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Treat your scenery right (for flame retardancy, that is)

schraff — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 21:18:07 +0000

TDs and scenic artists are always working hard to stretch scenery budgets as far as they will go. Some of us are probably working harder at that now than ever before. Since soft scenery, painted drops and natural materials can be a pretty cost effective way of constructing and decorating scenic elements, I thought it might be a good time to go over some of the testing procedures we recommend for making sure that our sets are safely treated with an effective and approved flame retardant.

It’s important to remember that it’s not enough to treat the set with a good product—you have to test what you’ve done to make sure it works right. We sell some outstanding products that can help you make sure your sets are safe for public performances. Rosco makes several versions of Flamex: C26 for cotton, S33 for synthetics, W40 for wood, and P50 for paint. For comprehensive details about how and where to apply, go to the Rosco website. Scroll down until you find RoscoFlamex, select a product from the drop down menu and click on it.

Our Snuff-It™ flame retardant will treat a wide variety of materials including fabrics, certain wood products, cardboard and paper, and even hay or straw. Each application must be tested. For example, our testing recommendations which we ship with our Snuff-It™ say regarding fabric testing,

Follow all fire safety precautions and test at your own risk. All items to be treated must be tested for verification of chemical amount, appearance, texture and performance results. Surface must be free of all dirt and coatings. Cut two strips of specimen samples long enough for testing. We suggest a minimum of 3”x18”. Apply Snuff-It™ and let it absorb thoroughly on one side of the first specimen and label. On the second specimen, apply Snuff-It™ on both sides and label. Let dry and cure for 3-72 hours (average is 3-24 hours) and test. NFPA 705, Field Flame Testing Procedures are recommended for testing, although it does not guarantee acceptance by the fire authority. If results are not satisfactory, an additional light spray may be repeated or additional curing time may be required.

You get the idea. Whatever you use, you’ve got to prove it to yourself that your stuff is safe. That way, if an AHJ (Authority Having Jurisdiction) requires an ad hoc test, you’ll be ready to show them that you’ve done it right! Click here to view the complete Snuff-it™ product description, including detailed procedures for testing flame retardancy (PDF, 40KB).

Stay safe out there!

While everybody else is raising their prices, we’re lowering ours.

schraff — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 13:59:22 +0000

While prices on almost everything keep costing you and us more to purchase; we have decided it needs to stop somewhere and we have decided it stops here and now!

This is not a SALE and it is not a gimmick and it is not temporary. If you have or haven’t checked our prices lately, you may want to look again.

We just did the unthinkable. We have LOWERED prices on over 3200 items in our database.

Check out our website for current prices. Our comprehensive price lists are accessible by clicking on the Price List tab in the top navigation bar. If you don’t find what you are looking for, please give us a call and we will do our best to assist you on finding what you need.

Over 500 STAGEMAKER Chain Hoists to Lift Scenery Equipment at the Olympic Games in Beijing

schraff — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:56:11 +0000

The folks from STAGEMAKER chain motors sent the following press release over to us and I thought I’d pass it along. These folks are fairly new to the US market and are currently priced very aggressively to compete with CM (Columbus McKinnon). If anybody has experience with using these hoists on shows, we’d be interested in your feedback.

Thanks!

Schraff

SPRINGFIELD, OH (July 10, 2008) | The organizers of the 2008 Olympic Games selected the STAGEMAKER® SM10 chain hoists to support and lift the lighting and the sound equipment to be used during the opening ceremony at National Olympic Stadium in Beijing. The primary challenge was to deliver 400 motors and the 49,213 feet of lift chain in six weeks. Over 500 total units were sold through the sister company of R&M Materials Handling, Verlinde, who has been successfully developing the Asian markets for many years.

More than 400 SM10 hoists support 200 truss sections with a length of approximately 50 ft. Each section is moved by two STAGEMAKER® hoists equipped with 148 feet of lift chain. The 140 truss sections support intelligent luminaries and approximately 50 trusses support speaker clusters. An additional 100 hoists are used at various areas in the complex and at other Olympic venues.

The contract for the Olympic Games is yet another milestone for the growing presence of STAGEMAKER® in Asia. The contract follows the recent contract, containing more than 450 chain hoists, for the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre in Malaysia. Another important purchasing factor was the STAGEMAKER® product presentation organized, by Verlinde’s GIAE Beijing, for Olympic officials and other VIP’s from the Chinese entertainment and theatrical scene in The Great Hall of the People located at the Tiananmen Square, June 2007.

Thousands of units are used all over the world. The STAGEMAKER® product line offers experience acquired over decades of use in the entertainment industry. Reliability is one of the key distinguishing features of STAGEMAKER® products. Every version includes standard safety features, such as an electromagnetic disk brake and a safety clutch. The STAGEMAKER® SM10 chain hoist can lift loads of up to one ton, at a speed of 16 fpm. The STAGEMAKER® SM10 is extremely compact with a light-weight body due to an injected aluminum manufacturing process.

ETC announces retirement of Expression and Express line of consoles

schraff — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:07:54 +0000

Effective on July 18, 2008, ETC will no longer be accepting orders for the Expression® and Express™ line of control consoles. This includes the Expression 3, Insight™ 3, Express 250, Express 125, Express 72/144, Express 48/96, Express 24/48 and all Expression, Insight and Express Lighting Playback Controllers. As with all ETC products, we have reserved parts to service the units in the field for years to come.

ETC Marketing Manager David Lincecum comments: “The Expression family of consoles has had an incredible 22-year run, and thousands of these desks are running shows around the world. It should go without saying that ETC will offer the same high level of support we have always provided for these products for many years to come. We look forward to the continued success and growth of our incredible array of new consoles in the SmartFade®, Congo™ and Eos®/Ion® lines and we are already seeing that they will enjoy the same kind of success.”

Columbus McKinnon price increase

schraff — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:47:06 +0000

And the hits just keep on coming! CM has announced a modest price increase, effective 4 August 2008.

Schraff

Energy costs continue to drive up prices

schraff — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 22:32:45 +0000

We received two more price increase notifications just before we left to celebrate the 4th. Pro Tape and Field Template have experienced huge increases in their manufacturing costs in the last few months and will implement price increases in July. We’re getting these increases so fast that we’re having trouble getting the data entry done before they become effective. Look for more of this over the next six to nine months as energy and petrochemical cost run-ups make it through to our industry.

Schraff

American DJ raises prices!

schraff — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 21:15:42 +0000

Good afternoon. American DJ just advised us that they are going to implement a 10% to 15% price increase, effective as of July 15th.

Welcome to the Production Advantage Blog

schraff — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:34:52 +0000

Thanks for checking this out. We’ll post product information from our manufacturers here for you to review. Please let us know about your experiences with these products. We want to know what works and what doesn’t. We’ll also post special deals that we run across to help you keep your budgets in line. We hope you’ll also tell us about the good and bad stuff that you experience when you do business with us, whether it’s over the phone or on the web. Please let us know what you think. You’re the folks who use our site and call our reps. We want to do everything we can to to make that a good experience for you. We thank you for your business and your trust.

Schraff

David Schraffenberger, GM