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Topic: I'm Scared Help Me

John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 08-18-2000 09:29 AM

Great photo! Sometimes, wearing the protective equipment feels as cumbersome as depicted, but you'll be glad you did if a lamp ever explodes with the lamphouse door open.

------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com

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Rory Burke
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 181
From: Burbank, CA, USA
Registered: Jun 2000

posted 08-18-2000 11:49 AM

John P. is right. Unless you see the damage (aftermath) of an exploded bulb then one is trully convinced to head to the wear the saftey equipment route. It took me two hours to clean out all the tiny little particles of glass (dust like-not good to breathe in directly) out of the lamp house. I didnt want little bits of glass flying around punturing my new bulb. The reflector?........well needless to say that if your face was in there at the time it blew i dont think you'd be around at all. the reflector looked like aircraft skin damage in desert storm. Spotted, dinged, scarred, scratched, etc etc.

BULB SAFETY IS PROBABLY ONE OF THE MOST OVERLOOKED ASPECTS OF OUR JOBS.

OSHA should look into allowing $5.00 an hour candy kids to be messing around with equipment as dangerous as a projector CAN be. At least it is a good argument (always) to demand more money. Imagine going to the General manager with that NASA document in your hands demanding more money to run his booth. It might work!

RORY

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Dustin Mitchell
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1865
From: Mondovi, WI, USA
Registered: Mar 2000

posted 08-18-2000 12:53 PM

Well, bulb changed. Wasn't that blackened actually. Scary thing though, the guy who was changing it had no concept of safety. He wore nothing, not even a face shield!! Aparantly he thinks bulbs are more dangerous out of the box than they are after they've been in the lamphouse for several thousand hours. I don't know where he got that idea, but I can't convince him otherwise and have given up trying. Like I said, he's going off to the Seminary soon anyway.

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 08-18-2000 03:47 PM

Next time someone has a nice bulb explosion and a camera nearby, try and get a picture for us to post here to demonstrate visually why people should wear their protective gear. Hopefully it will also get the seriousness of it across to any newbie who doesn't have the proper training just yet to wait for a tech to show him/her the right and SAFE way to do it.

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Rory Burke
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 181
From: Burbank, CA, USA
Registered: Jun 2000

posted 08-18-2000 04:06 PM

Ill send over a picture of a reflector still in use after two 4k ORC(why ORC's???? new thread?) bulbs blew up months apart. No problems with OSRAMS ever!!!! Boy it hurts just thinking about it. Take me bout a week though.
Rory

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 08-26-2000 03:38 PM

I had a lamp explode last month - the first time it happened to me in 9 years as a projectionist.

I was removing it because of a badly-pitted anode (and resulting flicker) after 2,750 hours and 90 degree rotations at 500-hour intervals.

I had removed the lamp and was in the process of inserting it into the plastic container when it suddenly blew up. The lamp was totally cold at the time, having been left to cool overnight.

The explosion sent quartz fragments flying all over the box: the pock-marks on my gloves and protective leather jacket and and the scratches on the visor of my helmet indicate that I would probably not be writing this message if I hadn't been wearing them.

And that was from a COLD lamp...

Helmet, jacket and gloves should be the BARE MINIMUM anyone should be wearing before opening up a lamphouse. If your theatre doesn't provide them, tell your manager that you are not touching any lamps until a set of protective gear is on site.

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 08-26-2000 03:49 PM

Just out of curiosity, you didn't hold the bulb horizontally with one hand while using the other hand to open up the plastic container or whatever, did you? The weight of the bulb being supported by one end in the situation described above is a fairly common cause of explosion during faulty handling.

Still you are most certainly correct, wear your safety gear! I'm glad you were wearing yours.

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 08-27-2000 10:21 AM

I wasn't lifting the lamp vertically by the anode end at the time of the explosion, although I had done for a few seconds previously.

The Shittymecannica lamphouses we have do not have a large enough hole in the middle of the mirror to be able to insert the tube into the lamp, engage the flanges in situ and unscrew. Therefore I did have to hold the lamp by the anode end briefly as I took it out of the lamphouse.

I then immediately took the cathode end with my other hand, put the lamp down on a chair cushion (it was about to be disposed of, so contaminating the surface of the bulb didn't matter) and was sliding it into the tube when it blew. One of the flanges caught on the side of the tube, and I was trying to free it when it went bang.

Maybe the 10 seconds or so of unsupported lifting weakened a seal, but my gut feeling was that it was a duff lamp to start with. We normally get 3-4,000 hours out of the bulbs here before they develop a flicker, but this one had done so at well under 3k hours. The cathode end was also notably scorched.

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John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 08-28-2000 09:07 AM

Leo:
The "notably scorched" cathode end may be a clue to why the lamp exploded with little provocation. A poor electrical connection there may have abnormally heated the cathode connection, weakening the seal.

Congratulations on wearing the proper protective gear! I'm sure the face shield saved your eyesight! Since quartz shrapnel is hard to find on an x-ray, your gloves and jacket saved a lifetime of agony.

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 08-28-2000 02:50 PM

A faulty connection within the bulb certainly makes sense. Its replacement has so far done 1,250 hours (and two rotations), with no sign of any scorching or pitting whatsoever as yet.

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Aaron Mehocic
Jedi Master Film Handler

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

posted 08-29-2000 09:20 PM

I had a bulb blow up on me earlier this year during a change-out. Like an ASS, I wasn't wearing the available safty gear. If it wasn't for my glasses, doctors would have been digging glass out of my eyes for sure. This taught me a lesson! You can read about my experiences with this on an earlier post entitled "Use Your Safety Gear", originally posted on 2-5-2000, and last updated on 2-9-2000.

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