JPH04195041A - Photosensitive material processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the processing irregularity of a transfer trace or a trailing phenomenon and to improve photographing property by rupturing the boundary film of processing solution adhering to the surface of a roller on a side in contact with an emulsion layer set along a carrying path. CONSTITUTION:A rack 3 for supporting rollers 4A, 4B, 5 and 6 is arranged in a processing tank 2. When a photosensitive material is carried along the U-shaped carrying path, it is impregnated with the developing agent 10 with which the tank 2 is filled, so that developing processing is executed. Next, a halogen ion and developing retardant, etc., are infiltrated from the emulsion layer and elusion substance generated by the contact of the roller 4A with the emulsion surface is infiltrated in the boundary film of the developer 10 which exists on the outer peripheral surfaces of the rollers 4a and 4B. Then, a blade 9 being a boundary film rupturing means peels the boundary film containing the dissolved substance to disperse the dissolved substance in the developer 9.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION <Industrial Application Field> The present invention relates to a photosensitive material processing apparatus for processing silver halide photosensitive materials.

<Prior art> After exposure, a silver halide photosensitive material (hereinafter referred to as photosensitive material) is subjected to processing according to the type of the photosensitive material, for example, using a photosensitive material processing device such as an automatic processor. For example, in the case of a color negative film, processing such as development, bleaching, fixing, washing, and stabilization are performed. In such processing, the photosensitive material is sequentially passed through five or more processing tanks each containing a developer, bleach, fixer, washing water, and stabilizing solution, and each processing solution is soaked for a predetermined period of time. It is done by soaking.

In this case, the photosensitive material is transported by a transport means composed of multiple rollers, guides, etc., but since the surface of the emulsion layer of the photosensitive material (hereinafter referred to as the emulsion surface) comes into contact with the rollers, processing unevenness is prevented. There is a problem that arises.

In particular, in the developer, the exposed area (screen) of the photosensitive material
Halogen ions (especially bromine oxide) eluted from
Eluated substances such as fluoride and development inhibitors adhere to and remain near the surface of the roller, and these eluted substances inhibit the development of the screen of the photosensitive material that will next come into contact with the roller surface, resulting in transfer marks and tailing phenomena. . In particular, with photographic photosensitive materials such as negative film, if transfer marks or tailing occur, the tailing will be magnified when printing from the photosensitive material on photographic paper, causing unevenness in the printed image, which is undesirable. .

Also, in the case of a squirrel-shaped film, tailing and transfer marks due to bromide drugging occur for the same reason as mentioned above.

<Problems to be Solved by the Invention> An object of the present invention is to provide a photosensitive material processing apparatus that can prevent processing unevenness such as transfer marks and tailing phenomena and improve photographic properties.

Means for Solving the Problems> Such objects are achieved by the present invention as described in (1) to (3) below.

(1) A processing tank, a processing liquid placed in this processing tank,
A photosensitive material processing apparatus having a conveyance means for conveying a silver halide photosensitive material along a predetermined conveyance path, the conveyance means having a plurality of rollers installed along the conveyance path, and the conveyance means having a plurality of rollers installed along the conveyance path, The photosensitive material processing is characterized in that the roller on the side in contact with the emulsion layer of the silver halide photosensitive material is provided with film breaking means for destroying the film of the processing liquid adhering to the surface of the roller. Device.

(2) The photosensitive material processing apparatus according to (1) above, wherein the film breaking means is installed at least on a roller in the first half of the conveyance path.

(3) The photosensitive material processing apparatus according to (1) or (2) above, wherein the film breaking means is a blade installed so that its tip comes into contact with the surface of the roller.

According to the present invention having such a configuration, when processing a photosensitive material, the film breaking means destroys the film of the processing liquid that has adhered to the surface of the roller on the side that is in contact with the emulsion layer of the photosensitive material. For example, even if the eluate elutes from the exposed portion of the photosensitive material in the developing solution and remains as a film near the surface of the roller, this eluate will be diffused together with the film, and will therefore come into contact with it next time. To suppress the occurrence of transfer marks and trailing phenomena on the screen of photosensitive materials.

<Configuration of the Invention> Hereinafter, the photosensitive material processing apparatus of the present invention will be described in detail based on preferred embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional side view showing an example of the configuration of a photosensitive material processing apparatus according to the present invention. As shown in the figure, the photosensitive material processing apparatus 1 has a vertically elongated processing tank 2 having a predetermined volume. 3 is preferably removably loaded.

In addition, the processing tank 2 is filled with processing liquid up to a predetermined level with the rack 3 loaded therein. In this configuration example, a developing solution will be representatively explained as the processing solution.

The rack 3 has a pair of side plates 31, and these side plates 31
．． A plurality of rollers 4A, 4B, 5, and 6 for conveying the photosensitive material S are supported between the rollers 31.

In the photosensitive material processing apparatus 1 shown in FIG. 1, the photosensitive material S is conveyed in a developer 10 along a U-shaped path. Therefore, rollers 4A and 4B are arranged along this conveyance path. ing.

The arrangement pattern of the rollers 4A and 4B in the developer solution is as shown in FIG. The rollers 4A and 4B are arranged alternately, that is, in a staggered manner. The photosensitive material S is conveyed through the processing tank 2 by such rollers 4A and 4B with its emulsion surface facing inside. Therefore, in the illustrated example, the roller 4A contacts the emulsion surface of the photosensitive material S, and the roller 4A contacts the emulsion surface of the photosensitive material S.
The roller on the side that comes into contact with the back surface of is referred to as roller 4B.

Further, above the surface of the developer, a roller 5 for carrying the photosensitive material S into the processing tank 2 and a roller 6 for carrying it out of the processing tank 2 are installed, respectively.

All or part of these rollers 4A, 4B, and 5.6 are driven to rotate in a predetermined direction by a drive source (not shown).

It goes without saying that the arrangement pattern of the rollers is not limited to that shown in the drawings.

At the top of the processing tank 2, a liquid suction pipe 7 for replenishing new developer 10 and a drain pipe for discharging the exhausted developer 10 by overflow are installed, respectively, passing through the side wall of the processing tank 2. has been done. From the liquid suction pipe 7, for example,
3 to 100 ml of developer 10 is replenished per 1 m of photosensitive material, and exhausted developer 10 is discharged from the drain pipe 8 in an amount approximately equal to the replenishment amount.

Now, the roller 4A on the side that comes into contact with the emulsion surface of the photosensitive material S is provided with film breaking means for breaking (or peeling off) the film of the processing liquid adhering to its outer peripheral surface. Hereinafter, an example of the structure of this membrane breaking means will be explained.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view showing an example of the configuration of the membrane breaking means. As shown in the figure, the blade 9, which is a membrane breaking means, has a base portion 91 fixed between the side plates 21 by a member (not shown), and a tip portion (thin wall portion) whose thickness gradually decreases toward the tip. 92, and the tip portion 92 is installed so as to be in contact with the outer peripheral surface of the roller 4A.

Note that the blade 9 may have substantially the same thickness from the base 91 to the tip 92.

The contact surface pressure of the blade 9 against the outer peripheral surface of the roller 4A is
0.001~0.1kg/cm", especially 0.005
It is preferable to set it to about 0.02 kg/cm". If this contact surface pressure is less than O, OO 1 kg/crn",
The effect of destroying the film of the developer attached to the outer circumferential surface of the roller 4A is insufficient, and 0.1 kg/cm"
If it exceeds this, the rotational load on the roller 4A will increase, causing poor conveyance, and depending on the material of the blade 9, its deterioration will be accelerated.

Note that the adhesion force of the blade 9 to the roller 4A is usually given by the elastic force of the blade, but it is also possible to incorporate a magnetic material into the tip 92 of the blade 9 (for example, a rubber magnet). It is also possible to provide or increase the adhesion force by configuring the roller 4A itself or its interior with a magnetic material (for example, iron, stainless steel, cobalt) so that the tip 72 and the roller 4A are attracted by magnetic force. be.

Note that two or more such blades 9 may be provided for one roller 4A, and in this case, the effect of destroying the film is enhanced.

Furthermore, the blade 9 is not limited to the shape shown in the drawings.

The constituent material of the blade 9 may be any material as long as it has chemical resistance to the processing liquid (for example, natural rubber, inbrene rubber, chloroprene rubber, nitrile rubber, butyl rubber, fluororubber, butadiene rubber, styrene-butadiene rubber,
Various rubbers such as ethylene propylene rubber, silicone rubber,
Soft polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene, polypropylene,
Examples include elastic materials such as soft resins such as ionomer resins, fluororesins, and silicone resins, and elastomers such as Lavalon, Thermolan, Elastlan, Hytrel, and Sunbrain can also be used.

Such a blade 9 has the advantage that it has no mechanically movable parts, has a simple structure, and requires a small installation space, and contributes to miniaturization and cost reduction of the device.

In the present invention, the film breaking means is not limited to the blade, but may be, for example, a brush that contacts the outer circumferential surface of the roller 4A (either a fixedly installed one or a movable one that rotates or moves up and down). ), one in which a jet of developer 10 is ejected toward the outer peripheral surface of the roller 4A, one in which vibration such as ultrasonic vibration is applied to the roller 4A, one in which a cleaning roller is brought into contact with the outer peripheral surface of the roller 4A, and one in which a cleaning roller is brought into contact with the outer peripheral surface of the roller 4A. It may also be a method that suctions and removes the membrane from the outer circumferential surface of the surface, or a combination of two or more of these methods.

It is preferable that the film breaking means typified by the blade 9 is installed at least on the roller 4A in the first half of the conveyance path, particularly within 1/3 of the length of the conveyance path in the developer. Preferably, it is installed relative to the roller 4A. The reason for this is that in the first half of the conveyance path, the amount of eluted substances such as halogen ions and development inhibitors eluted from the exposed area (screen) of the photosensitive material S is large, making it easy for transfer marks and tailing phenomena to occur. be.

Note that the present invention does not preclude installing the film breaking means on the roller 4A in the latter half of the conveyance path or on the roller 4B on the back side of the photosensitive material S.

Next, the operation of the photosensitive material processing apparatus 1 will be explained.

When the photosensitive material S is introduced between the rollers 5 while all or part of the rollers 4A, 4B, 5 and 6 are rotated,
The photosensitive material S is conveyed along a U-shaped conveyance path through rollers 5, rollers 4A and 4B, and roller 6 in this order.

At this time, the photosensitive material S is immersed in a developer filled in the processing tank 2 and subjected to development processing.

When the photosensitive material S is immersed in the developer 10, halogen ions, development inhibitors, etc. are eluted from the emulsion layer. The amount of elution of such eluates is highest immediately after the photosensitive material S is immersed in the developer 10, and shows a tendency to gradually decrease thereafter.

On the other hand, a film of developer (
boundary layer) exists. When the emulsion surface of the photosensitive material S comes into contact with the roller 4A, the eluate from the emulsion layer enters the membrane on the outer peripheral surface of the roller 4A.

In this state, when the roller 4A comes into contact with the emulsion surface of the photosensitive material S again, the eluate present in the film will have an adverse effect on the emulsion surface with which it comes in contact, such as inhibiting development, resulting in transfer marks and tailing. , in the present invention, the blade 9 which is the membrane breaking means
However, before the roller 4A next comes into contact with the photosensitive material S, the film containing the eluate is destroyed (peeled off) and dispersed in the developer, thereby preventing the occurrence of transfer marks and tailing phenomena.

Furthermore, when the photosensitive material S is a lithium-shaped film, bromide drugging is prevented.

Although the development process has been described above, the present invention is not limited to this, but includes bleaching, bleach-fixing, fixing, stabilization, reversal, adjustment,
It can also be applied to other processes such as stopping.

Therefore, the processing solution in the present invention includes a black and white developer,
Examples include a color developing solution, a bleaching solution, a fixing solution, a bleach-fixing solution, a stabilizing solution, a reversal solution, a stop solution, etc., and the formulations thereof are not particularly limited and may be any known ones. In addition,
For details of these processing liquids, those described in the literature such as "Fundamentals of Photographic Engineering" published by Corona Publishing (1978), P299 r Chapter 4 Development Processing, can be applied.

In the photosensitive material processing apparatus of the present invention, the type of photosensitive material S to be processed is not particularly limited, and may be either color or black and white.

For example, color negative film, color reversal film, color positive film, color photographic paper, color reversal photographic paper,
Examples include black-and-white negative film, black-and-white reversal film, X-ray photographic light-sensitive material, black-and-white photographic paper, black-and-white reversal photographic paper, and microfilm, and the size thereof is not particularly limited.

The photosensitive material processing apparatus of the present invention includes, for example, a large automatic developing machine, a small automatic developing machine (mini lab), a wet copying machine, a printer processor, a video printer processor, a photo print making coin machine, a color paper processing machine for plate inspection, etc. It can be applied to various types of photosensitive material processing equipment.

Although the configuration examples of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to these.

<Example> Hereinafter, specific examples of the present invention will be described.

(Example 1) Color negative developing machine FNCP-30 manufactured by Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd.
0 was modified, and its developing tank had the structure shown in FIG.

Two blades each having the shape shown in FIG. 2 were installed on each roller on the emulsion side within 1/3 of the starting point of the transport path length in the developer.

The material of the blade is silicone rubber, and the roller 4A
The contact surface pressure of the blade against the outer peripheral surface of is approximately 0,0
1 kg/c+o''.

The processing steps in the developing machine and the formulation of the processing solution were in accordance with Example 1 of JP-A No. 01-259359.

Example 1 Sample 101 of JP-A No. 01-259359
An 8-fold overexposure image was exposed for every 4 frames on the photosensitive material (film) described in 1.The other 3 frames were exposed to standard exposure using a reflector with a reflectance of 18%. Then, this photosensitive material was attached to the ring (
III 11! The degree of unevenness in processing due to transfer marks and tailing was investigated. The results are shown in Table 1 below.

Note that the evaluation of the occurrence of processing unevenness was performed as follows.

In order to magnify the processing unevenness of the 411 Ox film, each image of the processed film was printed on photographic paper, and it was visually determined whether or not the frame image and perforation image of the film were reflected in the printed image.

(Example 2) The process was carried out in the same manner as in Example 1, except that two blades were installed on each roller on the emulsion side within 1/2 of the starting point of the transport path length in the developer. The degree of occurrence of processing unevenness was investigated. The results are shown in Table 1 below.

(Comparative Example 1) The degree of occurrence of processing unevenness was investigated in the same manner as in Example 1, except that no blade was installed on any of the rollers.

The results are shown in Table 1 below.

Table 1 Degree of occurrence of processing unevenness Example 1 No transfer marks on the image Example 2 No transfer marks on the image Comparative Example 1 There were transfer marks on the image As shown in Table 1 above, in Examples 1 and 2 of the present invention, Also, the occurrence of processing unevenness is suppressed.

(Example 3) Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd. Grandex processing machine GA-100
In this developing machine, one blade similar to that in Example 1 was installed on each roller on the emulsion side within 1/3 of the starting point of the conveyance path length in the developer.

The contact pressure of the blade against the outer circumferential surface of the roller 4A was approximately 0.08 kg 7 cm''.

The processing steps in the above developing machine include development at 35°C for 20 seconds, fixing at 35°C for 20 seconds, washing with water at 35°C for 20 seconds, and drying at 47°C for 20 seconds.
The treatment was carried out in sequence for 2 seconds, and the treatment solution used was Grandex treatment agent manufactured by Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd.

As a photosensitive material, Grandex photosensitive material GA-100 manufactured by Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd. (cut into quarters size 25.4
30.5co), and this photosensitive material was exposed to 50% halftone dots with a number of lines of 65 lines/inch (exposure at a 15° tilt, uniform exposure of 5% of the total exposure amount, and light as well). This was then processed using the processing machine described above (one side edge of the photosensitive material was aligned with the side of the processing tank and conveyed), and the degree of processing unevenness caused by transfer marks and tailing was examined. The results are shown in Table 2 below.

Note that the evaluation of the occurrence of processing unevenness was performed as follows.

It was visually determined whether or not overlapping checkerboard patterns tilted at about 15° appeared on the photosensitive material after the 11 ox processing.

(Comparative Example 2) The degree of occurrence of processing unevenness was investigated in the same manner as in Example 3, except that no blade was installed on any of the rollers.

The results are shown in Table 2 below.

Table 2 Degree of occurrence of processing unevenness Example 3 No overlapping checkered pattern Comparative Example 2 Overlapping checkered pattern As shown in Table 2 above, in Example 3 of the present invention, the occurrence of processing unevenness is suppressed.

(Example 4) The degree of uneven processing was investigated in the same manner as in Example 1, except that a rotating roller brush was brought into contact with the outer peripheral surface of each roller instead of the blade. was suppressed.

(Example 5) A device having a developer circulation path instead of a blade, and provided with a nozzle on the discharge side that sprays a jet of developer toward the outer peripheral surface of each roller (spray amount 5ε/min) When the degree of occurrence of processing unevenness was investigated in the same manner as in Example 1 except that a holder was installed, it was found that the occurrence of processing unevenness was similarly suppressed.

(Example 6) The degree of uneven processing (bleaching unevenness) was investigated in the same manner as in Example 1, except that the processing was performed using a developing machine with a bleach tank having the structure shown in Figure 1. The occurrence of unevenness was suppressed.

(Example 7) The degree of uneven processing (fixing unevenness) was investigated in the same manner as in Example 1, except that processing was performed using a developing machine with a fixing tank having the structure shown in Fig. 1. The occurrence of unevenness was suppressed.

<Effects of the Invention> As described above, according to the photosensitive material processing apparatus of the present invention, processing unevenness such as transfer marks and tailing phenomena can be prevented, and photographic properties can be improved.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional side view showing an example of the configuration of a photosensitive material processing apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view showing an example of the configuration of the membrane breaking means in the present invention. Explanation of symbols 1...Photosensitive material processing device 2...Processing tank 3...Rack 4A, 4B, 5.6...Roller 7...Liquid supply pipe 8...Drainage pipe 9...・Blade 91...Base 92...Tip 10...Developer S...Photosensitive material Applicant: Representative of Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd. Patent attorney: Yo Ishii - Patent attorney: Masu 1) Tatsuya IGI 4A 4B

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) A processing tank, a processing liquid placed in this processing tank,
A photosensitive material processing apparatus having a conveyance means for conveying a silver halide photosensitive material along a predetermined conveyance path, the conveyance means having a plurality of rollers installed along the conveyance path, and the conveyance means having a plurality of rollers installed along the conveyance path, The photosensitive material processing is characterized in that the roller on the side in contact with the emulsion layer of the silver halide photosensitive material is provided with film breaking means for destroying the film of the processing liquid adhering to the surface of the roller. Device. (2) The photosensitive material processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the film breaking means is installed on at least a roller in the first half of the conveyance path. (3) The photosensitive material processing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the film breaking means is a blade installed so that its tip comes into contact with the surface of the roller.