# IMAX Projector bulb



## epro05

Interesting exerpt from this site: web page 

The lamphouse on top of the IMAX projector utilizes two 15,000-watt liquid-cooled, short-arc xenon lamps. The lamps weigh 10 pounds each, and are nearly two feet in length. Costing more than $6,000 each, the lamps have a life expectancy of only about 1,200 hours of operation and are replaced 4 times per year. Because of the extreme high-pressure xenon gas inside the quartz glass envelope of the lamp, projectionists must wear ballistic safety gear when changing out a lamp. If dropped, the xenon lamp would explode with the destructive force of a hand grenade. 

The average luminance of one of these xenon lamps is approximately 1.6 billion candles per square yard--about equal to that of the Sun as viewed from the Earth's surface! The lamp has a light output of approximately 600,000 lumens. NASA uses this same type of lamp at the Kennedy Space Center to illuminate the Space Shuttle at night on the launching pad. 

During normal operation, the clear quartz glass envelope of the lamp has a surface temperature of about 1,300 degrees. To prevent the lamp from overheating, it has coolant "jackets" that allow cool distilled water to be pumped around the electrodes at the flow rate of 8 gallons per minute and a pressure rate of 100 psi. In addition, an exhaust fan removes 1,200 cubic feet of air per minute from the lamphouse. The xenon lamps operate at 37.5 volts DC, and 400 amperes of current.


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## ChrisA

Oh boy oh boy oh boy... 10 pounds sounds okay to carry but I guess the watertank, pump and batterypack will add a little weight. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/yellowlaugh.gif

Chris


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## Ginseng

Just goes to highlight the difference between incandescents/arcs and LEDs. You can just make the filaments larger and larger and pump in more and more power to make more and more light.

Wilkey


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## Rothrandir

how long before i can find one small enough to mod in my mag? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/naughty.gif

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif


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## iddibhai

what kinda lights does the space needle have (no, no the mod, the tower thingy in seattle i think). what about the luxor place in lost wages, Nv?


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## Roy

Try here for really BRIGHT lights! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif


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## [email protected]

More info about the Luxor light(s) :
10 Million CP Luxor  

According to this (old) article, the Space Tower will have/has "three 7-kilowatt beams with the combined illumination of 85 million candles. When those bulbs are powered up, Mars may know."


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## LEDmodMan

Based off of [email protected]'s links, the Luxor's beam is about * <font color="red">40 BILLION CP!!!</font> * They use 38 X 7000 watt bulbs, while the space needle uses only 3 X 7000 watt bulbs... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif


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## Willmore

Man, this just isn't fair. They give us hams crap about our radio emissions and make us do studies to ensure that we're not violating any of the 'safety' guidelines, but these guys get to put out several MW or EIRP in the THz region and I get they didn't even have to file a form with the FCC.

Not fair.


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## EMPOWERTORCH

IMAX cinemas are an absolutely wonderful use of existing film technology on a huge scale! However, its rather like using Nipkow Disc technology to produce high quality television pictures and indeed has been demonstrated successfully, allowing live high resolution pictures to be produced on a cimnema screen.
Wonderful as both these technologies are they come from a different age and require very high maintenance, due to the large number of moving parts. High powered "Scophony" rotating mirror systems also worked well, although again thev devices relied on very high powered lamps and fast moving mechanicals to work.
The future of giant videoscreen/cinema technology is surely got to be in LEP and LED technologies...one company says that LEP (Light emitting plastics) will transform our lives with "spray-on" videoscreens on all kinds of appliances and objects including clothes, flags and walls. Entire buildings become virtual walk-in virtual video environments (does this sound like the holodeck on star trek?). As well as having high resolution there will be interactivity too!

In 20 years time, Imax may be a historic relic of mechanical genius! But I am impressed with the power those bulbs kick out! I certainly wouldn't like to have to pay the cinema's electric bills!


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## Rothrandir

some of that is complete science fiction!

imagine it coming true! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif


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## EMPOWERTORCH

It's nearer than you think! LEP technology was demonstrated several years ago on TV's "Tomorrow's World"!


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## LEDagent

Hey didn't they use the same kind of bulbs in the World Trade Center memorial?


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## LED-FX

Empower, thankyou very muchf or the fascinating pointers about TV, so Logie Baird is to Nipkow like Edison is to Swan:

http://www.tvhandbook.com/History/History_TV.htm

and Scophony

http://pyanczer.home.mindspring.com/Tour/scophony.html


The stage floor of the recent Eurovision song cotest was illuminated from below with sveral blocks of Barco LED video screen.

One of the latest Kodak digi cams has a LEP screen on the back, larger and less power hungry than LCD.

The Tribute in Light WTC project was 7K Spacecannons:

http://www.creativetime.org/towers/

http://www.spacecannon.com/

Adam


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## Amall

Sweet! 2 of them just went up on ebay! (I have a favorite search for xenon arc lamps, so I got an email)! :laughing:

This is awesome! They are used, but they look to be pristine. If they stay cheap, I think I may bid on one just to keep and show people!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180013067782

Pics (check out the strike point in the 4th pic, their is minimal charring. Is this a pure xenon lamp?)

snurl.com/arcpics


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## dgc

The fact that those lamp seem new doesn't mean they are. Those kind of lamps are replaced when warranty ends, regardless of their status. That's because warranty also cover accidental explosion of the bulb which will cause great damage to the whole projector and usually cinemas prefer someone else to pay reparations for them in case such an event will happen. This is also true for big cinemas where lamp can be greater than 10kW.

Remember to be extremely carefull when handling those lamps. Accidentaly dropping one to the ground or trying to ignite one without proper cooling (but I don't think it's so easy to find enough ampere to feed them) will result in big damages to everyone/enerything in the room. Even touching the surface without gloves and leaving hands grease on the surface can be dangerous.


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## Amall

Yea, and you can tell that they are used because if you go to the images and look at the documentation, they show somewhere around 2,000 hours of use (I forget how much it said.) The lumen output chart was kind of interesting, but I didn't quite understand the rest.

Also, I thought it was interesting that the bulb was encased in crystal to contain the pressure. I wonder just how durable it is?


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## Rudi

Slightly off topic but interesting. 

The entire IMAX technology is fascinating. I was involved in the filming of _Hidden Secrets_, the IMAX movie on the Grand Canyon, where I used to work as a white-water river guide (i.e., boatman). The IMAX camera by itself was the size of a large suitcase and weighed almost 200 lbs. It cost $200,000 and that was in 1983 — that’s over $400,000 in today’s money. Instead of transporting the 35mm film vertically through the camera as is customary, the IMAX camera transports it horizontally, so the 35mm width of the film represents the short dimension of the movie frame instead of the long dimension like in conventional movie cameras, yielding more than twice the image size on the film. This switches the easily controlled vertical vibration of conventional movie cameras to an objectionable horizontal vibration when filming with long lenses. The longest lens they used was 800mm and caused a significant amount of horizontal vibration, which was subdued by placing a stout bipod under the lens in addition to the beefy camera-supporting tripod.

At the time there were only four IMAX cameras in existence and two of them were at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. One of them malfunctioned during the river trip part of the filming. They helicoptered in replacement parts from Canada and rebuilt that huge camera one dark night on a sandy beach by lantern light, and it was able to complete the filming flawlessly.

Fascinating technology.


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## dgc

IMAX is really fascinating!

Just a correction, IMAX does not use 35mm films, it uses 70mm films, threaded horizontally, as you said.

Check out the difference between a 35mm frame (commercial movies) a 70mm one (very rare special editions) and an IMAX one:


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## Rudi

Yes, of course. It's 70mm film. You're quite correct. My oversight.


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## Ra

Are you talking about this...







This is the 15,000 watt watercooled lamp used in IMAX-projectors

I tried to mod a maglite with this lamp...don't know why that didn't work..

I've depressurized it so it is quite harmless now!!

Ra.


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## flex76italy

Ra said:


> Are you talking about this...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> This is the 15,000 watt watercooled lamp used in IMAX-projectors
> 
> I tried to mod a maglite with this lamp...don't know why that didn't work..
> 
> I've depressurized it so it is quite harmless now!!
> 
> Ra.





So you are the winner of the two lamps?


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## Illum

Ra said:


> Are you talking about this...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> This is the 15,000 watt watercooled lamp used in IMAX-projectors
> 
> I tried to mod a maglite with this lamp...don't know why that didn't work..
> 
> I've depressurized it so it is quite harmless now!!
> 
> Ra.



mod a maglite? LOLOLOLOL
the electrodes of the bulb alone is thicker then the bezel of a mag...


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## dgc

Ra said:


> I've depressurized it so it is quite harmless now!!


How did you do that?


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## nemul

LEDmodMan said:


> Based off of [email protected]'s links, the Luxor's beam is about * <font color="red">40 BILLION CP!!!</font> * They use 38 X 7000 watt bulbs, while the space needle uses only 3 X 7000 watt bulbs... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif



41.5 billion candlepower


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## carrot

Man, this thing is cool! Quite an old thread... but still impressive tech. I bet it'd melt if it weren't watercooled.


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## Illum

carrot said:


> Man, this thing is cool! Quite an old thread... but still impressive tech. I bet it'd melt if it weren't watercooled.



before it melt I think we'd be looking at a gas explosion...


carrots....:laughing:


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## Ra

dgc said:


> How did you do that?



Each Xenon short arc lamp has a belly button, there the lamp is filled with high pressure xenon gas. I put the lamp in a water tank, put a very thick lexan window over it and VERY CAREFULLY grinded the 'belly button' using a dremel diamond tool. Scraping off tenths of millimetres it suddenly starts to blow bubbles in the water: I imidiately stopped, letting it blow bubbles for more than 10 minutes!! Then closing the (extremely) tiny hole using high quality UV curing cement (or glue, whatever the name is...).

You're have to be very shure of yourself before you start even thinking about doing something like this: BELEVE ME, YOU DON'T WANT ONE OF THEM TO POP !!!! (sertainly not in your face!!)

Ra.


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## dgc

Wow! I worked as a projectionist for some time and I'm still involved into projection-matters but I never heard of someone doing something like that! Great! :goodjob: 

However I don't think I'd be brave enough to try that


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## nemul

carrot said:


> Man, this thing is cool! Quite an old thread... but still impressive tech. I bet it'd melt if it weren't watercooled.



ahhh! Amall bumped it! lmao


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## tvodrd

Ra, I thought about bidding on one, but thought better given the "grenade" potential.  That was ballsey safing that sucker! :bow: Best I can do is my 2.2KW AN/VSS-1 "spare" lamp:






Larry


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## Ra

Well Larry,

That surely is impressive enough.. Keep in mind that even a 2.2 Kw Xenon lamp has a "grenade" potential !! Even more when they are at the end of their sevice-life: Due to changes in the quartz caused by the heat, the lamp can burst without any warning !!!

Regards,

Ra.


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