JP2938615B2 - Dry air control method in automatic developing machine and drying apparatus for photosensitive material - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a drying air control method and an automatic developing machine applied to an automatic developing machine for developing a photographic light-sensitive material (hereinafter referred to as "sensitive material"). More specifically, the present invention relates to a drying air control method and an automatic developing machine which are most suitable for developing a color original film composed of three or four plates used for color printing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Current photographic films have the characteristics of "chumming" when humidity is low and "stretching" when humidity is high.

[0003] Apart from this, there is a characteristic that the film dimensions before and after the processing change. This is a phenomenon in which the dimensions of the film and the image on the film at the time of film exposure (equal to the original dimensions) are different from the dimensions of the image on the film and the film after development. Affected by temperature and humidity conditions. In the latter case, the size of the original and the size of the copy film are different from each other, and there are the following problems.

In particular, the original plate of a film for color printing is composed of three original plates of cyan, magenta, and yellow or four original plates including a semi-printed plate. Therefore, dimensional stability is required as a set of original plates. Currently available films for making color printing masters have the characteristics described above with respect to temperature and humidity. Therefore, temperature and humidity during exposure, drying conditions (temperature and humidity) during development, and drying conditions In many cases, dimensional changes before and after processing caused by fluctuations in (temperature / humidity) become a problem.

[0005] For example, when a film that has been exposed and developed as a cyan plate is used as a document and the pattern of the magenta plate is aligned and exposed and developed, there is a problem that a deviation occurs between the magenta plate and the original cyan plate. Occur.

[0006] Even in a conventional automatic developing machine, the recycle rate of dry air (the ratio of the amount of external air taken in as dry air circulating in the drying section) is changed according to the external environmental humidity. It is known to control the drying air by a method such as giving a temperature gradient toward the air, dehumidifying the air used for drying, and the like. However, such control is intended to improve the efficiency of drying, to save energy, and to prevent the occurrence of uneven drying. No consideration was given to dimensional stability.

In view of such a current situation, the inventor of the present application has previously proposed a drying air control method and an automatic developing machine in an automatic developing machine (Japanese Patent Application No. 63-7776).
2).

[0008]

The temperature / humidity control in the conventional drying apparatus performs feedback control by reading the actual temperature / humidity change in the drying apparatus. According to the study of the present inventor, In this control, it has been found that the control accuracy of the film dimensions after the drying process may not reach a desired high level in some cases. In this case, for example,
When a film corresponding to four colors of Y, M, C, and BK is created on the same day, and only a film of one color is recreated at a later date due to a design change or the like, the environment changes (especially, humidity changes). Occasionally, the dimensions of the finished film are slightly different between the one film and the other three films, causing problems such as mismatch. In the case of the normal processing, the dimensional accuracy is further deteriorated.

The inventor of the present invention has further examined the cause of such a decrease in the dimensional control accuracy of the film before and after the processing. According to the conventional control, the amount of water carried in the photosensitive material and brought into the drying processing apparatus is reduced. Not taken into account,
It was found that the control accuracy deteriorated depending on the amount of water.

Conventionally, control is performed only by a humidifier. Therefore, when the humidity rises above a control target value, it is necessary to wait for the dehumidification to be performed naturally without stopping the humidifier. In the method of performing feedback control by reading the change in temperature and humidity in the drying apparatus, it is also found that there is a problem that the actual humidity exceeds the set value in many cases, resulting in poor controllability.

The present invention has been made based on such considerations, and an object of the present invention is to improve the drying control accuracy of a drying processing apparatus and to enable highly accurate dimensional stabilization of a photosensitive film. is there.

[0012]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention predicts a change in the absolute humidity of a drying processing apparatus by calculating in advance the amount of moisture brought into a light-sensitive material, and performs advance control in a manner to suppress the change. This is to improve control accuracy.

[0013]

[Function] The amount of moisture brought into the drying section by the film after the washing process is determined by the type of the film, the size of the film,
Because it depends on the film transport speed,
By acquiring these pieces of information, the amount of increase in humidity based on absolute humidity conversion is predicted, and after this change in the increase in humidity, the state of the drying processing unit is adjusted so that the absolute humidity value corresponds to the set condition. Thereby, the humidity (total water content) in the drying processing section, which affects the elongation and contraction of the film, is constantly controlled according to the set conditions during the drying processing, and the film dimensions can be stabilized.

Further, in order to realize such control,
Since not only the humidifier but also dehumidifying means such as a dehumidifying fan is provided so that forced dehumidification can be performed, control accuracy is high.

Further, since the absolute humidity in the drying apparatus is always adjusted to a value lower than the set value by the preceding control, the phenomenon of exceeding the set value as in the prior art is eliminated, and the accuracy of the temperature and humidity control is improved.

[0016]

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a basic configuration of an example of an automatic developing machine for a photosensitive film to which the present invention is applied.

The automatic film developing machine 1 has a condition setting section (7 segments for setting temperature and humidity are arranged on the surface) 8, a developing section 14, a fixing section 15, a washing section 16, a drying section 2, and a film storage section. The drying unit 2 includes a drying fan 3a, 3
b, the dehumidifying fan 17 and the humidifier 4 are connected so that the humidity can be adjusted. Further, the temperature of the drying unit 2 can be adjusted by a temperature controller 19.
The film transport motor 7 determines the transport speed of the film (the movement of the film 18 is indicated by a dotted arrow in the figure).

The control section 9 controls the operation of each section of the apparatus. The control unit 9 includes a detection signal S1 from a film size and type detection unit (having a plurality of reflective photodiodes M1 arranged on an insertion table so as to be orthogonal to the film insertion direction) 6 and a setting unit 8 , A rotation speed detection signal of the motor 7 (used to know the line speed of film transport) S3, and a drying unit temperature / humidity detecting means (including a thermistor and a humidity sensor M2) 5 And a detection signal S5. The detection signal from the indoor temperature / humidity detecting means 10 is input as needed (for example, when automatic control for matching the film size in a room with the film size after drying is performed). The control unit 9 generates and outputs control signals D1 to D4 based on these input signals.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining a characteristic control procedure of the control unit 9.

First, the operator sets the temperature and humidity of the drying unit 2 from the setting unit 8 (step 20). Next, at the time of film insertion, the film area is detected based on the detection signal S1 (signal indicating the number of on and the on time of the photodiode M1) from the film size and type detection means 6, and the type of the film is determined from the reflectance. Is detected (step 21).
Further, the line speed L _S (film transport speed) is detected from the signal S3 (step 22), and the drying unit 2 is detected from the signal S5.
The current temperature and humidity are detected (step 23).

Next, based on the area and type of the detected film, obtaining the amount of moisture carried C ₀ per unit area (step 24). An example of bringing the water content C ₀ is shown in FIG. Subsequently, the rising absolute humidity ΔAH1 (g / m ³ ) is calculated from the following equation (1), and the differential absolute humidity ΔAH1 is calculated from the equation (2).
AH2 (g / m ³ ) is determined (step 25).

[0022] _{ΔAH1 = {S + (C O} · T) / L S} / Q · r D ···· (1) where, S is a humidification amount (g / min), in the present embodiment S =
0. In addition, C ₀ : film water content (g), T: film length (mm), L _S : line speed (mm / min), Q: exhaust air volume (m ³ / min), r _D ;
Specific gravity of air (g / m ³ ).

ΔAH2 = (absolute humidity at set temperature / humidity) − (absolute humidity at current temperature / humidity of drying unit), (2) where, in equation (2), humidity of drying unit 2 Does not exceed the set value, and it is assumed that ΔAH2> 0 holds.

Next, the difference between ΔAH1 and ΔAH2 is determined (step 26), and one of steps 27, 28 and 29 is executed according to the result. That is, when ΔAH1> ΔAH2, only the required amount of the dehumidifying fan 17 is operated to increase the exhaust air volume Q, and ΔAH1 is decreased to make ΔAH1 equal to ΔAH2 (step 27). When ΔAH1 <ΔAH2, only the humidifier 4 is operated by a required amount, and the humidification amount S is increased so that ΔAH
1 so that ΔAH1 matches ΔAH2 (step
28). When ΔAH1 = ΔAH2, both the dehumidifying fan 17 and the humidifier 4 remain off (step 2).
9).

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of the control unit 9.
The control unit 9 includes an A / D converter 40, a look-up table (LUT) 41 storing data on the amount of water carried in per unit area (C ₀ ), and ΔAH1 and ΔAH2 calculating means 43.
, A comparator 44, and a look-up table (LUT) storing data for generating the control signals D1 to D4.
45 and control signal generating means 46.

By such advance control (feedforward control), the state of the drying unit is adjusted so that the temperature and humidity are set before the film enters the drying unit 2, and as a result,
Highly accurate film size stabilization can be realized. That is, in the related art, the absolute humidity fluctuates greatly after the film is carried in, for example, as shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 4B, the absolute humidity almost coincides with the target value. FIG. 6 shows an example of the experimental result. In the case where the present invention is not applied (A) and in the case where the present invention is executed with the dimensional change before and after the drying process set to “0” as compared with the conventional control method (A), it is affected by the environmental relative humidity. It can be seen that almost no dimensional change occurs before and after the drying treatment.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to the embodiment, the present invention is not limited to this, and can be variously modified.

For example, instead of arbitrarily inputting conditions from the setting section 8, a detection signal S4 is obtained from the room temperature / humidity detecting means 10 (FIG. 1), and the control section 9 is controlled based on the detection signal S4.
Can set the temperature condition and the humidity condition in the drying unit 2.

Such control is performed by, for example,
A control table as shown in FIG. 7 (for example, ± 0 μm /
560 μm) and determine the drying temperature and humidity by referring to the table based on the information on the outside air temperature and humidity.

If the state of the inside of the drying unit 2 is automatically controlled by the control unit 9 so as to match the indoor state, the dimensions of the film after the drying process always match the dimensions of the film in the indoor atmosphere. Will do.

Further, it is also possible to manually input the control conditions from the setting section 8 and appropriately set the level of the control target value shown in FIG. 4 (that is, to adjust the expansion and contraction dimensions of the film).

[0032]

As described above, in the present invention, since the advance control is performed in anticipation of the amount of water brought in, the absolute humidity when the film is carried into the drying processing section can be accurately controlled to a desired level, and the drying can be performed. The dimensional error caused by the processing can be sufficiently suppressed. Thereby, the dimensional change before and after the drying treatment can be suppressed (or controlled to a desired value), and the film dimensions can be stabilized with high accuracy.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a basic configuration of an example of an automatic developing machine for a photosensitive material film to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining a characteristic control procedure of a control unit 9;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a control unit 9;

4A and 4B are diagrams showing a humidity control effect of the present invention, and FIG.
Shows a case of a conventional example (comparative example), and (b) shows a case where the present invention is applied.

5 is a diagram showing an example of bringing the water content C ₀ per unit area.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a dimensional stabilizing effect of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of the contents of a control table used when automatically setting the temperature and humidity of the drying unit based on the temperature and humidity detection information of the outside air.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Film automatic developing machine 2 Drying part 3a, 3b Drying fan 4 Humidifier 5 Drying part temperature and humidity detecting means 6 Film size and kind detecting means 7 Film transport motor 8 Condition setting part 9 Control part 10 Indoor temperature and humidity detecting part 11 Storage Unit 14 Developing unit 15 Fixing unit 16 Washing unit 17 Dehumidifying fan 40 A / D converter 41 Look-up table storing data on the amount of moisture carried in per unit area (C ₀ ) 43 Calculation means for ΔAH1, ΔAH2 44 Comparator 45 Look-up table storing data for generating control signals D1 to D4 46 Control signal generating means

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-2-266355 (JP, A) JP-A-3-102349 (JP, A) JP-A-1-315747 (JP, A) Field (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) G03D 3/00-17/00

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A method for controlling drying air in an automatic developing machine, comprising the steps of: setting a temperature condition and a humidity condition in a drying processing section; and drying the photosensitive material based on the type and size of the photosensitive material to be dried. Obtaining a change in the absolute humidity that rises due to the amount of moisture brought in when being carried into the processing unit; measuring the temperature and humidity of the drying processing unit; Calculating a difference from the absolute humidity in the drying unit; and adjusting the dehumidifying unit or the humidifying unit using the value of the change in the absolute humidity and the value of the difference, before the photosensitive material is carried into the drying unit. Controlling the absolute humidity of the drying section in advance so that the humidity becomes the set humidity when the photosensitive material enters the drying section. Drying air control method for an automatic developing machine. 2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of detecting an outside air temperature and an outside air humidity, and setting a temperature condition and a humidity condition in the drying processing section from the detected information. 3. A photosensitive material attribute detecting means for detecting a type and a size of a photosensitive material to be dried, a temperature detecting means for detecting a temperature of a drying processing unit, and a humidity detecting means for detecting a humidity of the drying processing unit. Photosensitive material transport speed detecting means, humidifying means for humidifying the drying processing section, dehumidifying means for dehumidifying the drying processing section, temperature adjusting means for the drying processing section, drying condition setting means, and moisture brought in by the photosensitive material. Means for calculating the amount of brought-in moisture, calculating the amount of brought-in moisture, detected material transport speed,
A predetermined judgment is made by using the detected temperature and humidity of the drying processing unit as inputs, and the operations of the humidifying unit, the dehumidifying unit, and the temperature adjusting unit are adjusted. When entering the drying section, control the absolute humidity of the drying section in advance so that the set humidity is reached,
An apparatus for drying a photosensitive material, comprising: a control unit. 4. The apparatus for drying a photosensitive material according to claim 3, further comprising means for detecting an outside air temperature and an outside air humidity and setting a temperature condition and a humidity condition in the drying processing section from the detected information.