Film coating machine (homemade) on Flickr

[rmazzullo]

Dark Orange,

This is absolutely fantastic information. Do you know if the builder has considered joining the forum? I can imagine some folks will have "a few" questions for him .

Would you be able to supply more information about the Filminator as we explore the possibilities?

Merry Christmas, and thanks for the photos and notes!

Bob M.

[Photo Engineer]

Excellent work.

I might mention that this is a small scale version of a 12" coater at Kodak that was called P3. It resembles it even to the arched chill cabinet.

Does the machine have a tensioner? I remembered after my last post here that lack of a tensioner or an improperly set tensioner can cause chatter as well as the other items I mentioned.

PE

[ben-s]

Great Stuff, Dark Orange!
Thanks for sharing your friend's work with us.
Do you have a picture pf the whole machine loaded up? I can't quite work out where the web goes after the tensioner.

[Photo Engineer]

I saw the tensioner in the picture, but IIRC we had one at each end. I don't know how well only one would work. Also, I see no apparent provision for a vacuum. This can help eliminate defects due to chatter, but if improperly controlled can introduce more chatter.

PE

[AgX]

You mean a vacuum/suction from beneath the slit between the coating head and the base?

[Photo Engineer]

Yes, that is where the vacuum goes. It then allows a bead to form which helps to damp out chatter. It is shown in the EK patents that I have mentioned in another thread. There I've listed several patents on emulsions and coating.

PE

[ben-s]

PE;
I noticed something on this photo:
http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne...6919391&size=o
When I saw it, I wondered whether the perspex box under the front of the head and roller was for vacuum. There seems to be a hose running to it...

[Dark Orange]

Thanks for the interest. The only vacuum is for the splicing table, there is only the one tensioner, and the hose running from the coating head in the photo is a drain from the waste collection tray.

I will enquire about emulsion recipes, but I would guess that at this stage he is brewing a pretty standard analog of the commercial products. The final product is ISO 100, by the way.

One thing I forgot to take some photos of is his emulsion preparation equipment and tools. His reaction chambers especially look impressive.

I can't quite work out where the web goes after the tensioner.

It's difficult to get a whole photo now, but I'll see what I can whip up. In this case, the web goes straight across to the rollers on the left. All the extra rollers are there to aid the threading of the machine, but aren't used when coating.

[PHOTOTONE]

So, in this particular coating operation, does the fellow run the raw stock thru several times to build up a final product? Or is it one-pass, one coat?
You mentioned earlier that the base stock was spliced into a loop?

[Dark Orange]

Yes, the layers are added sequentially. The stock is threaded through the machine and spliced into a loop. The emulsion is added and primed and the 14m loop is coated with a single layer. At this point, either a new emulsion is plumbed into the system and a second coat applied, or the coated stock can be removed and stored and fresh stock run into the machine.