FALLSTUDIE
Modernizing Award-Winning Film Recorders with OAV Air Bearings
Cinelab is a premier motion picture film laboratory specializing in the development, scanning, and printing of 8 mm, 16 mm, and 35 mm motion picture films for the film, television, and educational industries. Cinelab uses high-end equipment that serves critical roles in modern film industries.
Among the most notable machines in their facility is the Arrilaser, pictured above and below - a German-engineered digital-to-35 mm film recorder originally priced at over a whopping $550,000. This system set the standard for digital film recording in the early 2000s and was used in countless major motion pictures—including the iconic Lord of the Rings trilogy (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King), Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, The Matrix, and Gladiator. Despite its reputation, the Arrilaser was known to suffer from one recurring point of problem: the carbon thrust bushing that axially supports a delicate optical shaft tipped with a fragile lens.
The Arrilaser operates by projecting a laser beam, modulated by digital data, through a rotating optical shaft equipped with a precise lens assembly. This process requires ultra-precise rotational and axial positioning to ensure each frame of film is exposed with perfect focus and alignment—critical for producing the seamless, high-quality imagery these award-winning films demand.
Figure 1. Dual ARRILASER film recorders at Cinelab—industry-standard systems for 35 mm digital-to-film mastering, now preserved and enhanced with OAV Air Bearings.
Figure 3. The ARRILASER’s deflection system features a frictionless aerostatic bearing motor and ultra-precision linear stage—now enhanced with OAV Air Bearings—for high-speed, frictionless beam deflection and film transport with no wear. Each frame is recorded line by line with exceptional accuracy.
Figure 2. Visualization of the ARRILASER digitally mastering The Lord of the Rings onto 35 mm film.
Figure 4. The world-renowned movie The Matrix, one of the many classical films mastered by the ARRILASER
Cinelab faced the challenge of maintaining this critical component in a machine no longer supported by its original manufacturer. The original thrust bushing used a red film coating as a solid lubricant between the shaft flange and the thrust surface. Over time, this contact-based solution led to wear, degradation, and imprecise performance, risking damage to the fragile optical shaft and compromising film quality.
To solve this, Cinelab seeked help from OAV Air Bearings. OAV reverse-engineered the legacy part and developed a custom 14 mm Thrust Air Bushing designed to fit seamlessly into the existing housing. Unlike the original, OAV’s Air Bearing features a graphite thrust face that supports the shaft on a thin, pressurized air film, enabling true frictionless operation. This frictionless interface eliminates wear, protects the delicate optical shaft, and delivers significantly enhanced precision and longevity.
Figure 5. OAV Custom Thrust Air Bushing in Action with Precision Optical Shaft from the Iconic ARRILASER Film Recorder
What’s more, OAV’s custom air bushing was supplied at less than a thousand dollars per unit—a fraction of the cost of replacing the entire Arrilaser system or pursuing extensive repairs. This cost-effective upgrade restored critical functionality and elevated performance, allowing Cinelab to continue using its world-class film recorder with cutting-edge air bearing technology at its core.
Thanks to OAV’s precision-engineered retrofit, Cinelab is preserving a cornerstone of its film mastering workflow, and extended the life of a historically significant machine, and maintained the highest standards of quality in 35 mm film recording for the entertainment industry.
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This material is based on work supported by Cinelab Inc. https://www.cinelab.com/