XD10324 MANUFACTURE & USE OF AGFA GEVAERT ¼” MAGNETIC RECORDING TAPE

This is a 1960’s era, color movie and opens on spinning discs of magnetic tape. The language is German and the subject of the film is the manufacture of ¼” magnetic tape for recording. Cameras scan the city of Leverkusen on the Rhine and we see the AGFA-GEVAERT building, 1:04. Agfa-Gevaert N.V. (Agfa) is a Belgian-German multinational corporation that develops, manufactures, and distributes analogue and digital imaging products and systems, as well as IT solutions. The company has three divisions. Agfa Graphics offers integrated prepress and industrial inkjet systems to the printing and graphics industries. Agfa HealthCare supplies hospitals and other care organizations with imaging products and systems, as well as information systems. Agfa Specialty Products supplies products to various industrial markets. It is part of the Agfa Materials organization. In addition to the Agfa Specialty Products activities, Agfa Materials also supplies film and related products to Agfa Graphics and Agfa HealthCare. Liquids mix in different mechanisms, 1:29. Magnetism concepts are displayed with iron filings. A magnetic tape head is shown being used for test purposes, 2:00. Agfa machinery is displayed, 2:49. The workers prepare for work at the factory, 3:33, which is kept at a high level of cleanliness including use of a vacuum chamber (3:50) before entering the clean room. Large sheets of magnetic flm are produced and continuously tested (4:50). Samples of material are taken from a rolling pin, 4:30. A woman looks into a microscope, 4:55. At 5:20, large rolls of magnetic tape are shown. One is placed into a cutting machine which reels the tape onto 1/4″ spools The mechanics of Agfa instruments are displayed, including a 1/4″ tape recorder or Nagra, 6:31. At 7:17 the counter on a tape recorder rolls forward as the magnetic tape is tested. The Agfa laboratories are displayed, 7:25. The film ends with a retail showroom with many audio products displayed, including Agfa-Gevaert recording tape, 7:55.

Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic recording, made of a thin, magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic film. It was developed in Germany in 1928, based on magnetic wire recording. Devices that record and play back audio and video using magnetic tape are tape recorders and video tape recorders respectively. A device that stores computer data on magnetic tape is known as a tape drive. Magnetic tape revolutionized sound recording and reproduction and broadcasting. It allowed radio, which had always been broadcast live, to be recorded for later or repeated airing. It allowed gramophone records to be recorded in multiple parts, which were then mixed and edited with tolerable loss in quality. It was a key technology in early computer development, allowing unparalleled amounts of data to be mechanically created, stored for long periods, and rapidly accessed. In recent decades, other technologies have been developed that can perform the functions of magnetic tape. Despite this, innovation in the technology continues, and Sony and IBM continue to produce new magnetic tape drives. Over time, magnetic tape made in the 1970s and 1980s can suffer from a type of deterioration called sticky-shed syndrome. It is caused by hydrolysis of the binder in the tape and can render the tape unusable.

Agfa-Gevaert N.V. (Agfa) is a Belgian-German multinational corporation that develops, manufactures, and distributes analogue and digital imaging products and systems, as well as IT solutions.[buzzword] The company has three divisions. Agfa Graphics offers integrated prepress and industrial inkjet systems to the printing and graphics industries. Agfa HealthCare supplies hospitals and other care organizations with imaging products and systems, as well as information systems. Agfa Specialty Products supplies products to various industrial markets. It is part of the Agfa Materials organization. In addition to the Agfa Specialty Products activities, Agfa Materials also supplies film and related products to Agfa Graphics and Agfa HealthCare.

Agfa film and cameras were once prominent consumer products. However, in 2004, the consumer imaging division was sold to a company founded via management buyout. AgfaPhoto GmbH, as the new company was called, filed for bankruptcy after just one year. The brands are now licensed to other companies by AgfaPhoto Holding GmbH, a holding firm. Following this sale, Agfa-Gevaert’s commerce today is 100% business-to-business.