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Photographic film manufacture
Film manufacture comprises of a number of steps. At each stage quality checks are made to minimise the risk of wastage as costs increase at each production stage.

Production of the film base
This film base or substrate is made of either Triacetate or Polyester film. For still camera use the base is typically 125-135um thick for 135 or roll films and XX um for sheet film. Polyester is significantly stronger than triacetate and therefore can be coated onto thinner substrates of 80-100um, typically used for Aerial survey films. It is also used for micro films as it is considered stable for up to 500 years. The emulsion itself may be 15um thick

Production of the film emulsion
The film emulsion is the element which reacts to light. Production must therefore take place in total darkness from this point on until the film is packaged. Animal gelatin is the main carrying component for the film layers. The gelatin is melted in large heated stainless steel kettles to which the premixed chemical components of each film layer are added such as as the light reactive silver halides.

Black and white film is coated with a minimum of 3 layers; the film emulsion, plus two further layers; an Anti-Halation layer usually on the back of the film (or below the emulsion layer), and a gelatine protective layer over the emulsion. In Colour film however many more layers are required with upto 4 dye layers plus associated color couplers. For example Ektachrome requires 106 chemical components distributed across 15 layers. Once all the layers have been produced, the emulsion componements are ready for the film to be coated. Due to the time involved, the layers may be held in a cold state and re-melted just prior to their use.

Research, Testing and Narrow coating
Before a new film emulsion is committed to manufacture, where signifcant costs of materials will be incurred, trial coating of the film will be undertaken using a smaller scale research or 'Narrow' coater, so named due to the reduced film width coated, circa 0.2-0.3m. Where possible these facilities replicate the characteristics of the larger coater. Therefore all major manufacturers have both narrow reasearch and wide production coaters, e.g. Ilford Photos M27 coater is used for narrow coating trials prior to production on its M16 coater. Testing is also carried out each time a films components are changed, for example due the need to substitutute chemicals components no longer avaialable. Unusually Ferrania is using the former Ferrania research coater as its main coating facility (used to produce P30 Alpha), as a means of economically producing of small film batches.

Production/Wide Coating
The coating process applies the emulsion to the film substrate. Traditionally film plates were coated individually by hand and layers were coated one at a time.

A modern film coater comprises of the coater itself and a long drying room to dry the emulsion. The film may need to pass through the coater multiple times depending on the number of coats to be applied. However advances in coating techniques and film emulsions enabled several layers to be applied at once thus reducing costs. Typical coating width is 1.2-1.35m wide with lengths of a several hundred metres coated (Kodak coat rolls of 1800m for Colour film). The process can be wasteful, with material consumed at run up and down of the process (reduced through using leader film) and due to more variability of coating at the edges of the film which may be discarded or sold as a lower value product. Technological developments sought to minimise this waste.

Mechanisation for roll films production resulted in the development of dip and dunk coating (last used by Efke until its closure in 2012) where the moving film is lowered into a tray of emulsion a technique which suited small scale production of its single layer films. A later development commmercialised in the 1960s and more suited to both advanced black and white film and colour film production was bead/cascade coating, where the emulsion layers flow under gravity from a series of slots on the coating head. These separate layers forming a thin bead at the head/film interface, which enabled coating multiple layers together at higher speeds - Ilfords M14 coater can coat 5 layers at a time. Almost all coaters are now of this type. Final development saw the introduction of 'waterfall' coating used by Kodak where multiple layers of emulsion drops a greater distance 'waterfall' onto the film but without splashing or intermixing, enabling even higher coating speeds to be achieved. In addition to coating film, some coaters may also be used to coat both film and photographic paper using the same machine. Ilfords M14 coater of this type.

Advanced coaters such as that employed by Kodak also have more than one coating head so the film runs from coater to dryer to coater to dryer on one pass, increasing production speed by avoiding need to rewind film and reducing handling and thus reduce risk of damage. The significant economies of scale achieved by these technical developments partiularly for colour film manfacture resulted in the abilty to produce very high volumes of film at low cost, but required major capita outlay and hence resulted in the market for colour film particuarly being dominated by a few major players.

Once coated the 'master rolls' (c1.2-1.35m wide by several hundred metres long) are stored whilst quality checks are done. Master rolls may be cool or fozen stored for several years in temperature controlled facilities. Modern film facilities employ cameras to detect and automatically mark imperfections on the film so that these can be cut out at convertion. Test strips will be developed from the master rolls in a developing lab to check for quality.

Film convertion & packaging
The conversion process cuts the film down into the final sizes for retail sale. The masterolls are converted/slit into narrow strips 26mm for 135 format or 62mm for rolls film. Master rolls are spliced onto the preceeding roll to run through slitter. (the splices are cut out and used for testing at start and finish).

The slit film is now wound into rolls using a separate machine for use by the consumer. In the case of 120 this comprises the spindle, film and backing paper. The torque on the spindle must be just right to avoid over compressing the film, without leaving it too loose such that light may enter. Rolls are then plastic or foil wrapped and printed with an expiry date and batch no.

135 format/35mm films must go through further step to first cut cut the perforations for use in camera. For movies use film is wound onto 400ft reels but for still images 135 format has a metal cassette with end caps and a felt light trap. After the cassette is assembled film is wound into the cassette automatically in the correct length for the number of frames. (24 or 36 exp) and the protruding leader cut. After each cassette is loaded and stamped with the emulsion code they are packed into plastic film containers to keep the film free of contamination and maintain freshness. Most film cassettes are now DX coded though smaller producers such as Foma also pack film without DX codes. Each batch of Ektachrome produces 3 million feet of film producing 600,000 rolls

The final step is to insert the film canisters or rolls into branded retail boxes, which are then packed into cardboard boxes of ca 100-120 films for onward distribution to retailers. Color film is sold with an expiry date of c18 months to 2 years from packaging and Black and white film is sold with and expiry date of upto 5 years from packaging.

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Grownth and decline

Film sales followed continued growth unitl theend of the decade. The marktet was mature and in the the volume colour market with high barriers to entry and thus sustaining a high margin business. . Agfa itself finally abandoned its Agfa process in the 1980s to move over to C-41 films. ORWO collpsed under pressure from western competition in 1996 following the fall of com,mumism in X.

The initial impact of digial was small on a grwoing photograpic market. Diginal cameras were expensive and had poor resolution. This meant that initial takeup was low and also early camaeras rapidly became obsolete. They could also not compete agaisnt films cameras for exacting print requirements. However gradually the Early dopters included sport press where rsolutions requirments were not too demandfing and timely delivery way key to meeting paper deadlines. By contrast

In 1998 sales of film camera peaked 40m units (CIPA sales which make up te majoriy of the market) by 2005 they practically ceased to exist in the market place replaced by digital. Canon final new fiml cameras were compact cameras all launched in 2004.

2000s The turn of the millenium saw the threat posed by the development of digial camera technology in the last decade of the 20th century o traditioanal film manafuactures realised. In 2001 color film sale peaked globally. Initially decline was slow, with around a 5% decline per year over 5 years to 2006 taking the market down 30% and back to its positon in 1994. However film sale then plunged rapidly from 2006 -8, wih declines of upto 20% per annum. By 2011 this fall had stopped but by then film sales were only 1% of that that ten years ealier.

The decade wreaked havock on the film industry. The decline was greatest in the high volume color film market of the big 5 producers; Agfa-Gevaert no longer constrained by Bayer sold its consumer imaging division and plant at leverkusen in 2004, to watch it go bankrupt in 7 months and healthcare. . Fujifilm, recognising the risks, followed a high risk strategy of rapid diversification into related industries incldung TV, semi whilst building a successful diginal brand. In the meantime it closed its film plants and massively reduced its film portfolio from X in Y to Xin Z Kodak, tried to staty in consumer imaging including selling profitable healthcasre division however these ventures failed due to intense compettion from new entrants and it was forced to declare Chapter 11 bankrupcy in 2012. Like fujifilm it also drastically cut its film maufactuering and It tried to chase growing demand for impaging in China with hevy investment in China only to see this dashed by move direct to digital.

Konica having merged with Minolta in 2003 exited the photograpihc business entirely in 2006 sellling its camera technology toSony. Ferrania -3M, having being spun out into Imation in 1996 and sold on struggled before complete closure in 2009. Thus only two of the big five still produced flm at the end of the decade, with massvively reduced ranges.

Other notable collapses included Ilford Imaging UK bakrupt in 2004 but saved in a management buyout and a string of european produxces including Forte, Foton, Efke (2012), that closed their doors permanently

THe collapse in sales, together with saw film subject oheavy discounts impacting heavly. This accelearated as both manufacturers and retailers exited the market with film marked down to sell

In addition to film manufacture, digital also impacted the related industries of photochemistry and photograpic paper. In particular, diginal cameras meant photography were no longer printed an this profitable sector was gone along with the alied photofinishing industry of both volues and rogfessional labs. Professional users such as newspaper and education institutionas such as Schools, Colleges and Universities threw out their darkrooms. With the online pghotos were no longer printed.These decvline were mirrod on the high street with stores such as boots pharmact ones a majory film retailer and photofinisher, XX by X.

In the retail sector the digital camera boom fed by replaement was short lived with sales peakingin 2010 before undergoing preciptous decline withthe rise of the smartphone.

Consolitation and Recovery

Those producers left standing faced challenges; Film volumes were small Film prices were low THe only plus was the much of the investment had been made in the boom years.

Eventually this stabalised. Film sales began to grow again, modestly at first. Films from closed producets left the maerk Renewed interest from millenialls and also Abundant supply of ow cost photograpic equipment

Two color man