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Re: trouble lighting orange
Posted By: SVP Neon Equipment In Response To: Re: trouble lighting orange (sparky2)
Date: Friday, 13 October 2006, at 12:50 p.m.
> please elaborate sean i assume you are from
> e g l and i must admit i would like to know
> more about your colour renderings etc as our
> supplier/as was in the uk has very little
> tech infoI agree with the basis of Gavin's and Sean's response. To expand on this, colored plastic acts as a filter much in the same way as colored (classic) glass does: It filters out the unwanted portions of the light spectrum (wave lengths) produced by a particular light source, in this case neon. For example, ruby red filters out almost everything from the gas discharge except the red spectrum. That is why filling an uncoated ruby red tube with argon/mercury produces very little light: Because there is very little red spectrum in the argon/mercury discharge and all the blue/green/violet is filtered out and not tramsmitted through the glass.
In the same way, colored plastic has a tendency to filter out the portions of the light spectrum (wave lengths) that it is not intended to transmit. In the case of orange faces, most of the spectrum except what is close to the orange band is filtered out.
Standard phosphor 6500K white produces very little red/orange color. That is the main reason why it is a poor choice for an orange (or other warm color) plastic face. 6500K tri-phosphor produces a little more red/orange spectrum because of the phosphor blend used. But it is still not enough to properly illuminate an orange face IMO. On the other hand, a tri-phosphor 2800K or 3000K white has a much higher percentage of light in the red/orange spectrum, so it is a much better choice for a warm color plastic face. If you went with an even warmer white, say 2400K, you would get even more red/orange saturation of the plastic.
Personally, I probably would have used a green color filled with red gas for various reasons. But that's just me and I would need to see the specific color of plastic before making a final decision about the choice of neon color.
There is more to consider too. Different manufacturers plastics, even though they may appear to be the same color, transmit the desired wave length of light better than others. Plus, there are now plastics specifically made for illumination by LED's. They are engineered to transmit the particular wave lengths of light produced by a specific color of LED. Neon colors are usually more forgiving than this because a specific color produces a broader spectrum of light than an LED color does. So the higher priced special plastics are not typically required when using neon for channel letter face illumination.
Mark
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