JP2005255373A - Heat developing device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent failure of developing and the occurrence of jamming by preventing simultaneous carrying-in of a plurality of heat developing recording materials to a carrying passage from a manual insertion port of a heat developing device. <P>SOLUTION: This heat developing device 100 turns a latent image recorded on a photosensitive layer of the heat developing recording materials A into a prominent image by heating the manually inserted heat developing recording materials A. A plural-sheet feed preventive means 38 for preventing simultaneous carrying of the plurality of heat developing recording materials A, is arranged in the middle of the carrying passage from the insertion port 36 for inserting the heat developing recording materials A. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a heat development apparatus that heats a photosensitive heat development recording material and visualizes a latent image recorded on an image forming layer of the photosensitive heat development recording material.

  In recent years, in the medical field, it has been strongly desired to reduce the amount of processing waste liquid from the viewpoint of environmental protection and space saving, and it can be efficiently exposed by a laser image setter or a laser imager, and has high resolution and sharpness. A technology relating to a photothermographic material capable of forming a clear black image for medical diagnosis and photographic technology is attracting attention. These photosensitive heat-developable photographic materials eliminate the use of solution processing chemicals, and can supply a heat-development processing system that is simpler and does not affect environmental considerations to the market.

  As such a heat development processing system, a recording apparatus using a dry system that does not require wet processing is commercially available (for example, see Patent Document 1). In such a recording apparatus, a photosensitive and heat-sensitive recording material (photosensitive heat-sensitive recording material) or a heat-developable photosensitive material film is used. Hereinafter, this material is referred to as “heat-developable recording material” or “heat-developable photosensitive material”. In the recording apparatus using the dry system, a latent image is formed by irradiating (scanning) the heat-developable recording material with a laser beam in the exposure unit, and then the heat-developable recording material is brought into contact with the heating unit in the heat developing unit. Thermal development is performed, and then cooling is performed, and the thermally developed recording material on which an image is formed is discharged out of the apparatus. Such a dry system can solve the problem of waste liquid treatment and is evaluated as a preferable treatment system in terms of environmental hygiene.

In the heat development apparatus as described above, heat development processing is mainly performed on a heat development recording material having a photosensitive layer on one side. On the other hand, there is also a thermal development apparatus that performs thermal development processing by manually inserting a thermal development recording material having photosensitive layers on both sides. This type of thermal development apparatus performs thermal development processing by inserting recorded thermal development recording materials into the thermal development apparatus manually one by one in a dark room.
JP 2004-004279 A

  Unlike the heat development recording apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1, the heat development apparatus in which the heat development recording material is manually inserted is basically a darkroom operation. Therefore, the recorded heat development recording material is handled in a bright place. This is inconvenient compared to the above work. For this reason, mistakes are likely to occur in handling such as simultaneous insertion of a plurality of sheets by mistake during manual insertion into the heat development apparatus. When such a plurality of sheets are simultaneously inserted, not only these heat-developable recording materials are correctly developed but also a jam may occur in the apparatus and a great deal of time may be spent on the processing.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described circumstances, and an object thereof is to prevent a plurality of heat-developable recording materials from being simultaneously carried in a conveyance path from a manual insertion port of a heat developing device. Another object of the present invention is to provide a thermal development apparatus that can prevent development failure and jamming.

  In order to achieve the above object, the heat development apparatus according to claim 1 of the present invention is configured to heat a manually developed heat development recording material and visualize a latent image recorded on the photosensitive layer of the heat development recording material. A plurality of sheet feeding prevention means for preventing a plurality of sheets of the thermally developed recording material from being conveyed at the same time in the conveyance path from the insertion port for inserting the thermally developed recording material. It is characterized by that.

  According to this heat development apparatus, when a plurality of heat-developable recording materials are manually inserted at the same time, the plurality of sheets are prevented from being conveyed by the plural-sheet feed preventing means while being conveyed from the insertion port. Therefore, two or more sheets of the heat-developable recording material are not transported into the apparatus and discharged without being correctly developed, so that the heat-developable recording material is not wasted and jamming occurs in the apparatus. Therefore, it is possible to prevent development failure and jamming.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided the thermal development apparatus according to the first aspect, wherein the plural sheet feeding preventing means is opposed to the first roller rotating in the conveying direction of the thermal development recording material and the first roller. And at least a separation member that sandwiches the heat-developable recording material that is arranged and conveyed in cooperation with the first roller and applies a friction force larger than the friction force between the heat-developable recording materials. It is characterized by.

  According to this heat development apparatus, when two or more sheets of the heat development recording material are inserted between the first roller and the separation member, the separation member disposed to face the first roller is In order to give a frictional force larger than the frictional force between the heat-developable recording materials, the conveyance of the heat-developable recording material disposed on the lower side of the plurality of sheets is prevented, and a plurality of sheets are conveyed. Can be prevented.

  The thermal development apparatus according to claim 3 is the thermal development apparatus according to claim 2, wherein a nip force per unit length between the first roller and the separation member is 50 gf / cm or less. To do.

  According to this thermal development device, when two or more thermal development recording materials are inserted between the first roller and the separating member, the unit length per unit length between the first roller and the separating member is reduced. Since the nip force of the sheet is 50 gf / cm or less, the plurality of heat-developable recording materials inserted by mistake can be easily pulled back without damage.

  The thermal development apparatus according to claim 4 is the thermal development apparatus according to any one of claim 2 or claim 3, wherein the separation member is a second roller disposed to face the first roller. Any one of the first roller and the second roller positioned on the upper side is pressed against the other roller positioned on the lower side by the weight of the roller.

  According to this thermal development apparatus, when two or more thermal development recording materials are inserted between the first roller and the second roller, the upper side of the first roller and the second roller is positioned. Since one of the rollers is pressed against the other roller located on the lower side by the weight of the roller, the plurality of erroneously inserted heat-developable recording materials can be easily pulled back without damage. .

  The thermal development apparatus according to claim 5 is the thermal development apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein any one of the first roller and the second roller feeds the thermal development recording material. The heat development apparatus is driven to rotate through a one-way clutch that allows rotation in the direction of drawing into the heat developing apparatus.

  According to this thermal development apparatus, since either the first roller or the second roller is rotationally driven via the one-way clutch, when the conveyance speed at the time of thermal development at the latter stage of the conveyance path is increased. The increase in the conveyance speed of the heat-developable recording material can be allowed. That is, when the heat-developable recording material is thermally developed at a later stage, the conveyance speed can be increased, and at that time, the clutch starts idling. As a result, the heat-developable recording material can be taken into the apparatus at a low speed, and the heat-developable recording material can be conveyed at a high speed in the heat-developed part. Tact up of development can be achieved.

  The thermal development apparatus according to claim 6 is the thermal development apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein any one of the first roller and the second roller is made of the thermal development recording material. It is characterized in that it is rotationally driven through a torque limiter that limits the transport driving force.

  According to this thermal development apparatus, since either the first roller or the second roller is rotationally driven via the torque limiter, when a force exceeding a certain torque is applied to the driven roller, A torque limiter stops the rotation of the driven roller. For this reason, when an abnormality occurs when the heat development recording material is inserted, the heat development recording material can be pulled back to the outside of the heat development apparatus. In addition to the torque limiter, a one-way clutch may be used in combination. In that case, when the heat development recording material is taken into the apparatus at a low speed and the heat development recording material can be conveyed at a high speed while an abnormality occurs when the heat development recording material is inserted. The heat development recording material can be pulled back to the outside of the heat development apparatus.

  The thermal development apparatus according to claim 7 is the thermal development apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the plural sheet feeding prevention unit detects simultaneous insertion of plural sheets of the heat development recording material. It is characterized by providing an informing means for informing in the event of a failure.

  According to this thermal development apparatus, when the multiple sheet feeding prevention means detects simultaneous insertion of a plurality of thermal development recording materials, it is in a dark room to notify the user of an alarm with light or sound. It is possible to reliably recognize that a plurality of sheets are simultaneously inserted. Further, when there is a notification, it can be easily dealt with by pulling back the heat-developable recording material being inserted.

  According to the heat development apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to prevent a plurality of heat development recording materials from being simultaneously carried in the conveyance path from the manual insertion port of the heat development apparatus, thereby preventing development failure and jamming. This can be prevented in advance, and the usability of the thermal development apparatus is improved, so that a stable development operation can always be performed.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of a heat development apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a heat development apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a heat development recording material used in the heat development apparatus shown in FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the thermal development apparatus 100 is an apparatus that heats a thermal development recording material (photosensitive thermal development recording material) A and visualizes a latent image recorded on an image forming layer. The heat-developable recording material A used in the heat-developing apparatus 100 is made of a photosensitive material on both the first surface 81 as one surface and the second surface 82 as the other surface of the support 80 shown in FIG. The image forming layers 83 and 83 are provided.

  This heat-developable recording material A is a double-sided photosensitive film that is used for photographing by arranging fluorescent intensifying sheets (not shown) on both the first surface 81 and the second surface 82 (or one surface). The fluorescent intensifying screen emits fluorescence when excited by X-rays. The image forming layers 83 and 83 provided on the first surface 81 and the second surface 82 are exposed to fluorescence and X-rays from the fluorescent intensifying screen.

  The heat-developable recording material A inserted into the apparatus one by one from the manual insertion slot 36 is first sent to a plurality of sheet feeding prevention means 38, and a plurality of inserted heat-developable recording materials A are not simultaneously inserted. How is it detected? When only one sheet is inserted, the sheet is transferred to the heat developing unit 16 located downstream in the conveying direction via the conveying roller pair 12 and the conveying guide 14. In addition, when a plurality of sheets are inserted at the same time, notification from the notification unit 52 described later is made. The details of the multiple sheet feeding preventing means 38 will be described later.

  Note that the heat-developable recording material in the downstream heat-developing unit 16 is positioned between the conveying roller pair 12 and the heat-developing unit 16 by aligning the inserted heat-developable recording material A in the direction perpendicular to the conveying direction. A width adjusting portion for aligning A may be provided. Thereby, the skew of the heat-developable recording material A is prevented.

  In the heat development section 16, a first heating means 18 for heating the first surface 81 of the heat development recording material A and a second heating means 20 for heating the second surface 82 of the heat development recording material A are thermally developed. The recording material A is disposed to face the conveyance path C. In the present embodiment, the first heating means 18 includes a cylindrical heat drum 22. The second heating means 20 includes a plurality of pressing rollers 24 that rotate by pressing the heat-developable recording material A against the peripheral surface of the heat drum 22. Both of the heat drum 22 and the pressing roller 24 have built-in heaters H serving as heating sources.

  In the present embodiment, the heat drum 22 incorporating the heater H and the pressing roller 24 incorporating the heater H are disposed opposite to each other with the conveyance path C interposed therebetween, whereby the first surface 81 of the heat-developable recording material A, The second surface 82 is heated at the same time. That is, the heat-developable recording material A is carried into a conveyance path C formed by a gap between the heat drum 22 and the pressure roller 24 and conveyed while being sandwiched between the heat drum 22 and the pressure roller 24 and at the same time. 22 and the pressing roller 24 are heated by heat generated by the heaters H, and are thermally developed.

  The heater H used as the heat source of the heat drum 22 is not particularly limited, and a known heating means such as a heater using a heating element such as a nichrome wire, a lamp using a light source such as a halogen lamp, or a heater that heats with hot air is used. Can be used.

  As the pressing roller 24, a metal roller, a resin roller, a rubber roller, or the like can be used, and it is preferable that the pressing roller 24 is disposed over substantially the entire length of the heat drum 22 in the axial direction. Also, the heater H used as the heat source of the pressing roller 24 is not particularly limited, and a known heating means such as one using a heating element such as a nichrome wire can be used.

  In the heat developing unit 16, when the heat development recording material A is transferred to the conveyance path C, the first surface 81 is pressed against the heat drum 22, and the second surface 82 is pressed against the pressing roller 24, and heat development is performed. The first surface 81 and the second surface 82 of the recording material A are heated simultaneously. In this configuration, since both the heat drum 22 and the pressing roller 24 rotate in synchronization with the conveyance speed of the heat development recording material A, there is no relative displacement between the heating unit and the heat development recording material A. No rubbing occurs in the heat-developable recording material A.

  Then, the heat-developable recording material A that has been developed in the heat developing unit 16 is supplied to the slow cooling unit 26 disposed downstream in the transport direction. The slow cooling unit 26 includes a plurality of cooling roller pairs 28 and has a function of gradually cooling the heat-developable heat-developable recording material A. The heat-developable recording material A slowly cooled by the slow cooling section 26 is transported downstream in the transport direction by the discharge roller pairs 30 and 32, and finally cooled to the tray 34 to the extent that it does not feel hot even when touched by hand. Discharged.

The heat development apparatus 100 includes a plurality of sheet feeding preventing means 38 for preventing a plurality of sheets of the heat development recording material A from being conveyed at the same time in the conveyance path from the manual insertion slot 36.
The multi-sheet feed preventing means 38 may employ various known structures, but here, as an example, the following friction separation paper feeding method is used. That is, the multi-sheet feed preventing means 38 is mainly composed of the first roller 40 and the second roller that functions as a separating member and rotates against the first roller 40 at a low rotational speed and is pressed against the first roller 40 side. 42, a drive unit 44 that rotationally drives the second roller 42, a torque detection means 41 that detects the rotational driving force of the first roller 40 and detects the feeding of a plurality of sheets, and the first and first rollers 40, 42 It has a guide member 46 arranged on the downstream side of the conveyance path, and a conveyance roller pair 48 arranged further downstream of the conveyance path of the guide member 46, and each part is controlled by a command from the control unit 50. . The control unit 50 is connected to a notification unit 52 that performs notification when simultaneous insertion of a plurality of sheets is detected.

  Here, the nip force per unit length between the first roller 40 and the second roller 42 is set to 50 gf / cm or less. By setting the nip force within this range, the adhesion force of the first roller 40 and the second roller 42 to the heat-developable recording material A does not increase more than necessary, and a problem occurs when the heat-developable recording material A is inserted. Even in such a case, the heat-developable recording material A that has been inserted can be pulled back. Further, it is possible to prevent the pulled heat-developable recording material A from being damaged.

When a plurality of sheets are fed, the heat development recording material A on the lower side, that is, the second roller 42 is caught by the second roller 42, and the first roller 40 is thermally developed on the upper side, that is, the first roller 40 side. Since the recording material A is in a low friction state with the lower heat-developable recording material, it is conveyed alone to the guide member 46 side. The driving torque of the first roller 40 at this time is smaller than that during normal one sheet conveyance. The control unit 40 detects the feeding of a plurality of sheets by monitoring fluctuations in the drive torque from the torque detection means 41.
In addition to the above-described method, the detection of feeding of a plurality of sheets is configured such that, for example, the second roller 42 is rotatably supported and a rotation detecting means is attached to the second roller 42, and when the heat development recording material A is inserted. When the rotation of the second roller 42 is stopped, it may be determined that a plurality of sheets are simultaneously inserted.

  When a plurality of heat-developable recording materials A are detected by any method, the control unit 50 stops the driving unit 44 and outputs a plurality of sheet detection signals to the notification unit 52.

  When a plurality of detection signals are input from the control unit 50, the notification unit 52 generates an alarm, turns on a predetermined lamp, or displays that a plurality of sheets are inserted in the information display monitor of the device. Notifications such as making them occur are made in one or a combination. When notification is performed by light emission, it is preferable to emit light having a wavelength that is not exposed to the image forming layers 83 and 83 (see FIG. 2).

Here, processing from manual insertion of the heat-developable recording material A to heat development will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.
First, the heat development recording material A is inserted into the manual insertion slot 36 of the heat development apparatus 100 (step 1, hereinafter abbreviated as S1). Then, the plurality of sheet feeding prevention means 38 detects whether or not the inserted heat-developable recording material A is a plurality of sheets simultaneously inserted (S2). It is confirmed whether or not there are a plurality of sheets (S3). If there is only one sheet, the heat-developable recording material A is conveyed to the heat-developing unit 16 as it is and heat development is performed (S4). On the other hand, when there are a plurality of sheets, a warning or the like is notified from the notification unit 52 (S5). In that case, the plurality of heat-developable recording materials A inserted by mistake can be easily pulled back from the manual insertion slot 36 because the plural-sheet feeding preventing means 38 stops the conveying operation.

  As described above, when the plurality of sheets of the heat development recording material A are inserted between the first roller 40 and the second roller 42, the plurality of sheets feed prevention means 38 causes the second roller 42 to move the heat development recording material A. In order to apply a frictional force larger than the frictional force between them, the conveyance of the heat-developable recording material A disposed on the lower side of the plurality of sheets is blocked and it is detected that the plurality of sheets have been conveyed. . This prevents a plurality of heat-developable recording materials A from being conveyed to the heat-developing section 16. As a result, when a plurality of heat-developable recording materials A are manually inserted at the same time, the conveyance is stopped while being conveyed from the manual insertion port 36. Therefore, two or more sheets of the heat-developable recording material A will not continue to be conveyed into the apparatus. As a result, the heat-developable recording material A is not wasted without being correctly developed and is not wasted, and jamming does not occur in the apparatus.

  Further, the plurality of sheet feeding preventing means 38 is provided between the first roller 40 and the second roller 42 when a plurality of the thermally developed recording materials A are inserted between the first roller 40 and the second roller 42. Since the nip force per unit length is 50 gf / cm or less, a plurality of erroneously inserted heat-developable recording materials A can be easily pulled back without damage.

FIG. 4 shows another form of the first roller and the second roller of the plural sheet feeding preventing means.
In this configuration, the first roller 40 is rotatably attached to the distal end portion of the rotating link arm 54, and is mainly connected to the second roller 42 positioned on the lower side by the weight of the first roller 40. It is a driven roller that generates a nip force between them and transports the heat-developable recording material A in the transport direction. On the other hand, the second roller 42 is connected to the drive unit 44 and driven to rotate.
According to this configuration, the first roller 40 and the second roller 42 are nipped by the force of the weight of the first roller 40, and the nip state can be easily released. The heat-developable recording material A can be easily pulled back without damaging it.

Next, another embodiment of the multiple sheet feed preventing means will be described.
FIG. 5 shows a configuration diagram of a main part of a plurality of sheet feed preventing means in which the second roller is rotationally driven via a one-way clutch.
The second roller 42 is provided with a driven gear 56 coaxially with the second roller 42 via a one-way clutch 62, and the driven gear 56 is connected to a driving gear 60 that transmits a driving force from a driving unit 44 such as a motor. Screwed and driven to rotate. The one-way clutch 62 allows rotation in the direction in which the heat-developable recording material A held between the first roller 40 and the second roller 42 is drawn into the heat developing apparatus 100.

  The rotational driving force transmitted to the driven gear 56 is transmitted to the second roller 42 via the one-way clutch 62. And when the conveyance speed in the heat development part 16 of the back | latter stage of a conveyance path is accelerated, the increase in the conveyance speed of the heat development recording material A can be accept | permitted. That is, the clutch starts idling when the conveyance speed of the heat-developable recording material is increased in the latter stage of the conveyance path. As a result, the heat developing recording material A is inserted into the apparatus at a low speed, while the heat developing section 16 can carry the heat developing recording material A at a high speed. As a result, it is possible to increase the tact time of the heat development process without impairing the handleability of the heat development recording material.

  Also in this case, the plural-sheet feeding preventing means 38 conveys the heat-developable recording material A disposed on the lower side of the plural sheets when two or more sheets of the heat-developable recording material A are inserted simultaneously. While blocking, the insertion of a plurality of heat-developable recording materials A is detected, and a plurality of detection signals are input to the control unit.

Further, as another configuration example of the plural sheet feeding preventing means, a configuration provided with a torque limiter instead of the above one-way clutch can be adopted.
Since the one-way clutch 62 shown in FIG. 5 is simply replaced with the torque limiter 64 as a configuration provided with the torque limiter, it will be described here with reference to FIG.
In this configuration example, since the second roller 42 is rotationally driven via the torque limiter 64, when a force exceeding a certain torque is applied to the second roller 42, the torque limiter 64 rotates the second roller 42. Stop. For this reason, when an abnormality occurs when the heat development recording material A is inserted, the heat development recording material A can be easily pulled back to the outside of the heat development apparatus 100. Further, when the one-way clutch 62 is used in addition to the torque limiter 64, the heat developing recording material A can be inserted into the apparatus at a low speed, and the heat developing section 16 can be transported at a high speed. The development recording material A can be pulled back to the outside of the thermal development apparatus 100.
Here, the second roller 42 is the rotational drive side, but the first roller 40 may be rotationally driven.

  As described above, in the thermal development apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment, when a plurality of heat-developable recording materials A are manually inserted at the same time, the plurality of sheets are prevented from being fed by the plurality of sheet feed prevention means 38 while being conveyed from the manual insertion slot 36. , Its transport is blocked. Accordingly, two or more sheets of the heat-developable recording material A are not transported into the apparatus, are discharged without being properly developed, and the heat-developable recording material A is not wasted and jamming occurs in the apparatus. Therefore, development failure and jamming can be prevented in advance. Thus, a stable development operation can always be performed.

  The roller on the driving side is rotationally driven via the one-way clutch 62, whereby the conveyance speed of the heat-developable recording material can be changed according to the location in the apparatus, and the efficient conveyance of the heat-developable recording material Can be done. Further, since the driving roller is driven to rotate via the torque limiter 64, the heat-developable recording material can be pulled back to the outside of the heat-developing device when an abnormality occurs such as when the heat-developable recording material is inserted. Usability of the developing device is improved.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a heat development apparatus according to the present invention. It is sectional drawing of the photosensitive development recording material. It is a flowchart which shows the process from manual insertion of a heat development recording material to performing heat development. It is a principal part block diagram which shows the other form of the 1st roller of a multiple sheet feed prevention means, and a 2nd roller. It is a principal part block diagram of the multiple sheet feed prevention means by which a 2nd roller is rotationally driven via a one-way clutch.

Explanation of symbols

36 Manual insertion slot (insertion slot)
38 Multiple sheet feed prevention means 40 First roller 42 Second roller (separating member)
62 One-way clutch 64 Torque limiter 83 Image forming layer (photosensitive layer)
100 Thermal development apparatus A Thermal development recording material C Conveyance path

Claims (7)

A heat development apparatus that heats a manually inserted heat development recording material to visualize a latent image recorded on a photosensitive layer of the heat development recording material,
A heat developing apparatus comprising a plurality of sheet feeding preventing means for preventing a plurality of the heat developed recording materials from being conveyed simultaneously in the conveying path from an insertion port for inserting the heat developed recording material.   The plural sheet feeding preventing means cooperates with the first roller for rotating the heat-developable recording material in the conveying direction of the heat-developable recording material, and for the heat-developable recording material disposed opposite to the first roller and conveyed. The heat developing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a separating member that sandwiches and applies a friction force larger than a friction force between the heat development recording materials.   3. The heat developing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein a nip force per unit length between the first roller and the separating member is 50 gf / cm or less.   The separation member is a second roller disposed to face the first roller, and one of the first roller and the second roller located on the upper side is caused by its own weight. 4. The heat developing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the heat developing apparatus is pressed against the other roller positioned on the lower side.   One of the first roller and the second roller is rotationally driven via a one-way clutch that allows rotation in a direction in which the heat-developable recording material is drawn into the heat developing apparatus. The thermal development apparatus according to claim 1.   6. One of the first roller and the second roller is rotationally driven via a torque limiter that restricts a conveyance driving force of the heat-developable recording material. The heat development apparatus of any one of Claims.   7. The informing means according to claim 1, further comprising an informing means for informing when the plural sheet feeding preventing means detects simultaneous insertion of the plural sheets of the heat-developable recording material. Thermal development device.

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