JP2005234438A - Method for processing photosensitive material - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for processing a photosensitive material which uses a slot die and stabilizes developability from the start of coating application to the end thereof. <P>SOLUTION: The processing method having a coating application means for premetering and applying a processing liquid for the photosensitive material is characterized in that the relational expression of A and B is B-A<A/2 when the coating weight right after the coating application means is defined as A and the coating weight just before a wringer roller behind the coating application means as B. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a processing method for applying a processing solution to a photosensitive material. Specifically, the present invention relates to a processing method for applying a processing liquid using a slot die.

  Photosensitive materials such as films, photographic papers, and printing plates are processed with a processing solution such as a developer, a fixing solution, a stabilizing solution, and washing water after an image is recorded. 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 means constituted by a plurality of pairs of transporting rollers, and the photosensitive material is immersed in the processing liquid. An immersion type processing apparatus that performs processing by doing so is known.

  In such an immersion type processing apparatus, the processing solution deteriorates due to processing fatigue associated with the processing of the photosensitive material or fatigue with time due to carbon dioxide or oxygen in the atmosphere. The deterioration of the processing solution is restored. For this reason, the components of the treatment liquid at the start of the treatment are different from the components of the treatment liquid when the treatment is continued thereafter, and it is impossible to perform a strictly uniform treatment. In addition, such an immersion type processing apparatus has a problem that the amount of 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 problems, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 62-237455, 6-8956, 6-27677, and 2001-174970 are disclosed. Instead of immersing the photosensitive material in the processing solution, the pre-weighing coating process is performed by applying the processing solution necessary for processing the photosensitive material to the photosensitive surface of the photosensitive material. An apparatus is known (Patent Document 1).

  In particular, the processing apparatus using the slot die disclosed in the above-mentioned JP-A-2001-174970 and JP-A-2001-312036 can be applied uniformly and stably even with a small amount of processing liquid, and substantially no waste liquid is generated. There is an advantage.

However, immediately after the processing solution necessary for processing the photosensitive material is applied to the photosensitive surface of the photosensitive material, a uniform coating can be stably applied. However, after a predetermined development time has elapsed, the roller pair develops the photosensitive surface. The liquid can be squeezed. At this time, as shown in FIG. 2, a phenomenon in which the squeezed developer flows backward on the photosensitive surface toward the coating device is seen, and the coating amount on the photosensitive surface in front of the squeezing roller increases, The developability is reduced.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-312036 (first to third pages, FIG. 1)

  An object of the present invention is to further improve a photosensitive material processing method using a slot die, and to provide a photosensitive material processing method that stabilizes developability from the start of coating to the end of development. is there.

The above object of the present invention has been achieved by the following invention.
(1) In a processing method having a coating means for pre-measuringly applying a processing solution to a photosensitive material, A is the coating amount immediately after the coating means, and B is the coating amount before the squeezing roller after the coating means. , A and B were achieved by a method for processing a photosensitive material, characterized in that:
B−A <A / 2 (relational expression)

  According to the present invention, an excessive amount of processing liquid staying in front of the squeezing roller can be reduced, stable development processing can be performed from the start to the end of coating, and stable print quality can be obtained.

  Hereinafter, the photosensitive material processing method of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of a photosensitive material processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  Reference numeral 1 denotes a slot die used in the present invention. The structure of the slot die 1 will be described. Reference numeral 2 denotes a processing liquid supply port connected to the manifold 3. The manifold 3 is for expanding the inflowing processing solution in the width direction. After the processing liquid is once filled in the width direction with the manifold 3 and supplied to the slit portion 4, the outflow flow rate from the slit portion 4 can be made uniform in the width direction. The treatment liquid supply port 2 may be normally provided at one center in the width direction of the slot die, but may be provided at a plurality of locations in the width direction of the slot die. The cross-sectional shape of the manifold 3 is circular in this embodiment, but is not limited to this and may be any shape. Further, the cross-sectional area of the manifold 3 does not have to be constant in the width direction of the slot die. For example, in order to further improve the flow rate uniformity in the width direction of the outflowing processing liquid, the cross-sectional area is gradually reduced toward the end. Also good.

  Although not shown in FIG. 1 for convenience, the both ends of the manifold portion of the slot die 1 in the coating width direction and the both ends of the slit portion 4 are plugged so that the processing liquid does not flow out. In this case, the stopper is applied so that the effective length in the width direction of the slit portion 4 is the same as or slightly larger than the application width of the photosensitive material to be processed.

  Although the material of the slot die 1 is not particularly limited, it is sufficient if the corrosion resistance and mechanical accuracy with respect to the processing liquid can be satisfied. For example, stainless steel is preferable. In addition, chrome-plated general plastics and plastics can be used. In addition, when manufacturing with a metal, in order to exclude the stress distortion at the time of machining, you may anneal beforehand.

  In the figure, reference numeral 10 denotes a processing liquid storage tank for storing the processing liquid 7. The processing liquid supply means for supplying the processing liquid 7 in the processing liquid storage tank 10 to the slot die 1 is constituted by a pump 8, a valve 9 and a pipe 11. The pipe 11 connects the storage tank 10 and the processing liquid supply port 2 of the slot die 1, and a pump 8 for feeding the processing liquid and a valve 9 for stopping the feeding of the processing liquid 7 are arranged therebetween. .

  P is a photosensitive material, and is conveyed from the right to the left (arrow D) in the drawing by a driving device (not shown). Reference numeral 13 denotes detection means for detecting the photosensitive material P being conveyed, and a contact type or non-contact type detector is used.

  Reference numeral 16 denotes a processing liquid supply control means for controlling supply and stop of the processing liquid of the processing liquid supply means. The processing liquid supply control means 16 detects the leading end of the photosensitive material P being conveyed by the detection means 13, thereby driving the pump 8 and opening the valve 9 to supply the processing liquid 7 to the slot die 1. . Similarly, by detecting the end portion of the photosensitive material P by the detecting means 13, the pump 8 is stopped and the valve 9 is closed after a preset time has elapsed. By performing such control, a certain amount of processing solution can be uniformly applied to the photosensitive material P being conveyed.

  In the case of controlling the coating amount on the photosensitive material P with high accuracy, a flow meter (not shown) is arranged in the path of the processing liquid piping, and the pump 8 and the valve 9 are fed back based on the flow meter signal. A configuration to control can be taken.

  The supply flow rate of the processing liquid to the slot die 1 can be determined by multiplying the desired wet application amount of the processing liquid, the photosensitive material application width, and the photosensitive material conveyance speed, respectively.

  The planar member 5 having an inclined surface has a horizontal surface at a position vertically below the slit portion 4 of the slot die 1 and has an inclined surface on the upstream side in the transport direction with respect to the horizontal surface. Further, the planar member 5 may be provided with a mechanism for arbitrarily moving it up and down, for example, in close contact with the tip of the slot die 1 to prevent leakage of the processing liquid.

  The planar member 5 has a width equal to or greater than the slot die coating width in the coating width direction, and the portion facing the tip of the slit portion 4 is a horizontal plane. The length (L) in the transport direction of the photosensitive material on the horizontal plane preferably has a length of about 20 mm to 40 mm. The material is not particularly limited as long as it has corrosion resistance to the treatment liquid. For example, stainless steel, plastics, fluorine-based resin (Teflon (R), etc.) can be used.

  The distance H between the horizontal surface of the planar member 5 and the tip of the slit portion 4 (tip of the slot die 1) is preferably within 3 mm, more preferably within 2 mm, even more preferably within 1.5 mm, particularly preferably 1. Within 0.0 mm. The lower limit of the distance H is a distance at which the photosensitive surface of the photosensitive material does not come into contact with the tip portion of the slit portion 4 (tip portion of the slot die 1).

  The squeezing roller pair 20 is a driving roller for nipping and conveying the photosensitive material. In addition, the processing solution on the photosensitive material applied with the slot die is squeezed out to finish the application of the processing solution.

In the processing of the photosensitive material, the present inventors have applied a uniform solution for pre-measuring the processing solution under conditions including the physical properties of processing solutions generally used, the wet coating amount thereof, and the processing speed (photosensitive material conveyance speed). As a result of earnest research on the coating technique, assuming that the coating amount immediately after the coating means using the slot die method is A and the coating amount before the squeezing roller after the coating means is B, the relational expression of A and B is as follows: It was found that a stable developability can be obtained by setting as follows.
B−A <A / 2 (relational expression)
In order to realize this relational expression, it is preferable to provide a scraping means 40 in front of the squeezing roller.

  The scraping means 40 in front of the squeezing roller pair is disposed in the vicinity of the squeezing roller pair upper roller 21 and at a position vertically above the photosensitive material P that is horizontally conveyed. The length M in the conveying direction of the photosensitive material is preferably about 30 mm to 300 mm. The material is not particularly limited as long as it has corrosion resistance to the treatment liquid. For example, stainless steel, plastics, fluorine-based resin (Teflon (R), etc.) can be used.

  The scraping means 40 and the conveyance guide 41 are arranged horizontally, and the distance J is preferably within 3 mm, more preferably within 1.5 mm. The lower limit of the distance J is a distance at which the lower end portion of the scraping means 40 does not contact the photosensitive surface of the photosensitive material. The material of the conveyance guide is not particularly limited as long as the material has corrosion resistance against the processing liquid, and for example, stainless steel, plastics, fluorine resin (Teflon (R), etc.) can be used.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described by way of examples.
As the photosensitive material, an aluminum lithographic printing plate (all size) using an aluminum plate as a support and using a silver complex salt diffusion transfer method was used to output an image with an output machine using a laser as a light source. The composition of the developer for processing the printing plate is shown below.
<Developer>
Sodium hydroxide 25g
Polystyrene sulfonic acid and maleic anhydride copolymer (average molecular weight 500,000) 10 g
Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid sodium salt 2g
100 g of anhydrous sodium sulfite
Monomethylethanolamine 50g
2-mercapto-5-nheptyl-oxadiazole 0.5 g
Sodium thiosulfate (pentahydrate) 8g
Hydroquinone 15g
1-phenyl-3-pyrazolidinone 3g
The total volume is 1000 ml.
pH (25 ° C.) = 13.1

The treatment liquid application test was performed with the treatment apparatus shown in FIG. 1 having scraping means in front of the squeezing roller of the present invention. At this time, the coating amount immediately after coating of the photosensitive material and the coating amount before the squeezing roller were measured with a film thickness meter. As a result, the coating amount A immediately after coating is 81.1, 91.3, 101.4 ml / m ² , and the coating amount B before the squeeze roller is 119.5, 134.5, 150 at the maximum, respectively. .5ml / m ^2, and the photosensitive material after treatment stable developing properties can be obtained. Moreover were obtained stable printing quality.

(Comparative Example 1)
The above-mentioned application test was performed in a state where no scraping means was disposed in front of the squeezing roller after application by the slot die application method which is an example of the embodiment of the present invention.

As a result, the coating amount A immediately after coating is 81.2, 91.1 and 101.3 ml / m ^2, while the coating amount B before the squeeze roller is at least 124, 138 and 156 ml / m ² , respectively. Further, the end of the photosensitive material after processing caused an excessive development process, resulting in a decrease in print quality.

Sectional drawing which shows an example of this invention Sectional view showing a conventional example

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Slot die 2 Process liquid supply port 3 Manifold 4 Slit part 5 Planar member 20 Diaphragm roller pair

Claims (1)

In a processing method having a coating means for pre-measuringly applying a processing solution to a photosensitive material, A is a coating amount immediately after the coating means, and B is a coating amount before the squeezing roller after the coating means. A processing method of a photosensitive material, wherein the relational expression of B is as follows:
B−A <A / 2 (relational expression)

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