JP2001033932A - Film inserting mechanism and photographic processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a film inserting mechanism by which negative pieces can be reliably inserted into a negative cover without causing trouble and a photographic processor provided with the same. SOLUTION: An extending and opening mechanism for extending an aperture part of a negative cover by which the film pieces can be easily inserted is provided in the vicinity of the aperture part of the negative cover 1. The extending and opening mechanisms 21 and 22 can blow air toward the aperture part in conjunction with the movement of a cutting device 6 cutting a long film.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a film insertion mechanism and a photographic processing apparatus, and more particularly, to a film insertion mechanism for efficiently inserting a photographic film into a negative sheet or the like and a photographic processing apparatus having the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a photographic processing apparatus that automatically and consistently processes a film image from film development to printing and drying of the film image on photographic paper, a film that has been developed is disposed in an exposure device and a film image is printed on the photographic paper. The baked and baked film is inserted into a negative sheet, and the printed photographic paper is inserted into a bag together with the film inserted into the negative sheet and delivered to a customer.

[0003] Then, the negative film (or positive film), which has been printed, is cut into a predetermined length and automatically stored in a transported negative sheet. In this case, the negative sheet is wound in a roll shape, and is conveyed to the insertion position of the cut negative film with good timing while pulling out the negative sheet.

In this case, there is provided a mechanism for forcibly opening the opening of the negative sheet and facilitating insertion of the cut negative piece. For example, a receiving member having a horizontal V-shaped cross section is provided at a position so as to open the opening of the negative sheet, and the opening of the negative sheet moves along the horizontal V-shape of the receiving member to move the opening. It is designed to open.

[0005]

However, since the negative sheet is made of a resin having poor conductivity, static electricity is accumulated due to friction and the like generated during transportation, and the negative pocket is in a close contact state. Even when trying to forcibly open the opening, there are many cases where the bag-shaped negative sheet surfaces are not separated from the opening to the inside,
If the negative piece is forcibly inserted into the negative sheet in such a state, the edge of the end face of the negative piece may catch on the inner peripheral surface of the negative pocket to form wrinkles or break, resulting in damage.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a film insertion mechanism capable of reliably inserting a negative piece into a negative sheet without causing a problem, and a photographic processing apparatus provided with the same, in view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art. Is to do.

[0007]

The above object is achieved by the invention described in each claim. That is, the characteristic configuration of the film insertion mechanism according to the present invention includes, in the vicinity of the opening of the negative sheet, an expansion mechanism that expands the opening for facilitating the insertion of the film. The point is that air can be blown toward the opening in conjunction with the movement of the cutting device for cutting.

With this configuration, when the film is inserted from the opening of the negative sheet, the diameter of the opening of the negative sheet is increased together with the movement of the cutting device for cutting the film. The film can be efficiently stored in the negative sheet during a series of operations. In addition, since the opening of the negative sheet is reliably expanded by the blowing action of air, it is possible to reliably prevent the corners at the end of the film from catching the negative pocket of the negative sheet and causing trouble.
As a result, it was possible to provide a film insertion mechanism capable of reliably inserting the negative piece into the negative sheet without causing any trouble.

The expansion mechanism includes an air storage section and an air discharge section, and the air storage section is contracted by a pressing operation of the cutting device, so that air contained therein can be discharged from the air discharge section. At the same time, it is preferable that air can be sucked in while returning to the original posture after the air is discharged.

[0010] With this configuration, there is no need to provide a complicated and expensive mechanism for specially supplying air, so that it is particularly convenient for a simple manual type apparatus for manually cutting the film. Is convenient. And
As the air storage unit, various shapes of air reservoirs such as a bellows shape, a simple spherical shape, and a balloon shape can be adopted.

It is preferable that a mechanism is provided for amplifying the pressing operation when the cutting device presses the air storage unit.

With this configuration, a large amount of air can be blown while the movement of the cutting device for cutting the film is reduced as a whole, which is convenient.

Further, a characteristic configuration of the photographic processing apparatus according to the present invention is that the photographic processing apparatus includes the film insertion mechanism according to any one of claims 1 to 3.

With such a configuration, it was possible to provide a photographic processing apparatus having a film insertion mechanism capable of efficiently and reliably inserting a negative piece into a negative sheet without causing any trouble.

[0015]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a side structure in a photographic processing apparatus of the present embodiment, particularly a side structure viewed from a photographic film (hereinafter simply referred to as “film”) cutting apparatus side, FIG. 2 shows a plane structure, and FIG. 3 shows a negative sheet. 2 shows a partial front structure near a transport roller. This portion of the film cutting device is usually disposed and used adjacent to a processor (not shown) for printing a developed film image on a photographic paper and producing a silver halide print. This film cutting device
A cutter section C for cutting a long film F into negative pieces P of usually 6 or 4 frames, and a cutter section C
And an enveloper section E that inserts the negative piece P, which has been cut by the above, into the negative sheet 1 having a number of pockets via a film insertion mechanism.

The cutter section C includes a colorless and transparent viewer plate 5 arranged substantially horizontally to support a long film F.
And a cutter 6 as a cutting device for cutting the film F on the viewer plate 5. The cutter 6 is an oscillating negative cut that interlocks with the movement of the upper blade 10 with respect to the lower blade 7 and the lower blade 7 arranged on the upstream side of the downstream end of the viewer plate 5 with the cutting line 8 interposed therebetween. It is manually operated via the lever 9. In other words, the long film F is cut into the negative pieces P by swinging operation by manual operation of pushing the negative cut lever 9 downward from the home position.
The boundary between the lower blade 7 and the upper blade 10 and the downstream end of the viewer plate 5 coincide with the cutting line 8.

A through-hole region is formed on the downstream side of the viewer plate 5, and film feed rollers 11 and 12 for transporting the film F are attached thereto. These film feed rollers 11 and 12 have rubber outer peripheral portions, and the outer peripheral portions can be brought into close contact with the film F mounted on the upper surface 5a of the viewer plate 5 and fed. Of the film feed rollers 11, 12, the film feed roller 12, which is disposed on the lower side, is made of stainless steel, and is conceptually shown in FIG. 5 (omitted in FIG. 3 to avoid complication). The motor is driven by a motor 25. The outer peripheral portion of the film feed roller 11 disposed on the upper side is made of rubber and is driven. The reason why the film feeding rollers 11 and 12 are made of different materials and the nipping and conveying force is somewhat weakened (the conveying force is increased when both rollers are made of rubber) is that the film F is in the negative pocket of the negative sheet 1. This is to prevent the film F from being excessively fed into the negative pocket, and to avoid damaging the negative pocket by strongly pressing the closed end of the negative pocket. Therefore, when the leading end of the film F comes into contact with the closed end of the negative pocket of the negative sheet 1, the film feed rollers 11, 1
2 idles.

When the operator swings the negative cut lever 9 in a direction of pushing down the negative cut lever 9 from the home position, as described above, the upper blade 10 is lowered in conjunction with the negative cut lever 9 to move the film F into the negative piece P. Cut into pieces. After cutting into the negative piece P, when the negative cut lever 9 is pushed upward from the home position,
As shown in FIG. 5, a signal is sent to the control unit 24 from the sensor 23 that detects that the negative cut lever 9 is at the upper position. Based on this signal, the control unit 24 instructs the operation of the film drive motor 25 acting on one of the film feed rollers 11 and 12. At this time, the upper film feed roller 11, which is always separated from the lower film feed roller 12 and waits upward, descends in conjunction with the ascent operation of the upper blade 10, and holds the film F. Has become. By the rotation of the film feed rollers 11 and 12, the negative piece P held between the film feed rollers 11 and 12 is fed and inserted into the negative pocket of the negative sheet 1 arranged in the envelope section E. In this case, a later-described expanding mechanism operates to securely insert the negative piece P into the negative pocket of the negative sheet 1 without any trouble. Note that the solid line position of the cutter 6 in FIG. 5 indicates that it is at the home position, and the two two-dot chain line positions correspond to the positions shown in FIGS. 4 (a) and 4 (b).

When the remaining length of the cut negative piece P becomes short, the negative piece P cannot be fed into the negative pocket of the negative sheet 1 only by the rotation operation of the film feed rollers 11 and 12, that is, when the negative line P is cut more than the cutting line 8. When the rear end of the film F remains on the upstream side, an inserter device 13 including a parallel link mechanism is provided to feed and insert the rear end into the negative pocket of the negative sheet 1. As shown in FIG. 3, the inserter device 13 includes two link members 13a and 13b, and is at a standby position below the upper surface 5a of the viewer plate 5 (FIG. 3A).
And a pushing piece 14 that can reciprocate between this position and an operation posture (FIG. 3B) located downstream of the film F in the supply direction. The pushing piece 14 is normally in a standby position by the action of its own weight or an urging spring (not shown), and is switched to the above-mentioned operating position by manually moving the handle 15 in the direction of arrow A. When the pushing piece 14 is switched from the standby posture to the working posture, the downstream end of the pushing piece 14 protrudes upward from a through hole formed in the upper surface 5a of the viewer plate 5, and the film F is placed in the negative pocket of the negative sheet 1. It is designed to be pushed into. The handle 15 is swingably supported around the axis X. When the handle 15 is moved in the direction A, the operation pin 16a of the disc-shaped member 16 fixed to the root of the handle 15 connects the link member 13b. 3, the pushing piece 14 is switched to the working posture.

A film F covers the upper surface 5a of the viewer plate 5.
The central portion may be sent to the cutting position in a swelled state (curled state). However, such a shape makes it difficult to insert the cut negative piece P into the negative pocket of the negative sheet 1. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 2, it is desirable to arrange the rubber pressing roller 17 directly above the film F. By arranging the pressing roller 17 in this manner, the shape of the film F can be corrected to be flat, the cut negative piece P also has a flat posture, and the negative piece P can be easily inserted into the negative pocket of the negative sheet 1.

On the other hand, the negative sheet 1 is wound in a roll around a negative sheet stocker 2 inside the apparatus, and when used, is sandwiched between a pair of upper and lower negative sheet conveying rollers 3 constituting a negative sheet conveying apparatus. The viewer plate 5 is sequentially lifted upward and arranged at a position downstream of the upper surface 5a of the viewer plate 5. The negative sheet transport roller 3 includes a driven roller 3a for pressing, which presses the negative sheet 1, which is an object to be sandwiched, by its own weight, and a driving roller 3b positioned below.
b is connected to a motor (not shown). Drive roller 3b
Has a rubber outer periphery on a metal shaft, and the driven roller 3a is made of stainless steel (for example, SU
S 304 etc.).

The driving roller 3b has an outer peripheral portion formed of chloroprene rubber inside a base having a thickness of 20 to 100 μm.
It may be constituted by mixing SiC (silicon carbide) particles which are hard particles having a large diameter. In this way, when the negative sheet 1 is transported while being sandwiched between the pair of transport rollers 3, Si
It is preferable that the C particles appropriately bite into the surface of the negative sheet 1 and realize a high coefficient of friction to surely transport the negative sheet 1 without causing slippage. That is, since the SiC particles are three-dimensionally dispersed inside the base chloroprene rubber, the chloroprene rubber rollers of the base are worn, and the use of the SiC particles dispersed on the initial base surface proceeds. However, even if it peels off, the SiC particles dispersed inside appear on the outermost surface, and the roller surface has been subjected to high friction treatment, so that the roller surface can be maintained at a high wear coefficient. Become. In addition to the above-mentioned chloroprene rubber, EPDM, NB
A wide variety of thermoplastic elastomers such as R, silicone rubber, urethane rubber, etc. can be used. Further, a pair of transport rollers 3a,
3b may have a structure in which a metal shaft has an outer peripheral portion made of rubber.

The film F is sequentially inserted into the negative pocket from the opening 1a of the negative sheet 1 provided in a large number on the pulled-up negative sheet 1, and cut into a negative piece P of a predetermined length. In this case, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, a receiving member 18 is attached to widen the opening 1a which is a negative piece insertion opening in the negative pocket of the pulled-out negative sheet 1. The receiving member 18 has a horizontal V-shaped cross section as shown in FIG. 3, and an opening 1a at the end face of the negative pocket is opened along the horizontal V-shape of the receiving member 18. You. At this time, air is blown into the opening 1a from the nozzle 21 serving as an air discharge portion by the expanding mechanism described below, and a problem occurs such that the insertion of the film F into the negative pocket is caught in the negative pocket. It can be easily done without. By blowing air into the negative pocket, even if a large amount of static electricity is accumulated in the negative sheet, the negative pieces P can be reliably inserted into the negative pocket and stored therein by separating the closely attached negative sheets. .

Next, the expanding mechanism will be described in detail with reference to FIG. FIG. 4B shows a film F to which an upper blade 10 of a cutter 6 for cutting a long film F is conveyed.
When the cutting of the film F is completed, the free end of the upper blade 10 rotates upward around the rotating shaft 19, and at this time, as shown in FIG. The other end of the blade 10 near the rotation shaft 19 presses the top of an air reservoir 22 which is an air storage unit having a bellows-like cavity made of an elastic member such as soft rubber. The pressed air in the air reservoir 22 is vigorously discharged from the nozzle 21, and the air is blown into the negative pocket from the opening 1 a of the negative sheet 1. As a result, it is possible to push and spread between the closely contacted negative sheets against the adhesion force of static electricity.

Then, as described above, the control unit 24 instructs the operation of the film drive motor 25 in response to the signal from the sensor 23 with respect to the negative sheet 1 pushed and expanded into the negative pocket. Inserted,
The upper blade 10 of the cutter 6 rotates downward around the rotation shaft 19 to cut the film F (the state shown in FIG. 4B).
When the negative piece P is stored in the negative pocket of the negative sheet 1, the negative sheet 1 is moved forward by one step (the direction B in FIG. 1).
Sent to As shown in FIG. 5, the forward feeding operation of the negative sheet 1 is performed by a sensor 27 that detects that the free end of the upper blade 10 has turned downward and cuts the film F.
4, and the control unit 24 instructs the negative sheet drive motor 26 to drive based on the signal. However, for this operation, instead of the detection method by the sensor, another method such as a timer method that operates in advance after a predetermined time has elapsed can be adopted.

When the negative sheet 1 is fed forward, the subsequent negative sheet 1 waits for the next film F to be inserted with its opening 1a expanded by the above-mentioned receiving member 18. Then, the operation of inserting and cutting the film F into the negative sheet 1 by the operation of the above-described expanding mechanism is repeated.

When the insertion of the negative pieces P for one order (one film unit: 12, 24, 36 frames, etc.) is completed, the insertion of the film F into the negative pocket is stopped, and the negative sheet 1 shown in FIG. After being cut by the rotary cutter 4 showing only the cover portion, it is sent in the direction of arrow B. still,
Reference numeral 20 in FIG. 1 denotes an operation lever for manually operating the rotary cutter 4.

[Another Embodiment] (1) In the above embodiment, the other end of the upper blade 10 near the rotation shaft 19 presses the top of an air reservoir 22 made of an elastic member such as soft rubber. The internal air is discharged, but a mechanism such as a link mechanism is provided to amplify the pressing stroke of the top of the air reservoir 22 due to the turning operation of the upper blade 10 in order to increase the amount of discharged air. It may be configured as follows. In other words, a separate pressing member capable of amplifying this movement in synchronism with the movement of the upper blade 10 and expanding the pressing stroke is provided separately.
The top of 2 is pushed down greatly.

(2) In the above embodiment, the air pool 2
Although 2 is a bellows shape, the shape is not limited to this and may be a simple spherical shape or a balloon-like shape. In short, it is only necessary that an air reservoir capable of supplying air capable of separating the contact of the negative sheet against static electricity is provided in the negative pocket.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view of a photographic processing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a photographic processing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a cutaway front view of a main part of the photographic processing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a view for explaining the operation of the expanding mechanism and the cutting device in the film insertion mechanism according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a view for explaining the operation of the cutting apparatus of FIG. 4;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Negative sheet 6 Cutting device 21 Air discharge part 22 Air storage part F film

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A film insertion mechanism provided with an expansion mechanism for expanding an opening in the vicinity of an opening of a negative sheet for facilitating insertion of a film, wherein the expansion mechanism cuts the film. Characterized in that air can be blown toward the opening in conjunction with the movement of the film. 2. The expansion mechanism includes an air storage unit and an air discharge unit, and the air storage unit contracts by a pressing operation of the cutting device, so that air contained therein can be discharged from the air discharge unit. 2. The film insertion mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the air can be sucked in while returning to the original posture after the air is discharged. 3. The film insertion mechanism according to claim 2, further comprising a mechanism for amplifying the pressing operation when the cutting device presses the air storage unit. 4. A photographic processing apparatus comprising the film insertion mechanism according to claim 1.