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Kodak and Kingsbury to Enter Touch Screen Market

Eastman Kodak Company

A new partnership between Kodak and local company Kingsbury could see up to 50 jobs created in Rochester in the next year.

The two companies are teaming up to produce touch screen sensors using Kodak’s silver halide technology and a manufacturing process designed by Kingsbury.

CEO of Kingsbury Bill Pollock says getting into the growing touch sensor market is a good move for his company.

“We’ll design and build the manufacturing lines and then we’ll use the manufacturing lines to manufacture the devices. But it’s also our intent to sell the same manufacturing machines to other manufacturers in Asia who want to make their own touch sensors,” he says.

Pollock says traditionally a film-based substance, Indium Tim Oxide (ITO) is used to make touch screens because it's transparent and allows you to see the icons and options projected behind it.

However, he says using silver means lower costs, fewer manufacturing steps, and better conductivity for improved touch response. And, Pollock says, silver’s lack of transparency is not a problem.

"If you make the line narrow enough, down to the sub-five micron width - so we'll say two, three, four microns wide - your eye actually sees around it because it's so thin you really just don't notice it on the screen."

The touch screen sensors will be manufactured in a new facility in the Eastman Business Park, to be opened later this year.

Kodak spokesman Chris Veronda says the partnership will leverage Kodak materials, technology and expertise, and broaden their involvement with multiple solutions for the touch sensor market.

“In Kingsbury we have aligned ourselves with a new manufacturing partner who will utilize our silver deposition technologies to pattern and produce touch sensor grid film with a high degree of precision and reliability,” Veronda says.

He says the agreement meets a key goal for Kodak; increasing involvement in functional printing, a growth area for the company.

Veronda says the touch sensor market is growing rapidly and is expected to be valued at more than $30 billion in the next five years.

"It is a fantastic growth market. You look at touch screens and their ubiquitous and will only get more so. Their usefulness in a wide variety of industrial and consumer products is growing."

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EDITOR’S NOTE: In the interest of full disclosure, Kingsbury CEO Bill Pollock also serves as a board member for WXXI Public Broadcasting.

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