All inkjet printers are ink monsters, regardless of make. But the printers are far cheaper than laser printers, and the ink cartridges are far cheaper than toner cartridges.
It’s like other things, they’re simply different animals. If I ran a business I’d definitely go with laser because of the higher print quality and much greater capacity, but for my use an ink jet printer works great. I simply don’t print that much. I have a totally separate photo printer for photos that does a fantastic job… and man, the kits with the paper and “film” cartridges (the printer’s “ink” comes in a disposable film cartridge, replaced with every second paper packet) cost a ton.
I have to comment about Sylvania and mountainbike’s comment on their manufacturing processes.
The headlamps in my Lincoln Mark (and every Mark made…) are pure, unadulterated garbage.
Many complaints are claiming it’s the design. No it’s not. The lamps are fine when new. The problem is the recycled milk carton plastic used to manufacture them.
They use the common 9005 Halogen bulbs as used by many vehicles and the plastic housings degrade badly due to bulb heat; nothing more. The reflectors turn orange, black, and the housing starts flaking, crumbling, and in some cases even melts.
I don’t think there’s a Mark owner on the planet who is not thoroughly disgusted with the headlamps on their cars.
So Sylvania cheaped out with recycled milk cartons on their own initiative, FOMOCO pushed them into doing it, or it was a collaborative effort.
As you can tell, Sylvania can go to low lumen hxxx in my disgruntled opinion.
You’re having a problem with the lighting modules, not the lamps (bulbs). Sylvania doesn’t make the modules, only the lamps.
Halogen bulbs, often called 'quartz halogen bulbs", burn very hot. They use a regular fibrous tungsten filament of a thickness and length that allows it to burn hotter that a traditional incandescent lamp, producing more heat and more light, and the “quartz” simply refers to the fused quartz bulb used to withstand the higher heat. The “halogen” simply refers to a small amount of halide gas added to the inert fill to produce a slightly different chemical reaction to the heat, extending filament life at the higher temperatures.
The 9005 part is the only part Osram makes. What it’s installed in is manufactured by a different company entirely. And yeah, I agree, some of them are junk.
Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not defending Osram. I worked with them as a consultant representing another organization, I never worked for them. I only pointed out that their processes and their materials are extremely well controlled and consistent, and thus so are the life spans of their headlight bulbs. In the industry that designs and manufactures these thing the term “lamp” is used to describe the bulb, the term “lighting module” is used to describe the plastic module they get inserted into.
The material the modules are molded from is part of the design, determined generally by the car designer in collaboration with the module molding company, final approval by the car manufacturer. IMHO, failure of the lamp material is the fault of the designers. The engineers didn’t do their homework well enough. They probably relied on the material recommended by the molder. In the interest of brevity I’ll skip listing the times I’ve personally had to correct design problems caused by engineers who relied too heavily on recommendations by second-rate suppliers. IMHO it’s a design problem, solely the fault of the design engineer(s) who ultimately put the material on the design drawing.
The bulb is not the issue and I consider the bulb a good one as I use it, and have used it, in other current and past cars.
It’s the beyond crummy low grade plastic in the lamp assembly as the entire lamp assembly other than the bulbs is manufactured by Sylvania. I’m not cursing the bulb maker; only the twits who manufactured what the bulb fits.
To make it worse, no one on the planet manufactures a replacement and one can tell from the pics of used ones on eBay or eyeballing the ones in the salvage yards that it’s a waste of time and money buying them as the charred debris is visible through the lens.
Wow, I did some reading up on the Lincoln Mark headlamp issues. Talk about the perfect storm. Poor design for getting power to the lamps, poor design of the housing for dissipating heat, lousy metallization of the plastic housing causing it to degrade and flake off…no wonder ok4450 is disgruntled…
We’re clearly describing the same problem. The only difference is the opinion on whether the lighting module (lamp assembly) is manufactured by Osram Sylvania. If they do have a polymer molding division somewhere, I’ve never heard of it. I don’t believe they do. I guess we’ll have to disagree on this point. If someone can direct me to an Osram website for such a facility, I’ll gladly concede.
I agree that any module exhibiting the described problems is junk that should not be on the market. And I understand your frustration. I tend to place the blame on the Lincoln engineers who approved the polymer. I always felt personally responsible for any specifications I imposed on custom made parts, and always did the homework or testing to try to ensure that they’d work for the application. I also know that not everyone does, and it used to drive me nuts when I’d find a problem that was there simply because someone didn’t feel any personal responsibility for heir design. That includes cases where a vendor comes back to purchasing and says “you know, I can make that cheaper out of XXX” and an engineer simply approves the ECO without doing any homework. That happens.
But that’s all just detail as to how it might have happened. The bottom line is that these apparently junky modules should not be going on Lincolns.
I would be very surprised if Sylvania were engaged in this level of manufacturing or assembly. I can’t definitively rule it out however. Regardless, the fault lies solely on the vehicle manufacturer. It is their responsibility to validate the design and perform ongoing verification to ensure good product is being delivered from their supplier base. It appears they failed at numerous points in the overall design as well, including the power delivery scheme for the headlights.
Not correct. Sort of. LED lamps’ electrical connections aren’t any different in their materials than traditional lamps. The LEDs are mounted on plugs, just as are Halogen or other bulbes. However, bulb lube is recommended now for all lamps. It costs about $1.50 or so a tube at the parts store. And the tube lasts for years. I even use the lube for lightbulbs in my house, as it prevents the metal bases from sticking in the sockets.
@“the same mountainbike” I made a New Year’s Resolution not to put bad jokes on this board, but I didn’t even make it through January 1. Thanks for your til about bulb lube. I often find myself up on a ladder at the small church I attend changing light bulbs. VI’s had problems with bulbs that are stuck in the sockets. I have used contact cleaner on the base of the sockets–the bulb lube sounds like it would be better.
Don’t feel too bad, tsm.
At work, whenever I saw somebody using artificial sweeteners in their tea or coffee, I used to say, “Don’t you know that you can develop artificial diabetes from using that stuff?”.
After they gave me a puzzled look, I would follow-up by adding, “But you shouldn’t worry, because they now have synthetic insulin to combat that condition!”.
Several years after my retirement, I think that some of those folks still believe I was serious.
Yeah I tell lots of jokes that seem to go over everyone’s head. Maybe its my company.
I bought a little container of bulb lube at Menards some years ago. Lasts forever. But I use it on the bulb bases that seem to get hotter like in the bathrooms. So when you go to unscrew the bulb, they actually unscrew instead of glass bulb breaking off in the socket. I don’t like sticking a needle nose pliers in sockets to get the base out again unless I know for sure the power is off. I’ve heard potatoes work good for that but maybe wear rubber gloves.
@thesamemountainbike, the lamp assemblies on my Lincolns (modules if you prefer) are made in their entirety by Sylvania.
On one side the word “Sylvania” and the Ford part numbers are molded into the housing. On the flip side there are 2 inked areas. One states “Sylvania” along with some production numbers and the other is “Sylvania” with the production code dates and so on.
I’ve got several sets of Lincoln lamps lying around collecting dust and unuseable due to their scorched Earth surfaces and all are marked similarly.
One thing not shown either in the mold or the ink is the location of the plant. Must have been ashamed to put that on there or in fear someone would show up at the plant with an attitude…
Not only do the lamps scorch on the reflectors surfaces but bulb heat degrades the entire housing. This leads to cracks and the headlamp adjustment bosses cracking or breaking off.
Every adjuster boss on both lamps which control both the vertical and horizontal adjustments has been repaired with lumps of JB Weld.
Over the years I’ve seen a lot of things that make me wonder WTH were they thinking but the Lincoln lamps have to be one of, if not the most pathetic, examples of construction I’ve ever seen.
In the light of that information, I stand corrected. I’ve learned something new today. It’s a good day.
I agree that modules that cannot tolerate the heat to which they’ll be subjected are rubbish. Sounds like someone made a cost-reduction design change. Or just a poor choice. I saw way too many during my 20+ years in industry.
Likely though, they were contracted out and not made in a Sylvania plant. I wonder if you could print a new one. My Riv had a similar issue but were glass high and low combined with no replacements available except in junk yards. Yeah longing for the days of buying a new head light for $5.
