How many film factories?

[darkosaric]

but Efke is made in Croatia, isn't it?

Yes. In Samobor, near Zagreb.

Regards,

 

[Henning Serger]

Hi Marvin,

Just wondered how many film factories there were at the top of film production and how many there are now?

the current list of film manufacturers:

1. Colour film:

- Kodak
- Fuji
- Agfa-Gevaert (Belgium)
- Lucky (China)
- Ilford (Suisse; Ilford Micrographic film)
- Impossible Project (instant film)

Ferrania stopped film coating in 2009. They get their film now from Kodak.

InovisCoat offers colour film coating on their website. If you put enough money on the table, they will do it for you... (this company is run by former Agfa engineers from Leverkusen; their machinery is from the former Leverkusen plant, too).

As Harman is producing a colour dye based film, too (Ilford XP2 Super), they probably could make a CN film. The knowledge is there.
But as Simon has said several times in this forum, he and his brave knights of Knutsford keep on concentrating on BW.

BW film:

- Harman Technology / Ilford
- Kodak
- Agfa-Gevaert
- Fuji
- Foma
- Fotokemika (Efke)
- Filmotec (emulsion making; no own coating; coating is done by partners)
- Lucky
- Shanghai
- Tasma
- InovisCoat

Best regards,
Henning

 

[cobbu2]

Kodak production is ramping slowly downward. This should be recognized by all.

Just curious, by how much since Mr. Shanebrook's book was published? Would it be due to not as much movie film production? I thought it wouln't be too bad since the revamping of the T-Max films (new coating facilities) and the introduction of the new Ektar & Portra films.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Just curious, by how much since Mr. Shanebrook's book was published? Would it be due to not as much movie film production? I thought it wouln't be too bad since the revamping of the T-Max films (new coating facilities) and the introduction of the new Ektar & Portra films.

Copyright 2010

 

[hpulley]

Copyright 2010

But current as of 2010 or 2009 one wonders? Things are happening fast though I hope a 3D/digital movie backlash might help...

 

[Photo Engineer]

Several reasons:

1. Motion Picture film demand decline overall (not just Kodak films)
2. The economy
3. Consumer demand as people move to digital and the economy

The result;

One building shut down totally as of May 30th 2011.

The amount;

Unknown.

PE

 

[cmacd123]

1. Motion Picture film demand decline overall

This can't be said enough. in terms of total area, Motion Picture print film is proably hundreds of times larger than any other film use.

a 120 Minute movie opening in 100 Theaters would use (90 ft/min == 10,800 ft) Times 100 prints, 1,080,000 feet of 35mm print stock. (which truth to tell is one of the least expensive stocks sold)

If they get 38 strips from a roll, and 6000ft a roll = one master roll makes 228,000 ft of film, so that one movie would use over 4 master rolls.

 

[Jeff Kubach]

As long I can still get B&W film I'm happy!

Jeff

 

[Marvin]

Just wonder if if color C41, E6, and B&W can be coated on the same line or does it require a different setup for each.
Marvin

 

[Photo Engineer]

They can all be coated on one line with the proper scheduling and equipment setup.

PE

 

[theoria]

They can all be coated on one line with the proper scheduling and equipment setup.

PE

Does that mean that the machines currently coating only BW (and might have been designed only with this intended use in mind) can be employed to churn out color film, or just that the machines currently coating color can be used for BW?

 

[Ian Grant]

Colour emulsions are B&W emulsion aren't so different, it's the flexibilty of the coating head thats important, can it coat enough layers. Colour emulsions are essentially B&W emulsions containing colour couplers. Any B&W film/paper can be processed to give a colour by processing in a colour developer with the addition of a colour coupler.

Ilford XP-2 is a colour emulsion despite being a B&W film, just not a full gamut of colours.

Ian

 

[Photo Engineer]

Does that mean that the machines currently coating only BW (and might have been designed only with this intended use in mind) can be employed to churn out color film, or just that the machines currently coating color can be used for BW?

A B&W film may contain from 2 - 4 layers while even a very simple color film contains 6 layers and as many as 14 are present in modern color negative films.

So, coating machines at Ilford, Kodak and Fuji can do either, but a solely B&W machine would require more than one pass through the line to produce color.

However, older plants often have only 2 coating stations and are therefore limited to B&W. Older machines use festoon drying in open air and are thus restricted in speed and length of coating. So, modern machines coat at 500 ft / min or higher and older machines coat at 10 - 100 ft / min. This is a limiting factor if a product must make multiple passes through the machine due to the number of layers.

PE

 

[Simon R Galley]

Dear All,

One of our great advantages, in being 'the smallest of the biggest or the biggest of the smallest' photo company as we were known in the 80's and 90's, is that our main coating machine ( No 14 as it is imaginatively named ) was designed from the 'get go' to coat different substrates. Film / Paper RC and FB / Polyester / speciality coatings and later ink jet, but more than that, our control systems and production regimes ( both coating and emulsion delivery ) are designed for rapid change and rapid clean down ( not as easy as it sounds ) so we can move between any of our coated products within 90 minutes.

Over the years it has of course been seriously upgraded and widened. It also has the ability to coat at 420' per minute if needed. Whilst it is a complicated machine we are very fortuanate to have such a flexible emulsion and coating plant. As PE will no doubt concur you can have the best coating heads and machines in the world, but what you equally need at the end of the coating line are the best dryers and drying regimes.....

Simon. ILFORD Photo / HARMAN technology Limited :

 

[Aurelien]

A further question, Simon:

What is the minimum surface you can coat with your coating machine? What is the size of your smallest batch?

 

[Simon R Galley]

We can coat down to one parent roll dependant on base type thats between 1,500 and 2,500m2 , whether it is 'economical' to do so is a different question, the answer to that question is probably 'no' as you have to amortise the change over cost so realistically 6,000 m2 ( dependant on emulsion make ) is about the minimum.

Simon ILFORD Photo / HARMAN technology Limited :

 

[wildbill]

We forgot a japanese manufacturer: Konishiroku alias Konica. They had a product range named Sakura. Quality equaled Fuji and Kodak, sales did not.

I had a bunch of 120 Sakura infrared film I sold a couple years ago. It said Konica on the roll when you opened it up.

 

[laser]

If you are interested in seeing a modern film manufacturing plant see:


http://www.makingkodakfilm.com


APUG advertiser so sometimes you can just click on the ad below.

 

[Photo Engineer]

We forgot a japanese manufacturer: Konishiroku alias Konica. They had a product range named Sakura. Quality equaled Fuji and Kodak, sales did not.

I had a bunch of 120 Sakura infrared film I sold a couple years ago. It said Konica on the roll when you opened it up.

Mentioned already. Out of business!

PE

 

[Photo Engineer]

As Simon says, there is a minimum amount of one roll that can be coated. For Kodak, this is about 1 linear mile by 42" wide. This gives a true web of 40" to slit and chop for product. But, factored into that is the leader and trailer of support which must be present to keep the machine threaded. An EK machine can be 1 mile long and therefore it must remain threaded with 1 mile (1 roll) of film or paper support.

As at Ilford, the Kodak machines are named rather unimaginatively. They are given the name of the room location or the width. Therefore 21 machine was 21" wide and was a pre-production coater. Kodak coating speeds were well over 1000 ft / min back when I coated years ago. So, it took 5 minutes to coat 1 mile of film. But at that time National Geographic used 15 minutes of coating time for each order! At the time Kodachrome ceased production, Kodak was making a short run every 18 months.

There were 6 paper machines at Kodak Park with 4 running 24/7/365. Two were always in maintenance being tuned up and held ready for emergencies. The work schedule rotated between these 6 with 4 on-line all the time. There were similar machines in Colorado, Australia, England, Canada, Brazil and France; all of these coating product and all gone but 3 machines today as mentioned above.

PE

 

[Ian Grant]

Kodak Ltd (UK as opposed to Eastman Kodak, US) also had a coating plant in Hungary, this was siezed by the communists after WWII and became Forte.

Wratten were still coating emulsions as well under Kodak ownership continuing into the early 1920's, it's possible they still have a small coating line for filter manufacture.

Simon didn't mention Ilford have 2 other coating lines, a small pilot line for tests & trials also used for making filters and a glass plate coating line, both demonstrated on APUG factory visits.

Ian

 

[cmacd123]

As Simon says, there is a minimum amount of one roll that can be coated. For Kodak, this is about 1 linear mile by 42" wide. This gives a true web of 40" to slit and chop for product.
PE

So Rounding up that mile to 6000 ft. the smallest batch would be 29 rolls of 6000 ft, (of 35mm film) enough to make 31, 636 rolls of 36 exposure film. it is probaly hard for even a big dealer like freestyle to but that big a batch.

 

[Photo Engineer]

I guess I don't get you on this. You say 29 rolls of 6000 ft?

PE

 

[phfitz]

Quick question: who made 'Zebra' brand film from China and are they still open for business?. It's not ERA, Shanghai or Lucky.

 

[cmo]

I have no idea. But I can show you a photo from a Zebra factory.