JPH0467146A - Drying device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain good drying quality and to shorten drying time as well as to reduce energy consumption and to miniaturize the device by winding a belt consisting of a material having a good thermal conductivity between transporting rollers existing on the rear side of a silver halide photosensitive material in the first half part of a transporting route. CONSTITUTION:The endless belt 5 is wound between the transporting rollers, i.e. transporting rollers 41 to 45 existing on the rear surface SB side of the photosensitive material S in the first half part of the transporting route 10. This endless belt 5 is constituted of a material having an excellent thermal conductivity and has the function to absorb the heat of the hot wind ejected from a blower 6 and to supply this heat to the photosensitive material S in contact with the belt. Then, the rear surface SB of the photosensitive material S comes into contact with the endless belt 5 during the passage in the first half part of the transporting route 10 and is thereby heated to the temp. nearly equal to the temp. of the hot wind 7 right after ejection. The photosensitive material is thus dried at the sufficiently high drying temp. in the first half of the drying. Thus, the good drying quality is obtd. in the short drying time and further, the energy consumption is reduced. The compact designing of the device is possible.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION <Industrial Application Field> The present invention relates to a drying apparatus for drying a wet silver halide photosensitive material (hereinafter simply referred to as photosensitive material).

<Prior Art> Examples of photosensitive material processing apparatuses that perform wet processing include automatic processors (for color paper and color negatives), silver halide photocopiers, and the like.

An automatic processor sequentially develops, bleaches, fixes, washes, and stabilizes photographed photosensitive material (for example, color negative film) in a processing section, then dries the photosensitive material in a drying section to produce a negative image or positive image. It is something that gives you an image.

In addition, in a silver halide photocopier, a photosensitive material (for example, a sheet of color paper) supplied from a paper feed section is sent to an exposure section for exposure, and the exposed photosensitive material is sent to a processing section for development and development.
Bleaching, fixing, and washing are sequentially performed, and the photosensitive material is dried in a drying section to obtain a copy of the original image.

The drying device installed in the drying section of such a photosensitive material processing apparatus includes a duct (casing) that surrounds a conveyance path of the photosensitive material, a plurality of conveyance rollers disposed within the duct, and a It has a blower with a built-in heater that supplies warm air, and blows hot air onto the wet photosensitive material transported by transport rollers in a duct to dry it (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-610710, etc.) ).

In such conventional drying equipment, the hot air outlet of the blower is installed at the end of the conveyance path in the duct, so in the latter half of the drying process, the temperature of the hot air jetted from the blower is used to dry the product. By the time the hot air reaches the first half of the conveyance path, the temperature drops, and the drying temperature becomes low in the first half of drying, especially in the early stage of drying. Therefore, in the first half of drying, sufficient drying is not achieved and drying defects tend to occur.

In addition, in order to obtain a sufficient drying temperature in the first half of drying, it is possible to increase the temperature of the hot air jetted from the blower, but in this case, the following problem occurs.

First, in the latter half of the drying process, overdrying occurs, causing curling of the photosensitive material, resulting in poor conveyance, and also making it impossible to stack the photosensitive materials at the exit of the drying section.

Second, reticulation (cracking) occurs in the emulsion layer of the photosensitive material, resulting in poor film quality. When reticulation occurs in a photosensitive material for printing, the image appears blurred, and when reticulation occurs on a film, when printing from this film, the image of the reticulation is enlarged and printed.

Third, energy consumption increases.

Originally, it is preferable to keep the drying temperature almost constant from the first half to the second half of the drying process, or to increase the drying temperature in the first half of the drying process and lower the drying temperature in the second half of the drying process to improve drying efficiency. If the drying temperature is low in the first half of the drying process and high in the second half of the drying process, as in the drying equipment of There are drawbacks.

Furthermore, the conventional drying apparatus described above also has the disadvantage that it consumes a large amount of energy to supply hot air, and the size of the apparatus becomes large.

<Problems to be Solved by the Invention> The objects of the present invention are to provide a drying method with good drying efficiency (good drying quality, short drying time, low energy consumption,
An object of the present invention is to provide a drying device that can be downsized.

<Means for Solving the Problems> Such objects are achieved by the following inventions (1) to (3).

(1) A casing having an inlet and an outlet for a silver halide photosensitive material, a plurality of conveyance rollers disposed within the casing, and a hot air supply means, the hot air supply means supplying heat to the inside of the casing. A drying device that dries the silver halide photosensitive material by supplying wind and transporting the wet silver halide photosensitive material along the transport path inside the casing by a transport roller, the drying device comprising: 1. A drying device characterized in that, in at least the first half of the drying device, a belt made of a material having excellent thermal conductivity is stretched between conveying rollers on the back side of the silver halide photosensitive material.

(2) The drying device according to (1) above, wherein the hot air outlet of the hot air supply means is installed toward a part of the belt.

(3) The drying device according to (1) or (2) above, wherein the inlet and the outlet are on the same side, and the hot air supply means is installed between the inlet and the outlet.

According to the present invention having such a configuration, the belt is heated by the warm air blown out from the hot air supply means, and the belt is brought into contact with the back surface of the photosensitive material in the first half of the conveying path, and the photosensitive material is heated. is heated to approximately the same temperature as the hot air immediately after it is blown out.
As a result, at least the first half of the conveyance path, that is, the area where lapse rate drying is mainly performed, can be dried at a sufficiently high drying temperature, and the drying efficiency is improved. Therefore, drying is poor and uneven.

Problems such as reticulation (cracks on the surface of the emulsion layer) are prevented, good drying quality is obtained, and less energy is required for drying. can be shortened.

In this case, the belt is made of a material with excellent thermal conductivity, so the temperature rises in a short time when it comes into contact with hot air.
The time it takes to heat up is also short.

Further, since the belt contacts the back surface of the photosensitive material and does not contact the emulsion surface, there is no adverse effect on the emulsion surface, such as scratches on the emulsion surface or adhesion of belt marks.

<Configuration of the Invention> Hereinafter, the drying apparatus of the present invention will be described in detail based on preferred embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional side view showing an example of the structure of a drying apparatus according to the present invention.

As shown in the figure, the drying device 1 has a U-shaped casing 2, and on the upper left end surface of the casing 2 in the figure,
An inlet 21 for the photosensitive material S and an outlet 22 for the photosensitive material S are formed at the bottom of the left end surface in the figure.

The opening 21 and the outlet 22 need only have a shape and size that allows the photosensitive material S to pass through them without any problem, and may also function as an exhaust port for hot air 7 supplied from a blower 6, which will be described later.

The constituent material of the casing 2 is preferably one having heat resistance, such as polyethylene, polypropylene,
Polyvinyl chloride, polystyrene, ABS resin, glass fiber reinforced styrene-acrylonitrile copolymer polysulfone, polyphenylene sulfone, polyphenylene sulfite, polyphenylene oxide, composite polypropylene, polymethylpentene, polyamide bismaleimide, polyimide, polycarbonate, glass fiber reinforced polyethylene Various resins such as terephthalate, polyethersulfone (thermosetting), polybutadiene, polyallylsulfone, polyarylate, polyamideimide, glass fiber reinforced polyamide, phenol resin, oxybenzoyl polyester, various ceramics such as alumina, silica, and asbestos, and glass. , stone, stainless steel, aluminum, copper,
Various metals such as zinc and nickel are used.

In addition, among these materials, if materials with excellent insulation properties are used, such as resins such as glass fiber reinforced polyamide, phenol resin, polyimide, and polycarbonate, ceramics, glass, and stone, the amount of heat radiated to the outside of the device will be reduced. and save energy.

Further, a heat insulating material (not shown) such as asbestos, glass fiber, or alumina may be installed on the outer wall and/or inner wall of the casing 2.

Furthermore, the inner wall of the casing 2 may be made of metal such as stainless steel or aluminum, or a heat reflecting material (not shown) made of these metals may be provided.

Inside the casing 2, a plurality of conveyance rollers 30 to 38 and 40 to 49 for conveying the photosensitive material S are installed in a predetermined arrangement. Each of these conveyor rollers 30 to 38.4
0 to 49 are, for example, driven by a drive means (not shown) constituted by a drive source and a drive force transmission member such as a gear.
It is driven and rotated in a predetermined direction.

Due to such rotation of the conveyance rollers 30 to 38 and 40 to 49, the photosensitive material S is conveyed within the casing 2 along the conveyance path 10 having a substantially arcuate trajectory.

In the illustrated drying device 1, the emulsion surface SA of the photosensitive material S is on the inside in the arc-shaped conveyance path 1o, that is, the photosensitive material S
is transported so that the back side (the side with the support) S3 is on the outside. Therefore, the transport rollers 30 to 38 are on the emulsion side SA side of the photosensitive material S, and the transport rollers 40 to 49 are on the emulsion side SA side of the photosensitive material S.
This is a conveyance roller installed on the back side S of the photosensitive material S.

Among these transport rollers, transport rollers 30 and 40.3
1, 41, 34, 45, 38, and 49 are installed to face each other, and the other conveyance rollers are used to transport the photosensitive material S.
They are arranged alternately (so-called staggered arrangement) on the emulsion side SA side and the back side SB side.

The conveyor rollers 30 and 40 sandwich the photosensitive material S and pass through the entrance 2.
It is a roller for carrying from 1 into the casing 2,
The conveyance rollers 38 and 49 sandwich the photosensitive material S and
This is a roller for transporting the casing 2 out of the casing 2.

Note that a water-absorbing member (not shown), such as cloth or paper, may be installed on the outer circumferential surface of the conveyance rollers 30 and 40, for example. As a result, both sides S of the photosensitive material S are removed before drying.
Excess moisture is removed from A and S in advance, further improving drying efficiency.

In the illustrated example, the conveyance roller 45 is installed at a position approximately 1/2 of the total length of the conveyance path 10.

It goes without saying that the arrangement and number of conveyance rollers are not limited to the illustrated example.

In the first half of the conveyance path 10, the back side Sl of the photosensitive material S
Between the conveyance rollers on the l side, that is, conveyance rollers 41 to 4
An endless belt 5 is looped between the belts 5 and 5.

The endless belt 5 is made of a material with excellent thermal conductivity, and has the function of absorbing the heat of hot air blown out from a floor 6, which will be described later, and supplying the heat to the photosensitive material S that comes into contact with it.

Specific constituent materials of the endless belt 5 include, for example, woven metal fibers made of metals such as stainless steel, aluminum, iron, nickel, copper, lead, brass, and titanium, or alloys containing these (hereinafter simply referred to as metals). Or non-woven fabric, woven fabric or non-woven fabric made of the metal fibers mentioned above and other fibers (heat-resistant fibers such as carbon fiber, glass fiber, polyimide fiber, etc.), metal foil made of the above metals, metal fibers, metal foils, metal powders, etc. Those adhered to the surface of belt materials (e.g. various rubbers, cloth, etc.) or embedded within them, meshes made of the above metals, porous sheet materials made of the above metals (e.g. punched metal), metals made of the above metals An assembly in which pieces are assembled in a rotatable manner (for example, a caterpillar
structure), or any combination of these.

Since such an endless belt 5 contacts the photosensitive material S and applies heat, in order to uniformly heat the entire surface of the photosensitive material S, the width of the endless belt 5 should be equal to or greater than the width of the photosensitive material S. It is preferable to set it as above.

The present invention is particularly effective in preventing a drop in the drying temperature in the first half of drying, and therefore it is preferable that the endless belt 5 is installed at least between the conveyance rollers in the first half of the conveyance path 10. In this case, the endless belt 5 does not need to be installed between all the conveyance rollers in the first half of the conveyance path 10.

The length of the endless belt 5 on the conveyance path 10 (the length overlapping with the conveyance path 10) is approximately 25 to 70% of the total length of the conveyance path IO in the casing 2, particularly 30 to 5%.
It is preferable to set it to about 0%.

Moreover, the installation of the endless belt 5 in this manner also contributes to improving the conveyance of the photosensitive material S.

Note that it is not preferable to install the endless belt 5 on the emulsion surface SA side of the photosensitive material S, that is, on the conveyance rollers 30 to 38. The reason for this is that the hot air 7 is prevented from hitting the emulsion surface SA, resulting in poor drying.Also, if the surface of the endless belt 5 is uneven, the emulsion surface SA may come into contact with it and be scratched or damaged. This is because it may leave marks.

In the recess 8 formed between the inlet 21 and the outlet 22,
A blower 6, which is a hot air supply means, is installed.

This blower 6 is composed of a blower main body 61, a fan 62 and a heater 63 installed in the blower main body 61, and when the fan 62 and the heater 63 are operated, the casing 2 is
Warm air 7 is blown out and supplied inside.

In this case, the outlet 64 of the floor 6 is preferably installed toward a part of the endless belt 5, and in the illustrated example, the outlet 64 of the floor 6 is preferably installed so that the hot air 7 is blown out between the conveying rollers 33 and 34. It is set. As a result, the hot air 7 ejected from the air outlet 64 directly hits the endless belt 5,
The endless belt 5 is heated to approximately the same temperature as the warm air 7.

Note that the temperature of the hot air 7 blowing out from the outlet 64 is 30 to 30.
The temperature is preferably about 150°C, particularly about 50 to 120°C.

The amount of hot air 7 is normally 0.05, although it depends on various conditions such as the volume of the casing 2, the total length of the conveyance path 10, the type and conveyance speed of the photosensitive material S, and the temperature and humidity of the outside air. ~
It is preferable to set the speed to about 50 m''/min, particularly about 0.5 to Low''/min.

Note that two or more blowers 6 may be installed.

In such a drying apparatus 1, the inlet 21 and outlet 22 of the photosensitive material S are on the same side, that is, the conveyance path 10 from the inlet 21 to the outlet 22 of the photosensitive material S is approximately 180
° It is in a turned state, and accordingly, the casing 2
is U-shaped, and since the blower 6 is installed in the recess 8 formed almost in the center, there is almost no dead space (and the device has the advantage of being compact).

In addition, the drying device l has an inlet 21 for the photosensitive material S and an outlet 2 for the photosensitive material S.
Since the conveyance path 10 leading to the photosensitive material S is turned by 180 degrees, when the drying device 1 is incorporated into an automatic development system, for example, the conveyance path of the photosensitive material S from wet processing to drying to pressure of the photosensitive material S is changed. advantageous in the design of

The operation of the drying device 1 will be explained below.

The blower 6 is operated to blow out the hot air 7 from the outlet 64, and the conveyor rollers 41 to 45 are rotated to rotate the endless belt 5 in the direction of the arrow in FIG. As a result, the circulating endless belt 5 is hit by the hot air 7, and the entire endless belt 5 is heated to approximately the same temperature as the hot air 7 immediately after being blown out.

In this case, since the endless belt 5 is made of a material with excellent thermal conductivity, the temperature rises instantaneously when the hot air 7 hits it. Therefore, heating up of the endless belt 5 is completed in a short time.

Note that the endless belt 5 is heated not by a separately provided heat source, but by using the heat of the hot air 7 supplied from the floor 6, so that energy consumption does not increase.

Next, when the wet photosensitive material S is introduced into the casing 2 from the entrance 21, this photosensitive material S is conveyed along the conveyance path 10 by the rotating conveyance rollers 30 to 38 and 40 to 49, and then, It is discharged from the casing 2 through the outlet 22. While the photosensitive material S is conveyed along the conveyance path 10, warm air 7 supplied from the floor 6 contacts both sides of the photosensitive material S, particularly the emulsion side Sk, and is dried.

In addition, while the photosensitive material S passes through the first half (the first half of drying) of the conveyance path 10, its back surface S@ contacts the endless belt 5, and is heated to a temperature almost equal to that of the hot air 7 immediately after the spray pressure. be done. In particular, the position where drying starts (transport roller 4
1 to 43) tends to be lower than that of the hot air 7 immediately after being blown out, the photosensitive material S is heated by the endless belt 5 to a temperature higher than the ambient temperature.

As a result, it is possible to dry at a sufficiently high drying temperature in the first half of drying, that is, the area where lapse rate drying is mainly performed, and as a result, drying efficiency is improved, and problems such as drying defects, uneven drying, and reticulation occur. The occurrence of such troubles is prevented, good drying quality is obtained, and the drying time can be shortened.

Further, the endless belt 5 is connected to the back side SIl of the photosensitive material S.
Since it comes into contact with the emulsion surface SA and does not come into contact with the emulsion surface SA, there is no adverse effect on the emulsion surface SA regardless of the surface properties of the endless belt 5.

In the present invention, the type of photosensitive material S to be dried is not particularly limited, and examples thereof include color negative film, color reversal film, color photographic paper, color positive film, color reversal photographic paper, photosensitive material for plate making, black and white negative film, and black and white printing. Examples include various photosensitive materials such as paper and microphotosensitive materials.

<Example> Hereinafter, specific examples of the present invention will be described.

A drying device with the structure shown in FIG. 1 was manufactured by changing the material and mounting position of the endless belt in various ways as shown in Table 1 below.
The photosensitive material after development was dried under the following conditions.

The photosensitive material used was Fuji Contact Film VU-100 manufactured by Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd.

Thickness JLI: Outside air temperature = 25℃ Outside air humidity = 40% RH (1il casing volume: 23.6℃ Casing material: stainless steel (asbestos bonded to the outer wall) Total length of conveyance path: 450mm Photosensitive material conveyance speed: 90 cm 1 minute hot air Temperature (during blowout): 80°C Warm air blowing ratio: 2m” 7 minutes Endless belt Material: ■Woven fabric made of stainless steel fibers ■Stainless steel mesh (fiber diameter 10-φ, opening 10-φ) ■Aluminum caterpillar belt Continuously dry 40 pieces of photosensitive material (cut into quarters) using each drying device, check the drying state of the emulsion layer of the obtained photosensitive material (degree of drying and presence or absence of drying unevenness), and check the drying state of the emulsion layer by contact with the endless belt. The effects of drying and drying speed were investigated.The results are shown in Table 1 below.
Shown below.

In addition, No. 2 in Table 1 is as follows.

Degree of dryness> 0...Good drying○...Drying is good △...Drying slightly insufficient×...Drying insufficient (there are some undried areas) <Drying unevenness> 0...Drying unevenly Not at all ○... Not much uneven drying △... Slightly uneven drying ×... Some uneven drying <Effect on emulsion layer due to belt contact> 0... Effect on emulsion layer Total ( None O... No effect on the emulsion layer △... Scratches or belt marks ×... Scratches and belt marks The emulsion surface was rubbed with toilet paper, and the evaluation was made at the position where the toilet paper stopped adhering to the emulsion surface for the first time (ratio of the length from the start point of the conveyance path to the total length of the conveyance path).For example, a drying speed of 70% means that It is shown that the toilet paper no longer sticks at the position of 70% of the total length of the conveyance path from the start point of the path.

Also, a drying speed of 120% means that the photosensitive material is not yet dry when it passes through the exit of the casing, and must be further dried on a path equivalent to 20% of the total length of the transport path after passing through the exit. , indicating that toilet paper sticks.

As shown in Clothing 1 above, all of Examples 1 to 9 of the present invention have good drying efficiency, so drying is quick and good, and uneven drying does not occur, and the emulsion layer is not affected by contact with the endless belt. No effect.

Furthermore, in all of Examples 1 to 9 of the present invention, film quality defects such as reticulation did not occur on the emulsion surface of the light-sensitive material.

<Effects of the Invention> According to the drying apparatus of the present invention, drying can be carried out without lowering the drying temperature in the first half of the drying process.
The drying efficiency is good, so good drying quality can be obtained in a short drying time.

Furthermore, since there is no need to increase the amount of heat supplied to increase the drying temperature in the first half of drying, energy consumption can be reduced.

Moreover, the drying device of the present invention can be designed compactly.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional side view showing an example of the structure of a drying apparatus according to the present invention. Explanation of symbols 1... Drying device 2... Casing 21... Inlet 22... Outlets 30-38... Conveying rollers 40-49... Conveying roller 5... Endless belt 6... Blower 61...Blower body 62...Fan 63...Heater 64...Outlet a...Warm air 8...Concave portion 10...Conveyance path S...Photosensitive material SA... Emulsion side S, ... back side patent applicant Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd. representative doujinshi

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) A casing having an inlet and an outlet for a silver halide photosensitive material, a plurality of conveyance rollers disposed within the casing, and a hot air supply means, the hot air supply means supplying heat to the inside of the casing. A drying device that dries the silver halide photosensitive material by supplying wind and transporting the wet silver halide photosensitive material along the transport path inside the casing by a transport roller, the drying device comprising: 1. A drying device characterized in that, in at least the first half of the drying device, a belt made of a material having excellent thermal conductivity is stretched between conveying rollers on the back side of the silver halide photosensitive material. (2) The drying device according to claim 1, wherein the hot air outlet of the hot air supply means is installed toward a part of the belt. (3) The drying device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the inlet and the outlet are on the same side, and the hot air supply means is installed between the inlet and the outlet.