MirkoBoeddecker
[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]
ADOX Fotowerke has taken another important step towards greater independence.
To ensure the long-term availability of sheet film packaging, we have acquired our supplier of sheet film and photographic paper boxes, thereby saving them from impending insolvency.
No doubt some of you will now be wondering why it is so difficult to organise a few boxes.
The answer lies in our prosperity. In Europe, the level of human labour has fallen steadily over recent decades and has been replaced by a combination of human labour and machine support. This has enabled productivity to be increased and our standard of living to be maintained. Of course, there are many manufacturers of cardboard packaging, and of course they can produce any shape you like. They do this on state-of-the-art, fully automated production lines. They can do this at a good price, but only for orders of around 10,000 units per size/type
.
However, for the paper we require:
10x15/100
13x18/25
13x18/100
18x24/25
18x24/100
8x10"/25
8x10"/100
8x20/100
24x30/50
24x30/100
11x14"/25
11x14"/50
30x40/25
30x40/50
40x50/25
40x50/50
50x50/25
50x60/50
70x100/10
As well as other special formats
and for sheet film:
6x9
Half plate
Full plate
9x12
4x5
8x10
8x20
11x14
30x40
plus other special formats
Some of these sizes are required
in quantities
of fewer than 10 packs per year.
Minimum production runs of 10,000 units are of no use to us whatsoever.
This isn’t even feasible for 24x30.
We have therefore collaborated with a manufacturer that uses machinery, some of which dates back to the Imperial era (see image).
The most modern machine dates from 1982.
This approach has allowed us, with machine support and a moderate amount of manual work, to produce a wide variety of packaging at a reasonable price (albeit higher than the machine production of 10,000 units).
Thanks to our strategic investment, all the machines are now owned by ADOX Fotowerke, but will remain at their current location for the time being. For a certain period, our supplier will continue to produce the packaging for us. In the meantime, we will be creating the conditions here to take over production ourselves.
It sometimes feels like being in an industrial museum here ;-)
Best regards,
Mirko
Urnes
I’m sure you could use this to make some lovely presentation boxes, couldn’t you? :)
Best regards, Sven.
Morte
Hi Mirko,
I think that’s a good idea. Not just from a social and economic point of view. I also like the idea that there are still people, even in the manufacturing sector, who don’t simply scrap good old, well-maintained machines. There’s a wealth of knowledge, experience and development in them, which we’re in danger of losing very quickly today, now that we’re surrounded by constantly outdated plastic computers. Unless we make a conscious decision to preserve them.
Hats off to you. And thank you for your commitment.
HenningH
I’d also like to offer my heartfelt congratulations on this decision!
And I think it would be great if we could buy the boxes (especially the 13x18 ones) empty as well. Then I’d finally be able to get my small prints organised.
Gast
A sound investment in the future!
Tandemfahren
Looking at this picture, I’m not sure whether I should be as fussy as I am. “We kindly request that you keep the machine very clean and always feel good!”
Apart from the ‘H’ in ‘fühlen’ :-)… you really couldn’t put the message any better. I’m very impressed.
Hopefully, we won’t have to buy loads of photographic paper in “frequent” boxes from now on...
peterkrumm
Your dedication and willingness to take risks are impressive. Hopefully, we, the customers, can do our bit to help keep things going.
adophil
Hopefully, we customers can do our bit to help keep things going
Yes, I hope so too. That would mean that the products that were planned, or still are, would be available. Nevertheless, I congratulate you on this coup and wish you continued success. Who knows, perhaps it will work out just as surprisingly as it did with the CHS II. Hats off to you, even in advance!
MirkoBoeddecker
Hopefully we won’t have to keep buying loads of photographic paper in “similar” boxes in future...
You can really ‘feel’ the machine in the bearings rather than on the cardboard conveyor belt ;-)
Besides, you’re supposed to keep it ‘very clean’.
MirkoBoeddecker
And I’d really like it if you could buy the boxes (especially the 13x18 ones) empty as well. Then I’d finally be able to get my small prints organised.
Oh, really? Well, that’s no problem. I’ll put them up on Monday. The warehouse’s full ;-)
TiMo
The sign is definitely the star of the show. I’d buy the machine for that reason alone.
Good to know you’ve covered yourselves in that regard. You really have to think of the strangest things these days.
You’ll still have loads of boxes, but if you’re making new ones for paper, they can easily be a few millimetres bigger. After transport, the corners often get torn, or the sheets of paper end up warped (with the larger formats).
Cheers, Tim
Steffen
Hello
To reduce the variety of sizes, you could also put a smaller format into the next larger pack.
For example:
10x15 paper could also go in the 13x18 box
18x24 paper could also go in the 8"x10" box
and so on.
If the boxes are slightly too big, you don’t have to squeeze the paper in so tightly after taking a sheet out.
My origami skills with light-protective film are terrible, so I always transfer my paper to the next larger box.
Best regards,
Steffen
bernhardmangelsgmxde
"We kindly request..."
- it almost makes you wish the Emperor were back!
WolfgangF
Hello Mirco,
I’d also like to offer my heartfelt congratulations on this step and on your tremendous entrepreneurial drive.
Harman/Ilford must have had similar thoughts when they bought the machines for manufacturing 35mm film cartridges from Ferrania last winter, in order to secure their production for the future.
What about the production of roll film spools, 120 and 127? Is that standard injection moulding that any plastics processing company can do?
Best regards and continued success
Wolfgang
MirkoBoeddecker
Hello Wolfgang,
We’ve made sure we have enough 120 reels; 127s are no longer available. These were also handmade in a workshop (brass nipples filed by hand and glued on = extremely labour-intensive). Given that Fotokemika scrapped the 127 cutting and labelling machines in the dead of night, I wouldn’t know how this format could be reintroduced. The market is much smaller than that for pocket film, and the few who need this format can keep themselves well supplied for the next few years by refilling old reels and paper. Therefore, investing in new machines would certainly be a financial disaster.
Best regards,
Mirko
WolfgangF
Hi Mirko,
Thanks for your reply. It’s a shame the 127 cameras are no longer available.
When you say ‘refilling the reel/paper’, do you mean taking a 120 film – just the film itself – cutting it to size with a craft knife, for example, and sticking it into the appropriate place in the paper of the old 127 reel?
Or is it possible to cut the entire film with its paper to make it narrower and shorter?
In a Rollei News from the 80s, probably when the Iron Curtain made access to photographic chemicals impossible and Kodak was producing the last 127s, an amateur precision engineer offered a hand-operated cutting machine for cutting 120 film to 127 size.
If I can find the article, I’ll post it. It’s history now, but it might be of interest to one or two DIY enthusiasts.
Best regards, Wolfgang
Wolf_XL
...the biggest problem with them is actually the reels. The reels with the brass nipple aren’t particularly durable. They’ll last for three or four windings at most – then the brass nipple starts to turn as well and that’s the end of the line. You should therefore look after your solid metal 127 reels like the apple of your eye – the reels with the brass nipple are no good as blank reels...
WolfgangF
The article in question appeared in Rollei Fototechnik News 2/1997, pages 15 and 16.
Wolfgang
HenningH
And I’d really like it if you could buy the boxes (especially the 13x18 ones) empty as well. Then I’d finally be able to get my small prints organised.
Oh, really? Well, that’s no problem. I’ll put them up on Monday. The warehouse’s full ;-)
Has that happened? Or am I just too daft to find it?
RolandLindner
I would like the box size to be a few millimetres larger. ADOX boxes are quite tight, and the corners and edges bend very easily. I always transfer the paper to Ilford boxes; Ilford’s boxes are always slightly larger.
