GB2136596A

GB2136596A - Carrier sheet for holding sheet material

Info

Publication number: GB2136596A
Application number: GB08307234A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Rodney Simmons
Original assignee: LEMARE SMITH AND SIMMONS LIMIT
Current assignee: LEMARE SMITH AND SIMMONS LIMIT
Priority date: 1983-03-16
Filing date: 1983-03-16
Publication date: 1984-09-19
Also published as: GB8307234D0; GB2136596B

Abstract

A carrier sheet for supporting originals or photosensitive material during processing comprises a plurality of slits into which the edge or comer portions of the originals or material can be inserted. The slits (12) may be in a regular or random array and can be provided with stop holes (14) at their ends to prevent splitting or tearing of the sheet between adjacent slits. The sheet is preferably liquid-proof and is used with processing apparatus having transport means. The sheet enables originals and photosensitive material which would otherwise be too small to be handled by the transport means to be processed. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Carrier sheet This invention relates to a carrier sheet for use with, for example, photographic or reprographic processing apparatus.

Many types of apparatus for processing photographic or reprographic sheet material require the material fed to the apparatus to have at least one dimension equal to or greater than a certain minimum value.

This minimum value is determined by the spacing of drive rollers, or other transport devices, from each other or from an inlet aperture of the apparatus. This leads to the disadvantage that considerable wastage of photographic or reprographic sheet material occurs when, as is often the case, it is required to process areas of material having no dimension as large as the minimum value. In such cases, it becomes necessary to use sheets having a dimension at least equal to the minimum value and much greater areas of material than necessary are processed and thus wasted.

The present invention seeks to overcome this disadvantage by reducing the wastage of sheet material.

According to the present invention there is provided a carrier sheet, preferably liquid proof, having a plurality of slits in an array allowing at least one piece of sheet material, having no dimension greater than the smallest dimension of the carrier sheet, to be attached to the carrier sheet in face-to-face relationship therewith by insertion of at least two edge or corner portions of the piece of sheet material in respective ones of the slits.

The array of slits will usually be one which allows substantially any piece of sheet material, of area small in comparison with that of the carrier sheet, to be attached to the carrier sheet.

The carrier sheet may be chosen to have at least one dimension equal to or greater than the said minimum value for the item of processing apparatus with which the carrier sheet is to be used and the invention also provides a method of and apparatus for photographic or reprographic processing in which at least one piece of sheet material to be processed is attached to a carrier sheet in face-toface relationship therewith by insertion of at least two edge or corner portions of the piece of sheet material in respective slits in the carrier sheet, the apparatus having transport means requiring a minimum dimension of sheet material, the carrier sheet having at least one dimension equal to or greater than the said minimum dimension and the or each piece of sheet material having no dimension at least as great as the minimum dimension.

The processing apparatus may be, for example, a photographic or reprographic processor, developer or a washing or drying apparatus. In this way, the need to use sheets of photographic material larger than the area to be processed is avoided and consequential wastage is thus much reduced. After being fed through the processing apparatus, the carrier sheet can of course be re-used, particularly if it is of a liquid proof material.

One preferred use of the carrier sheet of the present invention is in contact or photo-mechanical transfer printing in which a piece of negative material and a piece of receiver material are attached to respective carrier sheets which are then fed in register through a processor with the negative and receiver material in face-to-face contact.

The slits of the carrier sheet preferably have stop holes at their ends to prevent splitting or tearing of the sheet between adjacent slits. The carrier sheet is advantageously formed from flexible material, for example plastics sheet.

One convenient array of slits is an array of rectilinear slits each inclined at 45" to the edges of a rectangilar carrier sheet. However, many different arrangements of rectilinear, cirvilinear or multilimbed (e.g. V-shaped) slits are possible. Indeed, the slit array could be random but is preferably regular.

The invention will now be further described by way of example and with reference to the drawings in which: Figure 1 shows a carrier sheet having a regular array of slits; Figure 2 is a vertical sectional view of a processing bath through which a pair of carrier sheets shown in Figure 1 are being fed; Figure 3 shows a pair of the carrier sheets of Figure 1, prior to their being used as shown in Figure 2; Figures 4 and 5 show other arrangements of photographic material attached to carrier sheets of the invention; and Figure 6 shows another inventive embodiment of carrier sheet with a regular array of slits.

Figure 1 shows on a slightly reduced scale a rectangular carrier sheet 10 of plastics sheet material measuring 26cm by 9cm of a colour suitable for darkroom use (e.g.white). The sheet 10 has twenty five slits each about 2cm long and each extending at 45" to the edges of the sheet 10. Each end of each slit 12 has a stop hole 14 of about 2mm diameter which prevents the sheet 10 from slitting or tearing between adjacent slits 12.

The slits 12 are arranged in three rows each extending longitudinally of the sheet 10. Each outer row has ten slits and the middle row has five slits.

The ends of the slits 12 of each row are spaced apart by 2cm. The sheet has printed letters and numbers as shown for identification purposes. The ends of the slits 12 of the middle row are staggered with respect to the ends of the slits 12 of the outer rows which are in alignment. The inner ends of the slits 12 of the outer rows lie on lines extending longitudinally of the sheet 10 which are spaced by about 5mm from longitudinal lines on which the ends of the slits 12 of the middle row lie.

Figure 2 shows a pair of carrier sheets 10a,10b being fed through a photographic processor 20, which includes a processing bath 22, containing a processing liquid 23, and a pair of contra-rotating drive rollers 24. An inlet aperture 26 of the processor is formed between a guide 27 and the bath 22 and is spaced from the drive rollers 24 along a curved path which represents the minimum dimension for sheet material which, without the benefit of the present invention, could be used with the processor 20.

Hpwever, by use of one or more backing sheets 10 much smaller pieces of sheet material can be processed.

The carrier sheets 1 0a, 1 Ob, with pieces of sheet material 30 attached, are fed manually through the inlet aperture 26, their forward ends being received between the roller 24. The sheets 10a, Ob, are then, if necessary after a period of immersion in the bath 22, driven by the rollers out of the processor 20. In this way, the small pieces of sheet material 30 are processed without the need to use material having at least one dimension equal to or greater than the above mentioned minimum value.

After use, the carrier sheets 10a, lOb are rinsed and re-used. Figure 3 shows the carrier sheets 1 Oa, 10b of Figure 2 being fed to the processor 20. Here one sheet 1 0a has attached to it a photographic negative 32 and the other sheet lOb carries a corresponding receiver 34. The sheets are processed with their faces, which are uppermost in Figure 3, and therefore also the negative 32 and receiver 34, in contact.

Figures 4 and 5 show diagrammatically further carrier sheets lOc, lOdcarrving respectively overlap- ping and non-overlapping arrangements of photographic material to be processed.

In Figure 6, there is shown another embodiment of carrier sheet 61 in accordance with the invention. In this sheet 61, there are provided, in a regular array, four parallel rows 62 of slits 63, with seven such slits in each row and the rows also extending parallel to the longitudinal of the sheet.

Claims

1. A carrier sheet for use with photographic or reprographic processing apparatus, which sheet has a plurality of slits in an array allowing at least one piece of sheet material, having no dimension greater than the smallest dimension of the carrier sheet, to be attached to the carrier sheet in face-to-fåce relationship therewith, by insertion of at least two edge or corner portions of the or each piece of sheet material in respective ones of the slits.

2. A carrier sheet according to claim 1, in which the slits are rectilinear, curvilinear or multilimbed.

3. A carrier sheet according to claim 1 or 2, which is generally guadrangular.

4. A carrier sheet according to claim 3, in which the slits are inclined to at least one pair of opposed edges of the sheet.

5. A carrier sheet according to claim 4, in which the slits are inclined at 45" to the opposed pairs of edges of the sheet.

6. A carrier sheet according to claim 3,4 or 5, in which the slits are arranged in a regular array in rows extending longitudinally of the sheet.

7. A carrier sheet according to claim 6, in which the slits are arranged in three or more odd number of rows, with the slits of the middle row of each set of three adjacent rows being staggered with respect to the slits of the two outer rows of each set which are in alignment.

8. A carrier sheet according to claim 6 or 7, in which the inner ends of the slits of the outer rows lie on lines extending longitudinally of the sheet and spaced from longitudinal lines upon which the ends of the middle row lie.

9. A carrier sheet according to any of claims 1 to 6, in which the slits are arranged in parallel rows, with the slits in alignment.

10. A carrier sheet according to any preceding claim, in which the slits have stop holes attheir ends, to prevent splitting or tearing of the sheet between adjacent slits.

11. A carrier sheet according to any of claims 1 to 5, in which the slits are arranged in a random array.

12. A carrier sheet according to any preceding claim which is made of a liquid-proof material.

13. A carrier sheet according to any preceding claim which is made of a flexible plastics material.

14. A carrier sheet for use with photographic or reprographic processing apparatus, substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figure 1 or any of Figures 3 to 6 of the accompanying drawings.

15. A method of photographic or reprographic processing, in which at least one piece of sheet material to be processed is attached to a carrier sheet according to any preceding claim and in face-to-face relationship therewith.

16. A method according to claim 15, in which the or each piece of sheet material is a piece of negative or receiver material and is attached to the carrier sheet in register and in face-to-face contact with a corresponding piece of receiver or negative material.

17. A method of photographic or reprographic processing substantially as hereinbefore described.

18. Photographic or reprographic processing apparatus for carrying out a method according to claim 15,16 or 17, which apparatus comprises transport means requiring a minimum diameter of sheet material and wherein the carrier sheet has at least one dimension equal to or greater than the said minimum diameter and the or each piece of sheet material has no dimension at least as great as the said minimum diameter.