JPH01233453A - Solvent applying device for image forming - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To maintain the uniform and sufficient amount of application and to obtain a high quality image by operating a temperature control means or plural winding guide means according to the carrying speed of a photosensitive material for heat development or an image receiving material. CONSTITUTION:The title device consists of the following means: an application member 64 which at least a part of the member is dipped into an application tank 72 and which directly abuts on the photosensitive material 16 for heat development or the image receiving material to apply a solvent 70 for image forming; the winding guide means 56, 58, 60 and 62 which guide and wind the photosensitive material 16 for heat development or the image receiving material onto a part of the outer periphery of the application member 64, and vary winding length; a control means 80 which operates at least either of the temperature control means 82 or the winding guide means 56, 58, 60 and 62 according to carrier speed of the photosensitive material 16 for heat development or the image receiving material. The control means 80 operates the temperature control means 82 and the winding guide means according to their carrier speed. Therefore, the uniform and sufficient amount of application is maintained, and the high quality image is obtained.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Fields] The present invention relates to a method for obtaining an image on an image-receiving material by transferring an image recorded on a heat-developable photosensitive material to the image-receiving material in the presence of an image-forming solvent. The present invention relates to an image forming solvent coating device used in a recording device.

[Prior Art] As shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 75247/1983, an image recording device for obtaining a color image using a heat-developable photosensitive material exposes an image to the heat-developable photosensitive material and then sends the image to a heat developing section.
There is known a method in which an image-receiving material is closely attached to a photosensitive material after heat development, and an image is transferred to image-receiving paper through a transfer process.

Before this photosensitive material or image-receiving material is sent to a transfer section, a transfer aid (image forming solvent) such as water is applied in advance to improve transfer efficiency.

For this reason, in the apparatus shown in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 59-75247, water is applied using a roller impregnated with water. This water is accumulated in a main tank, and the roller is arranged so that a part of its outer periphery is immersed in the water surface in the main tank. When applying water, the roller is rotated to bring out the water around the outer periphery of the roller, and this roller directly contacts the photosensitive material or image-receiving material to apply the water. That is, a film of water (so-called bead, hereinafter referred to as bead) is formed between the roller and the photosensitive material or image-receiving material (for example, in the case of a roller with a diameter of 3Q mm, the bead width is approximately 15 mm).
As the roller rotates (transportation of the photosensitive material or image-receiving material), heavy water penetrates (infiltrates) into the image-forming surface layer of the photosensitive material or image-receiving material.

The heat-developable photosensitive material coated with water is sent to a developing section where it is heated and developed, and then overlapped with an image-receiving material and pressurized, whereby an image is transferred to the image-receiving material to obtain an image.

Incidentally, the heat-developable photosensitive material or image-receiving material used in this type of image recording device is cut into a predetermined length (for example, a total length of 210 mm for A4 size, and a total length of 420 mm for A3 size) and stacked on top of each other. Furthermore, in order to shorten the time required for heat development processing, the transport speed may be changed depending on the size of the photothermographic material or image-receiving material.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, when the conveyance speed of the photothermographic material or the image-receiving material is increased in order to shorten the time required for processing, the bead formed on the contact surface of the roller and The contact time with the heat-developable photosensitive material or the image-receiving material is inevitably shortened, resulting in a problem in that the amount of water permeating into the image-forming surface layer is reduced, making it impossible to obtain the necessary amount of water applied. Therefore, it takes time to obtain the necessary amount of water to be applied, and if the time required for processing is to be shortened, the transfer efficiency decreases due to the insufficient amount of water to be applied, making it impossible to obtain a high-quality image.

Furthermore, simply increasing the outer diameter of the roller will only result in an increase in the size of the device and increase in cost, and will not have any significant effect.

In consideration of the above facts, the present invention makes it possible to maintain a uniform and sufficient amount of coating even when the transport speed of the photosensitive material or image-receiving material changes (increases or decreases), thereby improving the transfer efficiency of the photosensitive material or image-receiving material. It is an object of the present invention to obtain an image forming solvent coating device that can obtain high-quality images without deteriorating the image quality.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The image forming solvent coating device according to the present invention transfers an image recorded on a heat-developable photosensitive material to the image-receiving material in a heat-developable transfer section, thereby obtaining an image on the image-receiving material. An image-forming solvent coating device used in a recording device to apply an image-forming solvent to a heat-developable photosensitive material or an image-receiving material, the device comprising: a coating tank filled with the image-forming solvent; and a coating tank filled with the image-forming solvent; a temperature control means for adjusting the temperature of the image-forming solvent; a coating member that is at least partially immersed in the coating tank and directly contacts the photothermographic material or the image-receiving material to apply the image-forming solvent; The heat-developable photosensitive material or image-receiving material is wound around a part of the outer periphery of the application member and guided, and the winding is variable in length depending on the conveying speed of the heat-developable photosensitive material or the image-receiving material. The temperature control means or the winding means includes a control means for operating at least one of the guide means.

[Function] In the image forming solvent coating apparatus having the above configuration, the temperature regulating means and the winding guide means are operated by the control means depending on the conveying speed of the photothermographic material or the image receiving material.

For example, if the transport speed of the heat-developable photosensitive material or image-receiving material is normal, the temperature control means is turned off or slightly activated to bring the image forming solvent filled in the coating tank to room temperature or to a slight increase in temperature. , the winding is performed in a state in which the guide means is spaced apart from the application member. On the other hand, when the transport speed of the photothermographic material or image-receiving material becomes high, the temperature control means is activated to adjust the image forming solvent filled in the coating tank to the transport speed of the photothermographic material or image-receiving material. Accordingly, the temperature is raised to a predetermined temperature, and the guiding means of the winding is brought close to the coating member, so that the length of the winding of the heat-developable photosensitive material or the image-receiving material around the coating member becomes sufficiently long. Do it like this.

Therefore, the width of the bead of image forming solvent formed between the emulsion surface of the photothermographic material or image-receiving material and the coating member becomes longer, and the contact time between the bead and the photothermographic material or image-receiving material becomes longer. Become.

Therefore, as the temperature of the image-forming solvent increases, the amount of permeation (infiltration amount) of the image-forming solvent into the emulsion surface of the photothermographic material or image-receiving material increases, making it easier to reach the saturation amount. Therefore, even when the photothermographic material or the image-receiving material is transported at high speed, a sufficient coating amount can be maintained.

In this way, the conveyance speed of the photosensitive material or image-receiving material changes (
Even if the coating amount increases or decreases), a uniform and sufficient coating amount can be maintained, and as a result, high-quality images can be obtained without reducing the transfer efficiency of the photothermographic material or image-receiving material.

Note that it is not necessary to operate both the temperature control means and the winding/guiding means, and only one of them may be operated.

Further, the image recording apparatus applied to the present invention includes a heat developing section that heat-develops the exposed heat-developable photosensitive material, and a heat-developed photosensitive material and an image-receiving material that are overlapped and heated to form an image on the image-receiving material. The transfer section for transferring the image may be provided separately, and the heat development section and the transfer section may be provided at the same location, that is, the exposed photothermographic material and the image receiving material may be overlapped. A thermal development and transfer section may be provided that heats the image and performs thermal development and thermal transfer at the same time.

Further, in the image recording device applied to the present invention, for example,
U.S. Patent No. 4430415, U.S. Patent No. 4483914,
4500626, 4503137, JP 59-154445, JP 59-165054,
JP-A-59-180548, JP-A-59-21844
No. 3, JP 60-120356, Patent Application 1982-20
No. 9563, Patent Application No. 79709, Patent Application No. 1988-
169585, Japanese Patent Application No. 60-244873, and the like can be used.

In the present invention, the image-forming solvent is a solvent required for image formation, such as water, a low-boiling organic solvent (
(alconopeketones, amides, etc.) or those obtained by adding various additives such as surfactants, development accelerators, and development stoppers to these solvents.

[Example] A first embodiment of the present invention will be described below.

FIG. 2 shows an image recording apparatus 10 to which an image forming solvent coating apparatus according to the present invention is applied.

Magazine 1 accommodated in machine base 12 of image recording device 10
4 accommodates a roll-shaped photothermographic material 16. The photothermographic material 16 is pulled out from its outer periphery, cut into a predetermined length by a cutter 18, and then wound around the outer periphery of a rotating drum 20 in the direction of arrow A. An exposure head 22 is disposed corresponding to the outer periphery of the rotating drum 20, and rotates the rotating drum 20 in the direction of arrow B to expose an image onto the wound photothermographic material 16.

The exposed heat-developable photosensitive material 16 is peeled off from the rotating drum 20 by a scraper 24 by reversing the rotating drum 20.
After water is applied as an image forming solvent in a water applying section 26 which is an image forming solvent coating device, the water is sent to a thermal development transfer section 28 whose interior is a heating section.

The thermal development transfer section 28 includes a heating drum 34 and an endless pressure belt 3.
6, and a halogen lamp 38 is further disposed within the heating drum 34. In this embodiment, the heating drum 34 is formed to have an outer diameter of 140 mm, and the photothermographic material 16 is distributed between the heating drum 34 and the endless pressure belt 36 around approximately 2/3 of the heating drum 34 (24
0 mm) and is conveyed while being held between them and thermally developed. Further, this heating drum 34 is connected to a halogen lamp 3.
8 to approximately 90°C.

On the other hand, a tray 30 disposed below the thermal development transfer section 28
The specified length (for example, the total length of A4 size 210m)
A plurality of image-receiving materials 32 cut to a total length of 420 mm (for A3 size and 420 mm) are accommodated. The image forming surface of this image receiving material 32 is coated with a color developer, and is taken out one by one by a supply roller 38 disposed on the side and superimposed on the photothermographic material 16 for thermal development transfer. The information is sent to the department 28.

Here, if the total length of the image-receiving material 32 is longer than the length of the part (for example, in the case of A3 size and a total length of 420 mm), the length of the wrapping around the outer periphery of the heating drum 34 is longer than the length of the part. Based on the heating time specified value (20 seconds)
The photothermographic material 16 and the image-receiving material 32 are heated and transferred while being transported at a transport speed of 12 mm/sec so as to exceed 12 mm/sec.

On the other hand, if the total length of the image-receiving material 32 is shorter than the length of the part wrapped around the outer periphery of the heating drum 34 (for example, the total length of the image-receiving material 32 is 2
10 nm), the photothermographic material 16 and the image receiving material 32 are wound around the heating drum 34 at a high speed of 100 mm/sec, heated for approximately 15 seconds in a stationary state, and then discharged at a high speed of 100 mm/sec. It has become so.

Therefore, in this case, the heat-developable photosensitive material 16 and the image-receiving material 32 are designed to complete the heat development process (from the time they are wound around the heating drum 34 to the time they are taken out) within the minimum time required for heating (20 seconds). It has become.

A peeling means 48 is arranged on the side of the heat development transfer section 28, and separates the heat development photosensitive material 16 and the image receiving material 32 sent out from the heat development transfer section 28 and sends them out. The separated heat-developable photosensitive material 16 is sent to a waste photosensitive material storage box 59, while the image-receiving material 32 is dried in a drying device 52 and then placed on a take-out tray 54 formed at the top of the machine stand 12. It is designed to be sent to

As shown in FIG. 1, the water application section 26 includes a pair of conveyance rollers 5 that sandwich and convey the photothermographic material 16 being conveyed.
6.58 are arranged, and downstream of these transport rollers 56, 58, a pair of transport rollers 6o and 62 which similarly sandwich and transport the photothermographic material 16 are arranged facing each other.

These rollers rotate under the driving force of a motor (not shown), and move the photothermographic material 16 in the direction of arrow C to the thermal development transfer section 2.
It is designed to be sent to 8th.

Further, these drive motors are connected to a control circuit 80 which will be described later.

A coating roller 64 as a coating member is disposed between the conveyance rollers 56, 58 and 60, 62, corresponding to the center of the back surface (emulsion side) of the photothermographic material 16. The application roller 64 has an outer diameter of 39 mm.
Furthermore, the conveyance roller 56.58 and the conveyance roller 60.62
The rotary shaft 65 is supported on the machine base 12 so as to protrude upward from the position where the photothermographic material 16 is held.

That is, the photothermographic material 16 conveyed in the horizontal direction is sandwiched by the conveyance rollers 56, 58, wrapped around a part of the upper outer periphery of the application roller 64, and further pinched by the conveyance rollers 60, 62. ing.

Further, a guide plate 51 is provided between these conveying rollers, corresponding to the upper surface of the photothermographic material 16 to be conveyed (that is, corresponding to the upper outer periphery of the coating roller 64) and serving as a guide means. ing. At both ends of the guide plate 510, there are protrusions 51A that protrude in the direction of the application roller 64;
51B is formed protrudingly, and these protrusions 51A, 5
1B is adapted to directly contact the upper surface of the photothermographic material 16 wound around a part of the outer periphery of the application roller 64.

This guide plate 51 is movable in the direction toward and away from the application roller 64 (in the direction of the arrow). Therefore, when the heat-developable photosensitive material 16 is wound around the outer periphery of the applicator roller 64, if the guide plate 51 is separated from the applicator roller 64 as shown by the two-dot chain line in FIG. The length of the winding around the application roller 64 (the first
Although the distance from point a to point b in the diagram) is somewhat shorter,
When the guide plate 51 is close to the coating roller 64, the length of the photothermographic material 16 wrapped around the coating roller 64 is long, and the distance (from point C to point d in FIG. 1) is sufficiently longer than before. It has become.

The drive section of this guide plate 51 is connected to a control circuit 80 as a control means.

A motor (both not shown) is connected to the rotating shaft 65 of the coating roller 64, which is pivotally supported on the machine base 12, via a shaft coupling, and the coating roller 64 is moved in the direction of arrow E (thermal development The photosensitive material 16 is rotated in a direction along the conveying direction of the photosensitive material 16.

A portion of the coating roller 64 is immersed in a main tank 72 filled with water 70, which is an image forming solvent, so that the water 70 is brought out on its circumferential surface when the coating roller 64 rotates.

The water 70 taken out by the application roller 64 forms a bead 70A with the photothermographic material 1G, and in this state, as the photothermographic material 16 is conveyed,
Water is applied to the back surface of the heat-developable photosensitive material 16.

A supply pipe 74 for supplying the water 70 and a discharge pipe 76 for discharging the water 70 from the main tank 72 are attached to the main tank 72 filled with water 70 . One end of the supply pipe 74 and the discharge vibrator 76 are respectively connected to a reserve tank in a reserve tank accommodating portion 77 (see FIG. 2) provided at the bottom of the machine base 12.

The main tank 72 contains water 7 that is filled into the main tank 72.
An overflow pipe 78 is attached to discharge the surplus amount. Opening 7 of this overflow pipe 78
8A is arranged at a predetermined height from the bottom surface 72A of the main tank 72, and when the water 7.0 supplied from the supply pipe 74 reaches above this opening 78A, the water 70
is discharged to the outside of the main tank 72 (at the middle of the discharge vibrator 76), so that the amount of water (water surface height) in the main tank 72 can be kept constant. This overflow pipe 78 is also connected to a reserve tank within the reserve tank storage section 77.

Further, a heater 82 as a temperature control means is fixed to the outer periphery of the bottom of the main tank 72, so that the temperature of the water 70 filled in the main tank 72 can be raised to 35 to 40°C. A temperature sensor 84 is placed at the bottom of the main tank 72 to detect the temperature of the water 70 filled in the main tank 72. These heaters 82 and temperature sensors 84 are connected to a control circuit 80.

The control circuit 80 operates a heater 82 fixed to the main tank 72 according to the conveyance speed of the photothermographic material 16 by the conveyance rollers 56.58 and 60.62, and also operates the drive section of the guide plate 51. The direction in which the guide plate 51 is moved toward and away from the application roller 64 (
It is designed to move in the direction of the arrow. That is, if the transport speed of the photothermographic material 16 is normal, the heater 82 is turned off or slightly activated to raise the temperature of the water 70 filled in the main tank 72 to room temperature or slightly, and the guide plate 51 However, when the conveyance speed of the photothermographic material 16 becomes high, the heater 82 is activated based on the detection signal of the temperature sensor 84 and the material is kept in the main tank 72. The temperature of the filled water 7o is raised to a predetermined temperature according to the transport speed of the photothermographic material 16, and the guide plate 51 is brought close to the coating roller 64, so that the coating roller of the photothermographic material 16 is heated. The length of the winding around 64 is made to be sufficiently long.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained.

When the photothermographic material 16 drawn out from the magazine 14 is cut by the cutter 18 and wound around the outer periphery of the rotating drum 20, the rotating drum 20 rotates at high speed and an image is exposed by the exposure head 22.

After exposure, the photothermographic material 16 is peeled off by a scraper 24, coated with water by a water coating section 26, and sent to a thermal development transfer section 28.

Some of the image-receiving materials 32 in the tray 30 are taken out sheet by sheet by a supply roller 38 and sent to the thermal development transfer section 28 in close contact with the photothermographic material 16 .

The heat-developable photosensitive material 16 and the image-receiving material 32 sent to the heat-developable transfer unit 28 remain in close contact with each other between the heating drum 34 and the endless pressure belt 36, which are heated to about 90° C. by the halogen lamp 38. approximately 2/3 of heating drum 34
The color developer coated on the image forming surface of the image-receiving material 32 reacts with the color image-forming substance transferred from the photothermographic material 16, and is thermally developed and pressurized. The image recorded on the developing photosensitive material 16 is transferred to the image receiving material 32.
transcribed to.

After the transfer, the heat-developable photosensitive material 16 and the image-receiving material 32 are separated by the peeling means 48, the heat-developable photo-sensitive material 16 is sent to the waste photo-sensitive material storage box 59, and the image-receiving material 32 is transferred to the take-out tray 54 via the drying device 52. is taken out.

Next, the procedure for applying water to the photosensitive material in the water applying section 26 will be explained.

Normally, the guide plate 51 is in a state separated from the application roller 64 (the state shown by the two-dot chain line in FIG. 1). When the photothermographic material 16 is transported here, it is held between transport rollers 56 and 58 and guided between the application roller 64 and the guide plate 51. The heat-developable photosensitive material 16 is wound around the outer periphery of the application roller 64 while contacting the protrusion 51A of the guide plate 51, and is further guided while contacting the protrusion 51B, and is held between conveyance rollers 60 and 62.

When the photothermographic material 16 is completely sandwiched between the coating roller 64 and the conveying rollers 56, 58 and 60, 62, the photothermographic material 16 is wrapped around a part of the upper outer periphery of the coating roller 64. become.

At this time, the application roller 64 is rotating in the direction of arrow C in FIG. is formed and applied to the heat-developable photosensitive material 16.

Here, if the size of the image-receiving material 32 to which the image is transferred is, for example, A3 size and the transport speed of the photothermographic material 16 is low, the guide plate 51 is located at a distance from the application roller 64, and therefore the photothermographic material 16 is The length of the material 16 wound around the application roller 64 is the distance from point a to point b in FIG.

On the other hand, when the size of the image-receiving material 32 to which the image is transferred is changed from A3 size to A4 size, for example, and the conveyance speed of the photothermographic material 16 increases accordingly, the control circuit 80 changes the temperature Based on the detection signal from the sensor 84, the heater 82 is activated to raise the temperature of the water 70 filled in the main tank 72 to a predetermined temperature according to the transport speed of the photothermographic material 16, and the guide plate 51 is activated.
is moved so that it approaches the application roller 64. Therefore, the length of the heat-developable photosensitive material 16 wound around the coating roller 64 is the distance from point C to point d in FIG. 1, which is sufficiently long. Therefore, the width of the bead 70A formed between the emulsion surface of the photothermographic material 16 and the coating roller 64 becomes longer than when the guide plate 51 is located away from the coating roller 64. The contact time between 70A and the photothermographic material 16 becomes longer.

Therefore, together with the temperature rise of the water 70, the amount of water 70 permeating (infiltration amount) into the emulsion surface of the photothermographic material 16 increases, making it easier to reach the saturation amount.

Therefore, even if the conveyance speed of the photothermographic material 16 is increased, a sufficient amount of coating can be maintained.
A high-quality image can be obtained without reducing the transfer efficiency of No. 6.

Note that the application roller 64 is not limited to rotating in the direction of arrow E in FIG. 1 (direction along the conveyance direction of the photothermographic material 16).
A similar effect can be obtained by rotating in the direction opposite to the direction in which the photothermographic material 16 is transported.

When the rear end of the heat-developable photosensitive material 16 passes the application roller 64 and is conveyed to the next process (image transfer processing in the heat-develop transfer section 28) by the conveyor rollers 60, 62, the beads 70A are It is returned to the tank 72.

Note that in this embodiment, the heater 82 is used as a temperature control means.
Although the guide plate 51 as a guide means is operated together for both winding and winding, this is not necessary and only one of them may be operated.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described.

Components that are basically the same as those in the first embodiment are given the same reference numerals and their explanations are omitted.

As shown in FIG. 3, in a water coating section 90 which is a solvent coating device for image formation, the guide plate 51 in the first embodiment is not disposed, and the photothermographic material 16 is wound around as a guide means. The paper is sandwiched and guided by transport rollers 92, 94 and 96, 98, and wound around the application roller 64.

The conveyance rollers 92, 94 and 96, 98 are movable in the direction of arrow F in FIG. The angle of the 160 wraps of the heat-developable photosensitive material, that is, the length of the wrap can be changed.

In this embodiment as well, when the conveyance speed of the photothermographic material 16 becomes high, the control circuit 80 operates the heater 82 to transport the water 70 filled in the main tank 72 to the conveyance speed of the photothermographic material 16. At the same time, the temperature is raised to a predetermined temperature according to the speed, and the conveyance rollers 92, 94 and 96, 98 are moved downward to increase the angle at which the photothermographic material 16 is wrapped around the application roller 64. Therefore, the length of the heat-developable photosensitive material 16 wound around the application roller 64 becomes long.

Therefore, in this case as well, the width of the bead 70A formed between the emulsion surface of the photothermographic material 16 and the coating roller 64 becomes longer, and the contact time with the photothermographic material 16 becomes longer.
The same effects as in the first embodiment can be obtained.

In this case, as shown in FIG. 4 or 5, it is not necessary that both the conveying rollers 92, 94 and 96, 98 are located below the application roller 64, and only one of them is located below and the heat developing The photosensitive material 16 is applied to the application roller 6
Any configuration that can be wrapped around a part of the outer periphery of 4 is sufficient.

Also in this embodiment, the heater 82 as a temperature control means is used.
It is not necessary for the conveying rollers 92, 94 and 96, 98 as guide means to be operated together, and it is also possible to operate only one of them.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, the image forming solvent coating device according to the present invention transfers an image recorded on a heat-developable photosensitive material to the image-receiving material in the heat-developable transfer section, thereby obtaining an image on the image-receiving material. An image-forming solvent coating device used in a recording device to apply an image-forming solvent to a heat-developable photosensitive material or an image-receiving material, the coating tank being filled with the image-forming solvent;
a temperature control means for adjusting the temperature of the image forming solvent filled in the coating tank; A coating member to be coated, a winding guide means for winding and guiding the heat-developable photosensitive material or image-receiving material around a part of the outer periphery of the coating member, the length of which is variable, and a heat-developable photo-sensitive material or image-receiving material. Since the temperature control means or the winding device is provided with a control means for operating at least one of the guide means according to the conveyance speed of the photosensitive material or the image receiving material, there is no possibility that the conveyance speed of the photosensitive material or the image receiving material changes (increases or decreases). Even though
It has the excellent effect that a uniform and sufficient coating amount can be maintained, and thereby high-quality images can be obtained without reducing the transfer efficiency of the photosensitive material or image-receiving material.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a water application section according to a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic sectional view showing an image recording apparatus to which this water application section is applied, and FIG. 3 is a second embodiment. FIGS. 4 and 5 are sectional views showing modified examples of the water application part according to the second embodiment. 1O... Image recording device, 16... Photothermographic material, 26... Water application section, 32... Image receiving material, 51... Guide plate, 56. 58... Conveyance roller, 60. 62... Conveyance roller, 64... Application roller, 70... Water, ? OA... Bead, 72... Main tank, 80... Control circuit, 82... Heater, 90... Water application section, 92.94... Conveyance roller, 96.98... Conveyance roller.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) Used in an image recording device that obtains an image on an image-receiving material by transferring an image recorded on a heat-developable photosensitive material to an image-receiving material in a heat-developable transfer section; An image-forming solvent coating device for coating an image-forming solvent, comprising: a coating tank filled with the image-forming solvent; a temperature control means for adjusting the temperature of the image-forming solvent filled in the coating tank; a coating member that is at least partially immersed in a tank and directly contacts a heat-developable photosensitive material or image-receiving material to apply an image-forming solvent; and a coating member that wraps the photothermographic material or image-receiving material around a part of the outer periphery of the coating member. a winding guide means for guiding the winding and for variable winding length;
1. A solvent coating apparatus for image formation, comprising: a control means for operating at least one of the temperature control means or the winding guide means in accordance with the conveyance speed of the photothermographic material or the image receiving material. (2) When the conveyance speed of the photothermographic material or the image-receiving material is high, the control means raises the temperature of the image forming solvent by operating the temperature control means or operates the winding guide means. When the heat-developable photosensitive material or image-receiving material is transported at a slow speed, the temperature of the image-forming solvent is lowered by operating the temperature control means. 2. The image-forming solvent coating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the length of the winding of the photothermographic material or the image-receiving material is shortened by rotating or activating the winding guide means.