Xenon bulb replacement policy

[Anton Kamnev]

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Dear colleagues,

I was wondering what is common policy for replacement Xenon lamps in
fluorescent scopes?

Most of the producers guarantee 1000 hr of life time, but most of the bulbs
are able to perform beyond this point. The question is - when to replace? Do
you monitor their output and exchange them when it is too low (e.g. 30% of
initial)?

The problem we have is that our current Xenon burners from Cermax® show
rather stable decrease in output over its lifetime (to 30% of initial after
1000 hr). I don't have much experience with this types of lamps and, thus,
not sure if that is normal or not.

Here are the specification for our Xe burners:
Watts: 300W
Overall Length: (mm/") 1.92"
Additional Info: UV FILTERED OUTPUT
Arc Length: 0.049"
Base: 5 HOLES
Burning Position: BASE UP +/- 135DEG
Diameter (mm/"): 1.3"
Life: 1000H (500H WARRANTY)
Reflector Type: PARABOLIC
Lumens: 5000L
Candela: 515000CD

Thanks in advance for sharing your experience!

--
Anton Kamnev, PhD
Imaging Manager
Mechanochemical Cell Biology Building
Division of Biomedical Cell Biology
Warwick Medical School
The University of Warwick
Coventry, CV4 7AL UK

tel: [phone]
cell: [phone]
email: [hidden email]

[Smith, Benjamin E.]

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You have to be extra careful with xenon bulbs.  Unlike mercury or metal halide bulbs, xenon bulbs are pressurized even at room temp, and reach relatively high pressures and temperatures when operating.  Because of this very high temperature, the quartz envelope will vitrify and eventually catastrophically explode.  A PI in our department didn't know about the time sensitivity of xenon lamps, and did have a catastropic explosion that took out the whole lamp housing.

You can tell the degree of vitrification, because it will look like a milky white powder on the otherwise clear quartz envelope.  Even if there is only a small amount of vitrification, it still would be a good idea to replace the lamp, because a lamp is much cheaper than a lamp + housing.

Also, be sure to follow the instructions on replacing a xenon bulb, because as I said earlier, they are still an explosion risk even at room temp.

Cheers,
   Ben Smith

Benjamin E. Smith, Ph.D.
Samuel Roberts Noble Microscopy Laboratory
Research Scientist, Confocal Facility Manager
University of Oklahoma
Norman, OK 73019
E-mail: [hidden email]
Voice   405-325-4391
FAX  [phone]
http://www.microscopy.ou.edu/

________________________________________
From: Confocal Microscopy List [[hidden email]] on behalf of Anton Kamnev [[hidden email]]
Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 2014 4:23 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Xenon bulb replacement policy

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*****

Dear colleagues,

I was wondering what is common policy for replacement Xenon lamps in
fluorescent scopes?

Most of the producers guarantee 1000 hr of life time, but most of the bulbs
are able to perform beyond this point. The question is - when to replace? Do
you monitor their output and exchange them when it is too low (e.g. 30% of
initial)?

The problem we have is that our current Xenon burners from Cermax® show
rather stable decrease in output over its lifetime (to 30% of initial after
1000 hr). I don't have much experience with this types of lamps and, thus,
not sure if that is normal or not.

Here are the specification for our Xe burners:
Watts: 300W
Overall Length: (mm/") 1.92"
Additional Info: UV FILTERED OUTPUT
Arc Length: 0.049"
Base: 5 HOLES
Burning Position: BASE UP +/- 135DEG
Diameter (mm/"): 1.3"
Life: 1000H (500H WARRANTY)
Reflector Type: PARABOLIC
Lumens: 5000L
Candela: 515000CD

Thanks in advance for sharing your experience!

--
Anton Kamnev, PhD
Imaging Manager
Mechanochemical Cell Biology Building
Division of Biomedical Cell Biology
Warwick Medical School
The University of Warwick
Coventry, CV4 7AL UK

tel: [phone]
cell: [phone]
email: [hidden email]

[Glenn Merrill-Skoloff]

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Hi Anton,

I’ve switched to an LED source (Lumencor SpectraX) but, prior to the switch, I would check our Xenon source twice a month or so with a fluorescent bead slide. I would find several fields in different areas of the slide that contained 5 or more beads and snap an image of each field. After quantitation and averaging, I would plot the per bead value on a graph and hang it on the wall. The value would fluctuate around a mean for about 6 months, then start to trend downward.  A word of caution: These lamps take a bit of time to burn in. Check it with the beads every day or two until the output stabilizes. That stable value is what I used for my baseline. My policy was to change the lamp when it had dropped from baseline by 30%.

— Glenn

Glenn Merrill-Skoloff
Division of Hemostasis and Thrombosis
Laboratory Manager

617-735-4040 (Office)
617-735-4007 (Lab)
617-735-4000 (Fax)



From: Anton Kamnev <[hidden email]<mailto:[hidden email]>>
Reply-To: Confocal Microscopy List <[hidden email]<mailto:[hidden email]>>
Date: Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at 5:23 AM
To: "[hidden email]<mailto:[hidden email]>" <[hidden email]<mailto:[hidden email]>>
Subject: Xenon bulb replacement policy

*****
To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
Post images on http://www.imgur.com and include the link in your posting.
*****

Dear colleagues,

I was wondering what is common policy for replacement Xenon lamps in
fluorescent scopes?

Most of the producers guarantee 1000 hr of life time, but most of the bulbs
are able to perform beyond this point. The question is - when to replace? Do
you monitor their output and exchange them when it is too low (e.g. 30% of
initial)?

The problem we have is that our current Xenon burners from Cermax® show
rather stable decrease in output over its lifetime (to 30% of initial after
1000 hr). I don't have much experience with this types of lamps and, thus,
not sure if that is normal or not.

Here are the specification for our Xe burners:
Watts: 300W
Overall Length: (mm/") 1.92"
Additional Info: UV FILTERED OUTPUT
Arc Length: 0.049"
Base: 5 HOLES
Burning Position: BASE UP +/- 135DEG
Diameter (mm/"): 1.3"
Life: 1000H (500H WARRANTY)
Reflector Type: PARABOLIC
Lumens: 5000L
Candela: 515000CD

Thanks in advance for sharing your experience!

--
Anton Kamnev, PhD
Imaging Manager
Mechanochemical Cell Biology Building
Division of Biomedical Cell Biology
Warwick Medical School
The University of Warwick
Coventry, CV4 7AL UK

tel: [phone]
cell: [phone]
email: [hidden email]<mailto:[hidden email]>


________________________________
This message is intended for the use of the person(s) to whom it may be addressed. It may contain information that is privileged, confidential, or otherwise protected from disclosure under applicable law. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution, copying, or use of this information is prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please permanently delete it and immediately notify the sender. Thank you.

[George McNamara]

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My approach to arc lamps was:

1. each new arc lamp bulb was rubbed down with 70% Ethanol soaked
kimwipes (wearing lab gloves for this and the bulb installation) to
remove the nasty stuff on the glass envelope. - This was taught to me by
John Zhang, our excellent Leica confocal service engineer, who learned
it from one of his customers.

2. Each new arc lamp bulb run at 100% power for the entire first full
workday (and I worked 8am-6pm+ for most of my time in Miami) to let the
electrodes burn in. Maybe I should have done that every day for a week?

I found it simplest to let the bulb die than track its dimness over
months. I'll guess that half died by failing to turn on one day, the
other half passed during imaging sessions (maybe more of the former). I
made sure I had plenty of new bulbs on hand - and I was around most of
the time and my cell phone number was on my business card and posted in
the imaging cores.

Now: Lumencor SOLA on the main microscope in my lab. I would still like
to get a Lumen Dynamics XLED1 - or even better a pair - for that scope,
not in the lab budget.

George


On 5/21/2014 11:56 AM, Glenn Merrill-Skoloff wrote:

> *****
> To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
> http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
> Post images on http://www.imgur.com and include the link in your posting.
> *****
>
> Hi Anton,
>
> I’ve switched to an LED source (Lumencor SpectraX) but, prior to the switch, I would check our Xenon source twice a month or so with a fluorescent bead slide. I would find several fields in different areas of the slide that contained 5 or more beads and snap an image of each field. After quantitation and averaging, I would plot the per bead value on a graph and hang it on the wall. The value would fluctuate around a mean for about 6 months, then start to trend downward.  A word of caution: These lamps take a bit of time to burn in. Check it with the beads every day or two until the output stabilizes. That stable value is what I used for my baseline. My policy was to change the lamp when it had dropped from baseline by 30%.
>
> — Glenn
>
> Glenn Merrill-Skoloff
> Division of Hemostasis and Thrombosis
> Laboratory Manager
>
> 617-735-4040 (Office)
> 617-735-4007 (Lab)
> 617-735-4000 (Fax)
>
>
>
> From: Anton Kamnev<[hidden email]<mailto:[hidden email]>>
> Reply-To: Confocal Microscopy List<[hidden email]<mailto:[hidden email]>>
> Date: Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at 5:23 AM
> To: "[hidden email]<mailto:[hidden email]>"<[hidden email]<mailto:[hidden email]>>
> Subject: Xenon bulb replacement policy
>
> *****
> To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
> http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
> Post images on http://www.imgur.com and include the link in your posting.
> *****
>
> Dear colleagues,
>
> I was wondering what is common policy for replacement Xenon lamps in
> fluorescent scopes?
>
> Most of the producers guarantee 1000 hr of life time, but most of the bulbs
> are able to perform beyond this point. The question is - when to replace? Do
> you monitor their output and exchange them when it is too low (e.g. 30% of
> initial)?
>
> The problem we have is that our current Xenon burners from Cermax® show
> rather stable decrease in output over its lifetime (to 30% of initial after
> 1000 hr). I don't have much experience with this types of lamps and, thus,
> not sure if that is normal or not.
>
> Here are the specification for our Xe burners:
> Watts: 300W
> Overall Length: (mm/") 1.92"
> Additional Info: UV FILTERED OUTPUT
> Arc Length: 0.049"
> Base: 5 HOLES
> Burning Position: BASE UP +/- 135DEG
> Diameter (mm/"): 1.3"
> Life: 1000H (500H WARRANTY)
> Reflector Type: PARABOLIC
> Lumens: 5000L
> Candela: 515000CD
>
> Thanks in advance for sharing your experience!
>
> --
> Anton Kamnev, PhD
> Imaging Manager
> Mechanochemical Cell Biology Building
> Division of Biomedical Cell Biology
> Warwick Medical School
> The University of Warwick
> Coventry, CV4 7AL UK
>
> tel: [phone]
> cell: [phone]
> email: [hidden email]<mailto:[hidden email]>
>
>
> ________________________________
> This message is intended for the use of the person(s) to whom it may be addressed. It may contain information that is privileged, confidential, or otherwise protected from disclosure under applicable law. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution, copying, or use of this information is prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please permanently delete it and immediately notify the sender. Thank you.
>
>    

--



George McNamara, Ph.D.
Single Cells Analyst
L.J.N. Cooper Lab
University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX 77054
Tattletales http://works.bepress.com/gmcnamara/26/