JPH01321251A - Method of accumulating heat developed sensitive material and image recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To effectively accumulate a heat developed sensitive material within a small space by providing a constitution so as to compulsorily forming a curl around the shaft parallel to the carrying direction of the heat developed sensitive material after heat developing transfer processing, and successively stacking and accumulating the material as it is in the state where the curl is formed. CONSTITUTION:In a wasted sensitive material receiving box 60, a heat developed sensitive material moved by a carrying roller 50 is sent into the body part 62 through an opening part 64. The lateral center part of the sensitive material is compulsorily pressed in the rear face plate 62B (holding plate 70) direction by a press bar 68 extending into the body part 62 through an opening part 66, and the sensitive material is moved with producing a curl around the shaft parallel to the carrying direction. When moved toward the upper face plate 62C to bring its top end part into contact with a pressing plate 72, the sensitive material moves the pressing plate 72 toward the upper face plate 62C against the energized force of a compression spring. At the time when its rear end part is separated from the roller 50, it is pushed back by the pressing plate 72 and held between the bar 68 and the holding plate 70 as it is in the state where the curl is formed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a method for stacking a heat-developable photosensitive material after a heat-developable photosensitive material on which an image has been exposed is superimposed on an image-receiving material and subjected to a heat-developable transfer process, and a method thereof. The present invention relates to an image recording device.

[Prior Art] An image is exposed onto a heat-developable photosensitive material, and the heat-developable photosensitive material is superimposed on an image-receiving material and heated, whereby the heat-developable photosensitive material is thermally developed and the image is transferred to the image-receiving material. Image recording devices that obtain images are known.

In this type of image recording apparatus, a separation means such as a separation arm is arranged near the heat development transfer section, and the heat development photosensitive material after heat development transfer is separated from the image receiving material by this separation arm. It has become. Further, the separated photothermographic material is conveyed by a conveyance means such as a conveyance roller, and is accumulated in a waste box.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] By the way, heat-developable photosensitive materials are often transported after being wrapped around rollers, or heated after being coated with water as an image-forming solvent, etc. after heat-developable transfer. When separated from the image-receiving material, irregular curls occur, and the entire photothermographic material is curled to a significantly smaller diameter.

In this regard, in conventional image recording devices, curls generated in the photothermographic material are simply accumulated in the waste box without being removed, so the apparent volume of the photothermographic material accumulated increases due to this curl. However, there is a problem in that the actual amount of waste boxes that can be accumulated is reduced.

In consideration of the above-mentioned facts, the present invention provides a method for accumulating photothermographic materials in which the photothermographic material separated from the image-receiving material after thermal development transfer can be accumulated in a small space without waste, and an image to which the assembling method is applied. The purpose is to obtain a recording device.

[Means for Solving the Problems] A method for accumulating a heat-developable photosensitive material according to the present invention involves superimposing a photothermographic material on which an image has been exposed on an image-receiving material, subjecting it to a heat-development transfer process, and then separating it from the image-receiving material. A method for accumulating heat-developable photosensitive materials that are conveyed by means of a method of forcibly curling the photothermographic material around an axis parallel to the direction of conveyance of the photothermographic material after heat development transfer processing, and leaving the curled state as it is. It is characterized by being accumulated sequentially.

Further, the image recording device according to the present invention heat-develops the photothermographic material by overlaying the photothermographic material on which the image has been exposed with the image-receiving material, and transfers the image to the image-receiving material, and after the transfer, the photothermographic material is transferred to the photothermographic material. The image recording apparatus separates and conveys the photothermographic material from the image-receiving material, and includes a storage section for storing the photothermographic material conveyed after the thermal development transfer, and a storage section provided in the storage section for storing the photothermographic material conveyed parallel to the conveyance direction. It is characterized by comprising a curling means for forcibly curling around the axis and maintaining the curled state.

E-action] In the heat-developable photosensitive material accumulation method having the above configuration, the heat-developable photosensitive material that has been subjected to heat development transfer processing and is then separated from the image-receiving material and transported is rotated around an axis parallel to the transport direction of the heat-developable photosensitive material. They are forcibly curled and stacked one upon another in this curled state. Therefore, the apparent volume of the photothermographic material does not increase due to irregular curls, and it can be continuously and regularly accumulated in a small space without waste.

Further, in the image recording apparatus having the above configuration, the photothermographic material separated from the image-receiving material and conveyed after image transfer is fed into the storage section. Here, the photothermographic material fed into the storage section is forcibly pressed by the curling means, moves while curling around an axis parallel to the transport direction, and remains in a regularly curled state. It is held and accumulated by the curling means. Therefore, in this case as well, the apparent volume of the photothermographic material does not increase due to irregular curls, and it can be continuously and regularly accumulated in a small space without waste.

The heat-developable photosensitive material used in the present invention basically has a photosensitive silver halide, a binder, a dye-providing compound, and a reducing agent (the dye-providing compound may also serve as a reducing agent) on a support. Furthermore, organic silver salts and other additives can be contained as necessary.

The above-mentioned heat-developable photosensitive material may be one that gives a negative image upon exposure to light, or one that gives a positive image. Methods that provide positive images include methods that use a direct positive emulsion as a silver halide emulsion (there are two types: a method that uses a nucleating agent and a method that uses light fogging), and a method that uses a dye that releases a positive diffusive dye image. Any method using a donating compound can be adopted.

In the present invention, this diffusible dye is used as a dye solid element (image receiving material).
This transfer may be performed simultaneously with heat development, or may be performed continuously or at intervals after heat development. Thermal development may be carried out in the presence of a very small amount of water.

There are various methods of transferring diffusible dyes, such as transferring to a dye fixing element using an aqueous solvent such as water, transferring to a dye fixing element using a high boiling point organic solvent, and transferring to a dye fixing element using a hydrophilic hot solvent. There have been proposed methods for transferring dyes to a dye-fixing element having a dye-receiving polymer by utilizing the thermal diffusivity or sublimation of a diffusible dye, and the present invention can be applied to any of these methods.

Listed below are documents that specifically describe heat-developable photosensitive materials and image-receiving materials that can be used in the present invention. US Patent Tube 4.4
6.3,079, same No. 4,474゜867, same No. 4
, 478,927, 4゜507.380, 4,500,626, 4,483,914, JP-A-58-149046, JP-A-5B-149047,
No. 59-152440, No. 59-154445, No. 59-165054, No. 59-180548, No. 5
No. 9-168439, No. 59-174832, No. 59
-174833, 59-174834, 59-
No. 174835, No. 62-65038, No. 61-23
No. 245, European Patent Publication No. 210.660A2, European Patent Publication No. 22
0,746A2 etc.

[Example 1 The present invention will be explained in detail below.

FIG. 7 shows an image recording apparatus 10 to which the method of accumulating photothermographic material according to the present invention is applied.

The image recording device 10 has a magazine 14 housed in the machine base 12.
A heat-developable photosensitive material 16 in the form of a ferrode is housed therein.

This heat-developable photosensitive 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 an exposure tram 20 in the six directions of arrows.

An exposure head 22 is disposed corresponding to the outer periphery of the exposure drum 20, and rotates the exposure drum 20 at high speed to expose an image onto the wound photothermographic material 16.

After exposure, the photothermographic material 16 is transferred to the photothermographic material 16 by reversing the exposure drum 20 (
direction of arrow B), the exposure drum 20 is removed by the scraper 24.
After being peeled off from the film and being coated with water as an image forming solvent in a water application section 26, it is sent to a thermal development transfer section 28.

A heating drum 34 and an endless pressure belt 36 are arranged in the thermal development transfer section 28 . Further, a halogen lamp 38 is disposed inside the heating drum 34, and the outer periphery of the heating drum 34 is heated to about 90° C. by this halogen lamp 38.

The endless pressure belt 36 is connected to tension rollers 37, 39.
41 and 43, and its endless outer side is pressed against the outer periphery of the heating drum 34.

The heat-developable photosensitive material 16 coated with water is transferred to a heating drum 34
The heating drum 34 is supplied between the
It is designed to be sandwiched and conveyed over approximately 2/3 of the circumference and thermally developed.

A pair of overlapping rollers 46 are arranged near the portion where the endless pressure belt 36 is wound around the tension roller 37.

On the other hand, the magazine 3 located below the thermal development transfer section 2
A plurality of image-receiving materials 32 cut to a predetermined length are housed in the container 0 . The image-receiving material 32 is sequentially taken out sheet by sheet by a supply roller 44 arranged on the side of the magazine 30 and sent to the thermal development transfer section 2.

The image-receiving material 32 sent to the thermal development transfer section 28 is overlapped with the thermal development photosensitive material 16 by an overlapping roller 46, and is supplied between the heating drum 34 and the endless pressure belt 36.

When the heat-developable photosensitive material 16 is heated while being overlapped with the image-receiving material 32 in the heat-developable transfer section 2, it is thermally developed and the image is transferred to the image-receiving material 32, so that an image is obtained on the image-receiving material 32. It is now possible to

A peeling section 4 is arranged near the part of the endless pressure belt 36 that is wound around the tension roller 43 to separate the photothermographic material 16 and the image receiving material 32 that have been fed. The separated heat-developable photosensitive material 16 is dried by a drying device 53 and then sent to a waste photosensitive material storage box 60 by a conveying roller 50.

As shown in FIGS. 1 to 6, the waste photosensitive material storage box 60 has a main body portion 62 as a storage portion. Main body part 62
is formed into a box shape by a front plate 62A, a rear plate 6213, a lower plate 62C1, left and right side plates 62D, and a lower plate 62H, and the upper plate 62C is removable.

An opening 64 is formed in the lower part of the front plate 62A.

A conveyance roller 50 is located near this opening 64 and is adapted to feed the photothermographic material 16 being conveyed into the main body 62 . In this case, the photothermographic material I6 is fed into the main body 62 so that the surface coated with water in the water coating section 26 faces the front plate 62A.

In addition, a rectangular opening 66 is formed in the center of the front plate 62A, and the vertical direction is vertically longitudinal.
8 is fixed. The presser rod 68 is made of an elastic rod and is formed into a substantially S-shape, with one end fixed above the opening 66 and the other end attached to the main body 62 through the opening 66. It is extended inward. Therefore, the heat-developable photosensitive material 16 fed into the main body 62 by the conveyance roller 50 through the opening 64 is forcibly pressed in the direction of the rear plate 62B by the presser bar 68 at its center in the width direction, and is conveyed. The curl is created around an axis parallel to the direction.

A holding plate 70 is arranged inside the main body part 62.

The holding plate 70 is formed to be smoothly curved, and is fixed to the inside of the rear plate 62B with the concave side facing the presser foot 68. Therefore, the holding plate 70 is fixed to the inside of the rear plate 62B with the presser foot 68. The heat-developable photosensitive material 16 fed into the main body 62 while being curled is held in the curled state by the presser foot 68 and the holding plate 70. Since the surface side of the photothermographic material 16 is stacked with its surface side facing the presser bar 68, the surface side free of moisture comes into contact with the photothermographic material 16 that has already been stacked.

The amount of curl in this held state is possible to exceed 0 degrees and wrap around 360 degrees, but preferably 1
A range between 0 degrees and 180 degrees is favorable, and the holding plate 70 is also curved accordingly.

A press plate 72 is arranged inside the upper part of the main body part 62 . The pressing plate 72 is connected to the top plate 62C via a plurality of compression springs 74, and is located within a notch 76 formed in the left and right side plates 62D so as to be constantly pressed toward the bottom plate 62E. There is. In this case, the notch 76 is formed so that the distance between the press plate 72 and the bottom plate 62E is longer than the length along the conveyance direction of the photothermographic material 16.

Further, the pressing force of the compression spring 74 is
The conveyance force of the photothermographic material 16 is set to be weaker than the conveying force of the photothermographic material 16 (the rigidity of the photothermographic material 16 fed into the main body 62).
The heat-developable photosensitive material 16 fed inside moves inside the main body 62 toward the top plate 62C while being curled.
When the tip comes into contact with the pressing plate 72, the pressing plate 72 is moved in the direction of the top plate 62C against the biasing force of the compression spring, and when the rear end is separated from the conveying roller 50, the pressing plate 72 is moved against the urging force of the compression spring. The presser foot 68 and the holding plate 7 are pressed securely.
It is maintained between 0 and 0.

One end of a guide plate 76 is fixed to the inside of the lower plate 62B. The other end of the guide plate 76 extends from the opening 64 toward the conveyance roller 50, so that the rear end of the photothermographic material 16 is separated from the conveyance roller 50 and pushed by the pressure plate 72 toward the lower plate 62E. When pressed, the rear end portion is guided so as not to be nipped by the conveyance roller 50 again.

On the other hand, the image receiving material 32 separated from the heat-developable photosensitive material 1G on the 4th day of separation from f and 11 is dried in a drying device 52 and then sent onto a take-out tray 54 formed at the top of the machine stand 12. It has become.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained.

When the heat-developable photosensitive material 16 pulled out from the magazine 14 is cut by the cutter 18 and wound around the outer periphery of the exposure drum 20, the exposure drum 20 rotates at high speed in the direction of the arrow in FIG. is exposed.

The exposed heat-developable photosensitive material 16 is peeled off by a scraper 24 by rotating the exposure drum 20 in the reverse direction (in the direction of arrow B), coated with water in a water-applying section 26, and sent to a heat-developing transfer section 28.

On the other hand, the image receiving material 32 in the magazine 30 is taken out one by one by the supply roller 44,
The photothermographic material 16 is superimposed and brought into close contact with the photothermographic material 16 by a superimposing roller 46 disposed near the photothermographic material 16 . Further, the superimposed photothermographic material 16 and image receiving material 32 are supplied between the heating drum 34 and the endless pressure belt 36 (only partially wrapped around the tension roller 37).

The heat-developable photosensitive material 16 and the image-receiving material 32 sent to the heat development transfer section 2 are placed in close contact with a heating drum 34 heated to approximately 90° C. by a halogen lamp 38 and an endless pressure belt 36. Approximately 2/3 of the heating drum 34 between
The photothermographic material 16 is conveyed and pinched around the circumference to be thermally developed, and the image exposed on the photothermographic material 16 is transferred to the image receiving material 32 .

7.11 for the heat-developable photosensitive material 16 and image-receiving material 32 after transfer
The separated photothermographic materials 16 that are sent to the separating section 48 and separated from each other are sent to a waste photosensitive material storage box 60 by a conveying roller 50.

In the waste photosensitive material storage box 60, the photothermographic material 16 moved by the conveyance roller 50 is fed into the main body 62 through an opening 64 formed at the lower part of the front plate 62Δ. Here, the heat-developable photosensitive material 16 fed in the length of the main body 621 is held at its center in the width direction by the presser bar 68 extending into the main body 62 through the opening 66. 70) direction, and moves while curling around an axis parallel to the conveyance direction.

The top plate 6.2C moves inside the main body 62 while being curled.
The photothermographic material 16 moving in the direction O;1;
When the rear end comes into contact with the pressing plate 72, the pressing plate 72 is moved in the direction of the top plate 62C against the biasing force of the compression spring, and further, when the rear end part is separated from the conveying roller 50, it is pressed by the pressing plate 72. The presser bar 68 and the holding plate 7 are pushed back downward (in the direction of the lower plate 62E), and the presser bar 68 and the retaining plate 7 remain curled.
It is held between 0 and 0.

In this case, since the guide plate 76 is fixed to the bottom plate 62E and its tip extends from the opening 64 toward the conveyance roller 50, the rear end of the photothermographic material 16 is separated from the conveyance roller 50 and pressed. When pressed in the direction of the lower plate 62E by the plate 72, the photothermographic material 16 moves along this guide plate 7.
6, and the rear end is not nipped by the conveyance rollers 50 again.

In addition, since the presser bar 68 has elasticity, even when a plurality of sheets of the photothermographic material 16 are accumulated in the main body 62, the presser bar 68 holds the photothermographic material 16 in a curled state. They are securely held and integrated between the plates 70 and 70. In this case, the moisture-free back side of the photothermographic material 16 is brought into contact with the already accumulated photothermographic material 16, and furthermore, the accumulated photothermographic material 16 is dried in advance by a drying device 53. Since it is dried and comes into contact with air within the main body 62, it reaches a dry state by the time the photothermographic material I6 is fed next, so that friction is small and it is smoothly accumulated.

Therefore, due to irregular curls, the photothermographic material 1
The apparent volume of the waste photosensitive material storage box 6 does not increase (it can be accumulated continuously and regularly without waste).
0 can be made smaller.

On the other hand, the image-receiving material 32 separated from the photothermographic material 16 at the peeling section 48 is taken out to a take-out tray 54 via a drying device 52 .

After the image recording process is completed, the waste photosensitive material storage box 60 is removed from the tray 12, and the photothermographic material 16 accumulated therein is disposed of. In this case, since the top plate 62C of the waste photosensitive material storage box 60 is removable,
By removing this, the photothermographic material 16 can be easily taken out and disposed of.

In this embodiment, the holding plate 70 is formed to be smoothly curved and the photothermographic material 16 is curled in an arc shape to hold it, but the holding state of the photothermographic material 16 is not limited to this. First, as shown in FIG. 8, it may be held in a dogleg shape by a holding plate 80 having a doglegged cross section. Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 9, it may be held in a U-shape by a holding plate 90 having a U-shaped cross section and a pair of presser bars 92.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, the photothermographic material accumulation method and image recording apparatus according to the present invention are capable of accumulating the photothermographic material separated from the image-receiving material after thermal development transfer in a small space without waste. It has the excellent effect of being able to

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is an overall perspective view of a waste photosensitive material storage box of an image recording apparatus according to the present invention, Fig. 2 is a front view of the waste photosensitive material storage box, and Fig. 3 is a cross section taken along the line ■-■ in Fig. 2. Figure 4 is a sectional view taken along the line TV-IV in Figure 3, and Figure 5 is a sectional view taken along the line TV-IV in Figure 2.
■A sectional view taken along the line, FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken along the line Vl-Vl in FIG.
9 and 9 are cross-sectional views showing a retaining plate according to another embodiment. IO... Image recording device, 16... Heat-developable photosensitive material, 32... Image receiving material, [jO... Waste photosensitive material storage box, 62... Main body, 68... Presser bar, 70 ...Retaining plate, 80... Retaining plate, 90... Retaining plate.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A method for accumulating heat-developable photosensitive materials, in which a photothermographic material exposed to light is superimposed on an image-receiving material, subjected to heat-developable transfer processing, and then separated from the image-receiving material and transported, the method comprising: A method for stacking heat-developable photosensitive materials, which comprises forcibly curling the photothermographic materials around an axis parallel to the direction of conveyance of the photothermographic material, and stacking the photothermographic materials one after another while keeping the curls in place. (2) The photothermographic material exposed to the image is superimposed on the image-receiving material, the photothermographic material is thermally developed, and the image is transferred to the image-receiving material. After transfer, the photothermographic material is separated from the image-receiving material and transported. An image recording apparatus comprising: a storage section for storing a heat-developable photosensitive material conveyed after thermal development transfer; and a storage section provided in the storage section for forcibly curling the photothermographic material around an axis parallel to the conveyance direction. An image recording apparatus comprising: curling means for causing curling and maintaining the curled state.