Method to determine silver loss in a photographic emulsion manufacturing process

摘要

The present disclosure describes a method called the rinse test for determining where silver is being lost and the variability of this loss in a photographic emulsion manufacturing process. Results from this method can be used to determine what parts of the emulsion manufacturing process should be improved to increase silver yield thereby reducing manufacturing costs and what parts of the emulsion manufacturing process should be improved to reduce silver loss variability thereby improving an emulsion's sensitometric response. The photographic emulsion manufacturing process includes at least one kettle and a plurality of processing equipment which may include sections of pipe, permeators, mixers and pumps. The silver loss is determined by adding water to a kettle after the product has been removed from but prior to cleaning of this kettle. The concentration of silver in this rinse water is measured and the amount of silver is determined. Each piece of processing equipment is flushed sequentially with water from this kettle and the concentration of silver in this rinse water is measured after each piece is flushed. The amount of silver in the receiving kettle is determined then the silver loss in each piece of processing equipment is determined from the incremental increase of the total silver in this rinse water.