JP2977731B2 - Film drying apparatus and method of using the same - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a film drying apparatus and a method for using the same. More specifically, the present invention relates to a film drying apparatus having a simplified film transport mechanism and improved drying efficiency, and a method of using the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in medical practice, a film on which an X-ray image has been taken or a film on which a digital image such as CT or MRI has been printed has been processed by an automatic developing device g as shown in FIGS. , Development, fixing, washing and drying. As is apparent from FIG. 4, the drying device k in the conventional automatic developing device g has a large number (10 to 20) of rollers r, r, r,. ,... While conveying the film F washed upward by the water, the width of the film F of the hot air blowing devices e, e, e,. Is blown almost perpendicularly to the film F from a nozzle n having an opening corresponding to. In addition,
The film warm air for drying the F is obtained by heating by the heater h provided a blast from the blower f in the middle of the air duct d _1.

[0003] Then, the warm air is blown to the film F, in order to better utilize the heat energy while preventing the thermal Po Solution, are returned to the suction side of the blower f by collection duct d _2.

[0004] However, the drying device k of the conventional automatic developing device g has the following problems, and there is a keen need for improvement by medical professionals.

Since the film F is dried by blowing the warm air from the wide nozzle n, it is difficult to blow the warm air uniformly from the nozzle n to the film F. Therefore, it is difficult to heat the film F uniformly.

[0006] Since the hot air is blown almost perpendicularly to the surface of the film F, the surface of the film F is in a pressurized state, thereby preventing evaporation of water in the film F. In addition, since the hot air after spraying is circulated and used, the partial pressure of steam of the hot air is high. Therefore, evaporation of moisture from the surface of the film F is hindered, and the drying efficiency is poor.

Since the drying efficiency is poor, the temperature of the hot air is reduced to 7
Unless the temperature is set to a high temperature of 0 to 80 ° C., desired drying is not performed.
As a result, the roller r to which the hot air is blown through the film F also has a high temperature of 70 to 80C.

That the film surface is not uniformly heated,
And the roller r is also at a high temperature of 70 to 80 ° C.,
Dry unevenness is likely to occur.

Since the drying efficiency is poor, the energy consumption is naturally high and it is not economical.

Due to the large number of transport rollers r,
Large power consumption.

Because of the large number of transport rollers r,
This leads to an increase in the size, weight, and cost of the drying device k.

Since the number of transport rollers r is large,
The film F surface is likely to be damaged.

Because of the large number of transport rollers r,
Maintenance is complicated.

[0014]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and provides a film drying apparatus in which the number of rollers is reduced and drying efficiency is improved. The main purpose is.

[0015]

A first aspect of the film drying apparatus of the present invention is a film drying apparatus for drying a film washed with water after development, and a film supply means for supplying the washed film downward. A thin rectangular duct-shaped drying unit having a flat heating unit for drying the film supplied from the film supply unit, and an air suction unit for sucking air in the drying unit from a lower end of the drying unit. an air suction means connected to the air suction unit, Ri Na and a film discharging means for discharging the film from the drying section, the inner surface of at least the drying section, far infrared
Is a material that promotes the radiation, characterized in Rukoto such by.

More specifically, a first aspect of the film drying apparatus of the present invention is a film drying roller pair for supplying a washed film downward, and a surface for drying the film supplied from the film supply roller pair. A thin rectangular duct having a heater, a suction duct connected to a lower end of the thin rectangular duct, a suction blower connected to the suction duct, and a film discharge for discharging a film discharged from a lower end of the thin rectangular duct Ri name and a roller pair, small
At least the inner surface of the thin rectangular duct promotes the emission of far infrared rays.
Is the advance to the material, characterized in Rukoto such by.

A second aspect of the film drying apparatus of the present invention is a film drying apparatus for drying a film washed with water after development, comprising: a film supply unit for supplying the washed film downward; and a film supply unit. A thin rectangular duct-shaped drying unit having a flat heating unit and a film conveying means for drying the film supplied from the above, an air suction unit for sucking air in the drying unit from a lower end of the drying unit, an air suction means connected to the air suction unit, Ri Na and a film discharging means for discharging the film from the drying section, the inner surface of at least the drying section,
Is a material that promotes radiation of far infrared rays, characterized in Rukoto such by.

More specifically, a second aspect of the film drying apparatus of the present invention includes a film supply roller pair for supplying a washed film downward, and a surface for drying the film supplied from the film supply roller pair. A thin rectangular duct having a heater, a film transport roller pair provided at an intermediate portion of the thin rectangular duct, a suction duct connected to a lower end of the thin square duct, and a suction blower connected to the suction duct the thin angular duct bottom Ri Na <br/> and a film discharge roller pair for discharging the discharged film from, the inner surface of at least the thin angular duct, far infrared
Is a material that promotes the radiation, characterized in Rukoto such by.

Here, the material that promotes the emission of far infrared rays is, for example, a metal element oxide or a metal element halide. Further, the drying portion surface or thin duct <br/> plane is also preferred comprising been a black anodized.

The method of using the film drying apparatus of the present invention is as follows.
A method of using the film drying device according to any one of the above, wherein an air flow velocity in a descending space in which a film formed in the drying unit or the thin rectangular duct descends is a laminar flow velocity. .

[0021]

The air in the descent space where the film in the drying section consisting of the thin square duct descends is sucked by air suction means such as a suction blower, and the inside of the space is made negative pressure.
An airflow having a laminar flow velocity is formed in the same space from above to below. In this state, the film is lowered into the space by film supply means such as a pair of film supply rollers. However, as described above, the airflow having the laminar flow velocity is formed from above to below in the descending space, so that the film descends in a stable state. Therefore, the film does not contact the wall surface forming the space. Then, while descending in the space, the entire surface of the film is uniformly heated by a heating means such as a surface heater, so that moisture contained in the film evaporates. The evaporation of the water is promoted by the laminar airflow flowing from the upper part to the lower part in the descending space and the negative pressure in the space. Therefore, heating by the heating means can be minimized.

[0022]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention will be described based on embodiments with reference to the attached drawings, but the present invention is not limited to only such embodiments.

Example 1 A film drying apparatus according to Example 1 of the present invention (hereinafter referred to as “film drying apparatus”)
1 and 2 are schematic diagrams of a drying device D. The drying device D includes a drying device main body (hereinafter, simply referred to as a main body) 10 and a film supply roller pair 20 for supplying a film F to the main body 10. And a film discharge roller pair 22 for carrying out the film F from the main body 10 and a suction blower 30 for sucking air in the main body 10 as main parts.

The main body 10 has openings 1 at upper and lower portions.
0a and 10b are provided, a drying section 40 is provided at an intermediate portion, and an air suction section 50 is provided at a lower end of the drying section 40. In FIG. 1, the roller spacing, the thickness of the thin square duct, and the like are exaggerated for easy understanding.

The opening 10a provided in the upper part is
Above or inside thereof, supply of the film F from the film supply roller pair 20 provided facing the film intake port 40a of the drying unit 40 provided at the lower end of the opening 10a is not hindered. In order to facilitate the suction of the air and the air, the cross-sectional area is widened toward the distal end, that is, a so-called tapered cross-sectional shape.
At the lower end of the upper opening 10a, the film drying unit 40 is provided as described above.

The drying section 40 is, for example, a thin rectangular duct, and dries the film F descending toward the lower discharge roller pair 22 during the descending. It comprises a pair of opposed flat plates 41, 41 forming a wall, and surface heaters 43, 43 embedded in the flat plate 41 or affixed to the outer surface of the flat plate 41. Here, this flat plate 41,
The interval of 41 is, for example, about 5 mm, and the film F descends almost in the middle. The inner surface of the flat plate 41 (the surface facing the film F), that is, the radiating surface, has a high far-infrared radiation efficiency.
_It is preferably an oxide of a metal element such as ₂ O ₃ or SiO ₂ or a halide of the metal element. Alternatively, black alumite processing is preferably performed. The air suction unit 50 is provided at the lower end 40b of the drying unit 40 as described above. The height of the drying unit 40 and the size of the surface heater 43 are adjusted to the height and size at which desired drying is performed while the film F descends in the descending space 42 and is discharged.

The air suction unit 50 is provided with suction ducts 51, 5 formed upright from the lower end 40b of the drying unit 40.
1, and the open ends 51a, 51a are connected to the suction side of the suction blower 30 via a communication duct 60 as shown in a block diagram in FIG. The opening 10b described above is provided at the lower end 50a of the air suction unit 50.

A film discharge roller pair 22 is disposed inside or below the opening 10b so as to face the film discharge port 40c of the drying section 40. When the film discharge roller pair 22 is stored in the opening 10b, as shown in FIG. 1, it is preferable that the cross section of the opening 10a is formed in a semicircular shape that covers the arc of the roller.

Next, the drying of the film by the film drying apparatus D having the above-described structure will be described.

The suction blower 30 is started up and the descent space 42
The inside of the space 42 is heated to a negative pressure, and the surface heaters 43 and 43 are activated to heat the inside of the space 42. In this case, the flow velocity of the air in the descending space 42 is adjusted so that the leading end of the film F descending into the space 42 from the film supply roller pair 20 does not shake.

The film feed roller pair 20 is driven to lower the film F into the lowering space 42. in this case,
As described above, the air flow rate in the space 42 is adjusted so that the leading end of the film F does not swing. , 41 without contact.
That is, the film F descends in the space 42 while maintaining self-supporting stability.

The film F descends while the surface heater 4
Since the heat rays are irradiated by 3, 43, the moisture contained therein evaporates from the surface. Here, the descending space 42
Because the inside is at a negative pressure and the air in the space 42 flows downward from above, the air will flow along the surface of the film F as a result. Therefore, evaporation of moisture from the surface of the film F is promoted.

After predetermined drying is performed in the descending space 42, the film F is discharged to the outside of the main body 10 by the pair of film discharge rollers 22.

Thereafter, the film F is transported by a subsequent film transport roller pair 24 to, for example, a tray (not shown).
To be carried out. On the other hand, the air after drying the film is released into the atmosphere by the suction blower 30.

As described above, according to the first embodiment, since the film F is dried while the surface heater 43 is opposed to the surface of the film F, the surface of the film F can be uniformly heated, and uneven drying occurs. Absent. In addition, the air flow velocity in the descending space 42 is adjusted so that the leading end of the film F does not oscillate, and the film F is lowered in a self-supporting and stable manner. No need. Therefore, the number of rollers or roller pairs to be used can be minimized. further,
The pressure in the descending space 42 is set to a negative pressure,
Since the air in 2 is caused to flow along the surface of the film F, the evaporation of moisture from the surface of the film F is promoted.
Therefore, the heating by the surface heater 43 can be minimized. As a result, the heating temperature can be lowered to about 40 ° C., and the drying device D is installed even if the dried air is directly discharged into the atmosphere. There is no danger of causing an abnormal rise in room temperature in the place where it is performed. Further, since air is not circulated, the partial pressure of water vapor in the air used for drying does not increase.

In the present specification, the flow velocity adjusted so that the tip of the film F does not run out is referred to as a laminar flow velocity.

Second Embodiment FIG. 3 shows a film drying apparatus D 'according to a second embodiment of the present invention. In the second embodiment, a storage section 46 is formed in the middle of the drying section 40 in the first embodiment. Is provided with a pair of film transport rollers 26, and accordingly, the surface heater 43 is formed into divided bodies 43A and 43B. By adopting such a configuration, it is possible to obtain an effect that the film having a short length in the feeding direction can be dried, which cannot be obtained in the first embodiment. The other points are the same as those in the first embodiment, and the description of the configuration, operation, and effect will be omitted.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to the case where the present invention is applied to the drying of medical films, the application of the present invention is not limited to medical films, but is preferably applied to the drying of various films. it can.

[0039]

As described above, according to the present invention, the following excellent effects can be obtained.

(1) Since the film is heated with the surface heater facing the film surface, the film can be uniformly heated and dried evenly.

(2) Since there is no uneven drying, the image quality of the film is not deteriorated.

(3) The film heater is heated by facing the surface heater to the film surface, air is caused to flow along the film surface, air is not circulated, and By setting the pressure to a negative pressure, the evaporation of water from the film surface is promoted, so that the drying efficiency is good.

(4) Since the drying efficiency is high, less energy is required for drying. That is, energy can be saved.

(5) Since the film is lowered in the descent space in a self-standing manner, there is no need to provide a film transport roller in the descent space in principle. Therefore, the required number of rollers can be significantly reduced. Further, since the contact between the film and the roller is minimized, the risk of damage to the film by the roller can be significantly reduced.

(6) Since the required number of rollers is significantly reduced, the power for driving the rollers is also reduced.

(7) Since the required number of rollers is significantly reduced, a reduction in size, weight, and cost can be achieved.

(8) The running cost is reduced because the drying efficiency is good and the required number of rollers is significantly reduced.

(9) Since the number of required rollers is significantly reduced, maintenance can be simplified.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of a drying apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic front view of the same.

FIG. 3 is a schematic sectional view of a drying device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of a conventional film developing device.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a drying device used in the film developing device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 10 Drying device main body (main body) 20 Film supply roller pair 22 Film discharge roller pair 24, 26 Film discharge roller pair 30 Suction blower 40 Drying unit (thin rectangular duct) 41 Flat plate 42 Falling space 43 Surface heater 43A Surface heater split body 43B Surface Heater divided body 46 Storage unit 50 Air suction unit 51 Suction duct 60 Communication duct D, D 'Film drying device F Film

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) G03D 15/02 F26B 13/10

Claims (8)

(57) [Claims] 1. A film drying device for drying a film washed with water after development, comprising: a film supply means for supplying the washed film downward, and a flat plate for drying the film supplied from the film supply means. A thin rectangular duct-shaped drying unit having a heating unit, an air suction unit for sucking air in the drying unit from a lower end of the drying unit, an air suction unit connected to the air suction unit, Ri Na and a film discharging means for discharging the film from the drying section, promotes at least the inner surface of the drying section, the far-infrared radiation
Film drying apparatus according to claim Rukoto such is a material that. 2. A film drying device for drying a film washed with water after development, comprising: a pair of film supply rollers for supplying the washed film downward, and a film supplied from the pair of film supply rollers. A thin rectangular duct having a surface heater, a suction duct connected to a lower end of the thin rectangular duct, a suction blower connected to the suction duct, and a film for discharging a film discharged from a lower end of the thin rectangular duct Ri Na and a discharge roller pair, the inner surface of at least the thin angular duct, far-infrared radiation
Film drying apparatus according to claim Rukoto such is a material that promotes. 3. A film drying apparatus for drying a film washed with water after development, comprising: a film supply means for supplying the washed film downward, and a flat plate for drying the film supplied from the film supply means. A thin rectangular duct-shaped drying section having a heating section and a film transport means, an air suction section for sucking air in the drying section from a lower end of the drying section, and an air suction section connected to the air suction section promotion means, the drying unit Ri name and a film discharging means for discharging the film from the inner surface of at least the drying unit, the far infrared radiation
Film drying apparatus according to claim Rukoto such is a material that. 4. A film drying apparatus for drying a film washed with water after development, comprising: a pair of film supply rollers for supplying the washed film downward, and a film supplied from the pair of film supply rollers. A thin rectangular duct having a surface heater, a film transport roller pair provided at an intermediate portion of the thin rectangular duct, a suction duct connected to a lower end of the thin rectangular duct, and a suction blower connected to the suction duct When the Ri Na and a film discharge roller pair for discharging the discharged film from the lower end of the thin angle duct, the inner surface of at least the thin angular duct, far-infrared radiation
Film drying apparatus according to claim Rukoto such is a material that promotes. 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least the inner surface of the drying unit or the inner surface of the thin rectangular duct is made of a metal element oxide or a metal element halide .
5. The film drying device according to 3 or 4 . 6. at least the inner surface of the drying section of the inner surface or the thin angle duct, film drying apparatus according to claim 1, 2, 3 or 4, wherein by comprising black alumite processing is performed. 7. A method of using a film drying apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 6, the air flow rate in drop space where the drying section or is formed in a thin square duct film drops A method of using a film drying apparatus, wherein is a laminar flow velocity. 8. A film developing device comprising the film drying device according to any one of claims 1 to 6 .