Welcome back to Smarter Every Day! I love analog film photography - there’s something special about being able to capture a memory in a physical object with light and physics and chemistry. In a previous episode, we visited Indie Film Lab in Montgomery, Alabama, to learn about the process.
Today, we’re doing something completely different. Analog photography is making a huge comeback - it’s not just weirdos like me. Prices for old analog cameras are through the roof. This raises the question: if analog film photography is popular and analog film is a consumable, what does that mean for the supply of film? Are they just selling some big stockpile, or are they actually manufacturing this stuff today in a way that we can bank on for the foreseeable future?
I’m happy to report that the people at Indie Film Lab introduced me to someone at Kodak, and I asked if I could come see the manufacturing process. They said yes! We are going to get to go to the place for all things film - the Kodak plant in Rochester, New York.
We geared up, and the tour started off right when we brushed by the world’s first digital camera on our way to see the awesome stuff. We met our point of contact at Kodak, Matt Stauffer, and we’re ready to learn about the three primary manufacturing things that have to happen in order to make 35 millimeter film: the support, the light sensitivity, and the packaging.
Let’s go get smarter every day! Matt: Manager in our worldwide information system, so IT
Destin: Yeah.Are you a photographer as well? Matt: I am a photographer.Matt: I’m a third generation Kodak here as well.It’s really what we call ourselves here.My father, my grandfather, plenty of aunts and uncles.My grandmother.So, yeah, it’s it’s not an uncommon story.Here in Rochester.
Destin: This place was absolutely massive, and I was surprised to find out that photographic film is only a small percentage of their business.There’s a ton of history here as well.The old brickwork makes it really photogenic, like tons of pipes and textures and windows.It’s really cool to take pictures here and just explore the place we moved along in.
Matt picked up our ride for the tour and we made our way across campus to where they make the mechanical support for the film.It was here that we met the experts, Sharon and Mark.
Sharon: ESTAR is a Kodak’s trade name for P.E.T.based polyester polyethylene terephthalate.And that’s polyester.
Mark: It’s very tough, tough, strong, strong strength.Destin: Got it.Mark: But for that reason, some people have problems with using it in a camera because it might break the camera before it is too strong.
Destin: Sharon and Mark gave us a detailed rundown of how all the stuff works.And after only a few minutes, it became clear to me that they are geniuses.But it’s that fun, humble wizard like genius that’s earned through many decades of solving complex problems.They need the speeds, the mass flow rates, the temperatures for everything.There’s a lot to learn here, but I hope that at the end of this tour, you have a fundamental understanding of every major part of the ESTAR film support manufacturing process while Trent and I are suiting up here.
There’s one more thing I want you to be on the lookout for on our tour.There’s this theme that I saw everywhere I went at Kodak.It’s clear to me that there’s this group of wiser, more experienced employees, and they’re taking the time to gradually bring the younger folks up to speed. Not only that, but you can feel the excitement of the younger generation as they actually own it. Like, they’re watching what’s going on. They’re taking that knowledge and that understanding, but they’re also getting the work ethic from the older generation because they’re seeing it being modeled. Keep an eye out for this in these videos. Because it is impressive to see this young, tech savvy generation absolutely kicking butt because of their work ethic. And you’ve got the older generation cheering them on saying, hey, I know I designed this machine, but it’s yours now. This is your legacy. And they’re putting them out there. They’re like, Hey, you should be the one on camera. It’s it’s really cool to see this partnership between these two generations because it absolutely encourages me about the future of American manufacturing. And it gets me really excited.
Charles explained that they bring these pellets in on railway cars. They have their own tracks on campus, and they pull the railcar up to the building, and one car of pellets will last for two days. The first step of the process is to mechanically grind up these relatively large pellets into a fine powder. Charles took us down to see the grinders in action. He said that there are two 50 horsepower motors and that they can grind up to 10,000 pounds an hour max. He showed us the powder that they were able to grind, which was polyethylene terephthalate powder. This powder is then transported up to a 300,000lbs storage tank via a pneumatic conveyor.
The next step we’re going to learn about is what Kodak calls the reactors. Charles took us to the control room and introduced us to AL, the best operator, and Chris. AL explained that the powder is then melted down and extruded out through the wheel. The stabilizer is then added to help keep the inclusions down and the machine keep the film really clean. Destin was really impressed by the process and was excited to see the future of American manufacturing. Destin: You guys making it happen? AL: Trying to! You trying to take a picture.Yeah.Yeah.Destin: So this is where you control everything? Charles: Yeah.Everything’s controlled from here.We have pneumatic panels on the wall, so we still have some of the very old, original pneumatic stuff.These are five of our reactors, basically.And the older ones are all controlled from this panel.Pneumatically And you basically can see just about everything that’s going on.Keep track of it.This is a fluid polymer reactor.So this is where we would do a solid state.So you’re driving at this point right now, we’re drying it.Yes.Down to five parts per million of moisture and water by weight.So it’s pretty dry.
Destin: Where can you read the moisture here? So we actually do that using an I.V.in our lab.Will every batch will take a sample and then we’ll run it through one of our Tinius Olsens.Look at the intrinsic viscosity and then we correlate that with the moisture, Destin: intrinsic viscosity, meaning when it’s when it’s melted.Charles: Yeah.So we put it through like continuous.Also in this little machine, you put your sample in and it’s basically a tiny extruder and then it just measures the forces and gives you that viscosity.Destin: Oh, that’s awesome.Yeah, that’s cool.Yeah.Destin: And you can correlate that to moisture.Charles: yes based on the water content itll have a different IV Charles: IV being intrensic viscosity So it’s basically the amount of water or solvent in the polymer.
So these are some of the older FPRs (Fluidized Polymer Reactor) we have.I’m only bringing in here because I want you to take a look.Destin: IPRs What do you mean by that? Uh huh.The only reason I brought in here is this one’s out of service, but it gives you a really good shot at the inside.So this is how it fills gravity field from the top.What it will do is it will feed from up above all the way until it plugs that line and that line is plugged.You can’t fill it anymore.So that’s when our batches ready to be put into react mode.
Destin So basically you have a pipe coming down.Yes.So that that goes way up.High.Yes.You have the pipe coming down.And when it’s full all the way to the pipe, that’s when a batch is ready.Charles: Now, these are about 10,000lbs worth.Destin: And this will be dry powder at this point.Charles: Going in.It’s wet.It’s going to be dry and ready when we’re done with it.Ready for stabilizer edition.That is at the bottom, those coils.Those are the internal heating coils.We also have some external heating coils wrapped around on the jacked vessel.Those bring us up to temperature.Destin: Gotcha.Charles: Yep.
Destin: So it’s a basically wet powder comes in, meaning like it has too much moisture.Correct.Goes in here.Destin: These coils down here, Charles: they provide the heat source.So what’s going on is it’s a fluidized bed reactor.Destin: So air is pumping in it? Charles: so nitrogen.So everything has to be nitrogen.Destin: Dry nitrogen.Yep.So dry nitrogen flows into the bottom is a distribution plate with tiny holes in it.And that keeps the powder moving.It’s kind of like an ocean.You see waves and ripples and bursts as it’s right and it’s pretty cool.Destin: That is cool.So do you guys monitor it with cameras or something? No, I wish.Yeah.We usually just have sight classes with lights.
Destin: So is this under pressure? Charles: The whole vessel will usually be under pressure yet.Destin: Really? Charles: Yes, around seven PSI or so.Oh, that’s legit.Yeah.So these are all 10,000lbs reactors.And then over here we have two 20,000lbs reactors that we run all the time.Destin: So these are running? Charles: Yes, they’re currently running.So they each have a compressor that just circulates the gas.They have a glycol scrubber associated with it to help ship the nitrogen through our absorbers.And you want to keep your nitrogen clean.Organics will come off during the process. Mark: Yeah.
Destin: Let’s see the aldehyde and some other compounds. Charles: Yeah, everything’s stainless steel. Anything that touches the resin has to be stainless. No aluminum allowed, no silicone because it can oxidize the. Well, the aluminum is bad for the product inclusions, and it gets in there that any aluminum dust, it’s a big issue. How’s he doing, Sharon? He’s great. He’s doing is doing great. Yeah. So coming out of the hex. So coming out of these appears, it is conveyed up to the right above us. There’s another Bin, and now we’ve put everything to this screener. It’s just a big corn sifter. Yeah, And its entire purpose is to get anything large that might be in the process. out we make sure we only have a good, good polyester coming out about a uniform size yeah. This controls your grain size. Well, somewhat. I mean, there’s just about everything helps control the size, but this will get anything large out if there’s a wall scale like we saw in the last reactor, there still is large on the outside edge where you get the amorphous material, all that’ll come out of here. Now, of course, the whole powder is has a distribution associated with it. We check that in our lab checks because we like to keep the particle size like a standard deviation. Yeah. For the most part, we have an acceptable range. So that’s the end of your vision into the process.
Charles: Well, there’s a little bit more upstairs, but yeah, basically. Basically the first stage. Yes, correct. So we have we have we give them the finished powder. So that way they can go straight into the extrusion and then the filmmaking process. Oh, that’s awesome. Charles, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. So the next step of the process is the initial melt screw. And I didn’t understand this at first, but it’s very interesting. Mark took me to the feed hopper on the floor above the screw and showed me where they could add color to the material by feeding in colored pellets if they wanted to. We then went down to the basement and suddenly everything got very warm and very loud.
Destin: That’s a big motor yeah. Is that a gear box? Mark: Yeah! 200 horsepower, lots of heat, lots of noise. Destin: Okay. So this is the feed hopper. Gravity feeding the powder and the ground re-use into the feed thrown area. The screw and then the screws turning, accepts the powder, and that gets pushed along through generate so much frictional heat that it melts I will take you to we have a screw this out out of the machine Destin: Lets do it! So you got a cart so. Destin: So it’s rotating very fast? Mark: No it’s not actually about 30 rpm. Destin : Oh okay. Mark: Something Like that. Yeah, it’s going run pretty slow and we’ve got all the piping is jacketed because the melt temperature is around 548 degrees Fahrenheit. So we’re trying to control everything to uniform temperature screws a little ways down here. So we keep going.
Destin: Mark, you just barely make it under these things. Yeah. Yeah. Destin: Are these calibrated for Mark height here. Close Destin: That’s a gearbox. Gearbox. Couple of spare spare parts. Destin: These are huge. Destin: Oh, wow. Well, this is amazing. This is a screw. Destin: So this is an auger. This is incredible. I cannot. The key stock required to make this thing work. This is this is a big project to make one of these. There’s a barrel, and then this gets installed in the barrel. And it floats in the barrel. Yeah. It has to be very uniform and temperature because you don’t want any warping. Destin: How tall are you, Mark, for scale? Mark: Six foot five. Destin: Six foot five. Wow. So that’s like that’s like six marks. It’s like 40 feet. Mark: Yeah. Sharon: Its Like, 10 Sharons lol Destin: Like ten Sharons! So these are the different stages of the screw. Mark: Yeah. And then this is the pipe that goes through the end of the screw, and then we pull a vacuum on it.So all the volatile gases come out and then it goes through the filter and then goes into the next screw.Got it.
You can see where the flight is going. It’s called a flight and it’s deep here, then gets shallow. As the material is flowing through, a lot of pressure builds up and all of a sudden, it goes down and pressure is pulled through a little hole. The material is pushed along by the flights and the screw is actually hollow with a pipe going through it. We pull a vacuum on it to get rid of volatile gases and the face of that is sealed on the outside. The base of the screw is pretty well sealed and the barrel of the screw is open.
We put the powder in the pipe, which is a set diameter, and it starts moving that way. As it goes down, the gap gets smaller and smaller. There’s a big step here where pressure is built up and then it gets very thin. We relieve the pressure here so we can have a vacuum area to extract volatile gases. The powder is pushed along and pressurizes to 1200 psi and 400-540 degrees. It then goes through a filter and a second screw before coming out.
At the end of the process, the motor and gearbox are used to control the screw and the hopper where the materials come in. The vacuum is in the middle and the end of the screw is where the resin is blown up. There is also a scrap chop where the scrap is chopped up into little pieces and then sold. I’m clearly still confused, so I need a visual aid to help me figure this out. Mark explained that the material comes in the top of the screw as a solid powder and friction heats it up and melts it. As the molten material gets pushed down the length of the screw, it gets compressed between the shaft and the sidewall, reducing in diameter and allowing the material to out gas. A vacuum is then pulled through this little vacuum port and unwanted gases can bubble out and be removed. This screw then continues to push the uniformly molten polymer to the end where it exits out the top.
Mark also mentioned that they filter the output of the screw, which is impressive. The resin gets pumped through stainless steel mesh filter sticks, usually with a 10 or 5 micron filter depending on what is being filtered. The filter sticks are broken down and cleaned, and the process is done in a filter cleaning room.
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Kodak has developed a process for applying coatings to the material as it travels along the production line. The molten plastic is extruded at 540 degrees Fahrenheit and cooled to 135 degrees Fahrenheit by the time it reaches the wheel. The wheel is polished to a mirror-like finish and a vacuum is used to ensure the plastic sticks to it. Drive rollers and pinch rollers then convey the material to a cooling section and temperature control area, where the coatings are applied. They have an entire system set up to precisely measure and get the right temperatures for their processes. I asked Mark and Sharon why they would coat the product, and they said there were a ton of different applications for this process. For example, they might put a primer on the star so that the photosensitive layer would bind better, or have an anti-static layer, or a conductive layer. They might even put gelatin over the top, and it varies depending on what the final use of the product is.
One room I thought was particularly interesting is where they store all the combustible solvents. This room is literally fortified to prevent explosions, as the solvents are stored in containers that are electrically grounded.
Preparing these chemical coatings is very important, and the way they’re applied is a very precise operation. I looked through a film base and saw one to three layers, but it’s very thick and has thick edges, which they call ribs. These ribs are important for them to grab hold of and stretch.
Once the coating is dried upstairs, the next part of the process is called drafting and tentering. Drafting is stretching the material in the direction of travel, and tinkering is stretching it out to the sides. This process gives the molecules orientation, which is what makes it very tough.
When stretching, they have to hold on to the edges with a roller, as it will want to neck in and extend out. This is done with edge rollers, and the gap starts thick and then stretches. Starting here, going down tighter and tighter, you can see the gap and the thickness of the material getting thinner. From .100 to .050 we’ve doubled our speed, and the tension is pulling through the stretch. We have two very long chains that are rotating and grabbing the edges of the sheet. We’re adding heat tentor to uniformly heat it up so that the film doesn’t stretch in the middle more than the outside. We’re 16 and a half inches wide and 38 inches when we’re done. Finally, we’re 60 inches when we reach full width. At this point, the material is sent upstairs to a coating station where a coating can be applied to the full width of the product. It then goes through a huge fryer before coming back downstairs where more operations are available. These include knurling or embossing the edges (which Sharon owns several patents for) and slitting the film into different widths. There’s also a scanner which looks for defects. Finally, the material winds up at the end. Destin: Hi, I’m Destin.
Steve: Destin? Nice to meet you.
Bill: What’s up? Nice to meet you, Bill. Destin: So this is the final product. We have 260 feet per minute and 5500 feet of material. We watch the take up and that tells us how much time we have. We cut the roll by 10 and the accumulator percentage is now 31%. Steve is keeping that number as small as possible, as that’s the margin for safety on the process. The speed is going to start slowing down to 5720 and the red light will go on. Steve then cuts it with a knife. We have already taken our one quality sample to find out what our dimensions are. To require a third sample, which is called a keeping sample, is kept upstairs in stock in case engineers need to review the sample. Steve has had five knives in the 20-something years he has been working in this building. There is also a light curtain here. I had the pleasure of visiting the Kodak plant in Rochester, New York, where I got to see the process of creating a roll of film. It was amazing to see the steps needed to make the roll, from the support material to the light sensitive layer, to the cutting and packaging. After the roll is manufactured and scanned for quality, it can then be packaged in a casket and shipped out to a different location.
At the end of the tour, I asked the engineer how he got his role and he said he just picked it up and threw it on his shoulder. This experience was really cool to me, and I hope others will find an old film camera and try to create their own film photos. It’s a great way to be creative and make something that is just for you. I’m grateful for the time I got to spend on this tour and for all the support from Patreon.