JP3802979B2 - Guide device for crossover section of photosensitive material developing machine - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a crossover portion guide device for a photosensitive material developing machine, and more particularly to a crossover portion guide device disposed between a color developing layer and a bleach-fixing layer.
[0002]
[Prior art]
In a photosensitive material developing machine, for example, a paper processor, color printing paper (color paper) that has been subjected to printing exposure is sequentially passed through processing tanks such as a color developing tank, a bleach-fixing tank, and a rinsing tank. Further, a squeeze roller comprising a pair of nip rollers is provided in the air conveyance path of the photographic paper from the processing tank to the processing tank. The processing liquid adhering to the photographic paper is squeezed (squeezed) by the squeeze roller, so that the processing liquid is not brought into the next tank. Further, since the treatment liquid is uniformly squeezed, the reaction in the next step is likely to occur, and a uniform reaction can be obtained.
[0003]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
The squeeze liquid such as the developer squeezed by the squeeze roller is dropped as a droplet from the squeeze roller, and this droplet is returned to the processing tank of the previous step, for example, the color developing tank by the squeeze liquid guide plate. It is. A part of the squeeze liquid is stored as a liquid pool 4 in the nip portion 3 of the squeeze roller 2 as shown in FIG. Then, as shown in (B), when the rear end portion 5a of the color paper 5 passes through the squeeze roller 2, the nip of the color paper 5 by the squeeze roller 2 is released, so that the rear end portion 5a of the color paper rises. Indicates. Due to this behavior, the squeeze liquid 6 flows from the liquid pool 4 of the nip portion 3 through the color paper rear end portion 5a to the next bleach-fixing tank as shown in FIG. Due to the flow from the rear end portion 5a of the color paper, the developer layer adhering to the color paper 5 in the form of a film becomes non-uniform. Therefore, there is a problem that fixing is not uniformly caused by the non-uniform developer layer, and uneven fixing occurs. Reference numerals 7a and 7b are upper guide plates, 8 is a guide roller, and 9 is a squeeze liquid guide plate.
[0004]
The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and reduces the amount of squeeze liquid flowing along the rear end portion of the photosensitive material, thereby suppressing the occurrence of uneven fixing. An object is to provide a guide device.
[0005]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, an upstream upper guide member, a squeeze roller, and a downstream upper guide member are provided along a path for transporting a photosensitive material from a developer tank to a fixer tank. In the crossover portion guide device of the photosensitive material developing machine, a squeeze liquid guide plate for returning the developer from the squeeze roller to the developer tank is disposed below the squeeze roller. A guide roller for supporting the rear end portion of the photosensitive material drawn out from the nip portion of the squeeze roller substantially horizontally is disposed near the nip portion outlet and below the upper guide member on the downstream side. A guide roller is attached to a bracket extending from the squeeze liquid guide plate. It is preferable that the guide roller is composed of a skewer roller in which a plurality of narrow rollers are arranged apart from each other in the axial direction. The peripheral surface of the skewer roller is preferably made of a foam material. The foam material is preferably made of a soft resin.
[0006]
[Action]
A guide roller is disposed near the exit of the nip portion of the squeeze roller and below the upper guide member on the downstream side. Since the rear end portion of the photosensitive material is supported by the guide roller, the rear end portion of the photosensitive material is pulled out in a substantially horizontal state from the nip portion of the squeeze roller. As a result, the amount of the squeeze liquid flowing from the liquid pool of the squeeze roller to the bleach-fixing layer through the rear end of the photosensitive material is suppressed, and the occurrence of uneven fixing due to this is suppressed. Further, since the rear end portion of the photosensitive material is supported by the guide roller, the photosensitive material is not damaged. In particular, the guide roller is constituted by a skew roller in which a plurality of narrow rollers are arranged apart from each other in the axial direction, so that the contact area with the photosensitive material can be reduced and the amount of liquid pool can be reduced. Furthermore, by providing a foam material on the peripheral surface of the skewer roller, the squeezed photosensitive material is supported in the form of dots by the linear portions of the foam member, so that the developer adheres to the guide roller from the squeezed photosensitive material. And the developer layer of the light-sensitive material can be held more uniformly.
[0007]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a printer processor embodying the present invention. Color photographic paper 11 (color paper) drawn from the paper magazine 10 is sent to the printing unit 12. The print unit 12 feeds the color paper 11 frame by feed roller 13 and sets it at the print position 14. The photographic film 15 is set on a film carrier 16, and an image of a frame to be printed is illuminated by printing light from the light source unit 17. The transmitted light of the frame to be printed illuminated by the light source unit 17 is imaged on the color paper 11 at the print position 14 by the printing lens 19 while the shutter 18 is open, and the color paper 11 is printed by exposure. . The color paper 11 that has undergone printing exposure is fed forward, and the unexposed color paper 11 is set at the print position. Further, the next frame to be printed is sent to the printing position by the film carrier 16, and the frames of the photographic film 15 are sequentially printed and exposed on the color paper 11 in the same manner. The color paper 11 that has been subjected to printing exposure is stored in a certain amount in the reservoir 20 and then sent to the processor unit 21.
[0008]
As is well known, the processor unit 21 is composed of a color developing tank 22, a bleach-fixing tank 23, a rinsing tank 24, a drying unit 25, and a cutter unit 26, and the color paper 11 subjected to printing exposure is processed into each processing tank 22-24. Development processing is performed by passing through. The developed color paper 11 is dried by the drying unit 25 and then cut for each frame by the cutter unit 26 to create a printed photograph.
[0009]
As is well known, a paper guide 27 (see FIG. 3), a pair of conveying rollers 28, and a crossover portion 29 are attached to each of the tanks 22 to 24, so that the color paper 11 can be developed and fixed. , Pass through the rinse liquid. FIG. 3 shows a paper guide 27, a conveying roller pair 28, and a crossover portion 29, and the illustrated ones are arranged on the color developing tank 22 and the bleach-fixing tank 23. The paper guide 27 is composed of guide members 27 a, 27 b, and 27 c, and guides the color paper 11 into the tank and guides the color paper 11 that has come out of the tank to the squeeze roller 30 of the crossover portion 29. Each conveyance roller pair 28 is rotated by a paper feed motor 32 via a gear train 31.
[0010]
In addition to the squeeze roller 30, an inlet-side upper guide plate 33, an outlet-side upper guide plate 34, an inlet-side guide roller 35, an outlet-side guide roller 36, and a squeeze liquid guide plate 37 are disposed in the crossover portion 29. . The squeeze roller 30 includes a nip roller pair including an upper roller 30a and a lower roller 30b, and is attached to the crossover frame 38 so as to be rotatable. Each roller 30a, 30b is linked to a paper feed motor 32 through a gear train 31, and these rollers 30a, 30b rotate in the color paper feed direction by the rotation of the motor 32.
[0011]
The upper roller 30a is composed of a hard roller made of vinyl chloride on the peripheral surface. The lower roller 30b is a soft roller made of silicon rubber. These upper and lower rollers 30a and 30b have a diameter of 20.5 mm. The photosensitive emulsion surface of the color paper 11 is in contact with the lower roller 30b. Therefore, since the frictional force between the soft roller and the color paper is larger than the frictional force between the hard roller and the color paper, slippage may occur between the photosensitive emulsion surface and the soft roller (lower roller 30b). In addition, the occurrence of scratches on the photosensitive emulsion surface due to the slippage can be suppressed.
[0012]
Above the color paper inlet side of the squeeze roller 30, an inlet-side upper guide plate 33 is attached to the crossover frame 38. An exit side upper guide plate 34 is attached to the crossover frame 38 above the color paper exit side of the squeeze roller 30. The upper guide plates 33 and 34 on the inlet side and the outlet side have arcuate paper guide surfaces.
[0013]
An entrance side guide roller 35 is attached to a crossover frame 38 so as to be rotatable obliquely downward on the color paper entrance side of the squeeze roller 30. The entrance side guide roller 35 is driven in synchronization with the conveyance speed of the color paper 11.
[0014]
A squeeze liquid guide plate 37 is disposed below the squeeze roller 30. As shown in FIG. 1, the squeeze liquid guide plate 37 is formed of a rectangular plate, and attachment protrusions 37a are formed at both ends thereof. By fitting the attachment protrusion 37a into the attachment opening of the crossover frame 38 (see FIG. 3), the lower end edge 37b is disposed obliquely below the squeeze roller 30 so that the lower end edge 37b is located on the color developing tank side. Due to this inclination, the squeeze liquid guide plate 37 returns the developer squeezed by the squeeze roller 30 to the color developing tank 22.
[0015]
A pair of roller brackets 39 extend from both sides of the upper edge 37 c of the squeeze plate guide plate 37. A bearing hole is formed at the tip of these roller brackets 39, and the outlet side guide roller 36 is attached to the bearing hole so as to freely rotate. The roller bracket 39 may be formed separately from the squeeze liquid guide plate 37 and may be formed separately and fixed to the guide plate 37 by screws or welding. Further, the guide roller 36 may be rotatably supported using a bearing portion instead of the bearing hole. As shown in FIG. 4, an outlet side guide roller 36 is disposed near the outlet of the nip 46 of the squeeze roller 30 and below the upper guide plate 34 on the downstream side via the roller bracket 39. As a result, as shown in FIGS. 4B and 4C, the color paper rear end portion 11a pulled out from the nip portion 46 of the squeeze roller 30 is supported substantially horizontally.
[0016]
As shown in FIG. 1, the outlet side guide roller 36 is constituted by a skewer roller in which four short rollers 41 having a width of 5 mm and an outer diameter of 12 mm are arranged on a shaft 42 at a constant interval. The short roller 41 is made of a foam material made of an elastomer. By using a foam material, the contact area between the short roller 41 and the color paper 11 is reduced. Therefore, the adhesion of the developer from the developer layer of the color paper 11 after squeezing to the guide roller 36 is reduced, and the occurrence of liquid pool is suppressed. As a result, the occurrence of the flow of the developer through the outlet side guide roller 36 is also suppressed. Further, by using a soft elastomer, the photosensitive emulsion surface of the color paper 11 is not damaged. The foamed material may be closed cells or open cells, but continuous foaming is preferred in that a large bubble size can be obtained.
[0017]
As shown in FIG. 3, in the development process, the color paper 11 is guided to each tank by a paper guide 27, a conveying roller pair 28, a squeeze roller 30, and the like. Then, the developer is squeezed by the squeeze roller 30 from the color paper 11 coming out of the color developing tank. As shown in FIG. 4A, the squeezed liquid 45 that has been squeezed is returned to the color developing tank 22 by a squeeze liquid guide plate 37. As shown in FIGS. 4B and 4C, when the color paper rear end portion 11a passes through the squeeze roller 30, the color paper rear end portion 11a is supported by the outlet side guide roller 36. The portion 11a is pulled out almost horizontally from the nip portion 46 of the squeeze roller 30. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 12C, the color paper rear end portion 11 a does not stand up, and the squeeze liquid 45 is prevented from flowing from the liquid reservoir 47 of the nip portion 46 along the color paper 11. As a result, the developer layer adhering to the color paper 11, particularly the developer layer on the photosensitive emulsion surface side, can be kept uniform, and the occurrence of uneven fixing can be suppressed.
[0018]
In the above embodiment, the skewer roller is used as the outlet side guide roller 36. In addition, as shown in FIG. 5, one elongated roller is used as the outlet side guide roller 50, and the squeeze liquid guide plate 51 is used. It may be attached to be freely rotatable. In this case, although the unevenness suppressing effect is lower than that using the skewer roller, unevenness can be suppressed as compared with the conventional one. In particular, by forming the guide roller 50 to be thin, the liquid pool generated in the gap with the color paper 11 can be reduced, and the occurrence of dripping can be suppressed. As the material of the guide roller 50, a soft foamed resin such as a soft elastomer or foamed silicon may be used in addition to a hard resin such as vinyl chloride.
[0019]
Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 6, the gap 55 between the upper edge 53a of the squeeze liquid guide plate 53 and the peripheral surface of the outlet side guide roller 54 may be set as small as about 0.1 mm, for example. In this case, the liquid adhered when the guide roller 54 comes into contact with the color paper 11 is guided to the gap 55, and the developer adhered to the guide roller 54 can be returned to the color developing tank. Therefore, the liquid pool generated between the color paper and the color paper can be reduced.
[0020]
Further, instead of reducing the gap 55 as shown in FIG. 6 and actively collecting the developer, a water absorbing sponge 59 is arranged on the lower surface of the guide plate 58 as shown in FIG. The developer that has adhered may be positively collected to reduce the liquid pool formed between the color paper 11 and the guide roller 60. In this case, by bringing the upper end portion of the water absorbing sponge 59 into contact with the guide roller 60, the developer adhering to the guide roller 60 is absorbed by the water absorbing sponge 59. The absorbed developer is returned to the color developer tank via the guide plate 58. The water absorbing sponge 59 may be disposed on the upper surface of the guide plate 58 instead of being disposed on the lower surface of the guide plate 58.
[0021]
The guide rollers 50, 54 and 60 shown in FIGS. 5 to 7 are formed longer than the width of the color paper 11, but in addition to this, the exit side using short rollers as shown in FIGS. You may use the squeeze liquid guide plates 63 and 64 which hold | maintained the guide rollers 61 and 62 rotatably. In this case, although the effect of suppressing the occurrence of unevenness is lower than that using the elongated guide rollers 50, 54, and 60 shown in FIGS. Can be suppressed.
[0022]
Furthermore, instead of using the guide rollers 50, 54 and 60, as shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, outlet side guide members 66 and 67 are extended from the upper ends of the squeeze liquid guide plates 68 and 69, and this guide is provided. You may guide so that the rear-end part of color paper may be hold | maintained horizontally with the front-end | tip of the members 66 and 67. FIG. The tips of the guide members 66 and 67 preferably have a circular arc shape or a hemispherical shape in order to reduce the contact area with the color paper 11.
[0023]
The squeeze roller 30 may be one in which the upper roller 30a is a hard roller and the lower roller 30b is a soft roller, and the upper and lower rollers 30a, 30b are hard rollers. Alternatively, the color paper 11 fed from the squeeze roller 30 may be guided obliquely upward by making the lower roller 30b of the squeeze roller 30 higher than the peripheral speed of the upper roller 30a. In this case, the developer is prevented from flowing into the bleach-fixing tank through the color paper 11, and the amount of developer brought into the bleach-fixing tank from the color developing tank during the developing process is efficiently reduced.
[0024]
Although the above embodiment is implemented in a printer processor, the present invention may be implemented in a paper processor. Moreover, you may implement this invention in the crossover part in another processing tank.
[0025]
【The invention's effect】
In the present invention, a guide roller is disposed along the upper edge of the upper edge of the squeeze liquid guide plate, and the rear end of the photosensitive material is supported by the guide roller. Since the end portion comes into contact with the guide roller and is held in a horizontal state, the photosensitive material does not leave the squeeze roller in a state where the rear end of the photosensitive material faces obliquely downward as in the prior art. Therefore, the developer does not flow from the developer pool in the nip portion along the rear end portion of the photosensitive material, and the developer layer of the photosensitive material after squeezing is kept uniform. Thereby, the occurrence of uneven fixing can be suppressed. In addition, since it is a guide roller and rotates while in contact with the photosensitive material, it is unlikely that the developer is scooped from the developer layer of the photosensitive material, the developer layer is kept uniform, and scratches are generated. It can be suppressed.
[0026]
By forming the guide roller from a skewer roller in which a plurality of narrow rollers are arranged apart from each other in the axial direction, the contact area between the guide roller and the photosensitive material can be reduced, and the occurrence of liquid pool can be suppressed. . Further, by forming the peripheral surface of the skewer roller from a foamed material, the contact between the photosensitive material and the guide roller becomes a point on the line by the partition member of the foamed portion, so the amount of transfer of the developer is reduced, and the liquid is further increased. The occurrence of accumulation can be suppressed. In addition, by increasing the foam size, a hole of several mm is formed, so that the contact area with the photosensitive material can be further reduced. Therefore, the occurrence of liquid pool can be suppressed, so that dripping can be reduced.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a squeeze liquid guide plate and an outlet side guide roller used in a crossover portion guide device of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a schematic view showing a printer processor including the crossover portion guide device.
FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing a paper guide, a conveying roller pair, and a crossover portion.
FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing the state of liquid pool and dripping when the rear end of the color paper passes through the crossover portion, (A) is a state in which the color paper is passing, (B) is (C) shows a state immediately after the rear end of the color paper has passed, and a state in which the rear end of the color paper has left the squeeze roller.
FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing an outlet side guide roller and a squeeze liquid guide plate in another embodiment.
FIG. 6 is a plan view showing an outlet side guide roller and a squeeze liquid guide plate in another embodiment.
FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view showing a crossover portion in another embodiment.
FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing an outlet side guide roller and a squeeze liquid guide plate in another embodiment.
FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing an outlet side guide roller and a squeeze liquid guide plate in another embodiment.
FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing an outlet side guide member and a squeeze liquid guide plate in another embodiment.
FIG. 11 is a perspective view showing an outlet side guide member and a squeeze liquid guide plate in another embodiment.
FIG. 12 is a cross-sectional view showing a state of liquid pool and dripping when the rear end of the color paper passes through a conventional crossover portion, (A) shows a state in which the color paper is passing (B ) Shows a state immediately after the rear end of the color paper has passed, and (C) shows a state where the rear end of the color paper has left the squeeze roller.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Color paper 12 Print part 15 Photo film 16 Film carrier 20 Reservoir 21 Processor part 22 Color development tank 23 Bleach fixing tank 24 Rinse tank 25 Drying part 26 Cutter part 27 Paper guide 29 Crossover part 30 Squeeze roller 33 Entrance side upper guide plate 34 Outlet side upper guide plate 35 Inlet side guide rollers 36, 50, 54, 60, 61, 62 Outlet side guide rollers 37, 51, 53, 58, 63, 64 Squeeze liquid guide plate 38 Crossover frame 39 Roller bracket 41 Short Roller 42 Shaft 45 Squeeze liquid 46 Nip part 47 Liquid pool

Claims (1)

An upstream upper guide member, a squeeze roller, and a downstream upper guide member are arranged in this order along the path for transporting the photosensitive material from the developer tank to the fixer tank, below the squeeze roller. Is a crossover portion guide device of a photosensitive material developing machine in which a squeeze liquid guide plate for returning the developer from the squeeze roller to the developer tank is disposed ,
A guide roller for supporting the rear end portion of the photosensitive material drawn from the nip portion of the squeeze roller substantially horizontally is disposed near the nip portion exit of the squeeze roller and below the upper guide member on the downstream side. A guide device for a crossover portion of a photosensitive material developing machine , wherein the guide roller is attached to a bracket extending from the squeeze solution guide plate .

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