JPH0446414B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a document film storage cassette attached to an automatic exposure machine used in the process of making photosensitive printing plates for offset printing, letterpress printing, etc.

In order to obtain printing plates such as offset printing or letterpress printing by photolithography, conventionally the plate is placed on a plate mounting plate, a document film is placed on the photosensitive layer formed on the upper surface of the plate, and the original film is placed in this state. For example, by exposing a negative-type photosensitive material to light only on the photosensitive layer, this area is cured, and the non-image areas that were not exposed to the light are eluted in a later process, creating a convex shape. A printing plate having an image area and a concave non-image area is obtained.

To produce a printing plate in this way, it is necessary to stack the plate material and original film on a plate mounting plate.
Particularly in the case of an automatic exposure machine, the original film must be continuously stacked on the plate material on the plate material mounting plate.

However, in conventional exposure machines, the work of selecting the original film to be placed on the printing plate is done exclusively by hand. For this reason, the exposure process was extremely inefficient and time consuming, and it was difficult to overlay them at accurate positions.

The present invention was made to improve the problems in the conventional exposure process described above, and by automatically selecting a predetermined original film from among a large number of original films, the process from positioning the plate material to exposure can be carried out. To provide a cassette for storing original film for an automatic exposure machine, which can be used without any manual work.

In order to achieve the above object, the original film storage cassette according to the present invention locks the small diameter portions at both ends of a bar-shaped hanger that grips the upper end of the hanging original film, and also holds a plurality of bar-shaped hangers in a constant manner in the vertical direction. It consists of a pair of vertically elongated side plates on the left and right that are supported at intervals of , and a drive device that raises and lowers these side plates at a constant pitch, so that the hanger for any original film can be positioned at a constant height. shall be.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a front view of an automatic exposure machine that performs exposure using an original film taken out from an original film storage cassette according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a plan view of the automatic exposure machine.

The automatic exposure machine 1 consists of a plate material supply section 2, a plate material transport section 3, and an exposure section 4. A paper receiving box 5 is placed on the side of the plate material supply section 2, and a paper receiving box 5 is provided in front of the exposure section 4 (second (see figure) are each provided with a document film storage cassette 6 according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, this cassette 6 has a very small thickness when viewed from above, and is characterized by being long and narrow when viewed from the side as shown in FIG. 6, which will be described later.

Then, an automatic exposure machine 1 constituting the plate material supply section 2
A plate supply lifter 8 is disposed within the frame 7, and a cart 9 can move in and out of the plate supply section 2 so as to straddle the plate supply lifter 8. A large number of plate materials 10 are stacked on the cart 9 with interleaf sheets interposed therebetween. When the motor 11 fixed to the plate supply lifter 8 is driven, the gear box 12
The plate body 13 moves up and down via the. And plate 1
3 rises, the plate material 10 gradually rises.

Further, support plates 14, 14 are provided upright on one side of the upper part of the plate material supply section 2, and these support plates 14, 14,
A pair of arms 16, 16, which are rotated by a cylinder unit (not shown) are installed at the base of the support plate 14.
The lower ends of the arms 16, 16 are pivotally connected, and the arms 16, 16 are
A suction device 17 is supported at the upper end of the holder. Then, as the arms 16, 16 rotate clockwise in FIG. 1, the vacuum pad of the suction device 17 is positioned above the interleaf paper and sucks the interleaf paper. Then arm 1
6 and 16 rotate counterclockwise to insert the adsorbed interleaving paper between the ejection rollers 15 and 15, and by rotating the ejection rollers 15 and 15, the interleaving paper is dropped into the interleaf paper receiving box 5. .

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 2, on the upper surface of the frame 7 at the front and rear of the automatic exposure machine 1 in the upper part of the plate material supply section 2, a pair of support plates 80 are provided upright, spaced apart from each other on the left and right sides. Left and right guide rods 18, 18 are installed between the pair of support plates 80, 80, and a moving member 19,
19 is attached, and these movable members 19, 19 are moved in the left-right direction along guide rods 18, 18 by motors 20, 20.
The moving members 19, 19 include cylinder units 21,
Support plates 22, 22 that move up and down by means of 21 are attached, and a vacuum pad 24, which is part of a suction device, is attached to a bracket 23 extending toward the center of the automatic exposure machine 1 on the support plates 22, 22. ...is installed. Then, the support plate 22 is lowered by the cylinder unit 21, the interleaving paper is removed, and the printing plate 10 is sucked by the vacuum pads 24.
Next, the support plate 22 is raised by the cylinder unit 21, and the motor 20 is driven to move the movable member 19 to the right in FIG.
is moved onto the conveyor belt 25 of the conveyance section 3,
Here, the suction state is released and the plate material 10 is transferred onto the conveyor belt 25. This conveyor belt 2
5 is driven by a motor 26, and the motor 26 stops driving when the printing plate 10 comes into contact with a limit switch 27.

Further, the details of the document film storage cassette 6 attached to the front of the exposure section 4 are as shown in FIG.
The base 28 is provided with a pair of vertical guide rods 29 and 30, and an original film holder 31 is attached to these guide rods 29 and 30. This original film holder 31 has a supporting plate 33 spanning between the left and right side plates 32, 32 to form a frame shape as a whole, and the side plates 32,
The brackets 34 provided on the guide rods 32 are fitted onto the guide rods 29 and 30, and these brackets 34
A pipe 35 with a female thread carved on the inner circumferential surface is fixed to one of the pipes 34a, and a threaded rod 37 rotated by a motor 36 to which a base 28 is fixed is screwed to the pipe 35. , by driving the motor 36, the original film holder 31 moves to the guide rods 29, 30.
It moves up and down along the

Further, a plurality of locking portions 38 are formed on each of the left and right side plates 32, 32 constituting the document film holder 31, spaced apart from each other at equal intervals in the vertical direction. A document film 39 . . . is latched to these latching portions 38 . As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the original film 39 is attached to a bar-shaped hanger 40 via a fixing plate 41, so that the negative film 4 of the original is attached to it.
Both ends of the hanger 40 have small diameter portions 40a, and the small diameter portions 40a are locked to the locking portion 38. Small diameter portions 40b are also formed at portions slightly inward from both ends of the hanger 40, and these small diameter portions 40b are gripped by fingers of a chucking device to be described later.

On the other hand, a base 2 is located near the guide rod 30.
8 is provided with a support plate 43 in the vertical direction, and a plurality of limit switches 44...
is installed. These limit switches 4
4 is made equal to the distance between the locking portions 38 .

That is, in the state shown in FIG. 3, the original film 39 held by the original film holder 31...
When the uppermost document film 39a is taken out by the chucking device and the exposure is completed in the exposure section 4, the motor 36 is driven to remove the holder 31.
to rise. Then, the operating piece 45 attached to the bracket 34b separates from the limit switch 44a and rises. Then, when it rises further, the operation piece 4
5 hits the limit switch 44b and the motor 36
The drive of the holding body 31 is stopped, and the lifting of the holding body 31 is stopped.
Here, since the distance between the limit switches 44... is equal to the distance between the locking parts 38...
The second stage original film 39b is located at the position where the original film 39a was located. Then, as described above, the document film 39b is taken out from the cassette 6 by the tracking device and exposed.

Next, the structure of the exposure section 4 will be explained.
As shown in the figure, a vacuum surface plate 46, which is a plate mounting plate, is fixed on the frame 7 of the exposure section 4, and guide rods 48 are connected to supports 47 erected on the frame 7. A case 49 with a built-in light source is attached so that it can be raised and lowered freely, and the lifting and lowering movement of the case 49 is controlled by a weight 4.
9a allows it to be performed with a smaller force.

A chucking device 51 for taking out the document film 39 from the cassette 6 is disposed between the vacuum surface plate 46 and the case 49, and cylinder units 51, which raise and lower the chucking device 50, are provided on both sides of the vacuum surface plate 46. Further, guide plates 5 are provided on the upstream and downstream sides of the vacuum surface plate 46.
2 and 53 are extended, a plate material supply roller 54 is provided upstream of the upstream guide plate 52, and a plate material supply roller 54 is provided upstream of the downstream guide plate 53.
Plate material discharge rollers 55 are provided downstream of the respective plates.

As shown in FIGS. 6 to 8, the chucking device 50 is a support plate that is raised and lowered by cylinder units 51 and 51 in front and behind the vacuum surface plate 46 (left and right in FIG. 6). 5
6, 56 are provided, guide rods 57, 57 are installed between both ends of these support plates 56, 56, a moving plate 58 is attached between the guide rods 57, 57, a threaded rod 59 is screwed onto this moving plate 58, The movable plate 58 is moved back and forth by driving the motor 60 and rotating the threaded rod 59. Furthermore, a chuck portion 61 and a lock piece 62 are attached to the movable plate 58. The chuck portion 61 is for gripping the small diameter portion 40b of the hanger 40 of the document film 39, and the lock piece 62 has the role of supporting the hanger 40 gripped by the chuck 61 from below.

The details of the chuck portion 61 are as shown in FIG.
and the rods 65, 6 between the support plates 63, 63.
A pair of fingers 66, 66 are slidably fitted onto these rods 65, 65, and a shaft 6 of a solenoid 64 protrudes forward of the movable plate 58.
7 and the fingers 66, 66 are connected by a link piece 68.
It has a connected structure. When the solenoid 64 is actuated to cause the shaft 67 to protrude from the state shown in FIG. The tip of 66 expands. And finger 6 in this expanded state
6 and 66 are positioned above and below the hanger small diameter portion 40b of the document film 39, and then the shaft 67 of the solenoid 64 is caused to perform a retracting motion. Then, the fingers 66, 66 close, and the fingers 66, 6 close.
At the hole 69 formed at the tip of the hanger 4
0. Grip the small diameter portion 40b.

FIG. 10 shows an elevating device 70 for the original film 39. This elevating device 70 receives the original film 39 pulled out onto the vacuum surface plate 46 by the chucking device 50, and lifts the received original film 39 onto the vacuum surface plate. 46 while holding it above,
Once the printing plate 10 is positioned on the vacuum surface plate 46, the original film 39 is lowered to overlap the printing plate 10 and the original film 39. The structure is such that a support plate 71 is fixed below the frame 7 of the automatic exposure machine, a movable plate 72 is provided below the support plate 71, and a rod 74 of a cylinder unit 73 fixed to this movable plate 72 is attached. A shaft member is coupled to the support plate 71 so that the movable plate 72 can move up and down with respect to the support plate 71, and a hole 75 is formed in the support plate 71, and a shaft member is fixed to the movable plate 72 through the hole 75. 76 protrudes upward, the shaft member 76 is held by a bearing 77 provided on the support plate 71, a suction device 78 is attached to the tip of the shaft member 76, and a vacuum pad 79 attracts the document film to the tip of the suction device 78. has been established.

Next, the overall operation of the automatic exposure machine 1 constructed as described above will be explained below.

First, the cart 9 carrying the plate material 10 is placed into the plate material supply section 2. Next, the interleaving paper placed on the surface of the plate material 10 is moved to the suction device 1 by rotating the arms 16, 16.
7, and discharged into the interleaf paper receiving box 5 via the paper discharge roller 15. And the cylinder unit 21
is actuated to lower the vacuum pad 24, the vacuum pad 24 adsorbs the printing plate 10, and the moving member 19 is moved to the right (downstream side) in FIG. 2 by driving the motor 20, where the vacuum pad 24 The adsorption state is released and the plate material 10 is transferred onto the conveyor belt 25. The plate material 10 transferred onto the conveyor belt 25 is conveyed downstream,
It is carried onto the vacuum surface plate 46 via the supply roller 54.

Meanwhile, the following operations are performed in parallel with the above operations.

That is, the motor 60 of the chucking device 50 is driven to move the movable plate 58 forward;
The fingers 66, 6 of the chuck portion 61 attached to the
6 faces the small diameter part 40b of the hanger 40 of the uppermost original film 39a held by the original film holder 31, and the solenoid 64 operates to move the small diameter part 40b, 40b to the finger 6.
6, 66. Next, the motor 60 rotates in the opposite direction to move the movable plate 58 rearward with the chuck portion 61 holding the original film 39a. As a result, the original film 39a is pulled out onto the vacuum surface plate 46.

Next, the chucking device 50 is lowered by the operation of the cylinder unit 51, places the original film 39a on the vacuum surface plate 46, and then lowers the original film 39a.
a is sucked from below by the vacuum pad 79 of the lifting device 70.

After this, the cylinder unit 73 of the lifting device 70
operates to raise the shaft member 76 and the vacuum pad 79 attached thereto, and at the same time,
The chucking device 50 is raised by the operation of the cylinder unit 51, and the document film 39a is held at a position above the vacuum surface plate 46.

In such a state, as mentioned above, the vacuum surface plate 4
After the printing plate 10 is conveyed onto the printing plate 6 and the positioning of the printing plate 10 on the vacuum surface plate 46 is completed, the cylinder units 51 and 73 are operated again to lower the original film 39a onto the printing plate 10, and the printing plate 10 is moved onto the printing plate 10. and the original film 39a are superimposed. Exposure is performed in this state, and when the exposure is completed, the original film 39a is lifted up using the lifting device 70.
The plate material 10 is sent to the next process by a discharge roller 55. Incidentally, the original film 39a is ejected from the exposure section 4 by a means opposite to that for ejecting the original film described above. On the other hand, when the used original film is stored in the storage cassette 6, the second stage original film 39 is stored in the cassette 6 in preparation for the next exposure.
b rises to a position where it is gripped by the chuck portion 61 and waits.

In this way, the exposure process in the plate-making work is performed continuously and automatically.

Note that the above is an example of the implementation of the present invention, and various configurations other than the illustrated example may be applied to the configuration other than the original film storage cassette 6. In the embodiment, a case has been described in which the original film 39a held at the top of the original film holder 31 is taken out in order, but the original film can be taken out at any position according to the exposure order, etc. . In short, it is sufficient that the vertical distance between the locking portions of the original film and the vertical distance of the limit switch correspond to each other.

As described above, according to the present invention, the document film holder of the cassette that stores the document film is movable up and down, and the holder is provided with a plurality of locking portions equally spaced apart in the vertical direction. form, while
A plurality of limit switches are provided on the base side of the cassette at intervals equal to the vertical spacing of the locking portions, and any one of the original films locked in the locking portions is automatically moved to the take-out position. This eliminates the need to manually select the original film as in the past, and allows the process from supplying plate materials to exposure to be performed completely automatically. Therefore, the plate-making work is greatly shortened, work efficiency is improved, and many other effects are achieved. Further, in the present invention, since the side plate for supporting the bar-shaped hanger is constructed of a vertically elongated member, the thickness of the storage cassette in plan view can be made sufficiently small, thereby making it possible to downsize the equipment.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a front view of an automatic exposure machine that performs exposure using an original film taken out from an original film storage cassette according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view of the automatic exposure machine, and FIG. 3 is a front view of the automatic exposure machine according to the present invention. A front view of the document film storage cassette, FIG. 4 is an enlarged front view of the main parts of the document film, FIG. 5 is a side view of the document film, FIG. 6 is a side view of the chucking device, and FIG. 7 is a front view of the chucking device. 8 is a plan view of the chuck device, and FIG. 9 is an enlarged side view of the chuck portion.
FIG. 10 is a front view of the original film lifting device. In addition, in the drawing, 1 is an automatic exposure machine, 2 is a plate material supply section,
3 is a plate material conveyance section, 4 is an exposure section, 6 is a document film storage cassette, 8 is a plate material lifter, 9 is a trolley, 1
0 is a plate material, 17 is a suction device for adsorbing slip sheets, 18 is a guide rod, 19 is a moving member, 24 is a vacuum pad for adsorbing plate materials, 25 is a conveyor belt,
28 is a base, 29 and 30 are guide rods attached to the base, 31 is an original film holder, 32 is a side plate, 34 is a bracket, 38 is a locking portion, 39,
39a and 39b are original films; 40 is a bar-shaped hanger; 40a is a small diameter portion; 44, 44a, 44b
45 is a limit switch, 45 is a limit switch operation piece, 46 is a vacuum surface plate, 49 is a case containing a light source, 50 is a chuck device, 61 is a chuck portion, and 70 is an original film lifting device.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An original film storage cassette for selecting a desired original film from among a large number of original films and feeding the selected original film into an automatic exposure machine, and this storage cassette is arranged so that the upper end of the hanging original film is A pair of vertically elongated side plates on the left and right that lock the small diameter portions at both ends of the bar-shaped hanger that grips the parts and support the plurality of bar-shaped hangers at regular intervals in the vertical direction, and a pair of vertically elongated side plates on the left and right sides that can be raised and lowered at a constant pitch. A document film storage cassette for an automatic exposure machine, characterized by comprising a drive device for driving the original film.