You go to the doctor every year for your annual checkup. You see the dentist every six months to have your teeth checked and cleaned, you take your car to the shop every 3000 miles to have the oil changed and most States have an annual State Safety Inspection to make sure that your car is operating safely. So why would it be any different with your Overhead Projector?

Proper care, cleaning and general maintenance by a professional technician, can add years to the life of any piece of Electronic Equipment including your Overhead Projector.

Each year our service department offers an annual maintenance program for all of the School Districts that we service. It has been our experience with any type of projector or electronic device that uses a fan for cooling acts like a vacuum cleaner for dust. Most environments that Overhead Projectors and electronic devices are subject to are quite dusty. Over a period of a year an enormous amount of dust can collect inside these units.

Dust can become a fire hazard if enough has built up inside the Overhead Projector. Because of the heat produced by todays Halogen Projection Lamps, an excessive build up of dust can create a fire hazard.

Dust can also decrease the efficiency of your cooling system by over fifty percent, which of course can cause damage to internal components like your fresnel lens and other expensive optical parts. We have seen projectors so dirty that the plastic case has actually begun to melt because of the excessive heat produced by poor cooling. This causes parts like latches and switches to not work properly because the case that they are mounted to becomes distorted and not fit properly.

We all know that cigarette smoking can be hazardous to your health, but were you aware that it is also hazardous to your Overhead Projector. Not as common a problem as it was ten years ago, but the build up of tar and nicotine on the internal parts of your Overhead Projector can cause optics to become hazy and cooling systems to be less efficient or even fail all together.

General maintenance of your Overhead Projector should include removing all of the dust and other debris from the projector with a compressor with at least forty pounds of pressure. The remaining dirt and dust should be removed with a light household cleaner or even a cloth lightly dampened with water. The fan motor bearings should be lightly lubricated with a light oil. Take special care not to use excessive amounts of oil otherwise the fan ends up blowing it all over the internal optics of the projector.

The Fresnel Lens should be removed and cleaned only with water. The stage glass and other optics should also be cleaned with water, other chemicals or cleaners could damage these sensitive items.

Focus assemblies should be checked for wear and replaced as necessary. Focus assemblies not aligned properly diminish the quality of your projected image and in some extreme cases have caused the plastic parts of the head assembly to melt.

It has been our experience that Overhead Projectors and other Electronic Equipment that receives routine scheduled maintenance last fifty percent longer than equipment that does not. So go ahead, make an appointment for you Overhead Projectors checkup today.

Mark Boehm is the president of M-B Electronics He has over 25 years of experience in the Audio Visual and Electronics Industry. He can be contacted at 800-872-9456 or at:etbinc@comcast.net. More information on this subject: http://www.mbelectronics.com/view.aspx?id=29