Xenon lamp supply chain issues.

[James Gardiner]

I have heard some talk of Xenon lamp supply chain issues.
Just flagging this for comment around the industry.
I hear some sites running lamps way over time due to inability to get stock.

How widespread is this issue?

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

That's no surprise! Pretty soon there will be a shortage of water.... WAIT! There is a shortage of water.. Everything in demand has supply chain shortages. I imagine the large theater chains bought up most of the stocks so they can keep going. I wonder if this has also affected the entertainment and medical fields, both of whom use large quantities of lamps. Here in the States we do have about 4, possibly more lamp manufacturers.

[Steve Guttag]

No problem with water here! Plus, I'm on well water with a good aquifer.

[Jim Cassedy]

We've recently started running a lot of 70 & 35mm stuff again. I've been promised a couple of 4K bulbs,
since right now I don't have any spares, but every time I ask about them I'm told that they are back-ordered
"due to supply-chain issues". Has anyone ever tried to upgrade a Highlight II console to laser?

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

I have to wonder what aspect of manufacturing them is in short supply, or is it just everything??

[James Gardiner]

I have to wonder what aspect of manufacturing them is in short supply, or is it just everything??

Yes exactly. I was hoping some one knew what specifically is causing the issue. Supply of a specific material that goes into a lamp?? Lamps, once you have the raw material, seems like a straightforward process. So, is interesting to know what actually is tripping them up in terms of the supply chain..

[Steve Guttag]

Even before Covid, we found that many "film" lamps were long-lead items. They are only going to manufacture and stock in a global sense, not for any one region. Now, some lamps, like the UXL-20SC, that can go into NEC NC1200/2000 as well as many film lamphouses, those seem to be a bit looser. Even on digital lamps, we've had not issues getting 2KW lamps but the 850W has been a long-lead lamp.

[Marcel Birgelen]

No problem with water here! Plus, I'm on well water with a good aquifer.

Yeah, but what if the pump dies, you don't have a spare and any new one has a lead time of at least 6 months? It's this kind of crazy we're currently facing...

I'm currently using the following rough estimates: If it's in local stock, you can have it tomorrow. If it's currently being shipped, you can have it within 2 months. If it still needs to be produced, then you can have it in at least 6 months...
There really isn't a shortage of one specific thing, but it rather seems to be a chain-reaction type of thing. If you look at store shelves, you see random shelves that are empty, while the same product in a different size may be fully stocked.

When the pandemic hit, our global supply chain obviously took a large hit, especially when China, our global production backyard, suddenly almost entirely stopped their export. I'd expected this problem to be solved within a few months after the pandemic first hit, but quite to the contrary, we're slowly running into a supply shortage of *everything*.

[Stefan Scholz]

Just had the problem with Osram bulbs, which are pretty difficult to get and with a long lead time.
We all have to think about global decrease in demand. 35/70 mm projection is a thing of the past, and dead. The few venues that do it can survive with a couple of spare bulbs until the building finally collapses.
Digital projectors using Xenons are being replaced with those based on solid state illumination, at a rather rapid rate here.
The decrease in demand, which mfg wants to stock items "they can't sell afterwards". So, wait, until an ample demand is there to start production. Plus the general shortage in supplies of all kind doesn't help.

[Armand Daiguillon]

If you cant find bulbs from from your regular source, try going straight to the place they are made. I've bought all my bulbs directly from china, much cheaper that way. No worry about supply chains when they are shipped direct to you. However ... a bit of warning, dont go for the cheapest you can find (on websites like alixepress.com) ive had some bulbs not last very long when I went too cheap. But i've been very satisfied lately.

[Steve Guttag]

The lamps we supply are not made in China. Ours are Japan or Philippines (with a decent mix of those two countries...all the same manufacturer though and both countries can produce the same model).

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Even before Covid, we found that many "film" lamps were long-lead items. They are only going to manufacture and stock in a global sense, not for any one region. Now, some lamps, like the UXL-20SC, that can go into NEC NC1200/2000 as well as many film lamphouses, those seem to be a bit looser. Even on digital lamps, we've had not issues getting 2KW lamps but the 850W has been a long-lead lamp.

That sounds to me more like when we get X number of orders then we will make them.. Xenon lamps weather for film or digital all use the same ingredients to make... If a given dealer haslots of film systems he supports he needs to warn the customer to buy more than one lamp at a time.

And, never use Chinese xenon lamps inm a digital projector! The Chinese film lamps one customer decided to try were bad enough and almost all of them exploded.

[Leo Enticknap]

Unless the customer specifically requests another brand, we supply Ushios, and I'm not aware of any problems getting hold of the models we sell the most of (Barco 2, 3 and 4kW lamps). They've gone up in price by 20-30% compared to pre-pandemic, though.

[Paul Finn]

It seems like LED technology has advanced to the point now that a replacement for arc lamps in film lamp houses could be developed. Possibly using a combination mirror and lens system to achieve the necessary concentration of light to the film plane. Also might need liquid cooling for source device(s), but this is doable. Current stage lighting application instruments are mostly LED source now, and some VERY bright units, such as follow spots, are in use.

Paul Finn

[Harold Hallikainen]

Interesting. I just looked up a comparison between LEDs and lasers. The optical bandwidth of an LED is about 25 to 100 nm, while that of a laser is less than 5 or 10 nm. So, LED could be used for reduced speckle. However, the electricity to light efficiency of the LED is about 10 to 20% while the laser can be up to 70%. A xenon lamp is apparently about 4 to 14% efficient. The peak output of a xenon lamp is at about 825 nm while the visible spectrum is about 380 to 700 nm. So, the xenon lamp has a lot of output, we just can't see it. It appears that LEDs would be better than xenon as far as efficiency and better than laser as far as speckle, but nothing beats the efficiency of the laser. There MIGHT also be the possibility of LEDs being available at wavelengths corresponding to the peaks of the XYZ curves, while lasers tend to be on the skirts increasing metamerism.