Microfading Tester International Discussion Group

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  • 1.  swapping Xe lamp for LED on original Whitmore MFT?

    Posted 16 hours ago

    HI all,

    Here at the Menil have a now antique Whitmore Oriel MFT that is largely mothballed because of difficulty of use (last use was 2021).  I have a feeling that if we could replace the Xe lamp source with all of its inherent difficulties in alignment with an LED it would perhaps be more user-friendly.  Has anyone done this?  If you'd be willing to share your experience and any adaptations you found you had to make to the system and workflow, I'd be most appreciative.

    all the best,

    Cory



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    Corina Rogge
    President of the American Institute for Conservation
    Director of Conservation
    The Menil Collection
    Houston
    TX
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  • 2.  RE: swapping Xe lamp for LED on original Whitmore MFT?

    Posted 16 hours ago

    Hi Cory! 

    this very topic came up last week at the workshop in Chicago; the short answer is yes, you can swap light sources, because they all use the same type of connection to couple to the optical fiber.  Things you will have to consider are how to put a shutter and filters (IR, UV, neutral density) into the light path, and how much those additional components skew the focusing of the light onto the fiber coupler.  On the OG Whitmore design, the filters are before the focusing lens and the shutter is built into the coupling plate.

    I too have a vintage Oriel system with annoying-to-align Q lamp housing. For the workshop, I brought the front end (fibers, test head, spectrometer, laptop) and we used one of the three light sources the Getty brought, which included a tungsten-halogen source and two xenons (I will let Vincent decide if he feels comfortable sharing brands/models). There's no reason why the multi-LED driver the Thomas design systems were using would not also have worked, we just didn't have the time to play with those variations in setup. 

    We're looking at options for our too, happy to swap further notes with you.

    bonne chance,



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    Cindy Connelly Ryan
    Library of Congress
    Silver Spring MD
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: swapping Xe lamp for LED on original Whitmore MFT?

    Posted 3 hours ago

    Yes, I sell an LED replacement which several institutions are now using. See https://www.microfading.com/equipment.html 

    It can deliver 0-15Mlux, a shutter integrated into a redesigned "head" (lens assembly holder). 

    Best wishes

    Bruce Ford



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    Bruce Ford
    Watson
    Australia
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    Original Message


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