3200 ASA Undergroung Production Facilities?

[avatar]

Anyone know if there is any truth to the rumors that Kodak and/or

Ilford produce and/or store their 3200 and/or 1600 emulsioins in

underground facilities to increase shelf life by reducing fogging

from backround radiation (specifically cosmic ray) exposure during

manufacturing/storage?

[john_hicks___]

Kodak does/did store TMZ stock in an unused mine.

[philip_glass]

As I recall, cosmic rays, as opposed to other, lower frequency, forms of radiation would penetrate right through rock. But seriously, in this period of just-in-time production, what company can afford to transport and store inventory in caves? On the other hand, perhaps there is an aging process involved, as in wrapper tobacco. By the way, only Fuji offers a 1600 speed emulsion.

[m0002a]

The actual ISO speed of TMAX 3200 and Delta 3200 is 1000 (according to their data sheets published on the web by both companies). They use some kind of Voodoo logic to come up with 3200.

 

Kodak typically makes each film in large batches on a somewhat infrequent basis and stores it before distribution to the market. The manufacturing set-up cost for a production run outweighs the cost of inventory in these cases.

[david_carper]

I believe that Kodak ran some tests with some TMZ stored in a deep salt mine, to determine the effects of cosmic radiation. AFAIK, they do not use this for regular storage.

 

ILFORD's Delta 3200 is produced on the same production lines as other films, and handled pretty much like all the rest. All ILFORD films that are shipped to the US are shipped in temperature controlled containers.

 

David Carper

 

ILFORD Technical Service

[avatar]

Know any more detail about the underground storage of TMZ? I am a nuclear engineering major so I'm giggling about some of your false conclusions on radiation. Let's be clear, when refering to cosmic rays usually you are talking about super high energy protons and their secondaries (although it also includes other particle radiation and ionizing photonic radiation). High energy charged particles of extraterrestrial origin (comsic rays) are for the most part easily stopped by enough solid object (though some of their secondaries are not if you get secondary gamma or neutron emissions). Why do you think they put accelerators and neutrino detectors underground? To filter out charged particle bombardment. Even air greatly reduces it. Thats why air crews are subject to increased radiation doses. Most of the increase is not X-ray or gamma, which dont change much with altitude nearly as much as cosmic rays. Protons are heavy charged particles and are not highly penetrating. They do NOT go from one side of the earth to the other. Even a neutron doesnt do that (uncharged particle radiation). Neutrino's do (but then they have virtually no mass). Now if you push your film, its going to be more succeptible to smaller exposures whether from light or radiation. The true film speed is irrelevant. It's what you treat it as that mattters. So it matters that its at 3200.

[pete_andrews]

Aaron. Pushing a film during development doesn't increase its real speed at all.<br>There is no film commercially available with a true ISO speed of 3200. No matter what it says on the box.<p>The minimum exposure required to form any detectable density AT ALL on the fastest films available, is around 0.004 lux-seconds, or the equivalent radiation energy.<br>Pushing development does NOT change that figure, it simply makes any exposure above that threshold yield a higher density, and that's not the same thing as increasing the film speed.<p>The true speed of TMZ is around 1250, by any ISO recognised method of measurement.

[avatar]

-------- Original Message --------

Subject: Re: Black and White Films (KMM2527719C0KM)

Date: Wed, 11 Sep 2002 10:41:26 -0400

From: Kodak US <ProfessionalUS@cyber.kodak.com>

Reply-To: Kodak US <ProfessionalUS@cyber.kodak.com>

To: Parmet <parmet@umr.edu>

 

Parmet,

 

Yes, in fact the film is stored in salt mines to combat gamma radiation.

 

Thank you for visiting the Kodak web site

 

http://www.kodak.com/go/professional

 

If you should have any questions on Kodak products or services, please

be sure to revisit our site as we are continually adding information to

enhance our support. If you need further assistance you may also reach

us at 1-800-242-2424 ext. 19 (Monday-Friday, 9am-7pm EST)

 

 

Regards,

 

Peter V.

Kodak Information and Technical Support

Kodak Professional

 

Original message follows:

-------------------------

 

Question: Is there any truth to the rumors that Kodak

produces and/or stores their 3200 and/or 1600

emulsoins in underground facilities to increase

shelf life by reducing fogging from backround

radiation (specifically cosmic ray) exposure

during manufacturing/storage?

 

Category: Professional

Subcategory: Black and White Films

Referer:

readableSubject: Black and White Films