JP3081718U - Silver salt digital exposure printing equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] (with correction) [PROBLEMS] A light source used in a digital printing apparatus for obtaining digitized image information as a photographic image,
There is a demand for a photosensitive material having a high degree of freedom, high quality, low cost or not affected by the size of the photosensitive material used. SOLUTION: When exposing light from a light source 1 to a silver halide photosensitive material 4 via a liquid crystal shutter 3, a scanning movement of an optical unit including the liquid crystal shutter in a direction crossing the traveling direction of the silver halide photosensitive material. Let it.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[0001]

[Technical field to which the invention belongs]

 The present invention relates to a silver halide digital exposure printing apparatus for converting a digitized image signal into light and exposing and printing the same on a silver halide photosensitive material to obtain an image latent image.

[0002]

[Prior art]

 Conventionally, among digital exposure printing apparatuses for obtaining a visualized image from digitized image information, a silver halide digital exposure printing apparatus has been widely used to obtain high-quality images, particularly excellent in photographic quality. ing.

As this type of silver salt digital exposure printing apparatus, an apparatus using a CRT, LED, laser or the like as a light source is known. In the case of a CRT, digital image information is visualized on a CRT, and the image on the CRT is formed on a silver halide photosensitive material using an optical system such as a lens and exposed to form a latent image. The LED and the laser convert the digital image information into light intensities or on / off, scan it on a silver halide light-sensitive material, and expose it to a latent image. An image is created, and the latent image is developed to obtain a final image.

[0004]

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

 Conventional silver halide digital exposure printing equipment is disadvantageous in that it requires special techniques and structures, is very expensive, and if the cost is reduced, images of sufficient quality cannot be obtained or image formation takes time. Have.

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

 The present invention has a light source, a silver halide photosensitive material support, and a plurality of light holes arranged between the light source and the silver halide photosensitive material support, wherein the light holes are capable of selectively transmitting or not transmitting light. A light guide tube for guiding light from the light source to the light hole of the liquid crystal shutter; a driving circuit for controlling transmission and non-transmission of the light of the liquid crystal shutter; It is an object of the present invention to solve the conventional problem by a silver halide digital exposure printing apparatus having a scanning apparatus for moving the liquid crystal shutter in a direction transverse to the liquid crystal shutter.

A color control device for controlling a color of the exposure by inserting or removing a red filter, a green filter, and / or a blue filter between the light source and the light guide tube may be provided.

Further, after the liquid crystal shutter is moved across the silver halide photosensitive material by the scanning device, a material moving device for moving a required amount of the silver halide photosensitive material can be provided, or the scanning device can be provided. Accordingly, a support driving device that moves the silver salt photosensitive material support at a constant speed in synchronization with the movement of the liquid crystal shutter across the silver salt photosensitive material can be provided.

[0008] Representative liquid crystal shutters used in the present invention are commercially available, and for example, a TFT liquid crystal panel, a PLZT shutter and the like are known. These liquid crystal shutters have a plurality of light holes and control light passing through the light holes. The liquid crystal shutter controls transmittance and / or transmission time according to an image, but uses time control. This is generally the case. Some liquid crystal shutters generally have the light holes arranged in a staggered manner for the purpose of improving the resolving power. In the present invention, the size of this type of liquid crystal shutter is not affected by the size of the silver halide photosensitive material used.

As another preferred embodiment of the liquid crystal shutter, a liquid crystal shutter in which a plurality of the light holes are arranged at a predetermined distance in a moving direction of the liquid crystal shutter can be used. It is preferable to provide a material moving device that operates when scanning a distance. In this case, it is desirable that the length of the liquid crystal shutter in the scanning direction is substantially equal to the maximum scanning width of the silver halide photosensitive material used.

In another aspect of the present invention, the silver halide photosensitive material is supported on a rotatable drum-shaped support, and the exposure is performed while rotating the liquid crystal shutter in the axial direction of the drum while rotating at a constant speed. There is. In this case, it is desirable to perform multiple exposures on the same pixel, and it is possible to select a speed within a range where image distortion can be tolerated or to add an image correction circuit for correcting image distortion.

As the light source used in the present invention, various light sources are used, but a tungsten lamp is preferably used, and the most preferable light source for a silver salt photosensitive material can be used. The photographic characteristics of the photosensitive material can be used more advantageously than those using an LED or CRT as a light source.

As the photosensitive material to be used, those used in an analog silver halide printing apparatus can be used. Therefore, two kinds of apparatuses are used at the same time: a normal analog silver halide printing apparatus and the silver halide digital printing apparatus according to the present invention. In this case, there is an advantage that one kind of photosensitive material can be shared. In particular, a high illuminance light source which has recently been improved in high-illuminance failure characteristics and has an extremely short-time exposure characteristic improved can be preferably used.

The color control device preferably employs a system in which each color filter is divided and arranged in a disk shape, and the disk is rotated at a constant speed in synchronization with an electric signal of an image.

[0014]

[Embodiment of the invention]

 Hereinafter, specific embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings, but the present invention is not limited thereto. FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of a silver halide digital exposure printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The light from the light source 1 is transmitted through a synchronously rotating three-color filter 8, guided to a liquid crystal shutter 3 by an optical fiber 2, and exposed to the silver halide photosensitive paper 4 through the liquid crystal shutter to form a latent image.

Reference numeral 9 denotes a pair of photosensitive paper feed rollers, which are driven by a pulse motor to intermittently feed the silver halide photosensitive paper by a predetermined distance in the upward direction in the drawing. Each time the optical unit including the light source 1, the three-color filter 8, the optical fiber 2, and the liquid crystal shutter 3 moves perpendicularly to the moving direction of the silver halide photosensitive paper 4, one scanning is completed. The silver halide photosensitive paper moves a certain distance in preparation for scanning.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining this state. When the upward movement of the silver halide photosensitive paper 4 ends, the liquid crystal shutter 3 starts scanning rightward. This movement may be configured, for example, such that the liquid crystal shutter moves rightward to stop scanning, and after the silver halide photosensitive paper 4 is fed a fixed distance, the liquid crystal shutter 3 scans leftward. it can.

FIG. 3 shows an arrangement example of the light holes 5 of the liquid crystal shutter 3. The plurality of light holes 5 are arranged in a staggered manner, and increase the number of pixels in the vertical direction when moving in the horizontal direction. Although not shown, the light passing through the light hole is controlled on / off by an electric signal applied to a liquid crystal shutter by a liquid crystal shutter driver. At this time, control of the on / off time is preferably used.

FIG. 4 shows another example of the liquid crystal shutter shown in FIG. A plurality of light holes 5 of the liquid crystal shutter 3 are arranged in a line, and the distance between the light holes is the same and is provided at a predetermined distance. In this case, in FIG. 1, the liquid crystal shutter moves by the above-mentioned distance to complete one scanning. This type of liquid crystal shutter is inexpensive and has the advantage of greatly reducing the cost of a silver halide digital exposure printing apparatus.

FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram of another embodiment according to the present invention. The light from the light source 1 passes through the rotating three-color filter 8, is guided to the liquid crystal shutter 3 by the optical fiber bundle 2, is turned on / off by the liquid crystal shutter, and is converted to the silver halide light supported by the drum 6. A latent image is formed on paper 4.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the state of latent image formation in FIG. 5, in which the drum 6 supporting the silver halide photosensitive paper 4 rotates at a constant speed in the direction of rotation of the hands of the clock. When the silver halide photosensitive paper 4 moves upward in the figure and the liquid crystal shutter 3 synchronously moves to the right in FIG. 6 at a constant speed, a latent image 7 is formed. If one image is formed by a plurality of rotations of the drum, density unevenness of each pixel can be eliminated.

The latent image obtained in each of the above-mentioned embodiments is obtained by subjecting the above-mentioned silver halide light-sensitive material after exposure to a known developing process by, for example, developing, bleach-fixing, and then stabilizing. Is visualized by For example, a so-called RA-4 processing process is typically used.

[0022]

[Effect of the invention]

 According to the present invention, a digital exposure printing apparatus that can form images faster or cheaper than a digital exposure printing apparatus using an LED, a CRT, or the like can be obtained. The digital exposure printing apparatus of the present invention has excellent image quality, has a high degree of freedom of a light source to be used, does not require a special photosensitive material, and can use a photosensitive material for an analog silver salt exposure printing apparatus, so that the running cost is also low. Has a cheap effect. Furthermore, the stability of the light source is good, and the level of image quality obtained is high.

Further, since the liquid crystal shutter is used for scanning, the size of the silver halide photosensitive material to be used can be freely selected or a liquid crystal shutter having a simple structure can be used. It also has the advantage that the structure of the scanning device and the like can be simplified.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the movement of a silver halide photosensitive paper and a liquid crystal shutter.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram of an example of a liquid crystal shutter used in the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram of another example of the liquid crystal shutter used in the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of forming a latent image on a silver halide photosensitive paper.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Light source 2 Optical fiber bundle 3 Liquid crystal shutter 4 Silver halide photosensitive material 5 Light hole 6 Drum 7 Exposure area 8 Rotating three-color filter

Claims (5)

[Utility model registration claims] 1. A light source, a silver salt photosensitive material support, and a plurality of light holes arranged between the light source and the silver salt photosensitive material support, wherein the light holes are capable of selectively transmitting or not transmitting light. A shutter, a plurality of light guide tubes for guiding light from the light source to the light holes of the liquid crystal shutter, a driving circuit for controlling transmission and non-transmission of the light of the liquid crystal shutter, and a moving direction of the silver halide photosensitive material. A silver halide digital exposure printing apparatus comprising a scanning device for moving the liquid crystal shutter in a direction transverse to the liquid crystal shutter. 2. A color control device for controlling a color of the exposure by inserting or removing a red filter, a green filter, and / or a blue filter between the light source and the light guide tube. The silver salt digital exposure printing apparatus according to claim 1. 3. A material moving device for moving the liquid crystal shutter by a required amount after moving the liquid crystal shutter across the silver halide photosensitive material by the scanning device. Silver salt digital exposure printing equipment. 4. A support driving device for moving the liquid crystal shutter at a constant speed in synchronization with a movement of the liquid crystal shutter across the silver halide photosensitive material by the scanning device. 3. The silver salt digital exposure printing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein: 5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of the light holes are arranged at a predetermined distance in a moving direction of the liquid crystal shutter, and the material moving device is operated when the liquid crystal shutter is moved by the predetermined distance. 4. The silver salt digital exposure printing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein