JP2001312036A - Photosensitive material processing method and photosensitive material processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make the coated surface quality of a coating application start segment uniform in coating application of a processing liquid to a photosensitive material by a slot die. SOLUTION: The processing method for applying the processing liquid dropping from a slit to the photosensitive material by using the slot die consisting of at least the slit and manifold consists in installing a member having a length equal to or greater than a coating application width in a position facing the front end of the slit and parting therefrom and forming the film of the processing liquid between the front end of the slit and this member before the photosensitive material arrives at the slit part.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for processing a photosensitive material. More specifically, the present invention relates to a processing method and a processing apparatus for applying a processing liquid using a slot die.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A photosensitive material such as a film, a photographic paper, a printing plate, or the like, has a developer, a fixing solution, a stabilizing solution,
It is treated with a treatment liquid such as washing water. As a photosensitive material processing apparatus for performing such processing, the photosensitive material is transported into a processing tank storing the processing liquid by a transporting unit including a plurality of transport roller pairs and the photosensitive material is immersed in the processing liquid. There is known an immersion-type processing apparatus that performs processing by performing the above-described processing.

In such an immersion type processing apparatus,
Since the processing solution deteriorates due to processing fatigue accompanying the processing of the photosensitive material or temporal fatigue due to carbon dioxide or oxygen in the atmosphere, the deterioration of the processing solution is recovered by replenishing the processing solution with a replenisher. Therefore, the components of the processing liquid at the start of the processing are different from the components of the processing liquid when the processing is continued thereafter, and it is impossible to perform strictly uniform processing. In addition, such an immersion type processing apparatus has a problem in that the amount of the processing liquid used and the amount of waste liquid are large, the running cost is high, and the maintainability of the apparatus is poor.

As a photosensitive material processing apparatus for solving such a problem, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-237455.
As described in the publication, instead of immersing the photosensitive material in the processing solution, a coating method in which only the processing solution necessary for processing the photosensitive material is applied to the photosensitive surface of the photosensitive material to perform the processing. Equipment is also used. For example, JP-A-62-2
Japanese Patent No. 37455 discloses such a coating type processing apparatus in which a processing liquid supply nozzle having a plurality of processing liquid discharge holes is used to form a groove on the surface of the processing liquid supply nozzle or the like to form a roller (hereinafter, referred to as a roughening roller). There is disclosed a processing apparatus that applies a processing liquid by discharging a processing liquid to a “roughening roller”, and rotating by contacting the photosensitive material via the roughening roller.

[0005] However, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Sho.
In the processing apparatus described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-205, there is a problem that the photosensitive film of the photosensitive material is damaged. In addition, it is preferable to use a small amount of the processing liquid as much as possible from the viewpoint of the running cost required for the processing and environmental problems, but in the above processing apparatus, the amount of the processing liquid supplied to the processing liquid supply nozzle is small. In such a case, it is difficult to make the supply amount of the processing liquid discharged from the plurality of processing liquid holes to the roughening roller uniform, and accordingly, the amount of the processing liquid becomes uneven. There is also.

In order to solve this problem, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 6-8956
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 6-27677 discloses a processing apparatus which has a processing liquid supply section above and has a slit-shaped lower end, and applies a processing liquid through the opening. Although this processing apparatus can achieve the desired purpose in principle, it has a problem in performance and stability as an applicator. In other words, the processing liquid is difficult to spread evenly over the entire width of the applicator because the supply port and the slit are directly connected, and a stable meniscus is difficult to be formed because the tip of the slit is in contact with the photosensitive material surface. There is.
As a result, the coating amount of the photosensitive material in the coating width direction and the coating direction is non-uniform, and the coating surface quality is likely to cause vertical streak-like unevenness and liquid cracking (so-called revulette in coating engineering). This problem can be solved by increasing the flow rate of the processing solution (in other words, the wet coating amount). However, if the coating amount is increased more than necessary, it becomes necessary to eliminate the surplus in the post-process and the like. Will result in waste liquid.

In view of the above-mentioned problems, the present inventors have disclosed a processing apparatus which can stably and uniformly apply even a small amount of a processing liquid using a slot die and which does not substantially generate a waste liquid in Japanese Patent Application No. 11-361027. Suggested. However, some photosensitive materials require uniform development processing from the end, and in particular, processing unevenness at the extreme end (for example, within 1 cm of the end) may become a problem. This phenomenon tends to occur particularly when the coating amount is reduced.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to further improve the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Application No. 11-361027. An object of the present invention is to provide a processing method and a processing apparatus that have been eliminated.

[0009]

An object of the present invention is to provide a processing method for applying a processing liquid falling from a slit to a photosensitive material by using a slot die comprising at least a slit and a manifold. A member having a length equal to or greater than the coating width is installed at a position facing and separated from the tip, and before the photosensitive material reaches the slit, between the slit tip and the member. This has been attained by a method for processing a photosensitive material, which comprises forming a film of a processing solution.

In order to carry out the above-described processing method of the present invention, there is provided a processing apparatus for a photosensitive material for applying a processing solution to a photosensitive material using at least a slot die having a slit and a manifold. A photosensitive material processing apparatus is preferably characterized in that a member having a length equal to or longer than the application width is spaced apart from the tip of the slit within 3 mm at a position facing the tip.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, but the present invention is not limited to these embodiments. FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

1 is a slot die. The material is not particularly limited, as long as it satisfies the corrosion resistance to the processing solution and the mechanical accuracy, and for example, stainless steel is preferable. In addition, chrome-plated general-purpose steel, plastics, and the like can be used. In the case of manufacturing with a metal, an annealing treatment may be performed in advance in order to eliminate stress strain at the time of machining.

The structure of the slot die 1 will be described. A processing liquid supply port 8 is connected to the manifold 9. The manifold 9 serves to spread the flowing processing solution in the width direction, and is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No.
These elements are not provided in Japanese Patent No. 27677. After the processing liquid is once filled in the width direction with the manifold, the supply of the processing liquid to the slit 10 is performed.
It is possible to make the outflow flow rate from the nozzle uniform in the width direction. Normally, the processing liquid supply port 8 may be provided at one location at the center of the slot die in the width direction, but may be provided at a plurality of locations in the width direction of the slot die. The cross-sectional shape of the manifold 9 is circular in this embodiment, but is not limited to this, and may be any shape. The cross-sectional area of the manifold 9 may not be constant over the width direction of the slot die. For example, in order to further improve the uniformity of the flow rate of the processing solution flowing out in the width direction, the cross-sectional area is gradually reduced toward the end. Is also good.

Although not shown in FIG. 1 for the sake of convenience, both ends of the manifold portion of the slot die 1 in the application width direction and both ends of the slit portion are plugged and used so that the processing liquid does not flow out. In this case, the above-mentioned stopper is provided so that the effective length in the width direction of the slit portion is equal to or slightly larger than the coating width of the photosensitive material to be processed.

Reference numeral 2 denotes a photosensitive material, which is conveyed from left to right in the figure by a driving device (not shown). Photosensitive material 2 during transport
Of the photosensitive material is detected by the photosensitive material detector 7, the pump 5 is driven by the signal, the valve 6 is opened, the processing liquid 4 is supplied to the slot die 1, and the end of the photosensitive material is detected.
Is stopped and the valve 6 is closed. The basic control flow is as follows. The transport speed of the photosensitive material 2 and the photosensitive material detector 7
Calculates the distance from the to the slit portion of the slot die 1 (the arithmetic unit is not shown), and controls the timing of driving / stopping the pump 5 as appropriate to substantially eliminate the loss of the processing liquid 4 Is possible.

The pump used in the present invention is not particularly limited, but the number of revolutions (in the case of a gear pump or the like) and the number of strokes (in the case of a vibration type pump such as a diaphragm type) are variable. Formulas, ie metering pumps, are preferred. Further, in order to make the application of the processing liquid uniform, a pump called a pulsation and having a small flow rate non-uniformity is preferable. In some cases, for example, an air damper-type pulsation preventer may be installed in the piping path after the pump. Also, a syringe type liquid supply device can be preferably used.

In this embodiment, an example in which a pump is used to supply the processing liquid has been described. Alternatively, for example, a method in which the processing liquid is disposed at a position higher than the slot die and naturally falls by a water head may be used. In this case, a pump is not required, and the processing liquid can be supplied only by opening and closing the valve. In this case,
It is possible to control the flow rate by making the valve a quantitative type, or by disposing a flow meter with a needle valve in the flow path and adjusting the opening degree in advance to a desired flow rate. Even in the case of the natural fall method, it is possible to substantially eliminate the loss of the processing liquid by controlling the opening and closing timing of the valve based on the signal of the light-sensitive material detector 7 in the same manner as in the case of the above-described pump type. .

When extremely high precision is required for the amount of coating on the photosensitive material, a flow meter is arranged in the path of the processing liquid piping, and the above-mentioned pump and the metering valve are feedback-controlled based on the signal of the flow meter. Can be taken.

The flow rate of the processing solution supplied to the slot die can be determined by multiplying the desired wet application amount of the processing solution, the application width of the photosensitive material, and the conveying speed of the photosensitive material.

The transport roller 3 may be driven or non-driven, and the material of the roller is not particularly limited, and may be a roller used in a conventional photosensitive material processing apparatus. In addition, it is preferable to arrange rollers so that the photosensitive material is conveyed substantially horizontally in consideration of the application stability of the processing liquid.

Although not shown in the present embodiment, in consideration of the possibility that a small amount of surplus is generated during the application of the processing liquid, a liquid receiving tray or the like may be disposed below the slot die and collected.

A feature of the present invention resides in that a member 11 having a length equal to or longer than the coating width is disposed at a position vertically separated from the slit 10 of the slot die 1 at a distance from the slit 10. That is, a film 13 of the processing liquid is formed between the part and the member 11. Hereinafter, the member 11 is referred to as a liquid film forming member. The up-down device 12 is for positioning the liquid film forming member 11 in the up-down direction, and if it is provided in the practice of the present invention, a preferable operation and effect can be exhibited. For example, it is possible to cope with various thicknesses of the photosensitive material to be processed, and it is possible to position the liquid film forming member 11 at an optimum position with respect to the application conditions (wet application amount and processing speed) of the processing liquid. When the processing apparatus is at rest, the liquid film forming member 11 can be brought into close contact with the tip of the slot die to prevent the processing liquid from leaking. FIG. 1 illustrates a cylinder actuator, but the invention is not limited to this as long as it can move up and down.

It is preferable that the liquid film forming member 11 has a width equal to or larger than the width of the slot die in the width direction of the coating, and that the portion facing the tip of the slit 10 is a flat surface. That is, the photosensitive material preferably has a plane having a length of 1 mm or more in the flow direction (L in FIG. 1), more preferably 2 mm or more, but an upper limit of about 10 mm is sufficient and needs to be larger. There is no. The material is not particularly limited as long as it has corrosion resistance to the processing solution, and for example, stainless steel, plastics, fluorine resin (Teflon (registered trademark), or the like) can be used.

The distance H between the liquid film forming member 11 and the tip of the slit 10 (the tip of the slot die 1) will be described in detail. In order to form a uniform processing liquid film 13 in the entire width direction with a small amount of coating, the distance H is preferably within 3 mm, more preferably within 2 mm, and still more preferably 1.
It is within 5 mm, particularly preferably within 1.0 mm.
The lower limit of the distance H is a distance at which the photosensitive surface of the photosensitive material 2 does not contact the tip of the slit 10 (the tip of the slot die 1). Further, it is preferable that the upper surface of the liquid film forming member 11, that is, the liquid contact surface of the processing liquid is offset to the same level as the lower surface of the photosensitive material 2 or to the lower side so that the photosensitive material does not collide. In addition, it is preferable that the treatment liquid contact surface is a horizontal surface. This makes it possible to form and maintain the processing liquid film 13 in a state where the processing liquid film 13 is sufficiently in contact with the tip of the slot die, that is, in a state where the effects of the present invention are easily exerted.

The present invention aims at a processing method in which the amount of the processing liquid applied is reduced as much as possible and substantially no waste liquid is generated.
In that sense, the coating amount of the processing liquid is preferably 50 ml or less per square meter, and more preferably 4 ml or less.
It is about 0 to 20 ml. If the coating amount is reduced in this manner, it becomes difficult to uniformly treat the front end of the photosensitive material. This is considered to be due to the fact that when the amount of application is small, the treatment liquid flowing out of the slit and dropping at the start of the application is in the form of droplets or stagnation, resulting in non-uniform application. In order to solve this problem, the present invention is to form a processing liquid film in the entire width direction together with the liquid film forming member 11 at the tip of the slit 10 (slot die 1) before coating.

In the present invention, a processing liquid film 13 is formed between the tip of the slot die and the liquid film forming member 11 before the photosensitive material is applied. The processing liquid film 13 is generated by supplying a processing liquid in accordance with the description regarding H and the description regarding the liquid film forming member 11 described above. For example, there is a method of controlling the driving time of the pump 5 by a timer (not shown) using a signal detected by the light-sensitive material detector 7 to detect the passage of the photosensitive material 2. In the case where the above-mentioned syringe type liquid supply device is used instead of the pump, there is also a method of pushing out a certain amount of the processing liquid in response to the above signal. In any of the above-described methods, the processing liquid film 13 can be stably maintained in a stationary state by closing the valve 6 at a timing when the pump or the syringe type liquid supply device is changed from the driving state to the stopped state. . Further, in the case where a slight waste of the processing liquid is allowed, the photosensitive material 2 is kept without stopping the pump 5 with the processing liquid film 13 formed.
May be applied.

The inventors of the present invention apply the photosensitive liquid 2 to the photosensitive material 2 in a state where the processing liquid film 13 has been formed, so that the coating becomes non-uniform at the coating start portion at the end of the photosensitive material, thereby causing uneven development. It has been found that it is possible to solve the conventional problem of being easy. In a processing method or a processing apparatus using a slot die, at the start of coating, the processing liquid flowing out of the slit and falling is in the form of a droplet or a drop, which is considered to have caused uneven coating.
According to the present invention, since the coating starts from a complete liquid film state over the entire width, the above-mentioned coating unevenness does not occur. Furthermore, when applying to a sheet using the slot die method, at the starting point, the flow rate distribution in the width direction of the processing liquid flowing out of the slit 10 has not reached a steady state, The present invention can compensate for the non-uniform coating caused by the fact that the flow rate at the start of driving the apparatus has not reached the desired amount.

[0028]

EXAMPLES The present invention will be described below with reference to examples. As the photosensitive material, an aluminum lithographic printing plate (size of chrysanthemum) using a 0.25 mm-thick aluminum plate as a support and using a silver complex salt diffusion transfer method and having an image output by an output device using a laser as a light source was used. The composition of the processing liquid for processing the printing plate is shown below. <Developer> Sodium hydroxide 25 g Polystyrene sulfonic acid / maleic anhydride copolymer (average molecular weight 500,000) 10 g Sodium ethylenediaminetetraacetate 2 g Sodium sulfite anhydrous 100 g Monomethylethanolamine 50 g 2-Mercapto-5-nheptyl-oxadi Azole 0.5g Sodium thiosulfate (pentahydrate) 8g Hydroquinone 15g 1-Phenyl-3pyrazolidinone 3g Make the total amount 1000 ml. pH (25 ° C.) = 13.1

According to the present invention, a coating test of the above-mentioned processing solution was performed. At this time, the distance H between the tip of the slit 10 and the liquid film forming member 11 was 0.95 mm. The upper surface of the liquid film forming member 11 was set to 0.2 mm below the lower surface level of the photosensitive material 2. The upper surface of the liquid film forming member 11 is a plane having a length L of 3 mm. The conveying speed (coating speed) of the photosensitive material was 1.5 cm per second, and the wet coating amount of the processing solution was changed in steps of 10 ml from 30 ml to 90 ml per square meter.

As a comparative example, the liquid film forming member 11 was removed, and a coating test was performed under the same conditions as described above.

Examples of the present invention and comparative examples are summarized in Table 1. In Table 1, the coating surface quality of the photosensitive material, particularly at the coating start end (visual development unevenness), was evaluated with respect to the amount of the developer applied.

[0032]

[Table 1]

[0033]

As shown in Table 1, according to the present invention, in the preferred range (less than 50 milliliters) particularly for the wet coating amount of the processing solution, the coating at the coating start portion at the end of the photosensitive material tends to be non-uniform. I was able to solve my concerns.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating an example of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Slot die 2 Photosensitive material 3 Conveyance roller 4 Processing liquid 5 Pump 6 Valve 7 Sensitive material detector 8 Processing liquid supply port 9 Manifold 10 Slit part 11 Member (liquid film forming member) 12 Vertical device 13 Processing liquid film

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A processing method for applying a processing liquid falling from said slit to a photosensitive material by using a slot die comprising at least a slit and a manifold, wherein the coating liquid is applied to a position opposed to and separated from a tip portion of the slit. A member having a length equal to or greater than the width is installed, and before the photosensitive material reaches the slit portion, a film of a processing liquid is formed between the slit tip portion and the member. Processing method of photosensitive material. 2. A processing apparatus for a photosensitive material for applying a processing solution to a photosensitive material using at least a slot die comprising a slit and a manifold, wherein the apparatus is provided with a coating width equal to or less than a coating width at a position facing a tip portion of the slit. A processing apparatus for a photosensitive material, wherein a member having the above-mentioned length is spaced apart from the tip of the slit within 3 mm. 3. The photosensitive material processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein a portion of the member facing the slit tip is a flat surface.