JPH0450969A - Photosensitive material processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the scratch and the unevenness of drying from occurring on the surface of a photosensitive material by providing a specified drying part and preventing the air from causing irregular turbulence in a drying box. CONSTITUTION:The air which is taken in from an intake port 9 by a heating and air blowing means constituted by respectively pairing two heaters 8 which are provided right and left in a photosensitive material carrying direction and the fans 7 which correspond to the heaters 8 and are adjacent to the lower parts of the heater 8 at the lower part of the drying part 1 is heated and dried and passes through a duct 6 by the fixed air quantity. Then, the air is branched to both sides of plural nozzles 3 provided in the drying box 2 so as to be sent. A wind buffle plate 5 is provided in the drying box 2 so that the air which is made to blow to both sides of the photosensitive material 10 from the nozzle 3 is made to comparatively equally flow along the surface of the photosensitive material 10 to eliminate the irregular turbulence caused by the air which is made to blow to the photosensitive material carrying surface. Thus, the photosensitive material 10 is smoothly carried and uniformly dried without being damaged such as the scratch.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to stabilization of drying quality in rapid drying processing of a photosensitive material processing apparatus having a drying section.

[Conventional technology]

Generally, in a photosensitive material processing apparatus, the photosensitive material processed through each step of development, fixing, washing, or stabilization is subsequently sent to a drying section where it is dried and finished.

The drying section for drying the photosensitive material is composed of a group of conveying rollers for conveying the photosensitive material, a drying box located at the upper part equipped with a nozzle for blowing out air, and a heater, fan, and duct located at the lower part of the drying box. Air heating and blowing means are provided.

The air taken in from the intake port is heated to a predetermined temperature by the heater, and is blown into the drying box at a predetermined air volume by the fan through the duct provided in the drying section.

In the drying box, a plurality of cylindrical nozzles are arranged on both sides of the photosensitive material almost symmetrically and in a direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction, and air branched and blown from the duct is sent into the nozzles. Then, the photosensitive material is dried by blowing air at a predetermined amount and pressure onto both sides of the photosensitive material from a large number of blowing holes formed in the nozzle. The blown air is discharged along the surface of the photosensitive material toward the heating and blowing means below the drying box.

The humidity of the air used to dry the photosensitive material in this way increases and the temperature decreases, so a part of it is discharged outside the apparatus from the exhaust port and is heated and dried again by the heater together with the air taken in from the intake port. Air, which is constantly kept at a certain level of temperature and humidity, is circulated through the nozzle to dry the photosensitive material that is subsequently conveyed.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In order to speed up the drying process in the drying section, the conveyance speed is increased, for example, twice the amount of air than before is blown onto the surface of the photosensitive material, and the drying process time is reduced to half, for example. With the conventional structure, the amount of air discharged is insufficient to compensate for the increased air volume, and the air that cannot be exhausted causes irregular turbulence within the drying box, causing the surface of the photosensitive material to be transported by the wind pressure. Since the photosensitive material is conveyed with a waving phenomenon, it comes into strong contact with the conveyance guide surface and conveyance roller surface in some parts, causing scratches and uneven drying on the surface of the photosensitive material. This does not mean that processing quality deteriorates; for example, if significant scratches occur, the valuable photosensitive material that has been exposed to light becomes a defective product, resulting in extremely large economic losses.

An object of the present invention is to solve these problems and shorten the drying process by providing a photosensitive material processing apparatus that does not cause harmful scratches or uneven drying on the surface of the photosensitive material even when the air volume is increased. shall be.

[Means to solve the problem]

This objective can be achieved by either of the following means (a) and (b).

(a) In a photosensitive material processing apparatus having a drying section, a blowing duct is provided on both sides of the drying section in the direction in which the photosensitive material travels, and a heater and a blowing means corresponding to the duct are provided in the drying section, and a blowing means is provided on both sides of the photosensitive material conveying surface. A plurality of channel air passages having a plurality of blow-off holes branched from the duct are provided, and the air blown from the blow-off holes passes through a turbulence adjusting wind shield provided in the drying section along the photosensitive material conveying surface. A photosensitive material processing apparatus comprising a drying section in which air is returned to and circulated by the air blowing means.

(b) The width of the turbulence adjusting wind shield plate perpendicular to the traveling direction of the photosensitive material is larger than the maximum width of the photosensitive material used and smaller than the inner width of the drying section return air path [Example] The present invention One embodiment of the invention is shown in FIG. 1, a plan view showing the shape of the disturbance adjustment wind shield, FIG. 2, a sectional view showing the structure of the drying section, and FIG.
This will be explained with reference to the same perspective view, FIG. 4 which is a side sectional view showing the shape of the nozzle, and FIG. 5 which is a side sectional view showing the outline of the configuration of the photosensitive material processing apparatus.

However, the present invention is not limited to this example.

First, the structure and operation of the drying section of the photosensitive material processing apparatus to which the present invention is applied will be explained. As shown in FIG. 5, the exposed photosensitive material 10 is transported from the direction indicated by the arrow to a developing tank 20 where it is subjected to development processing, and then sequentially transported to a fixing processing tank 21 and a washing or stabilization processing tank 22. After being subjected to a predetermined fixing process, washing with water, or stabilizing process, it is transported to a drying container.

In FIGS. 2 and 3, two heaters 8 are disposed at the bottom of the drying section I on the left and right sides in the direction of conveyance of the photosensitive material.
The air taken in from the intake port 9 is heated and dried by heating and blowing means consisting of a pair of a fan 7 corresponding to the heater 8 and a fan 7 adjacent to the heater 8 below. Air passes through ducts 6 disposed on both sides in the transport direction of the photosensitive material IO of l in the direction of the arrow, and is blown to both sides of the plurality of nozzles 3 provided in the drying box 2 in the direction of the arrow. It looks like this.

In the drying box 2, a pair of conveying rollers 4 and the nozzle 3 are arranged alternately in upper and lower directions facing the surface of the photosensitive material IO in the conveying direction of the photosensitive material 10, as shown in FIG. Arranged.

The nozzle 3 blows the air blown from the duct 6 onto both sides of the photosensitive material 10 through a large number of blowholes 3b, and the opposing surface having the blowholes 3b also serves as a conveyance guide. Then, as shown in FIG. 4, the guide surface 3 of the photosensitive material IO of the nozzle 3 is
A is provided with a large number of air blowing holes 3b, and the area around the blowing holes 3b is the photosensitive material 10 as shown in the figure.
An inclined surface is provided in the conveying direction indicated by the arrow so that the air blown onto the surface is evenly blown.

Moreover, this inclined surface has the role of enabling smooth conveyance even if the tip of the photosensitive material IO is curled. The photosensitive material 10 is conveyed while being balanced by air blown out from the upper and lower nozzles 3. Further, each pair of conveying rollers 4 and the cylindrical nozzle 3 are connected to the existing photosensitive material 1 to be processed.
It is set larger than the maximum of 0.

Air having an air volume at a predetermined temperature and humidity, which is branched from the Tough-6 and blown into the nozzle 3 thus formed, is blown onto both sides of the photosensitive material 10.

The photosensitive material 10 conveyed from the washing tank 22 is sequentially dried while passing through the pair of conveying rollers 4 and the guide surface 3a of the nostle 3, and passes through the drying box 2 having a set length. It is finished using a specified drying process.

In the present invention, a turbulence adjusting wind shield plate (hereinafter simply referred to as a wind shield plate) 5 is disposed on the lower surface of the drying box 2 in order to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks that occur during the drying process.

That is, as shown in FIG. 1, the wind shielding plate 5 has a thin plate-like member surface with a large number of holes, and the length C of the wind shielding plate 5 in the width direction is longer than that of the existing photosensitive material 10. It is set larger than the maximum medium width and smaller than the inner width of the drying box 2. Further, the lengthwise dimension of the wind shielding plate 5 is appropriately set so as to equalize the length of the drying box 2, the amount of air blown, and the air pressure. Most of the air blown out from the upper and lower nozzles 3 and used to dry the photosensitive material 10 is discharged through the hole 5a of the wind shield plate 5 toward the heater 8 in the lower direction indicated by the arrow. In addition, some of the air also enters the gap 2a on both sides of the drying box 2 and the wind shield plate 57.
It is also discharged through.

A part of the air returned to the heater 8 side is discharged to the outside of the processing apparatus from the exhaust port 9a, and together with a part of new air taken in from the intake port 9, the heater 8 and the fan 7 return to a predetermined area. Air having a temperature and humidity and a volume of air is blown into the duct 6 and circulated.

Therefore, the wind shielding plate 5 according to the present invention can be used in the drying box 2.
By disposing the air inside the nozzle 3, most of the air blown onto both sides of the photosensitive material 10 from the nozzle 3 flows relatively evenly along the surface of the photosensitive material 10, and flows through the holes 5a of the wind shielding plate below. Since the air is discharged from the gaps 2a on both sides, the irregular spraying onto the photosensitive material conveyance surface does not cause air turbulence, and the photosensitive material IO is conveyed smoothly and dried uniformly. Table 1 shows the effect on transportability when 20 films were processed in this example. It can be seen that when the air volume is doubled to reduce the drying time to 1/2, the effect of the wind shield is very large.

Table 1 The numbers represent the number of sheets when 20 sheets of film are processed.

〔Effect of the invention〕

The present invention has made it possible to dry photosensitive materials extremely quickly. In other words, irregular air flow disturbances due to increased air volume and wind pressure inside the drying box are relatively smoothly alleviated, so the photosensitive material is transported smoothly and always leaves a beautiful surface without any damage such as scratches. is maintained and dried evenly.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing the shape of a disturbance adjustment wind shield according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing the configuration of a drying section.
FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the same, FIG. 4 is a side sectional view showing the shape of a nozzle, and FIG. 5 is a side sectional view showing an outline of the configuration of the photosensitive material processing apparatus. l...Drying section 2...Drying box 3...
・Nozzle 4... Conveyance roller pair 5... Wind shielding plate for disturbance adjustment (wind blocking plate) 6... Duct 7... 7 Ann 8... Heater 9... Inlet port 9a... exhaust port
10...Photosensitive material 20...Development processing tank
21...Fixing treatment tank 22...Water washing or stabilization treatment tank

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) In a photosensitive material processing apparatus having a drying section, a ventilation duct is provided on both sides of the drying section in the photosensitive material traveling direction, and a heater and a ventilation means corresponding to the duct are provided in the drying section, and a blower duct is provided in the drying section on both sides of the photosensitive material conveying surface. A plurality of channel air passages having a plurality of blow-off holes branched from the duct are provided, and the air blown from the blow-off holes passes through a turbulence adjusting wind shield provided in the drying section along the photosensitive material conveying surface. A photosensitive material processing apparatus comprising a drying section in which air is returned to and circulated by the air blowing means. (2) The width of the turbulence adjusting wind shield plate perpendicular to the traveling direction of the photosensitive material is larger than the maximum width of the photosensitive material used and smaller than the inner width of the drying section return air path. A photosensitive material processing apparatus according to claim 1.