Cart 0

The Film Holder Saga: Rev 4

Tim Gilbert

To be honest, we've been fighting production problems with the Rev 3 film holders since we introduced them. They would warp when ejected from the mold; forcing us to discard way too many parts (like 30% too many)! Granted, they were better than the Rev 2s but not better enough.

The factory engineers kept blaming the "thinness" of the long bars. (We'll skip the details regarding injection pressures, cycle times, mold temperatures etc.) They wanted us to increase the thickness. The problem was: how to increase the thickness but still allow for liquid flow behind the film?

Taking one of the lessons learned while testing the SP-8x10+ tray system, we've added texture to the face of the holder:

             

The texture breaks the surface tension so the film can't stick. This allowed us to increase the base thickness (to almost 2 mm), eliminating our warping problem.

The new holders have a much "tougher" feel to them and seem to load easier (probably just my imagination). Due to the increased thickness, you can also get away with less chemistry: 450 ml will work fine. In fact, we recommend using less than 475 ml with the new holders.

Note: if you're happy with your current film holders, there's really no reason to change. Your film won't know the difference.

Unfortunately, there will be a price increase to $96. Frankly, this increase has very little to do with the film holders and more with just general economics. (The SP-445 price hasn't changed in three years.)

Our plan is to sell out the current inventory of Rev 3 equipped tanks at the old price.  Once gone, they're gone, since the mold has been modified, hopefully for the last time.


Older Post Newer Post