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Congratulations! Someone knows the sex of the new baby (or is about to), and now it’s time to plan the big gender reveal. Maybe the parents are really into cars, or they love those videos of big clouds of colored car smoke revealing the gender of the baby. So you know you want to do a burnout at the party. But how do you get colored burnout smoke for a gender reveal?
The answer is simple: you just need gender reveal burnout powder. But you might still be wondering how to use gender reveal burnout powder.
No problem! I’ll walk you through step-by-step how to use burnout powder. I’ll also discuss how many packs you need to get, what the best kind of powder is, and, well, how to do burnouts in general. This is one of my favorite methods of revealing a baby’s gender! It’s relatively safe and has a huge impact for a big onlooking crowd of friends and family.
A tire burnout gender reveal is quite simple, but can be done in a number of ways. You could get burnout gender reveal tires that have special colored rubber compounds that are then spray-painted black to conceal the surprise until the burnout.
However, this method is very expensive (because tires in general are expensive). The burnout also takes longer to reveal the color. This is because you have to burn through the spray paint and enough of the tire to release a bright hue.
A cheaper and more commonly used method is to use colored powder concealed in special bags. Some are designed to stick to your tire. These bags burst during the burnout, spraying the powder out behind the car in a dramatic cloud. This method produces brighter colors and usually a bigger cloud of “smoke” (dust) as well.
Some people even put the colored powder directly into their exhaust pipes, either by itself or in addition to the packs under the tires.
Burnouts are illegal pretty much everywhere on public property. On private property, however (like your driveway), it isn’t specifically illegal… But you could still be charged with disturbing the peace of endangerment if a neighbor or police officer wanted to press the issue.
For this reason, it’s recommended that you do a gender reveal burnout on private property set far back from the main road. You should also do it during normal daytime hours, and not late at night when people are sleeping.
If you’re using the right kind of car (we’ll talk about that later) and you’re only planning on doing the one burnout, your car will likely be fine. This is not a guarantee, though. A burnout puts a ton of pressure on a car’s transmission, axles, and driveshaft. Enough strain can cause these things to break down.
A gender reveal burnout should be done by someone with the right kind of car, with experience doing burnouts, and only long enough to throw the powdered dust out behind the car (which will only be a couple of seconds).
But know that you are always taking the risk of doing damage to your vehicle when doing a burnout.
Also, burnouts tend to be bad for your tires – so if possible, use a pair of old tires to make this kind of magic happen.
Tires are made of rubber, and rubber is a Group 1 carcinogen. Burning rubber releases airborne latex along with bits of carbon black, oil, sulfur, steel, and other metallic elements.
Does this mean using a gender reveal burnout kit is going to give all your guests cancer?!
Well, not really. One of the factors in how dangerous the “smoke” can be lies in the concentration of the vapors being inhaled. Doing the burnout in a large, open, outdoor area will quickly dilute the cloud of smoke.
Also, when using colored burnout powder, you’re not going to be burning that much rubber; the powder will be creating most of the smoke before the tires even really have a chance to get hot. The powder is usually made of cornstarch – you know, the stuff you eat! Still, inhaling cornstarch has been proven to cause inflammation and even scarring in the lungs.
All of this information just means your guests – and particularly the expectant mother – should stand far away from the car while it’s performing the gender reveal burnout. Don’t worry, they won’t miss that brightly colored cloud of dust.
First of all, if you’re wondering whether it might be easier and/or cheaper to just get colored gender reveal tires for your burnout, the answer is definitely not. Tires are much more expensive than colored powder packs and have to spin for a lot longer to produce a noticeable amount of colored smoke.
That being said, yes, tires DO come in different colors! Highway Max can provide you with a blue or pink burnout gender reveal tire pack in tons of different sizes (and will spray paint them black so no one knows what it’ll be until they start burning!). They are the number one gender reveal burnout tires company in the world. The smoke color is BRIGHT, too – here’s a video of a truck using some of Highway Max’s tires.
As mentioned earlier, most gender reveal powders are made with cornstarch – and those are the only kinds I recommend you use. They are safer for the environment and safer for your guests (though again, no one should be directly in the clouds and inhaling the burnout gender reveal smoke!). Colored cornstarch also won’t damage your car and should wash off easily.
Burnout gender reveal powder is usually just cornstarch mixed with concentrated food coloring. This may leave you wondering… why don’t I just make it myself? A DIY gender reveal burnout is bound to be cheaper, right?
You could, and I even have a tutorial on how to DIY gender reveal powder at home. But it takes a chunk of your time, it’s pretty messy, and it has the potential to go wrong. It’s also really difficult to get the cornstarch back to as fine a powder as it once was (you have to add water to color it).
Professional companies are the best at that part!
For these reasons, I recommend you just buy premade colored powder packs. These companies have been making this stuff for years (even before gender reveals were popular) and you’ll know it’s properly colored, dried, and sifted to create the perfect cloud effect.
Most packaged gender reveal burnout packs include one pound of powder per bag. Two bags (two pounds) of powder should be plenty for your gender reveal if you’re doing a rolling burnout.
If your vehicle is better suited to a standing burnout, you may want to use four bags (four pounds) of powder, directly sticking two bags to each tire. (Many products are designed with this in mind – you simply peel off a sticker and slap the adhesive part onto the tire.) One pack may decide to fly off before busting under the tire.
via ellepons_design on InstagramI’m going to walk you through a couple of scenarios of how to do a gender reveal burnout.
Blackout gender reveal bags can be used in a burnout a few different ways, depending on your vehicle. These are the three methods for using them, and you’ll need to figure out which one applies to your car:
If you’ve never done a burnout before (though I really think you should know how to do one already before attempting one at a gender reveal), this is how it’s achieved:
You’ll also need a lot of horsepower. 4-cylinders won’t cut it. Smoother/balder tires will work the best.If your vehicle is an RWD manual transmission, this is what you do:
If your vehicle is an automatic with rear-wheel drive, you’ll need to do something like this:
No matter what car you’re using and what kind of burnout you’re going for, the key is to practice it first.
Nothing’s more disappointing than a failed gender reveal burnout where the bag just pops but the powder doesn’t get thrown back in a big, beautiful blue or pink cloud.
This video is a great example of where you should place your powder bags in front of the tire ahead of a rolling burnout in order to get the best effect.
If the parents-to-be are more into motorcycles than fast cars, you may be wondering if you can do a motorcycle burnout gender reveal. The answer is yes – but safety is even more important if you’re going to attempt it.
A motorcycle burnout should only be attempted by a professional/someone who has experience doing them on the chosen motorcycle.
Otherwise, you run the risk of an accidental wheelie and your motorcycle possibly falling on top of you. Your brakes could even catch on fire.
You’ll treat a motorcycle burnout similarly to a standing burnout in a vehicle. You’ll want to have two one-pound bags of gender reveal powder that can adhere directly to the back tire of the motorcycle.
This is how to do a burnout on a motorcycle:
Now you know how to do a gender reveal burnout with powder!
This is actually the easiest and safest method of all for using gender reveal powder. The reason people tend to prefer doing burnouts is that the dust cloud is usually bigger and shoots up into the air instead of straight behind the vehicle.
Furthermore, putting gender reveal powder in your exhaust pipe means you can do this type of reveal with any vehicle – as long as it has an exhaust pipe. It won’t matter if your car, truck, or motorcycle is automatic or manual, front-wheel drive or rear-wheel drive. The powder will still shoot out of the exhaust pipe!
To put the powder in the exhaust pipe, someone who already knows the gender will need to open the packages of powder and funnel it into the exhaust. It doesn’t have to go in very far, and you can put a tissue or lightweight paper towel in the pipe afterward to help conceal the powder until it’s time for the reveal.
Keep in mind that the car will need to already be in place wherever you want to do the reveal because once the car starts, the powder will come out. This method also tends to cause some powder to fall on the ground during insertion, so you’ll want to be able to easily clean up or conceal any colored powder that’s in eyesight to the partygoers.
The angle of your exhaust pipe can make it difficult to put the powder inside, but as long as the pipe is long enough, it’s never really impossible. This video shows one method for inserting powder into an exhaust pipe that points down to the ground:
Once the powder is in the exhaust and you’re ready to do your gender reveal, all you have to do is leave your vehicle in park (I’d lock the parking brake just for good measure), then mash the gas pedal right as you’re starting the car. Voila!
Be sure to use plenty of powder, because the dust cloud from this method doesn’t seem to last as long as the burnout method. Put at least two pounds of powder in the exhaust – three or four if it will safely fit.
(Cornstarch powder should not hurt your muffler at all, and can be fully blown out with a drive around the block after the reveal.)
Once all of the colored powder has blown out, the exhaust smoke may just be white or black (if you can see it at all), and you don’t want anyone to miss the important part!
This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking one, I may receive a small commission at no cost to you.
You don’t need to look any further than Amazon for a burnout gender reveal kit. Multiple brands and sellers offer brightly colored powder in one-pound blackout bags (so no one can see what color is inside!). They typically come in sets of two one-pound bags per order so you can use one for each wheel.
Most of these bags will come with double-sided tape on them so they are easy to stick to tires for a standing burnout. You just peel the sticker covering the tape off and slap it on the tires.
Even if you’re doing a rolling burnout, you should remove the sticker so that once the tire does land on the bag, it will stay with the tire and not get flung away before it busts.
If your bags do not have sticker tape on them for some reason, the best gender reveal burnout tape for attaching it to your vehicle would be something strong but not too strong, like Duck Brand packing tape.
Whether you plan on doing a standing burnout, doing a rolling burnout, or stuffing the powder in your exhaust, I recommend buying at least four bags of powder, and 6-8 if you can afford it. A test run is always advisable because this is a big moment for the parents-to-be and their families!
Below are the brands and sellers on Amazon I recommend for getting your gender reveal tire burnout kit.
Once you know whether it’s a boy or a girl, it’s time to settle on a name! Check out our list of 1000 baby girl names or some baby boy names and their meanings (including the worst names you should avoid).
And if mom-to-be isn’t already, it’s time to start using a stretch mark cream on her belly!
9 Jul 2015
Gallery9
EVER since Henry Ford started power-sliding his 539-cube Sweepstakes racer in 1901, burnout smoke has been white. Always. But this changed a while ago when a couple of enterprising competitors rocked up to an event with expensive imported tyres that made coloured smoke, blowing everybody away.
MORE
Check out our Burnout videos
Enter Highway Tyres. They’re no strangers to the burnout scene, having supplied burnout maestro Steve Loader with his tyres of destructive choice for the past few years. And it was this relationship, combined with a competitor survey Highway conducted at the 2012 Ultimate Burnout Challenge (where more than 100 people expressed interest in buying coloured burnout tyres), that moved Highway to make these specialised tyres locally, giving birth to the Highway Max Coloured Smoke burnout tyre.
Nowadays, the colour of a burnout competitor’s tyre smoke is as much a part of their signature as their machinery and array of tyre-frying tricks.
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So what’s the secret behind coloured smoke? First, we need to explain why a regular tyre makes black smoke when you throw it onto a fire, yet produces white smoke when it’s flung around a doughnut pad.
For a tyre to ignite (ie burst into flame), it needs to be heated to at least 400 Celsius for some time. The physical act of burning the tyre not only releases the petroleum products used in its manufacture, it also releases a cocktail of toxic chemicals that includes benzene, lead, and even more esoteric toxins such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) – all of which are extremely dangerous to breathe. It’s this concoction of burning oils and chemicals that creates the thick, dark cloud of smoke when a tyre combusts.
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In a burnout, the tyre spins rapidly on the tarmac creating friction and so heat, though the temperatures reached are well short of what’s needed to ignite it.
The heat created from the abrasive spinning action oxidises certain compounds within the rubber, which vaporise and are released as white smoke (the grey tinge often seen in burnout smoke is caused by fine rubber particles mixed in with the smoke).
MORE
Australia set to reclaim burnout world record at Summernats 32
The secret to creating coloured burnout smoke is to introduce particular compounds into the raw rubber that vaporise in a coloured plume at the temperatures created during a burnout. So what are these compounds? Well, Highway Tyres aren’t saying. Think of it as the tyre’s 11 secret herbs and spices.
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As for how they’re made, Highway Tyres are Aussie remould specialists, and so their Coloured Smoke tyres are high-quality remoulds – which certainly helps keep costs down. To ensure they’re up to the brutality of a stout burnout, Highway specifically selects only the best carcases. The tread and sidewalls are buffed, removing just the right amount of material.
A thin layer of fresh rubber is then applied to the sidewalls before the all-important, pre-coloured rubber is applied to the tread area. At this stage the tyre looks more like a slick. Also, the pre-coloured rubber looks identical to the non-coloured variety, so a coloured stripe is added to aid identification. From there the tyre goes into the segmented press where, over a period of 32 minutes at 155 Celsius, the tread pattern and sidewall are moulded.
| Watch next: The best gender reveal burnouts - Video
After a final inspection, which includes inflating to 65psi and spinning it up to check balance, it’s ready to destroy the nearest burnout pad. As Karl from the warehouse says, “This is one of the few industries where all the hard work goes up in smoke – we love it!”
Highway Max Coloured Smoke remoulds are just as tough and long-lasting as their regular remoulds – an attribute Steve Loader has proved time and again. However, Highway do not wish to promote illegal street burnouts.
Therefore their coloured tyres are for competition only.
To add colour to your next skid, contact the experts at Highway Tyres. They have outlets in every state. Go to www.highwaymax.com.au to find out where.
Craig Parker
Journalist
Simon Davidson
Photography
Let's deal with the names first. Devices for creating aerosol atmospheric effects are called differently. In America, it is customary to say "smoke machine" (smoke machine), while in Europe the definition of "fog machine" (fog generator) is more common.
Smoke is a product of combustion, an aerosol with fine solid particles. Like dust, it poses a health hazard. Smoke machines and hazers don't burn anything to create smoke: they heat a special, harmless liquid into an aerosol or break it into small particles using a compressor.
From the point of view of physics, it would be more correct to use the word "fog" to describe the effect, since we are talking about a suspension of very small droplets of liquid, and not solid particles.
The definition of “smoke machine” has become stable in the industry and I advise you to avoid it only when communicating with various deranged services and psychosomatic artists. Just never say the word "smoke" in front of them. You can do anything instead: fog generator, haze, liquid suspended particles pulverizer - come up with it yourself.
The smoke machine as we know it was invented by Günther Schaidt in 1973 and used for the first time in a production by the Hamburg Opera House.
Prior to this, paraffin and oil were burned to obtain a stage effect, which, to put it mildly, was unsafe and harmful. There are living witnesses of how ammonium chloride (ammonia) was heated or titanium chloride was used, which emits toxic hydrogen chloride. On top of all this, the start and stop of the smoke effects was uncontrollable: to make the smoke quickly appear at the right moment and stop when needed.
As a chemist, Scheidt came up with the idea of heating mixtures of polyhydric alcohols. In the same year, he founded the Safex company, which still exists today. It is engaged in the production of pyrotechnic equipment and various special effects for the film industry.
The fame of the invention reached Hollywood and in 1984 Günter Scheidt received a "scientific and technical Oscar" for the invention of a non-toxic liquid for creating smoke in movies.
Smoke machines and hazers are needed to create a harmless and visible aerosol effect in the air: imitation of smoke or fog.
Fluid particles in the air refract light and we can see the rays in space. Remember what the headlights look like during a drizzle. The smoke machine does the same for light fixtures, only the liquid particles are so fine that they are suspended in the air.
It is very easy to understand and remember why lighting designers need smoke with a simple mnemonic saying:
Smoke is the canvas on which we paint light paintings.
Roughly speaking, almost all the tools of a concert lighting designer are the placement or winding of visible rays in space and coloring the air.
Light without smoke looks like a light source and a projection light spot on the surface. Rays and their direction become visible in the smoke. Compare two photographs of the same room (even my aunt undressed with delight): Lasers without smoke - money down the drain. By the way, lasers were used at concerts long before the creation of the first swivel head.
The Who uses lasers in 1978Smoke machines and hazers are not only used in the entertainment industry. Many applications:
Existing devices can be classified in different ways.
Someone divides devices according to the method of producing smoke: heating, compression ("cold") and cryogenic.
Heaters . In such devices, smoke is produced by heating and evaporating a liquid based on glycols and water. Quietly, the physics lesson will continue.
Compression . There are no heating elements in such devices. Fluid based on highly refined mineral oil or water-based fluids breaks into fine particles. In the Anglosphere they are also called oil-crackers.
Cryogenic . The oldest way to get smoke from dry ice or liquid nitrogen. Typically used in heavy smoke generators and CO 2 effects.
You can divide devices according to the type of fluid used: oily or water based (water-glycol mixtures). Usually they say about generators simply: it is “on oil” or “on water”. The absorption time for liquid particles on oil is longer, so the haze hangs in the air much longer.
Another approach is to divide fixtures according to the appearance of the smoke effect: smoke (smoke), fog (haze), heavy smoke (low-lying fog).
This classification almost coincides with the names of devices:
and creates a dense cloud of smoke. Love!
The device is very simple and consists of several elements: a reservoir with liquid, a pump and a heating element (thermoblock) with a thermal fuse. The pump pumps and delivers liquid from the reservoir to a thermoblock with a tubular electric heater (TEN), where it evaporates and is pushed out of the nozzle in the form of smoke.
The thermal fuse protects the heating element from overheating and melting, and in inexpensive machines it controls its temperature.
In more complicated and more expensive smoke machines, a thermostat or thermocouple is installed to maintain the desired temperature of the stove. The pump can be intelligent to control the pumping rate. Such smoke machines are able to "dim" - to release smoke of different volumes.
How the smoke machine works The advantage of smoke machines over other devices is that you can quickly fill the room with smoke. But without a fan and a competent position of the generator, taking into account the air currents in the hall, you can get a motionless thick cloud. On the other hand, smoke dissipates quickly and this can be an advantage over hazers.
Another disadvantage is that smoke machines are very noisy. It's not cool when, during the performance of a ballad, something loudly puffs and climbs into the microphones.
Most often, powerful smoke machines are used at street events, where they outperform hazers in all respects. Smoke generators are most commonly used in movies to safely simulate smoke without pyrotechnics.
In B-2 I use smoke machines at low noise levels and fan the smoke. It turns out that they work for me as heizers, but there is a power reserve and I can quickly increase the density of smoke on the stage at any time.
I like that smoke machines give an uneven filling of space with smoke. The smoke moves in the air and it turns out a kind of animated smoke texture.
My favorite is JEM ZR45, no options. In the vastness of Russia, there are mainly Involight, Antari cars and numerous Chinese units. Several times I came across cool smoke machines from Look Solutions.
The Phaser is a smoke machine with a built-in fan.
It occurs infrequently and is not available from all manufacturers in the line. The most common phasers are Antari. The line has a very powerful Antari F-7 unit. Used, I agree.
According to sound logic, it would be worth including in this class all heizers that heat a water-soluble liquid specially saturated with air. This would simplify the classification and make it easier for buyers to choose. Many hazers, despite the word Hazer in the title, are ordinary smoke machines with phaser fans.
An example of good naming. An air compression heizer is called a fazer. Everything would be so. Heizers create a homogeneous, almost transparent mist due to the fact that the particle size is smaller. It may be invisible to the eye and in the lenses of cameras, but its density is sufficient to make light rays visible.
In the hazers, you can control the intensity of the fog (output) and the speed of the built-in fan (fan speed).
There are two types of heizers: heating and compression.
The heating hazers use an air compressor or gas (Nitrogen N 2 or Carbon Dioxide CO 2 ) to mix with the liquid before entering the heating element. Due to this, the suspended particles are much finer than in smoke machines and the fog stays in the room much longer.
The most common hazers are essentially phasers, improved smoke machines. Unlike a conventional smoke machine, they have a compressor that saturates the liquid with air, then this mixture enters the heater and is blown out by a fan.
Thanks to this mixture, the particles are smaller and hang in the air longer. Such devices have much lower fluid consumption.
The most advanced type of hazer is a device that mixes liquid with gas. The mixing unit is inside the generator, and the gas comes from an external cylinder through a hose. Such devices allow you to get the smallest suspended particles: 0.5 - 0.7 micrometers.
CO Gas Heated Hazer 2For small heated hazers I like the JEM Compact Hazer Pro, Look Solutions Unique 2.1 and Le Maitre MVS. Among gas heizers are the most famous MDG ATMe.
Belarusian company Main FX manufactures its gas-powered hazers. I used them and showed them on the "Open Control Room" - flawless.
The compression hazers work like inhalation nebulizers.
They run on "oil" or "aqueous" fluids. Oil compression hazers are the most common. It's easy to tell a compression hazer by its sound - it will rumble.
The device is equipped with a compressor, which, under high air pressure, sucks liquid through a tube into the chamber. Further, the air breaks the liquid into small particles and sprays the aerosol through the nozzle. During the dispersion process, particles of different diameters are obtained. To filter out only the smallest ones, a winding camera is placed in their path. Large particles settle on the walls and return to the tank, while the smallest particles are blown out.
Oil compression hazers have the most lethal efficiency due to the fine aerosol and long-term absorption of oil particles.
Compressors produce particles with a diameter of 0.5 - 10 micrometers. For comparison, the average thickness of a human hair is 50 micrometers.
It takes time to fill a room with mist, but the mist can last for hours. The fog will be very transparent, indistinguishable to the eye, but sufficient to reflect the light. Since they do not have heating elements, they start working immediately after switching on.
Oil heizers are scolded for a greasy coating that settles not only outside, but also inside electrical appliances. A greasy surface then attracts dust like a magnet and can damage equipment. Many gyms even ban oil compression hazers.
The most famous oil compression hazers are the Reel EFX DF-50 Diffusion Hazer.
Heizers are good in those cases when clouds of smoke are not needed, but it is necessary that the rays be read: restaurants, television. The advantage of heizers is at the same time their disadvantage - it is impossible to quickly ventilate the room.
Heizers are helpless at street events where there will be wind.
Oil compression hazers do not like cold environments and will lose effectiveness as the liquid becomes more viscous due to low temperatures.
I use several compression and heating hazers on tour to create ground on stage and in the hall.
Smoke that spreads on the floor and does not rise for some time can be obtained in two ways: using a physical reaction or by cooling the smoke from a conventional hazer or smoke machine.
Heavy smoke according to "Just you wait!"Dry ice (carbon dioxide) or liquid nitrogen is mixed with water to physically produce smoke.
Dry ice , upon contact with water, rapidly changes from a solid state immediately to a gaseous state, without an intermediate stage.
Dry ice heavy smoke machines are a water tank and a heater. Dry ice is filled into the top of the machine in the form of a mesh basket. The operator lowers the basket into boiling water and directs the jet of escaping gas. Dry ice generators have the highest efficiency and lowest cost, but there are a couple of drawbacks. Condensation remains on the floor after use, and a wet floor can be a hazard to speakers. Another drawback is that such machines work in manual mode with the operator and there is no way to remotely control the launch from the remote control.
As in many other areas, despite the easy availability of components, it is better to trust professionals and proven machines. Artisanal use can reward you with a cold burn or a deadly reaction product, carbon dioxide.
As for Liquid Nitrogen , it is not used in serial machines due to the rapid explosive reaction. Usually liquid nitrogen is used to demonstrate chemical tricks in show programs.
There are several ways to cool the smoke coming out of a fog machine or hazer.
Refrigeration unit
The generator has a chamber that cools the smoke like a conventional refrigerator. The most famous machine that works on this principle is the discontinued JEM Glaciator X-Stream and replaced it with the JEM Glaciator Dynamic.
Ice cubes or dry ice
The simplest machines.
For cooling, chambers are used where ice is poured. According to this principle, it is very simple and inexpensive to make a homemade cooling attachment for any smoke machine. To do this, you just need a box and a corrugated pipe. Well, straight arms, of course.
Liquid carbon dioxide
Liquid carbon dioxide (carbon dioxide) comes in low and high pressure. High pressure carbon dioxide is stored in cylinders, low - in special vessels. The most common machines are high pressure carbon dioxide. Le Maitre Freezefog Pro or MDG ICE FOG Q can work at low pressure. The advantages of carbon dioxide machines are that there is no wet floor. The smoke is not as high as on dry ice, but the height can be adjusted by the amount of gas.
An important advantage of such machines is full DMX control, you can start and stop the effect remotely.
Water
At Bi-2 concerts we use machines that work on a new principle. Normal smoke is passed through an ultrasonic bath with plain tap water. The aerosol is saturated with water, becomes heavier and spreads along the floor. The convenience is that no components are needed, except for liquid for smoke machines and water. The generator itself is small in size and quiet in operation.
Eurolite has an equivalent WLF-1500 Water Low Fog PRO
Devices for launching effects on carbon dioxide are called differently: CO 2 jets, cryo-guns, cryoguns.
Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) is a substance that can be in several states: solid, liquid and gaseous. The solid looks like a pressed snow-like mass and is called "dry ice".
Carbon dioxide becomes liquid under high pressure, it is called liquid carbon dioxide or carbonic acid. Carbon dioxide is stored and transported under pressure in standard 40 liter cylinders, where about 24 kg of liquefied gas is poured.
Carbon dioxide is colorless, but when it enters the atmosphere, it instantly freezes moisture in the air and turns into snow-white smoke. On this, in fact, this spectacular and noisy effect is based.
The height and thickness of the gas column depends on the air humidity. The higher the air humidity, the greater the smoke output. At the same time, it is desirable that the humidity of the air be no more than 75%. At high values, the gas will dissipate and may even begin to sink. Good cryojets create columns of smoke 8 meters high.
An example of how cryojets work at high and low air humidityCryojets do not like low temperatures. The outlet gas itself cools the devices, and when the air temperature is below 5 ° C, the valves freeze and stop responding to opening and closing.
It happens that when you start cryo-effects, it starts to smell strongly of beer. This is due to the fact that we use the same cylinders as the bars. When the bottle is used up, the pressure from the defoamer can flood the remaining beer into it. It's funny, but if the weight is not controlled when refueling, it can be dangerous when overpressurized. Special effects specialists tell how cylinders came to them from gas stations, from which it was possible to pour up to 10 liters of forgotten beer. The best way to control the quality of filling is to weigh the cylinders.
On the tour we use cryotubes from the Russian manufacturer Global Effects.
I write in capital letters.
Smoke machine and hayser mixes are made from non-toxic harmless ingredients: water-soluble dihydric alcohols (glycols), highly purified mineral oil and distilled water.
There is such an organization in America - ESTA (Entertainment Services and Technology Association). This non-profit association, founded in 1987, has been developing standards and recommendations for technologies in the show industry. In Europe, this activity is carried out by PLASA. The two associations merged in 2010 and dispersed in 2015 - it did not work out. ETSA is accredited by The American National Standards Institute (ANSI), so you have probably come across this abbreviation many times. ANSI does not develop standards itself, but accredited organizations such as ESTA do this under the supervision of accredited organizations.
So most of the world's manufacturers of machines and fluids rely on ESTA standards. They are published in the public domain on the website of the organization and even on the websites of manufacturers.
Ironically, on April 1, 2020, ANSI approved a fresh document. It lists the compounds and gases that are allowed to be used in special effects generators.
ANSI E1.23 - 2020. Entertainment Technology—Design, Execution, and Maintenance of Atmospheric Effects
pdf, 409 KB
"On Water" fluids are mixtures of purified water with glycol or glycerin compounds. Propylene glycol and glycerin are part of many drugs, including those for diseases of the respiratory system. Propylene glycol, for example, is used in e-liquids and cosmetics.
Le Maitre's famous "sugar" liquid is blended with a sweetish taste of 1.3 butylene glycol (butanediol).
Oily liquids consist of white mineral oils. These are transparent, deeply purified fractions with a very low content or complete absence of toxic compounds.
White mineral oils are used in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food industries. The most famous example is Johnson's baby oil.
There are two large studies on the effects of stage smoke on the health of performers. Both studies were commissioned by America's oldest theater unions: the Actors' Equity Association and the League of American Theaters and Producers (now called The Broadway League). It is unlikely that anyone will be able to question the influence of trade union organizations on the work of workers. If anything were wrong, no one would even come close to using smoke on stage today.
The first study was conducted by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) over three years on the Broadway musicals Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera, Miss Saigon and The Grand Hotel. The 100 page report was published in 1994. The conclusions were that there was no association between the smoke used in productions and respiratory diseases of workers (occupational bronchial asthma), if the fluid recommended by the generator manufacturer was used and the concentration of compounds in the aerosol was not exceeded.
HETA 90-355-2449, Health Hazard Evaluation Report for Actors’ Equity Association / The League of American Theaters and Producers, Inc.
pdf, 2 MB
In 2000, a second extended study was published by the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and
ENVIRON Corporation (now called Rambol). The two-year study followed 439 actors from 19 Broadway musicals. The results were confirmed: there was no effect of smoke on the functioning of the respiratory system and the vocal apparatus.
Health Effects Evaluation of Theatrical Smoke, Haze and Pyrotechnics
pdf, 3 MB
In 2001, ENVIRON issued a document containing recommendations for the safe amount of glycols and mineral oils in the air:
Studies have proven that smoke machines and hazers are safe for the respiratory system and vocal apparatus.
A good collection of bibliographic references is available on the ESTA website: tsp.esta.org/tsp/working_groups/FS/fogdocs.html
The Actors' Equity Association website contains up-to-date documents on the safety of the use of smoke machines and hazers: actorsequity.org /resources/Producers/safe-and-sanitary/smoke-and-haze/
Wherever you can convince paranoid prohibitions. In 2014, Bi-2 and I smoked in the departure area of Sheremetyevo Airport. Tell me after that, where else you can not smoke?
Depending on the reason.
It's one thing if you're in the Moscow House of Music, where you can't even approach the organ and breathe on it. It remains only to give up and pull the show with all possible methods except smoke.
Another case is when the artist forbids you to smoke. Here we are dealing with psychosomatics. The artist sees clouds of smoke and wedges him. Arguing, persuading is most often useless. Do not waste time on this, we will solve our artistic tasks with cunning for his own good!
If an artist coughs at the sight of smoke, this is psychosomatic. There is nothing to help on the spot.
The secret is simple: by all means you need to avoid clouds of smoke and do not put generators in its field of view. All professional oscillators are DMX controlled and many can be trussed. Hang from above with an optional fan and point downwards. Heizers can be placed in the hall and directed to the stage by external fans (this is what Dima Raidugin from Leningrad did).
It is safest to use hazers with psychosomatic artists. The thin haze of the hazer is almost invisible in the air to the eye. No artist will be able to understand whether the generator is working or not, if there are no moving clouds of smoke in space.
For the living to envy the dead, of course! Well, okay, okay: so that at least you can see where the stage is.
Cases with smoke machines and hazers are often turned over during transportation. The system is not perfectly sealed and some liquid spills out and impregnates the heat-insulating material of the heating block. When the thermoblock is heated to operating temperature, the thermal insulation may emit an unpleasant smell of burnt material.
Transport generators vertically only.
Inexpensive machines do not have an intelligent shutdown system to expel residual liquid from the heating element. Then a certain amount may remain in the thermoblock, and if you turn on the machine after a long period of inactivity, this may first cause a burning smell.
Don't be petty or chemical yourself. Use only fluid made or recommended by the machine manufacturer. The trick here is that the heating element is set to a certain temperature for its mixture. If you do not guess with the proportions, you can not get the desired effect, and worse - poison yourself with toxic reaction products or ruin the machine. A universal liquid, no matter how the sellers assured of this, does not exist.
Don't do this! Do not change the type of liquid in the machine.
The mixture of water and oil will create an emulsion that will clog the heating element or clog the nozzles of the compression smoke machine.
At big stadium concerts and festivals abroad it is good practice to place smoke generators not only on the stage: in front of the stage, on the delay towers, on the control room. This approach lengthens the visibility of the rays and they do not break off immediately outside the scene.
Smoke machines in open areas outside the stageAt concerts during the day, it is mandatory to use smoke machines to draw rays.
With smoke and a black cabinet, concerts during the day can look normalSmoke affects the color of fixtures and may vary in color temperature. Studies have shown that the smaller the aerosol particles, the colder the smoke, in the blue spectrum. Large particles make the smoke warmer, towards orange.
Different types of smoke generators can produce different shades of smoke.
There is no colored smoke, if you want to color the smoke, you need to do this only with the help of lighting devices.
Russian and Belarusian manufacturers are at the top of the list. Just because.
| Main FX (Belarus) | mainfx.org |
| Global Effects (Russia) | globaleffects.ru
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During productionStep 1
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