JP2001249418A - Temperature regulating apparatus of exposure device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a temperature regulating apparatus of an exposure device which is capable of stabilizing the quality of finish prints even if the temperature control over the entire part of the body of, for example, a photographic processing device is not controlled with high accuracy. SOLUTION: The exposure device arranged with an exposure engine mounted with a light source within a housing formed independently from the machine body within the machine body has a temperature detecting means for detecting the temperature of the exposure engine and a temperature regulating means for regulating the temperature of the exposure engine in accordance with the result of the detection by the temperature detecting means. The temperature regulating means comprises a blast path with its inlet and outlet port opened to the outside of the machine body and a fan for supplying outdoor air to the blast path. The temperature of the exposure engine is regulated by the outdoor air supplied to the blast path via the fan.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a temperature adjusting device for adjusting the temperature of an exposure engine mounted on an exposure device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In general, a photographic processing apparatus incorporates an exposure apparatus having an exposure engine in which a light source and the like are mounted in a housing independent of the apparatus, and an exposure head is controlled by light from the light source of the exposure engine. Although the image is printed on the photographic paper through the above, in the above-described apparatus, since the amount of heat generated when the light source mounted in the housing emits light is large, the temperature of the exposure engine cannot be kept constant,
Variations occur in the quality of the finished print.

[0003] Conventionally, in order to obtain a stable finished print, as shown in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-307348, an air-intake fan and an exhaust fan are provided in an airframe incorporating an exposure engine. By controlling the drive of these two fans, the temperature rise in the whole body is suppressed, and the temperature inside the body and the time from exposure to development of the printing paper are detected, and the detected body temperature and the time from the exposure to development are detected. There has been proposed an exposure apparatus in which a control device adjusts an exposure amount of photographic paper based on time.

[0004]

However, in the apparatus disclosed in the above publication, as described above, it is necessary to adjust the exposure amount to the photographic paper while detecting the temperature inside the machine and the moving time of the photographic paper. Therefore, the drive control of the apparatus becomes complicated as a whole.

The present invention has been developed in view of the above circumstances. An object of the present invention is to stabilize the quality of a finished print without, for example, controlling the temperature inside the entire body of a photographic processing apparatus with high accuracy. It is an object of the present invention to provide a temperature adjusting device of an exposure apparatus which can achieve the above.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an exposure engine having a light source mounted in a housing independent of an airframe. An exposure apparatus arranged in a body includes a temperature detection unit for detecting a temperature of an exposure engine, and a temperature adjustment unit for adjusting the temperature of the exposure engine based on a detection result by the temperature detection unit. It was.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the temperature adjusting means of the temperature adjusting device according to the first aspect includes a blower path having an entrance and exit opening outside the body, and a blower for supplying outside air to the blower path. In addition, the air passage is separated from the internal space of the airframe in the body, and the temperature of the exposure engine is adjusted by the outside air supplied to the air passage through the air blower.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, in the temperature control apparatus according to the second aspect, a heat sink is provided in the light source of the exposure engine, and the heat sink is interposed in the air passage.

[0009]

FIG. 1 schematically shows a photographic processing apparatus to which the present invention is applied. This photographic processing apparatus basically performs an image printing process on a photographic paper P. And a developing processor S2 for performing processing such as development on the photographic paper P on which printing has been completed.

As is known, the baking processing machine S1 includes, in a box-shaped machine body 1, a conveying device 2 for conveying photographic paper P drawn out of a paper magazine 20 and cut to a predetermined size by a cutter (not shown). An exposure device 3 for printing an image on photographic paper P conveyed by the conveyance device 2 is mounted.

The exposure device 3 employs a digital exposure system, and processes a digital image data obtained by a scanner (not shown) to generate print data. And an exposure engine 5 for exposing the image light.

The exposure engine 5 comprises a box 51 and this box 5
A light source unit 53 incorporating a light source is mounted in a housing 50 comprising a lid 52 for closing an upper opening of the housing 1, and a linear exposure head 54 is assembled on one side of the box 51.

The digital exposure method is PLZ.
A T shutter system, a fluorescent beam system, a liquid crystal shutter system, a laser beam system, and the like are known, and an arbitrary system can be selected according to specifications.

The developing processor S2 includes a developing device 8a for developing the photographic paper P exposed by the exposure engine of the printing processor S1 and a developing device 8a for drying the photographic paper P developed by the developing device 8a. A drying device 8b, a print discharge device 8c for discharging the dried photographic paper P, and a print discharge device 8
and a belt conveyor device 8d for receiving the photographic paper P discharged from the printer body c and conveying it to the front side of the machine body 1.

In the drawing, reference numeral 81 denotes a lamp housing mainly used for scanning a frame image of a film;
2 is a film mask for setting a film, 83
Denotes a monitor for displaying the operation status and the like of the photographic processing apparatus.

In an exposure apparatus mounted on a photographic processing apparatus having the above configuration, the present invention provides a temperature detecting means 6 for detecting the temperature of an exposure engine 5, and an exposure engine based on the detection result by the temperature detecting means 6. 5 is provided with a temperature adjusting means 7 for adjusting the temperature.

That is, in the embodiment shown in the figure, the temperature adjusting means 7 is an air duct 7 which is isolated from the internal space S of the machine body 1 and whose entrance is opened outside the machine body 1 of the printing apparatus S1.
1 and a blower 73 for supplying outside air to a blow path 72 formed in the blow duct 71, and the driving of the blower 73 is controlled by the controller 4. The temperature inside the housing 50 of the exposure engine 3 is adjusted by the outside air supplied to the ventilation path 72 of the ventilation duct 71.

Specifically, as schematically shown in FIG.
In the baking processing machine S1, ventilation ports 12 are provided in the side plates 11 of the body 1 facing each other, and these ventilation ports 12 are connected by a ventilation duct 71 formed separately.
A blower 72 composed of an electric blower fan is disposed at one inlet.

On the lower surface of the light source unit 53, a heat sink 56 composed of a plurality of radiating fins 55 is provided, and this heat sink 56 is interposed in the air duct 72 in the air duct 71 to thereby provide a blower 73. The outside air drawn into the blower duct 71 by the drive of the light source is applied to the radiating fins 55 of the heat sink 56 so that the heat generated by the lamp in the light source unit 53 is released to the outside of the body 1 through the blower duct 71.

In the blower duct 71 shown in the figure, as shown in FIG. 2, the inlet side where the blower 73 is incorporated is formed wider than other parts.

On the other hand, on the upper surface of the light source unit 53, there is provided a temperature sensor 61 as a temperature detecting means for detecting the temperature inside the housing 50, and this temperature sensor 61 is connected to an input port of the controller 4, When the temperature inside the housing 50 reaches a preset temperature based on the detection signal from the temperature sensor 61, the drive of the blower 73 is controlled via the controller 4; When the temperature reaches a preset temperature, the blower 73 is driven, and when the temperature is equal to or lower than the set temperature, the drive of the blower 73 is stopped.

In the photographic processing apparatus described above, the light radiated from the halogen lamp in the lamp housing 81 passes through the film set on the film mask 82 and becomes image light accompanied by an image of the film. The digital image data is read by a scanner (not shown) as digital image data. The digital image data read by the scanner is exposed to a photographic paper P via an exposure engine 5, and the exposed photographic paper P is It is sent to the developing device S2 by the transport device 2.

The exposed photographic paper P sent to the development processor S2 is developed by the development device 8a, dried by the drying device 8b, and then discharged from the print discharge device 8c to the belt conveyor device 8d. Because

In the photographic processing apparatus described above, the housing 5 of the exposure engine 5 is driven by the drive of the printing processor S1.
0 rises to the set temperature, and when the temperature sensor 61 detects the temperature, the blower 73 is immediately driven via the controller 4 and the outside air is blown into the air passage 72, and the radiating fins of the heat sink 56 are 55 is cooled, heat exchange is performed, and the light source unit 53 generating a large amount of heat is generated.
The heat generated by the lamps inside is discharged to the outside of the body 1 via the air duct 71, and the exposure engine is cooled efficiently.

Thus, in the above photographic processing apparatus,
It is possible to stabilize the quality of the finished print without having to control the temperature of the entire body of the photographic processing device with high accuracy.

In the above embodiment, the controller 4 that creates print data is used.
, The drive of the blower 73 is also controlled, but a controller that independently controls the drive of the blower 73 may be separately mounted.

In the above embodiment, the blower 73 is provided only on the inlet side of the air passage 72. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a blower for exhaust is further provided on the outlet side of the air passage 72. Alternatively, a blower may be provided only on the outlet side of the air passage 72.

In the above embodiment, the light source unit 5
Although a heat sink 56 composed of a plurality of radiating fins 55 is provided on the lower surface of the heat sink 3, a Peltier element may be built in the heat sink 56, or, for example, a bottom plate portion of a box 51 constituting the housing 50. May be formed from a material having high thermal conductivity, and this bottom plate portion may be used as a heat sink.

In the above embodiment, the temperature adjusting means 6
Is composed of the air duct 2 and the air blower 73, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, an existing cooling device may be mounted as the temperature adjusting means 6, or, for example, in a cold area specification, the temperature adjusting means 6 may be used. As means 6, a heater may be further mounted.

[0030]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the exposure apparatus is provided with a temperature detecting means for detecting the temperature of the exposure engine, and the temperature of the exposure engine based on the detection result by the temperature detecting means. The temperature of the exposure engine, which is extremely important for stabilizing the quality of the finished print, is surely adjusted. Even if the temperature is not precisely controlled, the quality of the finished print can be easily stabilized.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the temperature adjusting means according to the first aspect of the present invention includes: an air passage having an entrance opening outside the body; and a blower for supplying outside air to the air passage.
The air duct is isolated from the internal space of the aircraft inside the aircraft,
The temperature of the exposure engine is adjusted by the outside air supplied to the air passage through the air blower.
In addition to the effects of the invention described in 1, the temperature of the exposure head can be adjusted with a simple structure.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, in the temperature control apparatus of the second aspect, a heat sink is provided in the light source, and the heat sink is interposed in the middle of the air passage. In addition to the effect described above, the temperature of the exposure head can be more reliably adjusted.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a photographic processing device equipped with a temperature adjustment device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view showing a main part of a printing processing machine constituting the photographic processing apparatus with a part cut away.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram schematically showing a temperature adjusting device according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 3 Exposure device 5 Exposure engine 50 Housing 6 Temperature detecting means 7 Temperature adjusting means 71 Blow duct 72 Blow path 73 Blower

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An exposure apparatus comprising: an exposure engine having a light source mounted in a housing independent of an airframe, wherein the exposure engine is arranged in the airframe to detect a temperature of the exposure engine. A temperature adjustment device for an exposure apparatus, comprising: a temperature detection unit; and a temperature adjustment unit for adjusting a temperature of an exposure engine based on a result detected by the temperature detection unit. 2. A temperature adjusting means comprising: an air passage having an inlet / outlet opening outside the body; and a blower for supplying outside air to the air passage, wherein the air passage is isolated from the internal space of the body in the body. 2. The temperature adjusting device for an exposure apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the temperature of the exposure engine is adjusted by outside air supplied to a blowing path via a blower. 3. A temperature adjusting device for an exposure apparatus according to claim 2, wherein a heat sink is provided in the light source, and the heat sink is interposed in the air passage.