JP2002049105A - Belt type transporting device or photosensitive material - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a belt type transporting device for photosensitive materials including photographic paper which transports the materials toward a guide means on a downstream side so that the materials are transported in a tangent direction of the outer periphery surface of a rotational drive roller even if the photosensitive materials previously cut to prescribed sizes comes to the tight contact state with an endless belt when the photosensitive materials are directionally changed during the course of transportation in order to transport the photosensitive materials to the downstream side provided with processing vessels after the exposure of the photosensitive materials. SOLUTION: This device has a first rotating member 51 which is disposed near a discharge side and is pivotally supported by a first shaft body 48 freely movably disposed in a direction normal to the outer peripheral surface 35a of a rotational drive roller 35, a third rotating member 56 which is pivotally supported by a second shaft body 55 disposed near an introducing side, a fourth rotating member 57 which is pivotally supported by a third shaft body 49 freely movably disposed in a normal direction by the energizing force parting from the outer peripheral surface of the rotational drive roller, the endless belt 50 which transports the photosensitive materials in the state of holding the same between itself and the outer peripheral surface and a second rotating member 52 which has a radial dimension greater than the dimension obtained by adding the thickness dimension of the endless belt body to the radial dimension of the first rotating member and is pivotally supported by the first shaft body.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a belt-type conveying apparatus for photosensitive material, and more particularly to a method for cutting a photographic paper, which is a photosensitive material, into a predetermined size and then sequentially conveying the photographic paper toward a processing tank storing a predetermined processing liquid. The present invention also relates to a technique for changing the direction of photographic paper and transporting the photographic paper.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art After exposing an emulsion surface of a photographic paper which has been cut in advance to a predetermined size, an image is sequentially passed through a processing tank called a processor which contains processing liquids for development, bleaching and washing with water. Various photographic processing apparatuses configured to be formed and discharged to the outside after drying have been put to practical use.

Such a photographic processing apparatus is provided with a transport mechanism that is previously cut into a desired cut size and distributes the exposed photographic paper into two rows on the right and left sides, so that processing liquids for development, bleaching, and washing are incorporated. A photographic processing apparatus has been put into practical use in which the processing capacity has been improved to nearly twice by sequentially passing the processing tank in two rows. It is necessary to convey the photographic paper to the processing tank immediately. In addition, the time required to sequentially pass through the processing tank containing the processing liquid for development, bleaching, and washing is considerably longer than the time required for exposing the emulsion surface of the photographic paper in the exposure section. When the number of photographic papers to be exposed exceeds the number of photographic papers to be processed in the processing tank, it is necessary to provide a buffer function for holding the exposed photographic papers on standby.

Accordingly, the applicant of the present application has disclosed a patent 293518.
In No. 4, in a photographic processing apparatus provided with a transport device for transporting a photographic paper previously cut to a predetermined size to an exposure unit, and after exposure to a downstream side provided with a plurality of processing tanks, A photographic printing process that has a buffer function that is required when the number of exposures exceeds the processing capacity of the processing tank and that can be immediately transferred to the processing tank when processing in the processing tank becomes possible. It proposes a transport means for the device.

FIG. 7 shows one of the transport mechanisms disclosed above.
FIG. 4 is a front view showing a configuration in which a direction change is performed while a photographic paper P, which is a photosensitive material, is conveyed along a conveyance path formed between guide members 47; In this figure, an outer peripheral surface 13 is driven by a motor in one direction and changes direction.
A plurality of rotating members 151 are rotatably supported on the outer peripheral surface of the rotation driving roller 135 having the rotating member 5a, and the endless belt 150 is stretched between these rotating members 151 as shown in FIG. The photographic paper P is transported in a state of being sandwiched between the outer peripheral surface 135a and the endless belt 150 so as to follow the drive roller 135, and is discharged toward the guide 47 on the downstream side. Further, the emulsion surface Pa of the photographic paper P is brought into contact with the endless belt 150 to protect the emulsion surface.

[0006]

However, when the photographic paper P is discharged while changing its direction as described above, when the photographic paper P is discharged from the discharge side of the outer peripheral surface 135a, the emulsion surface Pa is in close contact with the belt. Therefore, it is necessary to further provide a dedicated mechanism for turning the direction (not shown) for moving to the guide 47 on the downstream side.

Accordingly, the present invention has been made in view of the above-described dedicated mechanism, and conveys a photosensitive material cut in advance to a predetermined size to an exposure unit, and after exposure, a downstream side provided with a plurality of processing tanks. When the direction change is performed in the middle of the conveyance to convey the paper, even if the photosensitive material including the photographic paper is in close contact with the endless belt, it can be surely conveyed in the tangential direction of the outer peripheral surface of the rotary drive roller It is another object of the present invention to provide a belt-type transport device for photosensitive material that does not require a special mechanism for changing the direction.

[0008]

Means for Solving the Problems The above-mentioned problems are solved,
In order to achieve the object, according to the present invention, the photosensitive material is disposed between an exposure unit that exposes the photosensitive material and a processing unit that stores a processing solution for performing each processing after the exposure, and transports the photosensitive material. A belt-type transport device for a photosensitive material including a transport unit that transports from upstream to downstream along a road, wherein the transport unit includes:
A rotary drive roller having an outer peripheral surface for changing the direction of the conveyance path and being driven to rotate in one direction, and guide means for guiding the photosensitive material to be introduced from the introduction side of the outer peripheral surface and discharged from the discharge side A first member disposed near the discharge side and movably provided with respect to an outer peripheral surface of the rotary drive roller.
A first rotating member pivotally supported by the shaft member, a third rotating member pivotally supported by a second shaft member disposed near the introduction side, and the first shaft member and the first shaft member. A fourth rotating member disposed between the second shafts and rotatably supported by a third shaft that is movably provided with an urging force separated from an outer peripheral surface of the rotary drive roller; A first rotating member and the third rotating member;
The photosensitive material is conveyed in a state of being sandwiched between the outer peripheral surface by converting the urging force into tension and following the rotational drive roller. An endless belt, a second rotating member having a larger radius than the radius of the first rotating member plus the thickness of the endless belt member, and being pivotally supported by the first shaft. Are provided.

In addition, the endless belts for a plurality of belts are individually stretched by the first rotating member, the third rotating member, and the fourth rotating member, and the fifth rotating member is interposed therebetween. By arranging, both side edges of the endless belt body are guided.

[0010] The present invention is characterized in that the first and third shaft members are configured so that the moving directions thereof respectively coincide with the normal direction of the rotary drive roller.

[0011]

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

First, FIG. 1 is an external perspective view showing a main part of the entire structure of the photo processing apparatus 1 in which a cover detachably provided to a housing 2 is removed, and is set as an option. The state where the left paper magazine left storage unit on the left side is added is shown. The device 1 is configured to be as flat as possible in the front and back sides of the paper to minimize the occupied area after installation, while allowing easy access to main parts from the front.

[0013] This paper magazine left storage unit is provided with the device 1
The paper magazines 3 and 3 can be installed simultaneously with the cutter unit 4 so that the two paper magazines 3 and 3 can be simultaneously loaded as shown in the figure. In this way, the paper magazine 3 can be appropriately added, and the photo processing apparatus 1 delivered and installed with only the right paper magazine right storage section installed first is installed and used frequently after the installation. The left storage section of the paper magazine can be appropriately added based on the consumption of the photographic paper including the panorama photograph.

On the other hand, a photographic paper P on which a color developing emulsion is previously coated on the photographic printing surface side is wound as a continuous long roll paper having a predetermined width (for example, 89 mm width) and completely shields light. It is set in a state and is rotatably built in the paper magazine 3. This paper magazine 3
The left and right paper magazine left storage section and the paper magazine right storage section are configured in a symmetrical shape as shown in the drawing to allow common use for the left storage section and the paper magazine right storage section. (Not shown) are provided. Further, an automatic opening / closing mechanism for opening the built-in roll paper P in the direction of arrow P1 outside the magazine 3 is provided, and the magazine is inserted into either the right storage section of the paper magazine or the left storage section of the paper magazine. In such a case, the components are automatically opened and closed in the same manner, thereby making the components common and improving the usability.

A cutter unit 4 provided in close proximity to the paper magazine 3 is for cutting a continuously transported photographic paper P into a desired size before exposure. The photographic paper P cut into the cut size is first conveyed by the suction operation and the conveyance operation by the conveyance belt 12 on the exposure table 5 provided in the dark box 7 and temporarily fixed by suction to prepare for exposure. The film F is sequentially fed to the scanner 6, and the optical system 13 including a zoom lens or the like is automatically or manually adjusted to form an image of a desired size on the photographic paper P for exposure. It is configured as follows.
Further, a photographic paper rotating mechanism 11 is provided substantially at the center of the exposure printing table 5, and is capable of turning 90 degrees in the direction of arrow P2 after sucking the paper P by the suction pad 8.

More specifically, the photographic paper P cut by the cutter unit 4 is sucked to the table side without any gap by the suction action of a large number of holes formed on the table 5. After the exposure, the photographic paper P is transported toward the transport unit 10, and it is determined whether or not it is the large-size photographic paper PL at a position indicated by an arrow P3 in the drawing, and thereafter, is transported downstream. Here, when the photographic paper size is small (127 × 89 mm),
The wafer is transported so as to be divided into right and left, so that the inside of the processing tank 16 is arranged in two rows. Thus, the processing speed can be increased by carrying the paper in two rows.
Also, in the case of a vertically long image such as a panoramic photograph (254 × 89 mm), it can be similarly conveyed in two rows.

On the other hand, when it is desired to perform exposure so as to be orthogonal to the transport direction of the film F loaded on the film scanner 6, the suction pad 8 is rotated 90 degrees to perform exposure. With the same type of photographic paper,
It is configured so that exposure processing can be performed on all of a plurality of different sizes.

After this exposure operation, the cutter unit 4
In order to transport the photographic paper P toward the transport unit 10 disposed above the paper path, the transport path selecting mechanism operates to transport the photographic paper P toward the transport unit 10 and use arrows P3, P4, and P5. , P
6, sequentially transported in the P7 direction, and transported to the processing tank side. The transport unit 10 is provided with a greeting unit (not shown) for exposing a greeting or the like to a photograph while the photographic paper is being transported so as to be easily detachable. For this reason, since it is necessary to frequently access the transport unit 10, the transport unit 10 is configured to be easily pulled out to the front of the housing 2.

On the downstream side of the transport section 10, processing tanks 16 indicated by broken lines for sequentially performing development, bleaching, and washing of the photographic paper after exposure are provided in a stepwise manner as shown in FIG. The printing paper is turned by a rack unit (not shown) configured to change the direction in the direction of the arrow by a reversing roll (not shown) provided between the processing tanks 16 and obtain power from an endless chain 18 shown by a dashed line. Is transported to near the bottom of the tank, and is subjected to a predetermined process in the course of being transported upward, sent to the drying unit 21, dried, and finally discharged to the upper tray 19 and the lower tray 20 outside the apparatus 1 by size. It is configured as follows. In order to discharge by size in this way, above the drying unit 21,
Selector 23 for determining the photographic paper transport path for each size
The upper roller 24 and the lower roller 25 are driven on the downstream side of the transport path, and the discharge roller (not shown) moves the arrow P from the discharge port 26 at high speed.
It is configured to be conveyed in the directions of P8 and P9.

On the other hand, a container 15 for replenishing the processing liquid is provided below the processing tank 16 by opening only a front cover (not shown), and further below the container 15. A refill tank 14 is provided and the refill tank 1
The diluted processing solution obtained by diluting the processing solution at 4 is supplied to each of the processing tanks 16.

A power supply unit is provided in the housing 2 occupying the space below the drying unit 21. On the power supply unit, various processing tanks 16 described above and various buffers related to a buffer function described later are provided. A processor control unit 22 for performing control is provided, and exchanges various control data with a main control unit (not shown) fixed to the left side of the dark box 7 and configured to transport photographic paper. It is configured to control the entire apparatus while performing the control.

FIG. 2 is a front view of the transport unit 10 shown in FIG. In this figure, the components already described in FIG. 1 are assigned the same reference numerals and their explanation is omitted. The transport unit 10 has a considerable weight and has been moved in the forward direction to be pulled out from the front. Later, the moving state can be maintained in the one-sided support state, so that the work of replacing the ink ribbon of the print head described later and the work of replacing each unit including the greeting unit described above can be simplified.

The transport section 10 is configured to be separated into an upstream transport section and a downstream transport section, and has a transport path having a substantially "N" shape as shown in FIG. Is increased so that a larger number of photographic papers can be stocked.

While each roller is provided as shown in the space between the two side plates,
Components such as a motor and a clutch are fixed to the outside of the side plate. The photographic paper P that has been exposed is conveyed upward by the conveyance path selecting mechanism, and is driven by the drive roller 30 and the idle roller 2 that rotates with the roller 30.
8 and a transport unit composed of a solenoid mechanism,
The photographic paper P transported from the exposure unit is introduced into the drive roller 31 of the upstream transport unit and the idle roller 28 that rotates with the roller 31. On the downstream side, a drive roller 32 and an idle roller 28 that rotates together with the roller 32 are provided, and the recording is performed by the print head on the back surface of the paper held between the roller 31 and the roller 32. I have.

Downstream of the roller 32, a drive roller 33 and an idle roller 28 that rotates with the roller 33 are provided so that the above-mentioned greeting unit can be disposed. On the downstream side of the roller 33, a drive roller 34 and an idle roller 28 that rotates together with the roller 34 are provided. Further on the downstream side, a large-diameter rotary drive roller 35 as shown in FIG. An endless belt body that follows and rotates with the surface is provided, and the direction of the photographic paper P is changed as shown in the figure so that the photographic paper P is turned downward.

Next, the downstream transport section is provided with a pair of drive rollers 36 and a drive roller 37 for performing a distribution function and transport. After the distribution, a downstream large-diameter rotary drive is provided. The sheet is fed between a roller 38 and an endless belt provided so as to rotate with the roller 38 and is turned upward. A drive roller 39 and an idle roller 28 that rotates together with the roller 39 are provided downstream of the roller 38. A drive roller 40 and an idle roller 28 that rotates together with the roller 40 are provided downstream of the roller 39, and a drive roller 41 and an idle roller 28 that rotates together with the roller 41 are further downstream. Further, on the downstream side, a drive roller 42 and an idle roller 28 that rotates together with the roller 42 are provided, and a large-diameter rotary drive roller 43 on the downstream side and the idle roller 28 that rotates together with the roller 43 are provided. The printing paper is conveyed by the endless belt body and discharged to the processing liquid tank 16 side.

A guide 47, which is a guide member, is provided between the rollers so as to guide the printing paper between the rollers. By arranging the rollers as described above, it is possible to realize a conveyance path for a photographic paper having a sufficient length by using a substantially “N” -shaped conveyance path, and to perform a stock operation performed by holding the photographic paper by the conveyance rollers. Functions are ensured.

FIG. 3 is a front view of the rotary drive roller 35 provided so that the endless belt member follows the outer peripheral surface in FIG. 2, and the other rotary drive rollers 38 and 43 have substantially the same configuration. However, the following description will be made using the configuration shown in FIG. 3 as a representative. FIGS. 4A and 4B are external perspective views showing how the bearing is mounted.

3 and 4, the rotary drive roller 35 having the outer peripheral surface 35a smoothed to change the direction of the photographic paper as described above and fixed with the shaft 35b as the rotation center axis is rotated left and right. Are rotatably supported by bearings 60 (shown by broken lines) fixed to the bases 44, respectively. A toothed pulley 45 is fixed to one end of the shaft body 35b, and a toothed belt 46 meshes with the toothed pulley 45. The toothed belt 46 is driven in the direction of the arrow by a motor (not shown), and drives the rotary drive roller 35 to rotate in the direction of the arrow.

The outer peripheral surface 35a of the rotary drive roller 35
And a guide 47 for guiding the photographic paper P discharged from the discharge side of the outer peripheral surface 35a as shown by a broken line in the illustrated position with respect to the base 44. Have been.

On the other hand, near the discharge side of the outer peripheral surface 35a, there is provided a first shaft 48 that is supported by a bearing 61 that is provided movably in the radial direction of the outer peripheral surface of the rotary drive roller 35, The first rotating member 51 and the second rotating member 52 are supported by the first shaft 48.

Further, a second shaft 55 is provided in the vicinity of the introduction side, and the third rotating member 56 is rotatably supported by the second shaft 55.

Further, a bearing 62 is provided which has a biasing force to move away from the outer peripheral surface 35a of the rotary drive roller 35 and is movably provided.
, The third shaft 49 is supported, and the third shaft 49 supports the fourth rotating member 57. These rotating members are preferably molded from so-called engineering plastics (engineering plastics) having excellent self-lubricating properties such as a polyacetal resin material.

Three endless belt members 50 are prepared, and the inner wall side is supported by the outer peripheral surfaces of the respective rotating members supported by the shaft members 48, 49, 55, and the outer wall side is a rotary drive roller 35. Is mounted in a stretched state so as to be in close contact with the outer peripheral surface 35a of the main body. Here, as shown in FIG. 3, the moving direction of the first shaft body 48 is configured to coincide with the normal direction of the rotary drive roller 35, so that even if the thickness of the paper changes, the second Rotary member 52 and rotary drive roller 35
The paper is always fed in a fixed direction without shifting the contact position with the outer peripheral surface 35a. Also,
Third shaft body 49 installed substantially at the center of endless belt body 50
Is also coincident with the normal direction of the rotary drive roller 35, the movement in the direction away from the outer peripheral surface 35a by the urging force becomes smooth, and the tension of the endless belt body 50 in the shaft body 49 is substantially in the left-right direction. This will occur evenly.

As shown in FIG. 3, the second rotating member 52 is larger than the radius (r1) of the first rotating member 51 plus the thickness (t) of the endless belt body 50. It has a large radius dimension r2. Outer peripheral surface 3 as shown
An endless belt body 50 for transporting the photographic paper P in a sandwiched state between the endless belt 5a and the photosensitive material 5a is integrally formed of a material having excellent durability such as cloth-containing polyurethane rubber, and the transport surface in contact with the emulsion surface is polished smoothly. Have been.

In FIG. 4, a bearing 62 having a hole 62c for supporting a third shaft 49 is provided with a parallel inner wall 44 of a vertical hole 44b formed in a base 44 as shown.
Since the tension coil springs 58, both ends of which are fixed by the parallel surface 62a, the flange portion 62f, and the pin 59 fixed to the base portion 44, which match the position c, enter the biasing force for moving the bearing 62 upward, Grooves 62b are formed. The symmetric bearing 62 is moved in the direction of the arrow shown by the dashed line and assembled.

A bearing 61 having a hole 61c for supporting the first shaft 48 is provided with a base 44 as shown in FIG.
A parallel surface 61a corresponding to the parallel inner wall portion 44c of the vertical hole portion 44a formed in the hole and a flange portion 62f (only one is shown) are formed. Move to and assemble.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the external appearance of the device completed as described above. The same reference numerals are given to the components already described, and the description thereof will be omitted.
The fifth rotating member 66 is interposed between the third rotating members having the tension members, and both side edge portions 50 of the belt body 50 are provided.
By guiding a, left and right blurring can be prevented. The photographic paper P is configured to be conveyed in any range of W1, W2, and W3 in the drawing.

According to the configuration described above, in the front view of the belt-type transport device for explaining the operation of FIG. 6, the outer peripheral surface 35 is provided for discharging the photographic paper P while changing its direction.
When the emulsion surface Pa is discharged from the discharge side, even if the emulsion surface Pa comes into close contact with the endless belt body 50, the close contact state is eliminated by the second rotating member 52, As a result, the sheet can be conveyed correctly as shown by the broken line. Further, since the urging force in the direction of arrow F by the tension coil spring 58 is converted into the tension in the directions of arrows F1 and F2 in the belt body 50 as described above, the second rotating member 52 moves to the outer peripheral surface 35a. Therefore, the conveyance can be performed in the tangential direction while being held between the outer peripheral surface 35a of the rotary drive roller 35 and the outer peripheral surface 35a.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described below, and various configurations defined in the claims are possible. In particular, the number of shafts to be installed is appropriately set. It goes without saying that the number is at least as large as the above number, and the relationship between the belt body 50 and the rotary drive roller 35 is not limited to the above configuration.

[0041]

As described above, according to the present invention,
When the photosensitive material cut in advance to a predetermined size is conveyed to the exposure unit, and after the exposure, when the direction is changed in the course of conveyance to be conveyed to a downstream side provided with a plurality of processing tanks, the photosensitive material including photographic paper is It is possible to provide a belt-type transport device for photosensitive material that can reliably transport in the tangential direction of the outer peripheral surface of the rotary drive roller even when the photosensitive material is in close contact with the endless belt.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing a main part of an overall configuration of a photographic processing apparatus 1. FIG.

FIG. 2 is a front view of the transport unit 10 of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a front view around the rotary drive roller 35 of FIG. 2;

4A is an external perspective view of a bearing 62 in FIG. 2, and FIG.
FIG. 3 is an external perspective view of the bearing 61 of FIG.

FIG. 5 is an external perspective view of a belt-type transport device for photosensitive materials.

FIG. 6 is a front view of the belt-type transport device for explaining the operation.

FIG. 7 is a front view around a conventional rotary drive roller 135.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Photograph processing apparatus 2 Housing 35 Rotation drive roller 44 Base 45 Toothed pulley 46 Toothed belt 47 Guide (guide means) 48 First shaft body 49 Third shaft body 50 Endless belt body 51 First rotating member 52 Second rotating member 55 Second shaft body 56 Third rotating member 57 Fourth rotating member 58 Tension coil spring 59 Pin 61, 62 Bearing 66 Fifth rotating member

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An image forming apparatus, comprising: an exposure unit that exposes a photosensitive material; and a processing unit that stores a processing solution for performing each processing after the exposure, and transfers the photosensitive material from upstream to downstream along a transport path. A belt-type transport device for a photosensitive material including transport means for transporting the photosensitive material toward the transporting device, wherein the transport means has an outer peripheral surface that changes the direction of the transport path, and a rotary drive roller that is driven to rotate in one direction. Guide means for introducing the photosensitive material from the introduction side of the outer peripheral surface and guiding the photosensitive material to be discharged from the discharge side; and disposed near the discharge side and movably with respect to the outer peripheral surface of the rotary drive roller. A first rotating member pivotally supported by a first shaft body provided; a third rotating member pivotally supported by a second shaft body disposed near the introduction side; Disposed between the shaft body and the second shaft body, from the outer peripheral surface of the rotary drive roller. A fourth rotating member pivotally supported by a third shaft body movably provided with a biasing force apart from the first rotating member, the third rotating member, and the fourth rotating member; An endless belt that is stretched to transfer the photosensitive material in a sandwiched state between the outer peripheral surface by converting the urging force into tension and following the rotation drive roller; and A photosensitive material having a radius larger than a radius obtained by adding a thickness of the endless belt to a radius, and a second rotating member supported by the first shaft; Belt-type transfer device. 2. A plurality of endless belt members are individually stretched by the first rotating member, the third rotating member, and the fourth rotating member, and a fifth rotating member is interposed therebetween. 2. The belt-type conveying device for photosensitive material according to claim 1, wherein the arrangement guides both side edges of the endless belt. 3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a moving direction of each of the first shaft body and the third shaft body coincides with a normal direction of the rotary drive roller.
2. A belt-type transport device for photosensitive material according to claim 1.