prolight quick clamp warning

[soundscapes]

Ive been using them since they were featured in pro-mobile last year and thought they were the dogs danglies, until, on saturday night one failed without warning causing one of the dynamos to drop about 3m ( from a prolight winch stand ) onto a hard floor. ripped the dmx cable clean out.
rang prolight and all i got was an offer to replace the broken clamp. Ive got 8 of these clamps, all bought at the same time, and there is no way im going to trust them now. A dynamos not even a heavy light.
Anyway thought id post this to warn anyone else who maybe using them to make sure you use a safety cable with them.

If anyone wants to see the pics of the failure i can email em to you as im not sure how to make the pictures smaller. ( im not very good with digital pics)

[wensleydale]

i know its not much use to you, but this was raised abotu 6mths ago- same problem.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Where do I start....

I really upset Prolight about this issue quite a while ago, and after I made a fuss they 'promised' to replace all of the clamps with mark 2 clamps which were stronger.

One of my guys has been waiting since September 2006 for these replacement clamps to appear.

Have a search on a few forums and you'll find the email that was sent back and forward from me to the MD of Prolight.

[soundscapes]

its my own fault for not using safety cables. Its the "cant be bothered" attitude of prolight thats got my back up, especially when you consider how much ive spent with them. all my lighting is prolight and my stands are prolight. Wont ever use them again now. As if im going to send back the broken clamp for a new one, id never trust a quick clamp to hold my lights again. i didnt expect them to replace the dynamo but i would have thought they would have offered to refund the 8 clamps or exchange them for standard clamps. i was horrified when it failed to discover that only the centre stud is steel and in effect its just a thin bit of plastic holding thde light up.

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

Just had a quick look and found this email from Prolight...

Hi Darren,

Since our early conversations and the unwillingness of certain customers to send a faulty clamp back ( so far only 2 have been returned)

I have been to China modified the design and am now waiting a delivery in the next 6 weeks.

As soon as I receive the new clamps I will forward 1 on.
Best regards
Andrew.

And the date of the email? 24th April 2006.

And funnily enough I didn't receive one either.

[soundscapes]

ill be a chauvet or thomann customer from now on. ive emailed them the pics twice and still no reply

[soundscapes]

i might get the pic blown up and put on a t-shirt and wear it when i go to dj show north, lol.
send it back to them ? im thinking of sending mine to trading standards as its not fit for the purpose it was sold for.

[soundscapes]

was it the stud ( the bit that attaches to the lighting effect ) that failed on yours ?

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

was it the stud ( the bit that attaches to the lighting effect ) that failed on yours ?

Yes and we had 4 go.

I sent them back and strangely Prolight didn't receive them.

One of my guys has had them made in metal now, which they should be anyway I reckon.

[soundscapes]

i always thought they would be metal and that the plastic was just a coating.
how wrong was i

[spin mobile disco]

Plasic in a lighting clamp?? All ones I've used have been galvinsed steel painted black.
I think using plastic in load bearing parts is a receipe for disaster. Sorry to hear about your light breaking hope it's repairable.
Maplin do a heavy duty clamp in steel for about £40 I use them with no problems.

[pdarnett]

i think they might already do a t-shirt http://www.gotfuturama.com/Information/CharacterBios/clamps.dhtml

[DMX Will]

Always use proper clamps myself, and with a safety chain or bond (as it's a legalality I believe - although I can't seem to find anything on the H&S website).

However I agree with whats said, Pro Lights attitude is appalling. If you think about it you were using a Pro Light winch stand, a pro light clamp and a pro light (acme) light. I think you should be entitled to a replacement Dyanamo!

[Peter Lockwood]

i use the prolight clamps but they are steel and if you dont use a secondrey bond you are asking for truble

[Silver]

You've got me a tad concerned, I've got some but I don't know if they are Mark 1 or 2.

Mine have the quick release pull on them and have a 'back up' screw, that you screw in after you've inserted the light into clamp, there are no bonds, strings, chains or anything extra to fix.

I bought them in October and to date all is well. http://planetsmilies.net/confused-smiley-17721.gif

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

i use the prolight clamps but they are steel and if you dont use a secondrey bond you are asking for truble

Firstly, we are talking about Prolight quick clamps which I can assure you are not steel and secondly it might be nice if you intoduce yourself rather than coming on with advice that's probably a little bit late!;) :D

[CRAZY K]

Yes and we had 4 go.

I sent them back and strangely Prolight didn't receive them.

One of my guys has had them made in metal now, which they should be anyway I reckon.

I think thats the key to it--hanging expensive and heavy lights on plastic fittings maybe not ideal?

DID THE DYNAMO SURVIVE?:eek:

My Dynatwins smashed into the floor of a marquee last year---no problem with them apart from a slight dent:eek:

CRAZY K

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

[/B]

I think thats the key to it--hanging expensive and heavy lights on plastic fittings maybe not ideal?



You're missing the point Alan.

The clamps were rated at enough weight to hold the fixtures that were hanging on them.

They weren't up to the job, simple as that.

When you buy a clamp that says you can hang up to x amount of weight on it, you expect it to work!

[spin mobile disco]

Out of curiosity what weight was on it and what was the clamp rated for?
Just asking as on one of my light fittings it says to fix using at least a 30 kilo clamp but the effect is only 3.3kilos (ssc2 effect) so I didnt bother and fixed with a 20 kilos clamp about half the price and just use a safety cable as backup.
Strikes me that prolight screwed up and you may be entitled to recompence. Does your insurance cover you for accidental? Also take pictures of damaged clamp , light and anything else damaged and send them copies asking for repair or replacement gotta be worth a try. Small claims court may also be worth pursuing if you get no joy.
Keep us updated on this as im sure it will effect a lot of members here. Good luck

[soundscapes]

thanks guys, will be contacting trading standards on this one as far as im concerned the clamp wasnt fit for the purpose it was sold. It was a single dynamo that fell. It fell a full 3m from a fully winched stand onto a concrete floor and there wasnt ANY damage to the dynamo, bulb, mirror and casing all ok and it still works ! All that was damaged was the dmx cable ! Ill still strip it down to make sure its ok internally. Not worth losing my no claims bonus for one dynamo. I agree with will that i should have used a safety cable but as far as im aware its only a requirement if they are hung over the crowd. In future ill just be using good old fasioned bolts ! if anyone wants to see pics ill put it up in gallery

[Danno13]

Why not just use G-clamps?? It'd take a earthquake for one of those to fall off a stand.. and they're much quicker than using bolts.

[soundscapes]

for all those who wanted to know how it happened....

[pulsemobiledisco]

Ia that one of thouse prolight quick clamp thingys. A very good idea but let down by a very poor design.

[pulsemobiledisco]

Ia that one of thouse prolight quick clamp thingys. A very good idea but let down by a very poor design.

Doh, just seen your other post

[Corabar Steve]

Ia that one of thouse prolight quick clamp thingys. A very good idea but let down by a very poor design.

The desgn is sound, the materials used are at fault.

Who in their right mind would think of using plastic for a clamp???????????


Doh, just seen your other post

That's going to look very silly now I've moved it all into one thread. (Sorry Sam) :d

[BeerFunk]

The desgn is sound, the materials used are at fault.

Who in their right mind would think of using plastic for a clamp???????????
Normally the materials used are part of the design :p

[Corabar Steve]

Alright the design in itself is sound, on paper, until they decided what materials to make it out of :P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:Phttp://smilies.vidahost.com/contrib/ed/tongue.gifhttp://smilies.vidahost.com/contrib/ed/tongue.gifhttp://smilies.vidahost.com/contrib/ed/tongue.gifhttp://smilies.vidahost.com/contrib/ed/tongue.gifhttp://smilies.vidahost.com/contrib/ed/tongue.gifhttp://smilies.vidahost.com/contrib/ed/tongue.gifhttp://smilies.vidahost.com/contrib/ed/tongue.gifhttp://smilies.vidahost.com/contrib/scorchio/sgrin.gif