Hmm, you are serious about a reversal processing plant.
Ian, one of the technical problems I have witnessed first hand with dip and dunk machines, is their problem with 135 format being too long to process without hanging over (emulsion out) something.
All of the dip and dunk machines I have seen and used in a commercial environment, three different types. One manufactured in Australia, one from the USA and one from Germany, were all designed to be able to take a full length 120 film in a straight vertical drop. This is fine for 120 film and any kind of sheet film hanger, but as 135 film is markedly longer than 120 film, it has to be looped over, what is effectively a film version of a coat hanger.
This will eventually cause some consistency in processing, come the day a film is hung over with the emulsion facing inwards. Effectively between 1½ and 3 frames are usually under developed.
One place that I worked in, picked up an automatic carousel type processor. Once they had this up and running it was used exclusively for 135 format, with all other formats done on their dip and dunk processor.
The carousel processor used Jobo reels, 1500 series reels that were brilliantly fast and easy to load, even in the relatively humid environment of a dip and dunk machine room. I cannot remember exactly what make or model it was, but think of a round table that could seat 8 people, that is about the size and it was about 600m high. If I remember correctly it did four reels in each section, then the carousel of reels lifted up and moved to the next section and dropped in for the next step.
It was as fully automated as anything manufactured about 30 years ago, in other words, an electrical/mechanical set-up.
Although Im loathe to suggest a roller transport system for film, we, in our B&W in-house lab used a deep tank 310mm wide Kreonite paper processor very effectively for B&W film of any sort up to 11 wide with nary a problem in the one year I was there. It was a four bath processor and when purchasing we were given the option of a six bath unit with a washer/dryer add on, for the possibility of E6. Because the Kreonite was originally a deep tank model designed for EP2 colour paper. It was factory modified for the then new RA4 process, it had the ability to process either EP2 or RA4.
This was achieved by speeding up or slowing down the roller speeds electronically, one had an electronic reading of the feed speed just above the feed in tray. This speed change feature was terrific as it enabled us to push or pull the first bath time very accurately. As with dip and dunk processors, you had to ensure that the processor was free of prior loaded films, before changing the speed.
Just some food for thought.
Mick.
