From the Desk of Hermann Marburger-Theimer
Here our owner, Hermann Marburger-Theimer, is reporting directly from his desk about recent events and news concerning the screen printing market and/or the company Bochonow GmbH!
Copying Lamps - What is recommended: QUICKSTART or Shutter Light Source?
There are basically two methods in the prepress exposure area and I would like to provide you with some help for your decision:
The Quickstart method
This will start the burner using a considerable effort and a so called "ignition wire" which is placed outside of the bulb, started in seconds. After exposure time, the bulb is switched off completely.
The Shutter Light Source method
This will start the bulb and heating it within 2-4 minutes to the operating temperature. The bulb will remain permanently switched on with about 30% stand-by power. At the start of exposure the bulb is ramped up in a split of seconds to full power and a mechanical shutter opens. After exposure, the light goes back to 30% stand-by power and the shutter closes.
Benefits of the Quick Start System:
Unfortunately, the advanced benefits of the Quick Start system are often not preserved:
Claim: low power consumption, because the bulb is ignited solely for the exposure process
- it is to consider that the quick start bulb uses an extremely high power consumption for the ignition and even with a few exposure processes, the summation of which negates the power savings.
In addition, a much stronger lead is to choose, just because the starting current is very high at Quickstart equipment!
Claim: bulb-friendly, because the bulb is only a short time in operation
- the constant (brutal) startups will stress the burner much more than quiet stand-by mode in the Shutter Lamp system
Claim: shorter exposure times due to other spectra
- this is not sustainable! The spectra are identical. Contrary is the case, since the Quickstart bulb can only be a gallium-doped bulb, an iron-doped bulb is NOT useable, as is a modern mixed-spectrum bulb NOT to be used
Advantages Shutter Light Source system:
Power consumption, if any, are minimal differently
- by design of the Shutter Light Source, the bulb has a warm up time of about 2-4 minutes. This is not only gentle but requires a far lower starting current (vs. Quickstart Systems). If a couple of screens are successively exposed in a batch (if possible), the current Shutter Light Source has technical advantages in power saving over absolutely every Quick Start System.
Longer bulb life
- the much rarer on or off cycles of the bulb will cause a gentler treatment of the burner
The bulb is always in full power and willingness to drive in fractions of seconds to max. performance and full spectrum
- with the Shutter Light Source all chemical additions and metal dopings are constantly in the gaseous state and the spectrum is available in fractions of seconds. By comparison, the Quickstart-System requires about 10-20 seconds bringing all ingredients in gaseous state and in that time there will be no complete spectrum available. In today's short exposure times, it may well be that a significant portion of the exposure time will be managed with a "dirty" (i.e. not complete) spectrum.
We therefore recommend exposure of technical reasons, but also considerations of economy (energy consumption, burner consumption, use of standard inlet 16A), the closure lamp!
The best way to affect the benefits of Shutter Light Sources will be met, when the screens are exposed in "batches", i.e. as a number of screens in a row. Then switch off the lamp easily. This will pay off even with breaks of >15 minutes.
Since the market, for various reasons, requires even Quickstart Systems, we would like to offer our customers a choice and therefore both versions of the same price.