I went to work the other night to find an awful sight. All inside our Century C projector was this blue powder all over the place. The manager showed up and I asked him what the problem was and he said that he knew nothing about it.

What could this possibly be? and How would you fix the problem.

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We were playing Return To Me. Other than that I have no idea what happened. The guy told me that the apprentice threaded up the machine and it all went OK (hard to believe with the mess). The one thing I saw was a blue powder all over the intermittent and on the back portion of the head.

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I won't be back to work 'til Tuesday. I have no clue if it is still doing it or not.

I will let you know after Tuesday.

Blue or magenta colored debris is usually emulsion skivings. It often has a fibrous appearance, and sometimes is called "angel hair". Freshly processed prints are most likely to have some of this kind of debris, since the gelatin film emulsion swells during processing, and then shrinks back during drying, sometimes leaving an overhang over the film edges and perforations that is scuffed off during the first few times through a projector. Persistent emulsion debris indicates that the projector is skiving or scratching the film (e.g., film is being pinched by a misaligned roller or film gate). A print that has been running clean and then has a very dirty run usually indicates a misthread.