CRT decay

From: Doug Yowza <yowza_at_yowza.com>
Date: Sun Nov 1 17:59:00 1998

On Sun, 1 Nov 1998, Tony Duell wrote:

> > I've got an old CRT that is decaying along the glass edges.
>
> Are you _sure_. Glass is normally pretty stable, and if it was really
> decaying I would have expected the CRT to have imploded. There's about
> 1/2 a ton of force on the screen of even small CRTs.

No, I'm not sure. When I first saw it, I thought mold was growing along
the edges, but closer examination showed that that "growth" was inside the
glass, and the patterns were somewhat crystaline. I'll let you know if
it spontaneously implodes.

> However, there are CRTs that are made with a laminated glass faceplate -

That's probably it. I saw beads along the edge, so it must be the plastic
that is crystalizing. I'll still let you know when it spontaneously
implodes, though :-)

> No remaining phosphor? This is strange... What on earth is going on?

It's possible that the phosphor was simply hidden by the now-opaque
plastic crystal.

So, how do you detect these laminated CRTs, and can they be sealed to
prevent this type of decay?

-- Doug
Received on Sun Nov 01 1998 - 17:59:00 GMT