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Showing results for tags 'FMS Neon'.
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Quality Long Life Channel Letters What does that take? The short answer is....always use the best light source according to the project application. I've been busy and took some time away from the Sign Syndicate to take care of a few accounts & live real life. I decided to maintain two good accounts and shut down my shop all the while turning down work from my regular clients and referrals until the jobs were done. The good thing was, I had some good loyal clients who waited for me until these projects were over. I had over 250 channel letters ranging from 12" to 46" and I did all of them myself and by hand instead of subbing them out. Why? I wanted something to do! On one of the accounts which I'll post soon I used LEDs for the obvious reasons, the stroke is too thin for Neon components, but there is something really awesome about these LEDs that I had a personal hand in but that will be a separate thread I'll post later. But for now I'm going to talk about this one, which is focused on Neon illumination. Neon illumination what??? A request by the client who owns a large national high end furniture chain that stems from the west coast to the east coast. I did their first job which was a entirely new location a couple of years ago which I posted here. They came to me by referral and they wanted Neon, NOT LED. They were real specific, reason been IS...they heard all the marketing claims made by sign companies who in turn heard it from the LED manufacturers about saving energy, prolonged life, yadda yadda over fluorescent lamps & Neon. A very topic we discussed in a topic "General LED Channel Letters On The Rise". They had a lot of signs made and retrofitted and well.......time went by and all the failures started to happen across multiple states in their wall signs and pylon signs. Enough was enough, they wanted to go back to light sources that they know always worked and never let them down , and that brought me to a group of stores right here in San Diego. They were making a name change re-brand over so I had to remove all the existing signs which were Neon illuminated. They were installed right for the most part and they didn't really have issues over time. I just improved what was used before, shorter runs, better material, making sure all circuits were properly loaded and going from single halo-phosphate (6500K) lamps to Tri-phoshor coated lamps. My first job for them I used FMS Neon's BL6500 in 12mm, I just continued that for this job. Wow, why 12mm? The Sign faces are day/ night, 3M perf over white. Using 12mm the appearance looked like 6500 white behind white acrylic, and it just a little more load than using 13mm. Seriously, it's that bright. I just happened to put these signs where a lot of the competitors also used 3M perf faces. They used LEDs, we used Neon, the result is now like someone sprinting past a jogger....with the jogger jogging backwards. No competition.....Truly! Using the Tri-Phosphor lamps each letter will be uniform in it's entirety, no need to worry about any individual letter light output degradation. When you have 15' of linear lamp for a letter you only have one single light source, or two depending on how you break it down per letter. For LEDs you would have over 67 individual modules with over 134 individual diodes that can break down, degrade, have irregular lumen maintenance and or fail showing uneven lighting over the years, which is not good for a high end furniture store This high end furniture chain wanted none of that, nor do I, especially with the spec of the sign having day night faces. Now, If I could have done some things different I would have used the Axioms AXLE 9XB's for one of the signs that was on a tilt up wall, that one would have been perfect because some of the letters also had a 1.5" stroke and the stroke was real small for the field installation as well is hitting rebar almost every 8", after all the Axioms are one of the rare LEDs thats as bright a 13mm Tri=Phosphor lamp running on 60ma. The Axiom AXLE9XB LEDs would be perfect, who wouldn't want Nichia of Japan LEDs in their sign? But, again...it was Neon specific so it just took longer to install, no biggy! Back to the illumination at night, it's even, it will stay even, the Tri-Phosphor lamps will stay whiter longer over time than the standard 6500 white. As if 6500 white didn't already stay white long enough. But Tri-Phosphor Whites can be 2 to 3 times brighter and stay white longer 2 to 3 times longer over time before the phosphor coats break down. I had a fun time on this project, 6 sign locations, plenty of 3'x16' monument aluminum faces and smaller to go with it. I had my kids who wanted summer money helping out in trim capping, channel letter fabrication, sign removal and installation. I can't post pics of all sign locations so I'll just keep it simple and it would just be redundant, I've posted this job before but on the initial job, this is more of the existing store chain locations making a rebrand. I'll start from the beginning. The removal My Second oldest getting involved Patterns on the wall Always double nut the system ground, bottom ground for the panel, top for the tranny! Plenty of head room for installation Part of my work organization Racks and boxes of Neon Load Plan Silicone GTO & electrode caps Letters and GTO up! C'mon Neon Day time shot Night time shot How the competition looks at night
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- FMS Neon
- Channel Letters
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Just finished up a modest sized job that was interesting from the beginning. Originally we were going to use this staging/trussel from a previous tenant then it changed to a removal of the old sign from a previous tenant to adding the new sign on the lower floor. As some of you know I prefer to go neon for channel letters but for this particular job I listed it to be LED because of the original scope of the sign being to high up and access wasn't to.....accessible. The response from the client was unusual. This particular client who has multiple chains in AZ and in other states wanted nothing more to do with LEDs, in fact he said it MUST be "Neon". He started out using Neon as a light source, converted over with each new location, but after multiple problems with channel letters, pylon signs filled with LEDs, enough was enough for him. No longer did he want his image held in darkness. I had a good LED spec's out too, but that was okay because I LOVE Neon, and it's coming back! Trust me!! It's slow to coming back because there are a lot of shops out there that just don't know what their doing when it comes to neon, never did, and probably don't have the talented install crew to do it right. So to them, Neon IS the problem, not the lack of proper talent. LEDs have a tendency to create laziness of some shops becoming a Wham Bam thank you Ma'am now pay me the installations done. Besides, some have even laid off that talented crew who could do neon for people who can only peel and stick, and who can drill a 1/2" hole. Alright enough of the side jokes. I'm not a big fan of Day/Night signs, have did some in the past and liked using using transparent acrylic and diffusion film because I can't stand the day/night acrylic. So this was my first time using the 3M perf film which I said I would like to use one day over my old preferred process. He sent me a snap shot of a sign that was a friend of his, he said give me the perforated stuff!!! So began the journey! The journey of Day/Night. First I had to find and use a VERY bright light source. Not so hard to find that.....well.....let's take a step back. It is if you don't know where to look! If you want to use a Tri-Phosphor CCFL lamp not many of the usual sign suppliers even stock it. For this job I wanted to use FMS's Brillite again. Want bright? Serious Bright? I mean....serious Bright, then it's time to put away the conventional 15mm and somtimes 13mm glass and 12mm up. Try and find that at the usual Montroy's, N.Glantz & Interstates.....Good Luck!!!! But these days that's okay because FMS is now a glass mfg who you can buy direct. Drop a dime and a few days later the UPS guy shows up with over 50 lbs of glass with no breakage and a small charge of shipping. Shipping that would have been quantified had you called a sign supplier who would in turn drop a dime and drop ship it to you and collect a sales commish. Out with old...... .....and begin of the new!! Want a bright sign, just add a Brighton. My favorite trim cap....PLASCO. A trim cap that is sold here on the Sign Syndicate.com!! The 3M black perforated film with my choice plastic, Plaskolite 2447 LD With using the bright Brillite BL6500 Triphosphor Lamps, you need a good reliable power source, so enter the new Transco To Go UNT Tanks. Self variable/ adjusting transformers that will adjust to the load. With two models the 9kV series that goes from 3k to 9k and the 15kV model that will adjust from 10,550v to 15kv. Installation day. Even facing the sun light the Brilite tri-lamps put up a fight all of it's own. Hard to see, but used with Transco's silicone Easy Caps & Boots, along with their silicone GTO, all sold here on the Sign Syndicate.com
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Remember all those times you would have to call supplier after supplier and deal with their lack of keeping stock, well, NO longer!!! Here's some awesome news from FMS Neon. They are now Buy Direct! Get your neon glass from amounts as small as 5 lbs, buy direct and with economical shipping. Not just glass, but a growing Buy Direct with many more supplier available and coming! Visit http://www.brillite.com/
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The New January 2012 - Neon & LED results are out! The Great White Hope - The High Powered white Neon & LED comparison (26,000+ Hours) - It's getting closer that that time where we can officially say a lot of these manufacturers are at their 70% life. Some have been way beyond it for some time, some are not even close yet. This month we are proud to finally introduce FMS Neon's Brillite Tri-phosphor Neon lamp into the mix, since 26,000 hours ago there we have another Neon lamp! Project Tighty Whitey - The Mid and Mini White LED only comparison (20,000+ Hours) - Roughly 10 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than last month. Some LED module output is untouched, some continued to lower in light output. The Red Light District - The Red Neon & LED comparison (13,000+ Hours) - We're starting to see a fast gradual failure of a major manufacturer. With that said I think it's time we think about pulling the plug and replacing it with another manufacturer. Border Security - The Neon & LED Border Tube comparison (3,000+ Hours) - With just a small rise in temperature it's amazing to see what that does to our exposed CCFL lamps, formally known as "Neon".
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- Great White Hope
- Project Tighty Whitey
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