Film from Italy -- Ferrania starting production 2014

[cmacd123]

They obviously are giving them their support and must be keeping a close eye on them.

Probably more of the Later....

 

[Photo Engineer]

When 3M owned Ferrania, some of their films were made here in the US. They carried a 3M logo on the box. As I remember, they were all C41 films. I knew 2 of the engineers in R&D that were solely working in the US.

PE

 

[Nzoomed]

When 3M owned Ferrania, some of their films were made here in the US. They carried a 3M logo on the box. As I remember, they were all C41 films. I knew 2 of the engineers in R&D that were solely working in the US.

PE

Did they actually have their own plant in the US with a coater?
I take it that this would have been at a 3M facility, i didnt realise that Ferrania had such a big presence, mind you 3M is a pretty large company.

 

[Photo Engineer]

My understanding was that they had an R&D scale and a production scale coater. Neither were very modern if I understood their description. They had quite a few Ferrania employees that had moved to their 3M plant as well.

PE

 

[Prof_Pixel]

My understanding was that they had an R&D scale and a production scale coater. Neither were very modern if I understood their description. They had quite a few Ferrania employees that had moved to their 3M plant as well.

PE

Didn't 3M/Imation have a coating facility on Mount Read Blvd. in Rochester?

 

[Photo Engineer]

Yes, they did. I had forgotten. Thanks for the memories. About 1 block from the Dupont plant. They had a production coater there and also one down near Cananadaigua or one of the other lakes. But, these only did B&W films such as lith and the like.

One of my wife's close friends husband worked at the Mt. Read plant and they often visited us here.

PE

 

[Nzoomed]

My understanding was that they had an R&D scale and a production scale coater. Neither were very modern if I understood their description. They had quite a few Ferrania employees that had moved to their 3M plant as well.

PE

I am interested to know how modern their coater is in Italy too.
Im guessing it is a fairly new coater that possibly was built or upgraded in the 60's when 3M took over.
But those buildings look old, it could be anyone's guess to how old that facility or the "big Boy" coater actually is.

 

[railwayman3]

Yes, they did. I had forgotten. Thanks for the memories. About 1 block from the Dupont plant. They had a production coater there and also one down near Cananadaigua or one of the other lakes. But, these only did B&W films such as lith and the like.

PE

So, were there other relatively recent film manufacturers/brands in the US, other than 3M, Kodak, Ansco and Dupont ? (These are the only US makers I can recall hearing of here in Europe.) (I'm thinking of actual coating and manufacturing companies, rather than just rebranded or own-brand products, of which I'm sure they would be too many to list!)

 

[Photo Engineer]

This was 3M and not another brand, and Dupont was an old established brand in the US for film and paper. All of these are long gone.

PE

 

[Prof_Pixel]

When the patents on the original Kodachrome expired, Dupont investigated the possibility of making a Kodachrome type film. I visited their plant in Parlin, NJ for a job interview after I received my BS in Chemical Engineering in 1962 and they were working on it. Kodachrome II (that came out in 1961) was a very nice film. an I assume that played a part in their decision not to sell their film.

... and of course there was Dynachrome (there was a url link here which no longer exists)

 

[Xmas]

This was 3M and not another brand, and Dupont was an old established brand in the US for film and paper. All of these are long gone.

PE

Kodak had production film coating lines at UK Harrow (line 4 I think) and somewhere in France as late as about 2005, I'm told the line 4 building is still extant, but donno if that is true, no more information, but most of the staff redundant some time ago. Kodak has reduced staff numbers a lot. I'm advised KA still coats paper there (at Harrow) on a different coater.

 

[AgX]

Kodak had production film coating lines [...] somewhere in France as late as about 2005.

Not somewhere!

But in a town that is so important to photography as it was the place to work for Niépce: Chalon-sur-Saône.

 

[Nzoomed]

They have added some more photos of the plant along with a blog, very interesting read. This appears to be what i think is the "big boy" coater.
Dead Link Removed

 

[rbultman]

A Dead Link Removed mentioned by @Nzoomed...

 

[Nzoomed]

A Dead Link Removed mentioned by @Nzoomed...

Thanks for posting the link, it is a real interesting read, but i have so many questions.
Firstly, there is only so much they can fit into that tiny LRF building, and im unsure how they can modify the parts from the big boy coater and join it up to the small coater in the LRF to make a larger scale production line, even those photos of the packaging departments for each film format, eg 110, 126, 35mm etc looks like they take up a reasonable amount of room for each format.

I would have been hoping they could have taken ownership of the buildings and done all necessary modifications inside without having to strip all the equipment, it looks easier to me anyway, but i dont know what they are actually planning to do with all this equipment, they claim they have salvaged lots of equipment already, and i guess that some of it is what we have seen in those photos, but im sure thats only a small portion of the plant, and how much equipment do they need into the future?

I wouldnt know where to start, there is such a huge amount of equipment in that complex its unimaginable how they would even have the time to get it removed from the buildings, some of it looks so large its possible that the outside walls would have to be cut open (particuarly with big boy) just to remove it. Its almost like the equipment was built inside as part of the building itself if you know what i mean.

But i guess these guys know what they are doing, and alot of the equipment probably is useless for the future market of film, but once its gone, its gone.

I still am unsure if a new factory is being built or not, because as i said, all this gear physically cant fit in the LRF, (with the exception of film perforators and other similar equipment) even modifying their research coater would be a squeeze, its actually alot smaller than what i thought after seeing photos and the walk around video.

If they do plan on constructing a new purpose built facility, all of this just makes way more sense to me.

 

[Photo Engineer]

I can read the emulsion formula and it appears to be an ordinary B&W bromide formula. The history is quite interesting and follows that of several other plants I have read up on.

Thanks for the post.

PE

 

[Nzoomed]

I can read the emulsion formula and it appears to be an ordinary B&W bromide formula. The history is quite interesting and follows that of several other plants I have read up on.

Thanks for the post.

PE

Is this the formula for the P30 film you are referring to?

If so, it appears that the Ferrania P30 was a famous B&W film in its day, of course its long before my time, im not sure when it was dropped.

 

[wblynch]

Did anyone here see the pictures of Fotokemika's plant before they went out?

It proves you don't need much to make film. Even with their QC problems EFKE was pretty fine film. All things considered.

 

[Nzoomed]

Did anyone here see the pictures of Fotokemika's plant before they went out?

It proves you don't need much to make film. Even with their QC problems EFKE was pretty fine film. All things considered.

They only made B&W film though, its relatively simple compared to most colour films that have many coatings and much more complex chemistry.
Most B&W films only require one or two coatings.

 

[Athiril]

Did anyone here see the pictures of Fotokemika's plant before they went out?

It proves you don't need much to make film. Even with their QC problems EFKE was pretty fine film. All things considered.

These days with things like Arduino one can program computerised controls and feedback/sensor readings quickly and simply and reduce complexity of a lot of equipment.

 

[ME Super]

But can you build a supercomputer out of Arduinos? A student at Boise State here in the US state of Idaho built a 32-node cluster of computers using the Raspberry Pi. Imagine using one of those to control your film making factory.

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

I once used an Arduino board to build the software interface for this product from scratch. Those little guys are freaking addictive! By the time I was finished I had a gazillion different ideas for using them.

I've still got a single Duemilanove on a breadboard and four more Uno boards in a box on the shelf above me right now.



Ken

 

[Roger Cole]

Did anyone here see the pictures of Fotokemika's plant before they went out?

It proves you don't need much to make film. Even with their QC problems EFKE was pretty fine film. All things considered.

It was fine film (or at least, cool film with interesting spectral response) when the particular piece your image was on didn't turn out to be flawed. Not that it wasn't worth playing with but making multiple identical exposures was a good idea if you really liked what you saw in the viewfinder or on the gg. Of course in sheet film I often do that anyway until someone invents film that repels dust.

 

[Xmas]

It was fine film (or at least, cool film with interesting spectral response) when the particular piece your image was on didn't turn out to be flawed. Not that it wasn't worth playing with but making multiple identical exposures was a good idea if you really liked what you saw in the viewfinder or on the gg. Of course in sheet film I often do that anyway until someone invents film that repels dust.

Well I used a lot of their film and my only problem was it was so cheap. But never tried the IR820.

 

[Ricardo Miranda]

Ferrania P30, anyone used it?

Ferrania P30 by Jim Davies, on Flickr