Summary

Black and white silver gelatin photograph taken inside Building 3, Emulsion Coating, and looking west from the coating section of the Coating Track, Kodak factory, Coburg, May 1959.

This is a view from the coating station of the unwinder storage magazine being assembled at the east end of the Coating Track. The Coating Track consisted of four sections. The first section was a continuous film or paper base conveyancing system, where a discrete master roll of base could be mounted on an unwinding machine and storage magazine, then spliced to the previous roll without stopping the coating process. It was then conveyed through the continuous coating process with correct tension and steering, and finally through a storage magazine and winding machine where it could be separated from the following roll, and unloaded as a discrete roll without stopping the coating process. The second section was a coating station where previously prepared emulsion taken from the emulsion store, melted to liquid consistency, along with any final additional chemicals, was coated onto the film or paper base by a proprietary method. The third section was an air chiller section where the liquid emulsion was set onto the base. And finally, the fourth section was an air dryer section where the emulsion was dried and conditioned sufficiently to enable the base to be rolled up under tension without damaging the emulsion surface.

Kodak manufactured and distributed a wide range of photographic products to Australasia, such as, film, paper, chemicals, cameras and miscellaneous equipment. Its client base included amateur and professional photographers as well as specialist medical and graphic art professionals who used photography, x-ray and other imaging techniques.

This photograph is part of the Kodak collection of products, promotional materials, photographs and working life artefacts collected from Kodak Australasia in 2005 after the manufacturing plant at Coburg had closed down the year before.

Description of Content

In this image a building worker can be seen shovelling waste into a wheelbarrow amongst scaffolding erected to aid in finishing the walls and ceiling of the unwinder room. The unwind magazine is part assembled within its steel frame with the unwind stand in the background.

Physical Description

Black and white silver gelatin photograph printed on light weight paper, portrait format.

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