Why Are Projector Lamps So Expensive?
One of the shocks customers experience when purchasing a new projector lamp is the cost, there is a good reason for this. Compressed inside the ARC tube of the projector lamp, is an ultra-high pressurize mercury vapor that is ignited when electricity jumps or arcs, across the gap filled with this gas. The ignition of the gas when the electrical current jumps or arcs through it is what produces a projector lamp's extremely bright light.
Thus, the technology and engineering that goes into the making of a projector lamp is not cheap. In fact, the machines that are required to produce a single projector lamp can cost the manufacturer millions of dollars.
In addition to the purchase costs of the machinery, manufacturers also have to hire expert scientists and engineers that can ensure that the projector lamp you are purchasing meets the standards required by your projector. The mercury vapor must be exactly pressurized and the ARC tube and quartz reflector must be precisely positioned at the correct angle. If any of these elements are not calibrated exactly as they need to be, the projector lamp may not produce the brightness expected, may burn the LCD panel within the projector or may fail to ignite.
Every projector lamp also has different ignition and running voltages and wattages. These configurations produce different brightness levels (ANSI lumens rates). Therefore, the machines that manufacture projector lamps are complex and expensive to maintain. They also have to be recalibrated for each specific new lamp setting. There is no short way around this process if the manufacturer wants to produce a high quality projector lamp.
Projector lamps are cost intensive to make, and that is why there are only four or five major manufacturers of high-quality, ORIGINAL projector lamps in the world. These manufacturers have spent a lot of money researching and developing projector lamps. They also have to maintain the assembly plants where the projector lamps are made. The costs to develop and make projector lamps limits competition in the market, both these factors increase the cost of projector lamps.
