i wonder how hard it would be to make new CRTs today
what part of them is it that's illegal now? Is it the leaded glass? Or something with the phosphors? I don't know how you could get around the leaded glass unless a CRT that blasts the viewer with x-rays is acceptable (it is in xray machines but not for screens), but if it's the phosphors you might be able to develop other formulations that work
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actually thinking about xray machines, there might still actually be CRTs in production just because they're a good simple way of producing x-rays for imaging purposes
you don't need either the phosphors or the leaded glass in that case though
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@Felthry I'm not aware of any legal problems in making CRTs, just market-demand problems.
At a guess there's probably still some manufacturer for airline and power plant equipment making tube TVs, since it's hard and expensive getting replacement equipment developed and certified for control surfaces.
@Austin_Dern i'm pretty sure there are regulatory restrictions stopping them from being made? on top of the obvious lack of a big enough market. i'm not sure where we learned that though
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@Austin_Dern they do use a lot of lead in the glass and a lot of other toxic things in the phosphors though, hence why i thought it might be one of those
everything else i'm pretty sure is no problem, the dag ground is just graphite, the electrodes are just some appropriate metal (not sure which, but it's not anything exotic or toxic i don't think), and the filament is just tungsten possibly with a more emissive coating
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@Felthry All I see on the EPA site is a mention that applications are needed for import/export of CRTs, because of the toxic materials. https://www.epa.gov/hw/cathode-ray-tubes-crts
Thomas Electronics has a page saying they still make CRTs and plan to keep doing so, mostly for a couple small niches. I don't know how current the page is, though. https://www.thomaselectronics.com/faq/
@Austin_Dern i'm not so sure about that page because the first thing they say lists off a bunch of things *similar* to CRTs in that they are also either vacuum tubes or related technologies but the only thing there that is actually a CRT is the x-ray tube
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@Austin_Dern the thomas electronics one that is
it reads more like they're saying "we still have all the stuff you would need to make CRTs because it's still used for other things" while specifically avoiding saying "we make CRTs"
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@Felthry Mm. Yeah, it does stop short of quite saying they make them.