The EV revolution could have led Kodak to announce its plans to convert its film manufacturing equipment to manufacture EV batteries. The company will be repurposing some of its high-tech machines originally meant for photography film into EV battery manufacturing equipment.
Kodak has made investments in Wildcat Discovery Technologies in driving its entry into EV battery manufacturing. Kodak says that the supercell Wildcat batteries require a similar coating and engineering inputs to its 35mm film. Therefore, only minimal retooling is required for it to enter into EV battery manufacturing. This could provide a huge boost to the EV battery industry which is grappling with costly production processes.
Kodak’s photography film manufacturing equipment is worth $70-80 million. The photography film production process is called ESTAR which uses polymers to create the films. The polymers require special chemical coatings, akin to the Wildcat battery production process. Kodak says the move into EV battery production could shore up its revenue substantially. The price of EV batteries massively dwarfs that of photography film. EV battery costs account for more than 50% of the cost of an electric vehicle in some instances.
Kodak is currently expanding its productive capability beyond photography. It is already in the production of components for pharmaceuticals, health care, and chemicals for lab operations. The addition of EV battery manufacturing could be an important milestone for Kodak.
The ramifications go beyond the EV industry as Kodak says that home storage batteries also rely on a similar coating process. This will be a massive departure from the past where Kodak-branded batteries were produced by other companies for use in its products. The expansion into battery production will see Kodak employing more staff in its expanding operations. Ordinarily, the photography film industry is a shrinking one experiencing layoffs and redundancies.
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(source)
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