maintained, INCLUDING THE ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS. The bulbs can explode if they get overloaded or shorted. The lamphouse is often overlooked as are the electrical components.

YES I AM OK NOW. Just a concussion. Very little brane damaje. (hehe)

------------------
"If it's not worth doing, I have allready been there and done it"

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 02-05-2000 11:33 PM

Aaron,

Not to make light of your situation or anything, but what exactly caused the bulb to explode in the first place? Just curious.

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Stefan Scholz
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 223
From: Schoenberg, Germany
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 02-06-2000 03:26 AM

The only bulb explosion I can remember were with ORC bulbs, some years ago, just after striking. It was quite loud, but besides a shattered reflector everything else was left oK. The mirror broke into pieces, and as this theatre didn't have a replacement, we epoxy glued the pieces together. It ran for nearly a year before they bought a replacement. Just after they had recognized, that it wasn't totally in focus, and therefore some IR light rays had grilled their lenses...
The reason for the bulb explosion was simple, they used a "unique foil seal technology", that gives contact via tungsten foils to the electrodes. If theese foils do not have a very tight contact to the electrode contactor, as sometimes happens, the little spot that has contact will overheat (Heat energy = Resistance * Amps), and overstress the glass structure punctually.
This is probably the same reason, why the 350 Watts bulb in that Eiki blew up, as the Toshiba bulbs used the same technology.

Tungsram bulbs from Tchechoslovakia were known to explode quite often (Called Exploram from some techs), as well as Soviet or other cheap sources.

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Bruce McGee
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1776
From: Asheville, NC USA... Nowhere in Particular.
Registered: Aug 1999

posted 02-06-2000 09:55 AM

You are right on with the TOSHIBA remarks. The original was this brand. All I can find is USHIO now, and I have never had a failure.

I'm running "This Is The Army" (1943) at a hotel tonight. I have 2 xenon 16's, and one spare lamp.

The hotel has a real projection booth with no equipment. When it opened in the '20's they entertained the guests with free movies. The room is an enclosed cement box with a HEAVY door for all the burning nitrate. I love showing films there. You cant hear the projector running at all! They never use the booth, and until recently, they were planning to knock out the booth and make storage out of it. When they found the thick concrete walls there, they dropped it.....

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Tim Reed
Better Projection Pays

Posts: 5246
From: Northampton, PA
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 02-06-2000 10:07 AM

Aaron: Did you knock the bulb against something, or put it under any mechanical stress, that caused it to fracture? I was just curious. And did you receive any cuts on your face?

This DOES prove that wearing glasses will save your eyes, which is what I've always believed.

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Chris Erwin
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 195
From: Olive Hill,KY
Registered: Oct 1999

posted 02-06-2000 10:52 AM

When I help the manager change our 4000 watt xexon, it looks as if we are going into combat. Both with heavy aprons, full face shields (like the the kind for sand-blasting) and thick gloves.

Does it sound too extreme? After reading the above,I don't think so. I'd rather look pretty silly for a few minutes (hey,no ones around anyhow) than be blinded for a lifetime.

--Chris

P.S. It's always a good idea to have someone near by (out of harm's way) when you're changing one of these. In case the worse happens,someone can call for help. Does anybody else follow this measure?

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Martin Frandsen
Master Film Handler

Posts: 270
From: Denmark, Europe
Registered: Jun 99

posted 02-06-2000 12:05 PM

Chris is right take no chance, have someone around you while you replace the bulb (it's not always possibel i no)

I no this is of subject, but how do you guys get rid of the old bulbs?

Martin

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Stefan Scholz
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 223
From: Schoenberg, Germany
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 02-06-2000 01:27 PM

We "recycle" by giving them to a frek, building light effects for concerts, raves etc. Most people call him Dr. Xenon, as he knows such a lot about it...
All he wants to know, how far he could overload a bulb, before it explodes.

Serious, he is a specialist, and knows how to handle bulbs, and never had an explosion in 5 years, using worn theatre bulbs.

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Ian Price
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1714
From: Denver, CO
Registered: Jun 99

posted 02-06-2000 02:26 PM

We place the used lamps back in the plastic carriers. We put them in the cardboard box they came in and tape it closed with masking tape. We then slam the box on the booth floor untill we hear the lamp pop. We are often disapointed when the lamp just breaks without the loud bang. We then toss the box, lamp and all in the garbage.

At my new theatre we have a "differently abled" employee who loves all light bulbs. I get the impression that his room at home resembles a light bulb museum. He has been pestering me to give him a used xenon lamp. I wouldn't give a xenon lamp to anyone. "Here, hold this M80 with the fuse lit. Don't worry it wont hurt too much."

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Jon Miller
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 973
From: San Diego, CA, USA
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 02-06-2000 03:29 PM

About four years ago a cinema equipment installer, when asked by me why there was no "bomb suit" provided with the projection system he installed at a facility I moonlighted as a projectionist some time ago, mentioned the requirement for a flak jacket was borne out of early-seventies paranoia by those fearful of their beloved carbon-arc equipment being replaced by xenon. I thought this guy was acting a bit irresponsibly in pooh-poohing protective clothing like that. (FWIW, the system he installed uses 2000-watt lamps.)

Which begs the question...is a face mask available at any Home Depot adequate, or do you really need a special face mask?

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