JPH02259761A - Photosensitive material processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To control an increase in the pressure of the hollow part of a roller and to prevent its deformation by forming an air vent hole for discharging heated air in the delivery roller of a drying part. CONSTITUTION:An exposed photosensitive material is developed in the processing part, introduced into the drying part, conveyed through a passage formed by many delivery rollers 50, dried and discharged into a basket. The cylindrical roller 50 is formed from a phenolic resin, for example, and the air vent hole 59 is formed in the boss parts 57 on both ends. As a result, the air thermally expanded in the hollow part of the roller 50 is discharged from the hole 59, and an increase in the pressure in the hollow part is controlled. In addition, the air vent hole 59 can be formed on the surface of the roller 50.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a photosensitive material processing apparatus, and more particularly to a photosensitive material processing apparatus that automatically processes photosensitive materials.

[Prior Art] In order to automatically process a photosensitive material, a photosensitive material processing apparatus, for example, develops, fixes, and washes the photosensitive material, and then conveys the processed photosensitive material using a feed roller in a drying section. (There are some things that dry out.

In recent years, in order to increase the throughput of photosensitive materials in photosensitive material processing equipment, the hot air drying capacity of the drying section has been increased,
Infrared drying is performed, and the feed rollers that transport the photosensitive material are also made of heat-resistant resin.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] As described above, the feed roller is made of heat-resistant resin, but as mentioned above, due to the desire to increase the throughput of photosensitive materials, the hot air drying capacity has been increased. Stirring, infrared drying, etc. are performed. When dried in such a high temperature environment, the feed roller becomes deformed, and even if the feed roller is made of a heat-resistant material, there are certain limits to how effectively it can prevent this deformation. .

For this reason, we conducted various studies to prevent deformation of the feed roller, and found that the feed roller is formed hollow to reduce weight, and when used in high-temperature environments, especially during high-speed processing, etc.
It was found that the hollow air formed inside the feed roller is heated in a sealed state, and the pressure of thermal expansion of this air is one of the causes of deformation.

Therefore, when the feed roller is heated and the air that expands in the hollow portion is released, the increase in pressure in the hollow portion can be suppressed, the deformation of the feed roller is prevented, and the durability is improved.

In addition, in the drying section, due to the evaporation of water in the photosensitive material, air containing a lot of moisture remains near the conveyance path, but this air can be removed by using high-temperature hot air released from the hollow of the feed roller. It can be removed from the vicinity of the conveyance path of the photosensitive material, making it possible to improve drying performance.

The present invention has been made to solve these problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a photosensitive material processing apparatus that prevents deformation of the feed roller in the drying section and improves drying performance.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a photosensitive material processing apparatus having a drying section that dries the processed photosensitive material while being conveyed by a hollow feed roller. The feed roller is characterized by an air vent hole that releases heated hollow air.

[Function] In this invention, when the feed roller that conveys the photosensitive material is heated during the drying process in the drying section and the air thermally expands, the heated air is released from the air vent hole, thereby preventing the increase in pressure in the hollow section. Therefore, deformation of the feed roller can be effectively prevented.

Further, when high-temperature hot air is released through the air vent hole of the feed roller, this hot air removes air containing a large amount of moisture that remains near the conveyance path of the photosensitive material, thereby improving drying performance.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described in detail based on the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of the photosensitive material processing apparatus, Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the feed roller in the drying section, and Fig. 3 is III-Il of Fig. 2.
+It is a sectional view.

In the figure, reference numeral A is a photosensitive material loading section for carrying in the exposed photosensitive material, B is a processing section for processing the carried in photosensitive material, C is a squeeze section for squeezing the processed photosensitive material, and D is a processing section for squeezing the processed photosensitive material. A drying section E is used to dry the photosensitive material, and a photosensitive material unloading section is used to take out the processed photosensitive material.

Photosensitive material loading section A Photographed photosensitive materials F are inserted into the insertion slot 20 provided at the upper position of the main body 1 of the apparatus, or 61 sheets at a time.
is provided with an insertion detection sensor 21, which detects the insertion of the photosensitive material and inputs it to the control section. As a result, the device main body 1
In addition to driving the transport system, the drying section is also driven to raise the drying temperature. In addition, photosensitive material F
Detects the insertion of , and sets the insertion interval according to the processing time.

This photosensitive material loading section A is provided with a photosensitive material width detection means (not shown), which detects the width of the photosensitive material and outputs the information to the control section. The area of the photosensitive material is calculated and used as a reference for replenishing the processing solution.

Processing Section B The processing section B is equipped with processing tanks such as a developing tank 3o, a fixing tank 31, a washing tank 32, etc., and transport racks 33, 34, 35, and 36 each having a group of feed rollers are removably provided. It can be removed when cleaning the processing tank or transport rack. These transport racks 33 to 36
Turn portions 33a each change the conveyance direction of the photosensitive material.
36a, and the conveyance direction is changed from the bottom to the top at the bottom of the processing tank.

Between the developing tank 30 and constant R tank 3, the fixing tank 31 and the washing tank 3
A transition section 37, 38 is provided between the developer tank 30 and the developer tank 30.
The photosensitive material transported by the transport racks 33 and 34 is sent from the developing solution to the transfer section 3F, and the developer is squeezed by the transfer section 370 roller group and sent to the fixing tank 31. In the fixing tank 31, the photosensitive material is transported by a transport rack 35 and sent from the constant R liquid to a transition section 38, where the fixer is squeezed and sent to a washing tank 32, where it is processed in the subsequent processing tank. Prevents liquid from being brought in.

The withdrawal mechanism provided in the developer 4!30 includes a turn portion 33a,
34a, and these transport racks 33, 34 are arranged in parallel in the direction of transport of the photosensitive material. Transition section 3 of transport rack 33.34
9 is placed in the processing liquid, and the photosensitive material F is
is sent in the developer instead of in the air, making continuous development possible.

The transport racks 33 and 34 arranged in the developer tank 30 are arranged in parallel, and the length Ll in the vertical direction is reduced to about half compared to the case where one piece is used, and the length L2 in the tank direction is reduced by that amount.
It's getting longer. Therefore, the length of the developer tank 30 in the vertical direction is also shortened by half, making it shallower, and correspondingly longer in the direction of the tank.

The photosensitive material F carried in from the photosensitive material carrying section A is conveyed from the upper surface of the developer solution to the lower part of the solution by the transport rack 33, changes direction at the turn section 33a, is directed upward, and is placed in the developer solution. It is transported to the transport rack 34 by the crossing section 39. Similarly, in this transport rack 34, the developer is transported from the upper surface to the lower part of the solution, changes direction at the turn section 34m, is directed upward, and is transferred to the fixing tank 31 at the crossing section 37 outside the solution.
transported to.

In this way, the photosensitive material F is conveyed through the shallow developing solution 30 while changing its direction at the turn sections 33a, 34a and at the transition section 39 at 31iI. The temperature and concentration of the developer can be kept constant without using any special stirring means.

Squeeze section C Squeeze section C squeezes the photosensitive material F by its roller group 40.
Squeeze or absorb the washing water and send it to the drying section.

In the drying section, the photosensitive material F is conveyed by a group of feed rollers 50 along a conveyance path R, and in the front section of the drying section, an infrared heater 51, a reflecting plate 52, and a guide 53' are provided.
It is composed of an infrared drying section D1 that dries the photosensitive material F by injecting infrared rays from an infrared heater 51, and a hot air drying section D2 that dries the photosensitive material F by blowing moisture-unsaturated heated air from the slit nozzle 54 onto the photosensitive material F.

In the infrared drying section D1, in the former part where the blackened area has more moisture than the white area, infrared rays are mainly applied to the photosensitive material to dry the blackened area at a faster drying speed than the white area. ,
Then, when the residual moisture in the blackened area and the white area become almost the same, the blackened area and the white area are dried at almost the same speed in the hot air drying section D2, which is the second stage, and The water content in the removed areas is reduced to almost zero at the same time, and the blackened areas and white areas are sufficiently dried to avoid deterioration such as hardening of the gelatin tank.

The moisture evaporated in the drying section is exhausted from the exhaust duct 61 of the processing section B via the exhaust duct 60, and is also exhausted from the exhaust fan 62. 11 to the outside.

The feed roller 50 is constructed as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. That is, the roller portion 55 of the feed roller 50 is made of heat-resistant resin, for example, phenol resin, and is formed into a cylindrical shape, and a lightweight yet durable member is selected. Boss portions 57 to which a shaft portion 56 is fixed are fitted and fixed to both sides of the roller portion 55, and a hollow 58 is formed. Boss part 5
7 has air vent holes 59 formed at four locations to release air that is heated and expands thermally within the hollow space 58.

Therefore, when the feed roller 50 that conveys the photosensitive material F is heated during drying in the drying section and air thermally expands in the hollow 58, the heated air is released from the air vent hole 59. It is possible to suppress the increase in pressure within the feed roller 58, and to effectively prevent deformation of the feed roller 50.

In addition, high-temperature hot air is emitted by the air vent hole 59 of the feed roller 50, and this hot air is emitted near the conveyance path R of the photosensitive material F. Furthermore, as the feed roller 50 rotates, the flow speed of the hot air is increased. As a result, air containing a large amount of moisture that remains near the conveyance path R can be removed, and drying performance is improved.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing another embodiment of the feed roller of the drying section.

The feed roller 50 of this embodiment has the same structure as the parts designated by the same reference numerals as those of the previous embodiment, so the explanation thereof will be omitted. In the feed roller 50 of this embodiment, a large number of air vent holes 59 are formed on the surface of the roller portion 55 to release heated hollow air. The pressure exerted by the roller portion 55 on the photosensitive material F during conveyance can be counteracted by increasing the diameter of the feed roller 55, etc.

In the feed roller 50 of this embodiment, the hot air from the air vent hole 59 is evenly blown toward the processing surface of the photosensitive material F and the vicinity of the conveyance path R, making it possible to more effectively remove moisture-containing air.

Photosensitive material unloading section E A photosensitive material unloading section E is provided on the side opposite to the photosensitive material loading section A of the apparatus main body 1, and the processed photosensitive material F that has been developed and dried is stored in the basket 70. It is discharged.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, the photosensitive material processing apparatus of the present invention has an air vent hole formed in the feed roller of the drying section to release heated hollow air. When the feed roller that conveys the feed roller is heated, the heated air is released from the air vent hole, suppressing the increase in pressure in the hollow, effectively preventing deformation of the feed roller, and improving durability.

In addition, high-temperature hot air is released by the air vent holes in the feed roller, and this hot air can be used to remove moisture-laden air that accumulates near the photosensitive material conveyance path, improving drying performance with a simple configuration. can do.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of the photosensitive material processing apparatus, Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the feed roller in the drying section, and Fig. 3 is a section III-II of Fig. 2.
4 is a perspective view showing another embodiment of the feed roller of the drying section. In the drawing, reference numerals indicate a drying section, 50 a feed roller, 55 a roller section, 57 a boss section, 58 a hollow space, and 59 an air vent hole. diagram father

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a photosensitive material processing apparatus having a drying section in which processed photosensitive material is dried while being conveyed by a hollow feed roller, an air vent hole is formed in the feed roller of the drying section to release heated hollow air. Features of photosensitive material processing equipment.