As for why specialty Projector Lamps cost so much?

What does a projector lamp cost ? If you think the cost of a projector lamp is comparable to a standard 60-watt light bulb, think again. Projector lamps are relatively expensive, ranging from 200 Euro for low lumen projectors, to over 600 Euro for high lumen projectors. The average projector lamp cost is 350 Euro. There are good reasons that the price is what it is.

LCD projector lamps (also called LCD projector bulbs, LCD projector modules, data projector bulbs, data projector modules, or video projector bulbs) are highly specialized lamps with a high cost of production and development.

Many things contribute to the high cost of projector lamps, in this particular case, Manufacturers invested hundreds of millions in the development of the UHP lamp and, of course, they want a return.

UHP Projector lamps are made of borosilicate glass and fused quartz. Quartz is hard as a rock at the melting point of iron (1535 degrees C). Steel tools melt before quartz gets workable. And you need torches using oxygen to get hot enough - a regular Bunsen burner or even a "MAPP" gas blowtorch from a hardware store is not hot enough.

And if you have the heat and the tools, there is still another problem - quartz has a narrow plastic range of temperature. The temperature needed to get quartz barely as soft as taffy or frozen chewing gum is only a few dozen degrees short of making quartz liquid enough to pour. Quartz is trickier to work than glass and glassblowers that can work quartz will not be working for minimum wage!

Although we are in a world of mass-production, many steps of the UHP Lamp manufacturing process still are hand-made by a skilled craftsmen and will cost many times the cost of a mass-produced lamp.

Production machinery that can mass-produce quartz lamps is so expensive that only lamps that will sell in huge quantities (hundreds of thousands) can be made economically by such machinery. Otherwise it would cost even more to get the machines made and set up than it would be to hire those highly skilled glassblowers.

If you have a specialty ARC lamp design that would use the same bulb and the same leads as a lamp that is in mass-production, then maybe you could make a deal with an existing lamp manufacturer. (Expect a minimum production run of thousands - perhaps many thousands - of lamps at a price at least a few times that of a mass-production lamp in order to make it worthwhile to the manufacturer.)

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