How Kodak Film is made: A walkthrough of film manufacturing from Smarter Every Day

[Dirb9]

Smarter every day just posted a really great walk though of the Kodak plant, and discussions with engineers. Part one of three!. Ilford had a similar video a few years ago, but this is the best one I've seen of Kodak's operation. Mods, if there is a better forum for this feel free to move this thread.

 

[brbo]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing that...

 

[DonW]

Smarter Every Day is my favorite YouTube channel.

 

[Louis Nargi]

Interesting I'll see it later

 

[toulcaz31]

{MODERATOR's EDIT: duplicate threads combined}
(Also) sharing the link to that very interesting video. Part 1 only covers Film support and is already pretty cool.

 

[miha]

This is so inspiring. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Dusty Negative]

Was surprised to see this in my feed this morning. A very in-depth peek at the Kodak film production process.

 

[Duceman]

Ha! Was just going to post this myself. Cool vid!

 

[Dusty Negative]

Ha! Was just going to post this myself. Cool vid!

It’s incredible. More than once I thought, “this is revealing too many trade secrets!”

I don’t feel as angry paying $9 for a roll of Tri-X after seeing this. Unbelievable, all that infrastructure!

 

[MattKing]

Another thread merger.

 

[Dusty Negative]

Another thread merger.

Huh. I actually searched “How Kodak film is made” and came up with no results, prior to posting my link, so as not to look like an idiot.

Whelp….

 

[MattKing]

Huh. I actually searched “How Kodak film is made” and came up with no results, prior to posting my link, so as not to look like an idiot.

Whelp….

You may not have looked in this rather esoteric sub-forum.....

 

[toulcaz31]

It seems Matt you are the only one able to see into the Matrix

 

[Cholentpot]

I want to be Destin's friend.

 

[MattKing]

It seems Matt you are the only one able to see into the Matrix

"I can only show you the door, you're the one that has to walk through it"
FWIW, if the OP requests, I'll move it to the Colour Film sub-forum.

 

[MattKing]

Finally had a chance to view this.
Besides the very interesting content, two things struck me:
1) I have never considered the substrate to be "film". "Film" is the neat stuff that they coat on the substrate - it is, in fact, a "film" coated on the substrate;
2) more importantly, I am amazed at how much information is disclosed here. Not very long ago that information would have been guarded strenuously as proprietary knowledge. Videos like this and Bob Shanebrook's (@laser ) book reveal a sea change in culture, reflecting I expect the acknowledgement that there is no likelihood of anyone ever again wanting to obtain this knowledge to compete in such a high volume manufacturing enterprise making similar products.

I'm sure there are other parts of the process - not the substrate - where more information will be kept from disclosure. Their joint venture development of their new type of 120 backing paper is, as I understand it, being closely held as a significant market advantage!

 

[warden]

2) more importantly, I am amazed at how much information is disclosed here.

Yes it's remarkable! I'm eager to see how much they will share about the other parts of the production process. It would be so cool to see tours with this level of detail of other manufacturers as well.

P.S. Since Destin mentioned possibly geeking out about laminar flow in the Kodak video you might as well watch this one too. It's worth it.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

Waiting for part 2, and part 3...

 

[Cholentpot]

Finally had a chance to view this.
Besides the very interesting content, two things struck me:
1) I have never considered the substrate to be "film". "Film" is the neat stuff that they coat on the substrate - it is, in fact, a "film" coated on the substrate;
2) more importantly, I am amazed at how much information is disclosed here. Not very long ago that information would have been guarded strenuously as proprietary knowledge. Videos like this and Bob Shanebrook's (@laser ) book reveal a sea change in culture, reflecting I expect the acknowledgement that there is no likelihood of anyone ever again wanting to obtain this knowledge to compete in such a high volume manufacturing enterprise making similar products.

I'm sure there are other parts of the process - not the substrate - where more information will be kept from disclosure. Their joint venture development of their new type of 120 backing paper is, as I understand it, being closely held as a significant market advantage!

When I worked on the campus about 8 years ago everything was hush hush. I did learn that all 120 at that point was hand rolled and they had very dim green lights installed so you could almost see what's going on. They hated IR film days because there was no light at all.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

When I worked on the campus about 8 years ago everything was hush hush. I did learn that all 120 at that point was hand rolled and they had very dim green lights installed so you could almost see what's going on. They hated IR film days because there was no light at all.

Ah... so THAT'S the reason why they won't bring back HIE

 

[Cholentpot]

Ah... so THAT'S the reason why they won't bring back HIE

Guy told me he had to transfer out of that department because he'd always cut his hands on IR days.

I never got to go into the plant. It was the worst. Me, a major Kodak film fan feet away from the Mecca and I could only gaze at the buildings.

 

[E76]

Finally had a chance to view this.
Besides the very interesting content, two things struck me:
2) more importantly, I am amazed at how much information is disclosed here. Not very long ago that information would have been guarded strenuously as proprietary knowledge.

I had a similar thought but realized Kodak isn’t the only maker of PET film—ESTAR is their trade name but you might know it better under the DuPont name: Mylar. As is so often the case with many processes the devil is in the details, and there were some things blurred out in the video.

I agree it will be interesting to see what’s revealed in the next video: coating!

 

[Europan]

I have never considered the substrate to be "film". "Film" is the neat stuff that they coat on the substrate - it is, in fact, a "film" coated on the substrate

In the patent literature we find the term web.

 

[Nzoomed]

SmarterEveryDay has done a video on his youtube channel.
Very educating video, since there has not been alot ive seen on Kodaks operations other than an old film they put together in the 1950s.
Link to part 1

 

[MattKing]

Duplicate threads combined and moved to Color Film, in hope of avoiding further duplicates.