JPH01281451A - Method for thermally treating photosensitive material - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the development processing time of the photosensitive material by carrying in a laminate of the photosensitive material and an image receiving material between a heating drum and an endless belt with a high speed, and then stopping the laminate between the heating drum and the endless belt for a prescribed time, following by carrying out the laminate from between them with the high speed. CONSTITUTION:The effective heating surface length of the heating drum 42 is adjusted to at least the same length to that of the photosensitive material F, and the photosensitive material F or the laminate of the photosensitive material F and the image receiving member P is carried in between the heating drum 42 and the endless belt 44. And then, the photosensitive material or the laminate is carried in between the heating drum 42 and the endless belt 44 with crawling and is stopped for the prescribed time, thereby heating said material at a prescribed temp. Next, the photosensitive material or the laminate is carried out from between the heating drum 42 and the endless belt 44. Thus, the image information is processed for a short time without making the heating apparatus of the photosensitive material to a large size.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Field of Application] The present invention relates to a method for heat-treating photosensitive materials;
An imagewise exposed photosensitive material or a superimposed photosensitive material and image receiving material is conveyed at high speed between a heating tram and an endless belt, and then held between the heating drum and the endless belt for a predetermined period of time. The present invention relates to a method for heat-processing a photosensitive material, which makes it possible to process image information accurately in a short time by heating the photosensitive material and then transporting it at high speed.

[Background of the Invention] Recently, image recording apparatuses have been developed that can obtain high-quality images through simple wet processing using heat-developable photosensitive materials. In this device, for example, an LED is used in the exposure section.
Image information is exposed and recorded on a heat-developable photosensitive material using a light-emitting element such as the above, and then, after the said heat-developable photosensitive material and image-receiving material are superimposed, heat development treatment is performed at a predetermined temperature for a predetermined time in a heat development transfer section. The image information is thereby developed and transferred onto the image-receiving material. In this case, in order to accurately transfer the image information recorded on the photothermographic material by exposure to the image-receiving material, these materials must be pressed together at a predetermined pressure and at a uniform temperature of about 90°C for about 20 seconds. required to be retained.

Incidentally, in the thermal development transfer section constituting the image recording apparatus, the development and transfer process of image information is carried out, for example, by continuously conveying the superimposed photothermographic material and image receiving material along the outer periphery of a heated drum. If this is done, a drum with a large diameter will be required to ensure a heating time of about 20 seconds. In this case, as the diameter of the drum increases, the heat capacity increases, which not only requires a long time to lift up the thermal development transfer section, but also causes the disadvantage that the apparatus becomes larger. On the other hand, when developing and transferring processing is performed by passing overlapping materials between heat rollers arranged in a line, the line length of the thermal development and transfer section is considerably increased in order to secure a heating time of about 20 seconds. It has to be long, which results in the disadvantage of increasing the size of the device, as in the case of the drum described above.

[Object of the Invention] The present invention has been made in order to overcome the above-mentioned disadvantages. After being carried in at high speed between the heating drum and the endless belt, the image information is held between the heating drum and the endless belt for a predetermined period of time, and then taken out at high speed, so that image information can be processed in a short time without increasing the size of the device. The object of the present invention is to provide a photosensitive material heat treatment method that makes it possible.

[Means for Achieving the Object] In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention comprises a method of sandwiching an imagewise exposed photosensitive material or a superimposed photosensitive material and image-receiving material between a heating drum and an endless belt. In a photosensitive material heat treatment method in which heat treatment is performed, the effective heating surface length of the heating drum is at least as long as the length of the photosensitive material, and the photosensitive material or the overlapping photosensitive material and image receiving material are connected to the heating drum endlessly. After conveying the material between the heating drum and the endless belt, the material is heated to a predetermined temperature by being conveyed at a slow speed between the heating drum and the endless belt or stopped for a predetermined time, and then the material is transferred between the heating drum and the endless belt. It is characterized by being carried out from between.

The image recording material of the present invention may be any material that requires a heat treatment step.
For example, the above-mentioned heat-developable photosensitive materials can be mentioned.

That is, in the case of heat-developable photosensitive materials, a mobile dye is released in an image form by heating, and this mobile dye is transferred to an image receiving material (dye fixing material) having a mordant using a solvent such as water. transfer to the image-receiving material using a high-boiling organic solvent; transfer to the image-receiving material using a hydrophilic thermal solvent built into the image-receiving material; However, there are known those that transfer to a dye-receiving material such as a support. Specifically, U.S. Patent Nos. 4,463.079 and 4.47
4.867, 4.478.927, 4.4
No. 83.914, No. 4.500.626, No. 4,
507.380, JP 58-149046, JP 58-149047, JP 59-152440,
Same No. 59-154445, Same No. 59-165054, Same No. 59-168439, Same No. 59-174832
No. 59-174833, No. 59-17483
No. 4, No. 59-174835, No. 59-1805
No. 48, etc.

Other examples include photosensitive and pressure sensitive heat developable materials. Examples of this photosensitive and pressure sensitive thermal development material include JP-A No. 61-278849 filed by the present applicant.
There is something disclosed in the publication No. In this material, at least a photosensitive silver halide, a reducing agent, a polymerizable compound, and a color image-forming substance are coated on a support, and at least the polymerizable compound and the color image-forming substance are encapsulated in the same microcapsule. After imagewise exposure and thermal development, a color image-forming substance is transferred by pressure to an image-receiving material having an image-receiving layer, thereby obtaining an image on the image-receiving material.

In addition, as a type that obtains an image on a photosensitive pressure-sensitive heat development material having an image-receiving layer without using an image-receiving material,
There is one disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61209444 filed by the present applicant. This material contains silver halide, a reducing agent, a polymerizable compound, and two types of substances that cause a color reaction when in contact with each other, and one of the substances that cause a color reaction and the polymerizable compound are housed in microcapsules. It has a photosensitive layer on a support, in which other substances among the ryJ substances that cause a color reaction are present outside the microcapsules containing a polymerizable compound.

[Embodiments] Next, preferred embodiments of the photosensitive material heat treatment method according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 10 indicates the main body of an image recording apparatus to which the photosensitive material heat processing method according to the present embodiment is applied. This main body part 10 is surrounded by a cage] nog 12.
, and the inside thereof is connected to a lower exposure chamber 16 by a partition wall 14.
a and an upper development transfer chamber 16b.

The exposure chamber 16a is provided with an exposure section 18 and a water application section 20. In the exposure section 18, the photothermographic material F stored in a roll in a film magazine 21 is transferred to the cutter 2.
2.

The exposure unit 18 includes a drum 24 that rotates at high speed in the direction of the arrow (main scanning direction), and an exposure head 2 that is disposed close to the peripheral side of the drum 24 and moves in a direction perpendicular to the figure (sub-scanning direction).
6. Note that the exposure head 26 is equipped with a plurality of light-emitting elements that color the heat-developable photosensitive material F with cyan (C), magenta (M), and yellow (Y) dyes, and these light-emitting elements Image information is recorded on the heat-developable photosensitive material F by exposure.

The water application section 20 has a dampening roller 32 to which dampening water W(7) supplied from the water supply section 28 via a pipe 30 is applied. In this case, the photothermographic material F transferred from the exposure section 18 is coated with dampening water W on its exposure surface by the dampening roller 32, and then is fed to the development transfer chamber 16b via the nip rollers 34a and 34b. Ru. Note that the exposure chamber 16a is loaded with a paper feed magazine 36 containing an image receiving material P, and the image receiving material P is fed between the nip rollers 34a and 34b by a paper feed roller 38, so that the image receiving material P is removed from the water application section 20. (2) It is superimposed on the ejected heat-developable photosensitive material F.

On the other hand, the heat-developable photosensitive material F and the image-receiving material P are fed from the exposure chamber 16a in an overlapping state to the development transfer chamber 16b.
A heat development transfer section 40 is provided which performs a heat development transfer process on the image forming apparatus. In this case, the thermal development transfer section 40 includes a hollow cylindrical heating drum 42, a circumferential side portion of the heating drum 420,
It includes an endless belt 44 that is in sliding contact so as to cover approximately half of the belt. A heat source 46 made of a halogen lamp or the like is disposed in the hollow portion of the heating drum 42, and the peripheral side portion is heated to approximately 90° C. by this heat source 46. Note that the temperature of the heating drum 42 is maintained constant by being detected by a temperature sensor 48 disposed close to the peripheral side thereof.

The endless belt 44 is made of, for example, a steel belt with a smooth surface or a thin film belt made of nickel or the like, and is supported in tension by four rollers 50a to 50d. In this case, the peeling roller 52 is in sliding contact with the roller 50d, and these rollers 50d and 52
The heat-developable photosensitive material F and the image-receiving material P are superimposed by
is removed.

The image-receiving material P peeled off from the photothermographic material F by the roller 50d and the peeling roller 52 is carried out to a take-out tray 54 provided on the upper surface of the casing 12. Further, the thermal development photosensitive material F is carried out into a waste magazine 56 loaded in the casing 12. Note that between the peeling roller 52 and the take-out tray 54 and between the peeling roller 52
Heat sources 58 and 60 such as halogen lamps for drying the image-receiving material P and the photothermographic material F are provided between the discard magazine 56 and the waste magazine 56, respectively.

The image recording apparatus in this embodiment is basically constructed as described above. Next, a method for heat-processing a photosensitive material using this apparatus will be explained.

First, the heat-developable photosensitive material F stored in the film magazine 21 is delivered to the exposure section 18, and when it has been delivered a predetermined number of times, its rear end is cut by the cutter 22. Next, the heat-developable photosensitive material F transferred to the exposure section 18 is transferred to the drum 2.
4 and then exposed to light by a plurality of light emitting elements (not shown) mounted on the exposure head 26. In this case, the drum 24 is rotating at high speed in the direction of arrow A (main scanning direction), and the exposure head 26 moves in a direction perpendicular to FIG. Next, the photothermographic material InF on which the image information has been recorded is transferred to the water coating section 20 by rotating the drum 24 in the direction opposite to the direction of the arrow 6. The heat-developable photosensitive material F transferred to the water application section 20 comes into sliding contact with the dampening roller 32, so that the dampening water W supplied from the water supply section 28 is applied to the exposure surface, and the material is passed through the nip rollers 34a and 34b. The image is sent to the development transfer chamber 16b. On the other hand, the nip rollers 34a, 34b+, : feed the image receiving material P stored in the paper feed magazine 36 to the paper feed roller 38 in sheets. Therefore, the photothermographic material F is transferred to the nip roller 34.
It is superimposed on the image receiving material P between a and 34b and sent to the development transfer chamber 16b.

The heat-developable photosensitive material F and the image-receiving material P transferred to the development transfer chamber 16b are inserted between a heating drum 42, which constitutes the heat development transfer section 40, and rotates at a predetermined speed in the direction of arrow B, and an endless belt 44. The image information recorded by exposure on the heat-developable photosensitive material F is developed and transferred to the image-receiving material P. In this case, in order for the image information to be accurately transferred to the image-receiving material P, as mentioned above, the photothermographic material F and the image-receiving material P must be heated at a temperature of about 90° C. with uniform pressure for about 20 seconds. It is necessary to maintain it.

Therefore, in this implementation, the heating drum 42 is heated to a temperature of 90° C. by a heat source 46 such as a halogen lamp, and this temperature is controlled to be constant using a temperature sensor 48 placed close to the heating drum 42. There is. In addition, the roller 50a
By displacing at least one of 50d to 50d using an elastic member, the pressing force of the endless belt 44 against the heating drum 42 is ensured, and the photothermographic material F
And the image receiving material P is suitably pressed. Note that the endless belt 44 is made of
A steel belt with a thickness of about 0 to 100 μm,
Alternatively, uniform pressure bonding force is achieved by using a thin film of nickel or the like. As a result, the image information is evenly and accurately transferred to the image receiving material P. Further, in order to maintain the thermally press-bonded state of the photothermographic material F and the image receiving material P for 20 seconds, in this embodiment, the conveying speed V in the thermal development transfer section 40 is controlled as shown in FIG. 2a.

That is, at the time when the leading ends of the photothermographic material F and the image receiving material P overlapped by the nip rollers 34a and 34b approach the thermal development transfer section 40 (1=1+), the heating drum 4
2 and the endless belt 44 are driven at a conveying speed vh. Then, after the leading end reaches the point ``■'' on the heating drum 42, t''tJ, and then, after the rear end of the photothermographic material F reaches the point ``■'' (t=t3), the leading end reaches the point ``■''. The heating drum 42 and the endless belt 44 are conveyed at a speed Vh until reaching the point (t=t<)
Drive with. Next, the transport speed V is set to 0 and the photothermographic material F and the image-receiving material P are retained in the thermal development transfer section 40 until time t after the tip reaches the position (■). Furthermore, the tip passes through the point t"tii),
The rear end passes through the point marked ■ (1=11) and moves to the roller 50d.
The heating drum 42 and the endless belt 44 are driven again at the conveyance speed vh until the conveyor passes through (t"ts).

Note that the time period from when the leading end and the trailing end reach the point ■ of the heating drum 42 until they reach the point ■ is @(t
g t2) i6 and (jy L+> are each 20
Set it to seconds.

In this way, the heating drum 42 and the endless belt 44
When the conveying speed V is controlled, the leading and trailing ends of the photothermographic material F and the image-receiving material P will be conveyed from points (1) to (2) at the timing shown in FIG. 2.

The image information recorded by exposure on the heat-developable photosensitive material F is developed and then accurately transferred to the image-receiving material P. In this case, the processing time from when the front end of the heat-developable photosensitive material F and the image-receiving material P is put into the heat development transfer section 40 at point 3 until the rear end is carried out from point D is <t
t-tz).

In addition, in the above embodiment, the transport was stopped at the transport speed v=Q from time t to t, but the transport was carried out at a very slow speed, which was much slower than the speed of the person and the transport. It's okay.

On the other hand, when the thermal development transfer section 40 continuously conveys the photosensitive material F and the image receiving material P as in the past, the positions of the leading edge and trailing edge relative to the processing time are shown by the dashed dotted lines in Figure 2. It becomes like this. In this case, the processing time from when the leading end is carried in to the point ■ until the rear end is carried out from the point (↓) is (ts-tz), and the conveying means V is controlled as shown in Figure 2 a. This will require an additional processing time of (t, -1,) than in the case of

Therefore, it can be understood that the processing time can be shortened by setting the feeding speed V in the thermal development transfer section 40 as shown in FIG. 2a. Note that the heat-developable photosensitive material F and the image-receiving material P are heated for a predetermined time in a stopped state in the heat-developable transfer section 40. Therefore, the diameter of the heating drum 42 does not need to be set very large, and as a result, the device can be made smaller. Further, the carrying-in speed Vh and the carrying-out speed vh of the heat-developable photosensitive material F and the image-receiving material P to the heat-developable transfer section 40 are set to be equal. Therefore, the transfer time on the front end side of the image-receiving material P becomes equal to the transfer time on the rear end side, and as a result, an accurate image without unevenness can be obtained.

The image-receiving material P, onto which the image information has been transferred in the manner described above, is carried out from the heat-developable photosensitive material F along with the heat-developable photosensitive material F from the heat-developable photosensitive material fEI F by the peeling roller 52 that comes into contact with the roller 50d. Peeled off. In this case, the image receiving material P onto which the image information has been transferred is dried by a heat source 58 such as a halogen lamp, and then placed in the casing 1.
2 is discharged onto a take-out tray 54 disposed on the upper surface of the container.

Further, after the heat-developable photosensitive material F is dried by the heat source 60, it is carried out into the waste magazine 56 loaded in the casing 12.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, an imagewise exposed photosensitive material or a photosensitive material and an image-receiving material can be used! The image information is processed by placing the processed material between the heating drum and the endless belt at high speed, holding it between the heating drum and the endless belt for a predetermined period of time, and then transporting it at high speed. . In this case, development and transfer processing is performed in a shorter time than when the photosensitive material is continuously conveyed and heat development processing is performed. In addition, since these materials are retained between the heating drum and the endless belt for a predetermined period of time to ensure a predetermined heating time, the heating drum may be of a minimum size based on the size of the materials. Therefore,
Miniaturization of the device will be achieved. Furthermore, since the heat capacity is kept small by downsizing the heating drum, there is an advantage that the rise time for heating is also shortened.

Although the present invention has been described above with reference to preferred embodiments, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments.
Of course, various improvements and changes in design are possible without departing from the gist of the invention.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an image recording apparatus to which the method of the present invention is applied, and FIG. 2a is an explanation of the transport speed of the heat-developable photosensitive material and image-receiving material in the heat development transfer section of the image recording apparatus shown in FIG. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of the relationship between time and position of the photothermographic material and the image-receiving material transported at the transport speed shown in FIG. 2a. 10... Main body part 16a... Exposure chamber 16
b... Development transfer chamber 18... Exposure section 20...
Water application section 24...drum 26...exposure head 40...thermal development transfer section 42...heating F ram 44...endless belt 46...heat source F...thermally developable photosensitive material P.・・Image-receiving material 〉

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) In a photosensitive material heat processing method in which an imagewise exposed photosensitive material or a superimposed photosensitive material and image-receiving material is sandwiched between a heating drum and an endless belt and heat treated, effective heating of the heating drum is performed. The surface length is at least the same as the length of the photosensitive material, and after carrying the photosensitive material or a superimposed photosensitive material and image receiving material between the heating drum and the endless belt, the heating drum and the endless belt are A method for heat processing a photosensitive material, which comprises heating the material to a predetermined temperature by transporting the material at a slow speed between the two or stopping for a predetermined time, and then transporting the material from between a heating drum and an endless belt.