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Re: Massive Mercury Migration

Posted By: winslow
Date: Saturday, 16 April 2011, at 1:19 p.m.

In Response To: Massive Mercury Migration (terlsworld)

> Hi all. I am new to neon well fairly new
> anyway I have been messing around with it
> for a couple years now just bending whenever
> the mood struck me. OK so now I have gotten
> to the point where I am finally thinking why
> not try to sell a few window signs. My
> letters are good enough to pass muster with
> the general public. I am sure you
> experienced benders would get a nice chuckle
> more than likely but for some shop owner it
> seems to be good enough. Anyway now about my
> problem. I first made an OPEN sign I figured
> everyone needs one right I use 12MM neon for
> the word open and 13mm argon for the border.
> So I put it all together turn it on and its
> all nice and bright the neon and argon are
> both burning very bright with the CPI6000
> transformer. I leave it on for like 10 hours
> to make sure the transformer doesn't get hot
> or anything. No just a little warm all tubes
> nice and bright. So I sell this sign to a
> guy and he calls me a few days latter and
> says his border is starting to fade. I go
> look at it and the mercury is migrating back
> tword one electrode. The neon tube is still
> doing just fine. So I make another sign this
> with all Argon tubing. Same CPI 6000
> transformer and it is doing good for a while
> then those tubes start to migrate. I figured
> with the first sign the mercury might have
> migrated because I was mixing argon and neon
> on the same transformer. But the second one
> was all argon. The website claims absolutly
> no mercury migration. So am I doing
> something wrong am I an idiot or what? So
> are these CPI transformers junk or what
> gives. I have read about the sign wave of
> electronic transformers and frankly I could
> care less about any theories about the
> physics of whats happening. I am looking for
> some straight answers. So here are my
> questions I put to you all.

Welcome to my nightmare.

> 1. Where can I buy transformers that
> actually work at a reasonable cost.

I have started using the ventex brand they seam to be a little brighter 26-28 ma. [CPI 22-24] [Others, even less]. Although on a few install already I had to go out and adjust the mercury, but not as drastic and seams to be fixed.
Another is Allanson my distributor told me one month that they had been discontinued but I think they were just in a parts shut down.

> 2. Do I have to switch to magnetic
> transformers and if I do will that solve the
> problem?

I believe I have gotten spoiled with the electronics for weight and size. On many Installations Magnetics would be just as easy and would have never had this problem.
On the other hand, I get asked all the time about energy consumption, and I love saying the new generation of electronics cut the magnetics by 75%.
I would love to see a dedicated US company step up with the commitment and support we need to put neon back in this spot light as attractive energy efficient advertising.

> 3. Should I just give up and go to truck
> driving school?

Your asking for advise. At least your trying to put out a quality product. God know we don't need any more crap neon out there.

> OK I am awaiting the wisdom of this group to
> help me if you would be so kind.

Just my thoughts

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