JP2003215776A - Drier - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To efficiently dry a photosensitive material and to suppress the power consumption. <P>SOLUTION: A drying part 13 is provided with an air duct 32 and a conveyor belt couple 43. The air duct 32 has a guide plate 33. The guide plate 33 is provided with many nozzle arrays 38 through which drying air flows. The photosensitive material 10a is conveyed by the conveyor belt couple 32. To the reverse surface 33b of the guide plate 33, 1st to 6th heating units 51 to 56 which are arrayed in the conveyance direction are fitted. The 1st to 6th heating units 51 to 56 are composed of sheet heaters H11 to H63 which are arranged at right angles to the conveyance direction. A controller 37 individually controls the sheet heaters H11 to H63 according to differences between single- array conveyance and multi-array conveyance, the size, kind, and conveyance speed of the photosensitive material 10a, and environmental temperature and humidity. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a drying device for drying a wet image recording medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an automatic processor such as a printer processor used in a photo processing laboratory, a photosensitive material such as photographic paper is cut by a cutter according to a print size to be a cut sheet-shaped photosensitive material, which is subjected to a printing process. To be done. The photosensitive material after the printing process is sorted into a single row or multiple rows by the sorting section and is conveyed to the developing device.
Usually, a developing device is provided with a carrying roller for carrying a photosensitive material and a plurality of processing tanks containing a processing solution for color development, bleach-fixing, washing with water, stabilizing, etc. The developing treatment is carried out by transporting it to the processing tank and sequentially passing it through each processing solution.

After the development processing, the light-sensitive material is in a wet state with water attached. Therefore, the photosensitive material after the development processing is transported to the drying section after the water droplets are removed at the squeeze section, and the drying processing is performed. The drying section is provided with a transport rack for transporting the photosensitive material, a blower, a heater, and the like, and the air warmed by the heater is blown by the blower to dry the photosensitive material. The quality of the dried photosensitive material is greatly influenced by the degree of drying in the drying section. Therefore, various devices have been considered as a device for stably drying a wet photosensitive material after development processing.

For example, a photographic light-sensitive material automatic developing machine described in JP-A-8-272069 and JP-A-11-
In the photographic processing apparatus described in Japanese Patent No. 133567, as a drying device, a plurality of heaters arranged in the photosensitive material conveyance direction, a measuring device for measuring the temperature inside the drying device, and a control unit for controlling the heating device are provided. The temperature inside the dryer is measured and the heater is controlled to keep the temperature inside the dryer constant.
It stabilizes the quality of the photosensitive material after drying.

[0005]

However, in the photographic light-sensitive material automatic developing machine described in JP-A-8-272069 and the photographic processing apparatus described in JP-A-11-133567, a heater is used. Although a plurality of are arranged in the photosensitive material conveying direction, a single heater is provided in the direction orthogonal to the photosensitive material conveying direction. For this reason, there is a gap between the photosensitive materials when the photosensitive materials are conveyed in multiple rows, and there is a large amount of unnecessary heat generation where the photosensitive materials are not overhead in the case of single-row conveyance. The above power was consumed, resulting in an increase in cost.

Further, the heater is controlled to keep the temperature inside the drying device constant, but the drying is performed in the same environment regardless of the difference in single-row conveyance, multi-row conveyance, and photosensitive material size. However, the drying environment was not optimal for all photosensitive material sizes. For example, because the total heat capacity of the heater is determined according to the maximum size print,
In the case of small size printing, it may be over-dried due to overheating, and both edges of the photosensitive material may curl after drying.
There was a problem in terms of quality.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems, and an object thereof is to provide a drying device capable of efficiently drying and suppressing the occurrence of curls and the like.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, a drying device of the present invention is for drying a wet recording medium while conveying it in a conveying path, and is arranged at a position facing the recording medium. A plate body provided along the transport path and having a blowout hole for blowing a dry air to the recording medium, and provided inside or on the surface of the plate body and arranged in the transport direction of the recording medium and a direction orthogonal thereto. Multiple first
A heater and at least one of these first heaters in terms of the number of conveying rows, size, type, conveying speed of the recording medium, and environmental temperature and humidity.
It is provided with a controller which controls individually according to one factor.

A transport member that supports the recording medium separated from the plate body by the dry air from the blow hole of the plate body and transports the recording medium along the transport path, and a blow hole of the plate body. It is preferable to provide a second heater for heating the dry air, which is provided in the dry air supply path for supplying the dry air.

Further, it is preferable that the controller selectively drives the first heater corresponding to the recording medium passage.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 schematically shows the internal structure of a printer processor 2 embodying the present invention. The printer processor 2 includes a printer unit 3 and a processor unit 4. The printer unit 3 includes a magazine 5, a cutter 6,
The back printing unit 7, the exposure unit 8, and the distribution unit 9 are included.
The strip-shaped photosensitive material 10 set in the magazine 5 is cut by the cutter 6 according to the print size, and becomes a cut sheet-shaped photosensitive material 10a (see FIGS. 2 and 3).
The photosensitive material 10a is conveyed toward the exposure section 8 along a conveyance path 15 shown by a chain double-dashed line in FIG. 1, and the back printing section 7 prints a frame number and correction data on the way. Then, an image based on the image data is exposed and recorded on the light receiving surface of the photosensitive material 10a by the exposure unit 8. Then, the exposed photosensitive material 10a
Depending on the print size and the print quantity, they are sorted into a single row or multiple rows and conveyed to the processor unit 4.

The processor section 4 comprises a development processing section 11, a squeeze section 12, a drying section 13, and a sorter section 14. The development processing section 11 includes a developing tank 16 and a bleach-fixing tank 1 in order from the upstream side (left side in the drawing) of the photosensitive material 10a in the conveying direction.
7. The 1st-4th washing tanks 18-21 are provided. A developer is stored in the developing tank 16, a bleach-fixing solution is stored in the bleach-fixing tank 17, and a predetermined amount of the washing solution is stored in the first to fourth washing tanks 18 to 21. Inside the developing tank 16 and the bleach-fixing tank 17, there is provided a carrying rack 22 including a plurality of carrying rollers for carrying the photosensitive material 10a into a substantially U-shape inside the tank. In the water washing layers 18 to 21, there are provided a pair of transport rollers 23 for transporting the photosensitive material 10a into a substantially U shape in the tank. The photosensitive material 10a is sent into each of the tanks 16 to 21 by the carrying rack 22 and the carrying roller pair 23 to be developed.

In the water washing tanks 18 to 21, the photosensitive material 10a is sent through the submerged squeeze portion 24 provided on the partition wall. The submerged squeeze portion 24 is provided with a blade made of a thin plate that elastically deforms, and this blade allows passage of the photosensitive material 10a and prevents outflow of the washing liquid. The developed photosensitive material 10a is subjected to removal of water droplets adhering to it in a squeeze section 12 and sent to a drying section 13.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the drying section 13 is for drying the light-sensitive material 10a after being washed with water, and has a drying chamber 31, a blowing duct 32, a heater 34, a blower 35, and a carrying rack 40. Composed of.

The transport rack 40 comprises a transport belt pair 43 and first to third transport roller pairs 46 to 48 in order from the feeding direction of the photosensitive material 10a, and forms a photosensitive material transport path. The squeeze roller pairs 41 and 42 of the squeeze unit 12 sandwich and convey the photosensitive material 10a sent from the development processing unit 11, and send it out to the conveyer belt pair 43.

The conveying belt pair 43 is composed of rollers 44 provided on the left and right sides and an endless belt 45 formed of a mesh wound between the rollers 44. Photosensitive material 10a sent from squeeze roller pair 42
Is transported while being pressed against the endless belt 45 by the dry air blown from the nozzles 38 of the guide plate 33, and is delivered to the first transport roller pair 46. Therefore, the image recording surface 10b of the photosensitive material 10a is conveyed in a state of being separated from the guide plate 33, and the image recording surface 10b is not damaged by the sliding of the photosensitive material 10a and the guide plate 33.

The air duct 32 is provided with a guide plate 33 along the photosensitive material conveying path at a position facing the photosensitive material 10a. The guide plate 33 is made of aluminum, and the side surface 33a of the photosensitive material is painted black. As a result, the thermal conductivity of the guide plate 33 is high, and the emissivity of the photosensitive material 10a is high (total emissivity 0.9 or more). Therefore, the amount of radiant heat increases, and the photosensitive material 10a can be effectively dried.

As shown in FIG. 4, a large number of nozzle rows 38 are provided on the guide plate 33 side by side in the photosensitive material conveying direction (X direction). The nozzle row 38 is configured by providing a large number of nozzles 38a at a predetermined pitch in a direction (Y direction) orthogonal to the photosensitive material conveyance direction. The nozzle 38a has a diameter D
It is composed of a circular hole. Each nozzle 3 of the nozzle row 38
The forming positions of the nozzles 8a are shifted so that the nozzles 8a overlap each other by (1/4) D. As a result, the dry air can be uniformly blown onto the photosensitive material 10a. The shape of the nozzle is not limited to the circular shape, and may be an elliptical shape, a slit, or the like.

The aperture ratio of the nozzle 38 to the guide plate 33 is 50% or less. This is the nozzle 38
By controlling the aperture ratio of No. 2 to be low, the blowing speed (wind speed) of the dry air blown from the nozzle 38 onto the photosensitive material 10a is set to a predetermined value or more. Since the drying speed of the photosensitive material 10a depends on the speed of the air blown, the drying speed is improved by increasing the blowing speed.

A dry air supply passage 61 is formed in the air duct 32 for blowing out the dry air from the nozzle 38a. The heater 3 is provided in the dry air supply passage 61.
4, a blower 35 is provided. The blower 35 circulates dry air inside the drying unit 13. The heater 34 heats the dry air to about 60 to 90 ° C. A temperature sensor 62 is attached to the guide plate 33, and the temperature detected by the temperature sensor 62 is sent to the controller 37 (see FIG. 2). The controller 37 feedback-controls the heater 34 based on the temperature detected by the temperature sensor 62 to keep the dry air at a constant temperature.

The guide plate 33 is provided with first to sixth heating units 51 to 56 arranged on the lower side surface 33b thereof at regular intervals in the transport path direction. The guide plate 33 is heated to, for example, about 95 ° C. by the first to sixth heating units 51 to 56, and the photosensitive material 10a is dried by the radiant heat.

As shown in FIG. 5, the first heating unit 51
Is three planar heaters H11 and H1 arranged in the Y direction.
2 and H13. Similarly, the second to sixth heating units 52 to 56 similarly have the three heaters H21 to H21.
It is composed of H63. The planar heater H21 is shown at the position of the first row of the second heating unit 52, the planar heater H22 is at the position of the second row, and the planar heater H23 is at the position of the third row. In the following, the third to sixth heating units are similarly configured. The total heat capacity of the sheet heaters H11 to H63 is determined according to the maximum size of the photosensitive material 10a.

The planar heaters H11 to H63 are selectively on / off controlled by the controller 37. The controller 37 controls each part of the printer processor 2 and also each of the planar heaters H11 to H63 according to the distribution result of the number of transport rows by the sorting part 9, the size and type of the photosensitive material 10a, the transport speed, and the environmental temperature and humidity. Control individually.

The optimum drying environment differs depending on the number of conveying rows, size, type and conveying speed of the photosensitive material 10a. For example, in the case of small-sized printing, if all the sheet heaters in the transport path direction are turned on, overheating causes overdrying, and both ends of the photosensitive material 10a curl after drying. Therefore, it is possible to perform drying in an optimum environment in consideration of the total power consumption of the planar heater and the quality of the photosensitive material 10a after drying, based on the difference in the number of transfer rows, size, type, and transfer speed of the photosensitive material 10a. Then, turn on the required sheet heater.

The optimum drying environment differs depending on the environmental temperature and humidity of the place where the printer processor 2 is installed. Drying section 1
A temperature / humidity sensor 39 is attached to the outside of 3, and the temperature / humidity detected by the temperature / humidity sensor 39 is sent to the controller 37. The controller 37 is based on the temperature and humidity detected by the temperature and humidity sensor 39 so that the planar heater H1 can be dried in an optimum environment.
Feedback control is performed on 1 to H63 to turn on the required planar heater.

5 to 8 show an example of a pattern for turning on each planar heater according to the print size and the distribution result.

As shown in FIG. 5, when the large-sized cut sheet photosensitive material 10d is conveyed in a single row, the first
The heating unit 51 includes the sheet heaters H1 in the first and third rows.
1, H13 is turned on, the second heating unit 52 turns on the planar heaters H22 of the second row, and so on.
Each sheet heater H31, H33, H42, H51, H5
3, H62 is controlled to be turned on in a grid pattern and dried.

Further, as shown in FIG. 6, when the small cut sheet photosensitive material 10e is conveyed in a single row, the sheet heaters H11, H31, H51 in the first row are connected to the heating units 51-51. In 56, drying is performed by controlling so that every other one is turned on.

Further, as shown in FIG. 7, when the medium-sized cut sheet photosensitive material 10f is conveyed in multiple rows, the sheet heaters H11 of the first and third rows through which the photosensitive material 10f passes. , H13, H21, H23, H41, H4
Two heating units 51 to 56 are turned on and three heating units 51 to 56 are turned off, and one heating unit is turned off.

Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 8, when the medium-sized cut sheet photosensitive material 10f is conveyed in a single row, the first row of sheet heaters H11, H21, H41,
Two H51s are turned on and one is turned off in each of the heating units 51 to 56, and the heating is controlled by repeating this and drying is performed.

The dry air blown from the nozzle 38a onto the photosensitive emulsion surface 10b of the photosensitive material 10a is warmed by the heater 34 in the dry air supply passage 61 and further heated by the planar heaters H11 to H63. Therefore, the temperature is efficiently raised, and the photosensitive material 1 is effectively
0a can be dried. Also, the photosensitive material 10a
The dry air blown onto the air passes through the endless belt formed of the mesh, and then returns to the dry air supply passage 61 via the circulation passage 63. That is, since the dry air is recirculated by driving the blower 35, the dry air can be efficiently maintained at the predetermined temperature once the predetermined temperature is reached.

The first to third conveying roller pairs 46 to 48 convey the photosensitive material 10a dried by the blowing of the drying air from the guide plate 33 toward the sorter section 14. The photosensitive material 10a that has passed through the drying device 13 is sorted by the sorter unit 14 for each order.

The control monitor 66 may control the controller 37 on the basis of the number of processed units per hour, so that the energy saving mode, the normal mode and the high speed mode can be switched. In the case of the high speed mode, the number of heaters turned on is increased and the conveyance speed is made faster than in the normal mode to perform the drying, whereby the drying can be completed faster than in the normal mode. In the energy saving mode, the number of heaters turned on is reduced as compared with the normal mode to perform the drying, whereby the drying can be completed with less power consumption than the normal mode.

Further, instead of arranging a plurality of heaters in each of the transport path direction and the direction orthogonal thereto, a plurality of wirings are provided inside one heater and divided into a plurality of heaters. May be controlled individually. In this case, the same effect as that of the plurality of heaters described above can be obtained with one heater.

Further, a photosensitive material detection sensor (not shown) is provided on the entrance side of the photosensitive material 10a of the drying section 13, the passage path of the photosensitive material 10a is determined based on the detection signal of this sensor, and the conveyance path of the passage is determined based on this. The heater may be turned on.

In the above embodiment, each of the first to sixth heating units 51 to 56 is composed of three heaters, but the number of these heating units and the number of heaters in one heating unit are not limited to the above. You may change it suitably. Further, it is not necessary to configure the heaters of the heating units to be the same for all the heating units, and the total number of heaters may be appropriately increased or decreased depending on the position of the heating unit or the like. Furthermore, the arrangement pitch of each heating unit may not be the same, but may be changed appropriately. For example, the arrangement pitch of the heating units is reduced near the entrance side of the photosensitive material 10a where the dry load is large, and the arrangement pitch is increased near the exit side of the photosensitive material 10a where the conveyance load is small.

In addition, as shown in the figure, it is possible to carry out a multi-row conveyance by 2
Although the row conveyance has been described as an example, the multi-row conveyance may be two or more rows.

Further, in the above embodiment, the heater is composed of a planar heater, but it may be composed of a ceramic heater or a silicon rubber heater.

Although the above embodiment is implemented in the printer processor 2, it may be implemented in an ink jet printer 70 as shown in FIG. The same components as those of the printer processor 2 are designated by the same reference numerals, and detailed description thereof will be omitted. The drying unit 71 of the inkjet printer 70 embodying the present invention forms an image on the paper 75 by ejecting ink droplets from the inkjet print head 77 onto the paper 75 transported by the transport roller pair 73. To be done. The drying air is blown from the nozzles 38 to the image recording surface of the paper 75 on which the image is formed by the ink droplets, and the paper 75 can be efficiently dried by the radiant heat from the guide plate 33.

[0040]

According to the present invention, a plurality of heaters are arranged in the conveying path direction of the photosensitive material and in the direction orthogonal thereto,
By controlling the plurality of heaters individually, wasteful heat generation can be suppressed and efficient drying can be performed. The quality of the dried photosensitive material can be improved by performing the drying in the optimum environment according to the conveyance path of the photosensitive material.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a printer processor in which a drying device of the present invention is implemented.

FIG. 2 is a schematic front view showing a configuration of a drying unit.

FIG. 3 is a schematic side view showing a configuration of a drying unit.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a configuration of a drying unit.

FIG. 5 is a heater-on setting diagram for large-size printing and single-row conveyance.

FIG. 6 is a heater-on setting diagram for small-size printing and single-row conveyance.

FIG. 7 is a heater-on setting diagram for medium-size printing and multi-row conveyance.

FIG. 8 is a heater-on setting diagram for medium-size printing and single-row conveyance.

FIG. 9 is a schematic view showing an inkjet printer in which the drying device of the present invention is implemented.

[Explanation of symbols]

32 air duct 33 Guide plate 33a Photosensitive material side surface 33b lower surface 34 heater 35 blower 37 Controller 38 nozzle row 38a nozzle 40 transport rack 43 Conveyor belt pair 51-56 1st-6th heating unit

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI theme code (reference) F26B 13/10 F26B 13/10 D 13/20 13/20 21/10 21/10 A G03D 15/10 G03D 15/10 CF term (reference) 2H098 AA03 CA02 GA09 GA10 JA09 3F049 DA05 FA03 LA01 LB08 3F101 FB11 FC03 FC19 LA01 LB08 3L113 AA02 AB02 AC08 AC31 AC57 AC67 BA28 CA01 CA05 CA09 CB05 CB28 DA02 DA24

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A drying device for drying a wet recording medium while transporting it in a transport path, the blower being provided along the transport path at a position facing the recording medium and blowing dry air to the recording medium. A plate body having holes, a plurality of first heaters provided inside or on the surface of the plate body and arranged in a transport direction of the recording medium and in a direction orthogonal to the transport direction of the recording medium; A drying device comprising: a controller that controls individually according to at least one factor of the number, size, type, and speed of conveyance of recording media, and environmental temperature and humidity. 2. A transport member that supports the recording medium separated from the plate body by the dry air from the blow hole of the plate body and transports the recording medium along the transport path, and a blow hole of the plate body. The drying device according to claim 1, further comprising a second heater that is provided in a dry air supply path that supplies the dry air to the dry air and that heats the dry air. 3. The drying device according to claim 1, wherein the controller selectively drives the first heater corresponding to the recording medium passage.