Bright film is that attractive wrapper used to make potato chip bags and all kinds of food packaging we see around us everyday. It's cheap to produce, good-looking, and the ultra-thin aluminum coating keeps food fresh by sealing out oxygen, bacteria and mold.

The 3M Company factory in Minnesota manufactures bright metallized film. We will step back to 1972 and look at the metallizing process. The process begins when a jumbo roll of plastic film is loaded into a huge vacuum metallizing chamber called a bell. The heavy cast metal chamber looks like some kind of under water submersible.