Lith Film 1 By Mr. Bob Gumbinner
In
the late 1960s, we imported graphic arts film from our licensee in
Japan, Fuji Photo Film, and sold it under the Polychrome label.
After a number of years, Fuji asked us to sell film under the Fuji
name, Mr. Halpern was reluctant to do this. We looked into acquiring
a company which made graphic arts film. We went to Cleveland to
visit the Brown film company, which 3M later bought; a company in
eastern Long Island; and a plant in Rochester NY, which had been
erected by Bell and Howell. I remember driving back from Rochester
along route 17 in a heavy rain storm.
In
1973, we contacted Henry Levy and Gene Wilkerson who had a
photographic film consulting business. They assured Mr. Halpern that
they knew what was required to make graphic arts film. We hired
Henry Levy to head up this operation. Gene Wilkerson preferred to
remain as a consultant. As a site for manufacturing the graphic arts
film we found a plant on Terminal Ave. in Clark N. J. on ten acres
which had been built by the Celanese Co. This building had a number
of well designed and furnished laboratories. To coat the film, Henry
Levy recommended a spiral coater. We erected a three story annex
along one end of the building for this purpose and ordered one from a
company that had built these units. After it was operational, we
hired one of the engineers who had worked on the design, Kurt
Hausman. At the opposite end of the building a room was enclosed for
mixing the various solutions used to process film and plates and
other graphic art chemicals. Several tanks were installed outside
the building for raw materials. We hired Bill Towns who had a small
chemical mixing plant to run this operation. Originally, Mr. Halpern
had expected to put a line for making presensitized plates in this
building; but as the production of films advanced, all available
space was taken. In laying out the building, it was necessary to
provide light locks between sections to avoid exposing the film and
the coating area had to be extremely clean and temperature and
humidity controlled. A wall was erected between the drive motors and
auxiliary equipment and the coaters and drying tunnel.