JPH06167796A - Photosensitive material drying device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To rapidly dry a photosensitive material by heat rollers with good dimensional stability. CONSTITUTION:A squeeze roller 48, the heat rollers 50, 51 and a discharge roller 52 are provided within a drying chamber 45A of a drying section 45, by which a transporting path to transport a film 14 by bringing this film into contact with the heat rollers 50, 51 is formed. The heat rollers 50, 51 are heated by halogen lamps 56 in their axial central parts, by which the heat roller 50 is kept at, for example, about 80 deg.C and the heat roller 51 at, for example, 40 deg.C. The heat roller 51 is formed larger in thickness t2 and outside dimension D2 than the heat roller 50 and is thereby increased in heat capacity. The film is subjected to rapid constant rate drying at a high temp. by the heat roller 50 then to reduced rate drying at a low temp. by the heat roller 51. The film is thus uniformly dried without the rapid increase of its surface temp. to a high temp.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a photosensitive material drying apparatus which conveys a photosensitive material in contact with a heated heat roller and heats the photosensitive material by the heat of the heat roller to dry it.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the progress of the electronics field,
Image processing is used more frequently. Some image processing in the electronics field can convert an image into an electric signal (for example, a digital signal) and quickly perform various kinds of processing by a computer or the like, or can record on various kinds of recording media.

Such image processing is also applied in the field of printing, and an image (original plate) formed by a computer is recorded on a film by a scanner or the like to prepare an original film. When performing color printing, for example, a manuscript film for each color of four colors (yellow, cyan, magenta, and violet) is created for the same original plate so that misalignment does not occur in images of each color. There must be. When the above image processing is performed, a separated image of each color can be created by a computer and recorded on a film in a uniform size in a short time.

A film on which an image is recorded by a scanner or the like is dried after processing such as development, fixing, washing with water, and becomes a document film. Develop this film,
Rapid processing is also required for processing devices that perform fixing, washing, etc. and drying, for example, from the time the film is inserted into the device to the time it is dried and discharged, depending on the size of the device. It has been achieved to finish the original film quickly with a time of 60 seconds or less.

By the way, an original film which has been developed, fixed, washed with water and dried (hereinafter referred to as "film").
Therefore, it is necessary to finish the dimensional stability without stretching or shrinking. That is, the film has a photosensitive layer formed on a support such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and it is known that the support and the photosensitive layer expand and contract due to development, fixing, washing with water and drying. When the dimensional stability is deteriorated due to relative elongation or contraction between original films of respective colors in color printing, color shift appears on the printed matter. It is known that the dimensional stability of this film is affected especially by the drying process.

In a drying device for drying a light-sensitive material such as a film, it is general to heat and dry the light-sensitive material with warm air. However, with a hot air dryer,
A large amount of warm air is blown onto the photosensitive material to dry it, but it is necessary to finely control the air volume, temperature, and humidity of the hot air, which is difficult to control, in order to keep the dry state of the film constant and finish with good dimensional stability. There is.

On the other hand, it is easy to control the drying temperature,
In addition, as a drying device that is less likely to be affected by the humidity in the drying chamber, various drying devices to which a heat roller is applied have been studied and proposed. The heat roller used in such a drying device is one in which a heating heater or the like is provided in the axial center portion of a metal pipe such as aluminum, and the film is conveyed while being in contact with the outer peripheral portion of the metal pipe, and the film is heated by the heater. The heat of the heated outer peripheral portion is directly transferred to the film for heating and drying.

In the drying device using such a heat roller, the surface temperature of the heat roller can be easily controlled and the heat can be surely transferred to the film, and the film heated by the heat roller can be heated with warm air. Since it is less affected by the ambient temperature and humidity as compared with the drying by, the control of the dry state of the film is easy.

[0009]

However, in a drying device using a heat roller, the surface temperature of the heat roller is kept substantially constant so that a desired drying state is obtained when the film is discharged from the drying device. However, in order to process the film quickly, it is necessary to keep the surface temperature of the heat roller at a high temperature. The moisture adhering to the film surface evaporates in the constant rate dry area in the initial state of drying of the film to be dried, and when the film moves to the rate decrease dry area, the moisture inside the support, photosensitive layer, etc. Evaporates after moving to the surface. If the film is excessively dried (overdried), a difference in expansion / contraction ratio will occur between the support and the dried layer, and the dimensional stability of the film will be impaired. In particular, when color printing is performed, the dimensional deviation between the color-separated films as described above appears as a color deviation of the printed matter.

The present invention has been made in consideration of the above facts, and provides a light-sensitive material drying apparatus capable of quickly drying a light-sensitive material with good dimensional stability without causing uneven drying by a heat roller. The purpose is to do.

[0011]

In order to achieve the above object, a photosensitive material drying apparatus according to a first aspect of the present invention is provided with at least two heat rollers for transporting the photosensitive material processed by a processing liquid in contact with each other. A photosensitive material drying device for heating and drying the photosensitive material by heat conduction from the heat roller heated by the heating means, the heating means heating the heat roller; The heat capacity of the heat roller arranged on the downstream side of the heat roller arranged on the upstream side of the conveying path of the photosensitive material is increased.

A photosensitive material drying apparatus according to a second aspect of the present invention is the photosensitive material drying apparatus according to the first aspect, in which the surface temperature of the downstream heat roller heated by the heating means is set to the upstream side. It is characterized in that the predetermined temperature is lower than the surface temperature of the heat roller.

[0013]

In the photosensitive material drying device according to the first aspect of the present invention, a heat roller having a large heat capacity is used on the downstream side. A heat roller having a large heat capacity does not change its temperature rapidly even when it is affected by the surroundings. When increasing the heat capacity of the heat roller, the length along the axial direction of the heat roller is substantially determined by the length of the photosensitive material to be conveyed in the conveying width direction. You can increase the wall thickness of. However, simply increasing the outer dimensions or increasing the wall thickness causes an increase in the weight of the heat roller, which imposes a load on the driving means for rotating the heat roller and supports the heat roller. Since the rack side plate must be made strong, it is preferable to use a light-weight (low specific gravity) metal such as aluminum as the material.

Thus, the downstream heat roller can heat the photosensitive material in the reduction rate drying region at a uniform temperature. Moisture on the surface of the photosensitive material in the constant-rate dry area evaporates, but in the photosensitive material in the decreasing-rate dry area, the amount of internal moisture changes as it dries, causing unevenness in the surface temperature of the heat roller. However, by increasing the heat capacity of the heat roller, the surface temperature of the heat roller does not become uneven under the influence of the variation of the moisture content of the photosensitive material, and the surface of the photosensitive material is heated to a uniform temperature. Thus, it is possible to prevent uneven drying.

In the photosensitive material drying device according to the second aspect of the present invention, the temperature of the downstream heat roller corresponding to the rate-decreasing area of the photosensitive material is maintained at a predetermined temperature lower than the temperature of the upstream heat roller. is doing. The surface temperature of the heat roller on the downstream side is from room temperature to about 40 ° C. For example, when a film is applied as a photosensitive material, the temperature at which a difference in elongation does not occur between the support of the film and the photosensitive layer is preferable. By raising the temperature of the surface of the heat roller on the downstream side to this predetermined temperature, it is possible to prevent the surface temperature of the photosensitive material from rising and to prevent the photosensitive material from being overdried and impairing the dimensional stability. At this time, since the heat capacity of the heat roller is increased, the surface temperature of the heat roller does not change even if the heat roller comes into contact with the photosensitive material in the rate-decreasing area, and a predetermined amount of heat is applied to this photosensitive material. Then, it can be uniformly dried.

[0016]

1 is a schematic structural diagram of an automatic developing machine 10 which is a photosensitive material processing apparatus applied to this embodiment.
The automatic developing machine 10 develops a film 14 which is a photosensitive material having a photosensitive layer formed on one surface of a transparent support such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and performs a drying treatment.

The casing 12 is provided in the automatic processor 10.
An insertion port 16 for inserting the film 14 is provided on the left side surface (upstream side end portion) of FIG. A pair of rollers 18 is provided inside the insertion opening 16 and is rotated by a driving means (not shown). Therefore, the film 14 inserted from the insertion opening 16 is
Is driven to the processing section 20 installed inside the automatic processor 10.

The processing section 20 is provided with a plurality of processing tanks,
From the left side of FIG. 1, the developing tank 24 and the rinsing tank 2 are shown.
6, a fixing bath 28, a rinse bath 30, and a washing bath 32. The developing tank 24, the fixing tank 26, and the water washing tank 32 (hereinafter collectively referred to as a “processing tank”) have a developing solution,
Fixer and wash water are stored. In addition, the rinse tank 26
Wash water (eg water or acetic acid solution), rinse tank 3
0 is supplied with cleaning water (for example, water) from each storage tank (not shown) through a pipe line by driving a pump, and the excess cleaning water is overflowed from the rinse tanks 26 and 30 to an overflow tank (not shown). Has become. When the washing water is water, a pipe is provided from the water supply to the rinse tanks 26 and 30 directly via the solenoid valve without using the storage tank.
You may supply tap water to each of.

A rack 34 is arranged in each of the processing tanks 24, 28 and 32. A plurality of roller pairs 36 (five pairs in this embodiment) are arranged in the rack 34, and the film 14 is sandwiched by these roller pairs 36,
The film 14 is conveyed while being guided in a substantially U-shape in each processing tank.
Are immersed in the respective processing solutions.

A crossover rack 46 having a rinse rack is arranged above each processing tank. This crossover rack 46 has its rinse tanks 26, 3
Rollers 38 and 40 are provided above 0, and the film 14 is sandwiched by the roller 38 or the roller 40 and guided to the adjacent processing tank, and the processing liquid adhering to the film 14 is removed.

Further, heaters 60 and 62 are provided in the developing tank 24 and the fixing tank 28, respectively. These heaters 60 and 62 are made of stainless alloy (for example, SUS31
6) a cylindrical body and a coil-shaped heater main body (not shown) as a heat source housed in the cylindrical body.
It is disposed by being inserted into the processing tanks 24 and 28 from the side walls of the valves 4 and 28. These heaters 60 and 62 heat the developing solution and the fixing solution to set the temperature at which the film 14 can be processed when the automatic developing machine 10 is started up, and set it so that the film 14 can be processed after the apparatus is started up. It is designed to be maintained at temperature.

On the downstream side of the processing section 20, a drying section 45 as a photosensitive material drying apparatus to which the present invention is applied is arranged adjacently. Film 1 that has been rinsed in the rinse tank 32
The sheet 4 is conveyed to the drying section 45 by the pair of conveying rollers 42, and is heated and dried in the drying section 45.

The film 14 is inserted into the drying chamber 45A of the drying section 45 from the drying chamber insertion port 44. Drying room 45
A squeeze roller 48 is arranged in the vicinity of the drying chamber insertion port 44 in A along the conveyance path of the inserted film 14, and two heat rollers 50, which are substantially vertically arranged, are provided downstream of the squeeze roller 48. 51 are arranged. Further, a discharge roller 52 is provided downstream of the heat roller 50,
A transport path for transporting the film 14 in contact with the heat rollers 50 and 51 is formed. The heat roller 5
Around the 0, 51, a nip roller 58 for bringing the contacted film 14 into close contact with each outer peripheral surface is provided, and a plurality of guides 54, 64, 66 facing the transport path are arranged.

Squeeze roller 48, heat roller 50,
51, the nip roller 58, and the discharge roller 52 are suspended and supported by a pair of side plates 47 (only one is shown in FIG. 1), and are rotated by the driving force of a driving unit (not shown) to keep the film 14 constant. It is designed to be transported at a speed. It should be noted that the heat rollers 50 and 51 may rotate the nip roller 58 in contact therewith, or may rotate by receiving a driving force from the nip roller 58.

The film 14 inserted from the drying chamber insertion port 44 is squeezed by the squeeze roller 48 while being squeezed by the squeeze roller 48, and is guided to the outer peripheral edge of the heat roller 50 by the guide 54.

The heat rollers 50 and 51 are arranged substantially above and below, respectively, and carry the film 14 by bringing the film 14 into contact with the outer peripheral surfaces thereof. As shown in FIG. 2, the heat roller 50 (heat roller 51) has a cylindrical shape, and a halogen lamp 56 for heating the outer peripheral portion is coaxially arranged at each axial center portion. The heat rollers 50 and 51 are each a halogen lamp 5.
6 is heated to a predetermined temperature, and when the film 14 comes into contact with these heat rollers 50, 51, it is heated by heat conduction and dried. The nip roller 58
Has a role of bringing the film 14 into close contact with the outer peripheral surfaces of the heat rollers 50 and 51 within a predetermined range.

The guides 64 and 66 are long cylinders whose one end in the longitudinal direction is closed, are arranged along the width direction of the film 14 in the longitudinal direction, and are fixed to the side plate 47 (not shown). . Each of the guides 64 and 66 is provided with a plurality of guide protrusions standing on the surface of the film 14 on the transport path side along the transport direction along the width direction of the film 14. These guide protrusions are inclined so that the downstream side in the transport direction of the film 14 projects from the upstream side in the transport direction of the film 14 toward the transport path of the film 14. Further, these guides 64, 66 are provided with slits 70 eccentrically in the vicinity of the guide protrusions along the longitudinal direction, and the respective hollow interiors and the vicinity of the transport path of the film 14 are communicated with each other.

The guides 64, 66 are designed such that dry air is supplied to the insides of their hollows from a dry air supply means.
The dry air is discharged from the slit 70 toward the surface of the film 14. The dry air removes air containing a large amount of water evaporated from the film 14 from the vicinity of the surface of the film 14. From the guides 64 and 66,
The dry air is ejected substantially uniformly along the width direction of the film 14.

The dry air generating means for supplying the dry air to the guides 64 and 66 is adapted to generate the dry air by a fan and a heater (neither is shown). It should be noted that the air outside the automatic developing machine 10 is supplied into the drying chamber 45A by a fan without providing a heater, or the air in most of the drying chamber 45A is circulated by the fan so that the outside air is partially removed. It may be taken in and supplied into the drying chamber 45A.

In this embodiment, the heat roller 50 is manufactured by cutting an aluminum pipe having an outer dimension D1 of 60 (mm) and a wall thickness t ₁ of 3 (mm) so that the length L is 400 (mm). The heat capacity is 396 (J / K).
The heat roller 51 has an outer dimension D2 of 82 (mm),
An aluminum pipe with a wall thickness t ₂ of 6 (mm) and a length L of 4
The heat capacity is 1410 (J
/ K) is manufactured and used, and the halogen lamp 56 is 500 W, and it is 500 (J / sec)
Heat quantity of (30000 J / min) is applied to the heat rollers 50, 5
No. 1 is applied to each outer peripheral portion.

In the drying section 45 of this embodiment, the constant rate drying of the film 14 is completed by the heat received from the heat roller 50, and the rate of the film 14 is reduced by the heat transferred from the heat roller 51. The transport speed of the film 14 and the surface temperature of the heat roller 50 are set, and the transport speed of the film 14 is set to be the same as the transport speed in the processing unit 20, but as an example, the transport speed of the film 14 is 20. (Mm / sec), and the surface temperature of the heat roller 50 is a predetermined temperature (for example, 80 ° C.) in the range of 60 ° C. to 100 ° C. so that the film 14 is heated in a short time to perform constant rate drying. ) Is set.

The surface temperature of the heat roller 51 is set to a temperature lower than the surface temperature of the heat roller 50, for example, a predetermined temperature in the range of room temperature to 40 ° C. (for example, 40 ° C.). is doing.

A drying temperature sensor 76 for detecting the surface temperature of the heat roller 50 is arranged around the outer periphery of the heat rollers 50 and 51. These drying temperature sensors 76 measure the surface temperature of each heat roller 50, 51, that is, the temperature at which the film 14 of the heat roller 50, 51 is heated, and the controller 80 determines the surface temperature of each heat roller 50, 51. The operation of the halogen lamp 56 is controlled so as to maintain the set temperature of.

The controller 80 includes a drying chamber temperature sensor for measuring the temperature in the drying chamber 45A, a temperature sensor for detecting the temperature outside the automatic developing machine 10, and an outside air humidity sensor for detecting the humidity outside the device. Etc. are connected, for example, the heat roller 5
You may control operation | movement of the drying part 45, such as changing the setting of the surface temperature of 0, 51.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. In the automatic processor 10, when a power switch (not shown) is turned on,
The heaters 60 and 62 raise the temperature of the developing solution and the fixing solution to a predetermined temperature, and after the temperature is raised, the temperature is maintained.

The film 14 inserted into the automatic developing machine 10 through the insertion port 16 is drawn into the automatic developing machine 10 by the pair of rollers 18 and fed into the developing tank 24. The film 14 fed into the developing tank 24 is immersed in the developing solution while being transported in the developing tank 24 by the roller pair 36 of the rack 34 in a substantially U-shape. The film 14 sent out from the developing tank 24 is sent into the fixing tank 28 through the rinse tank 26, and the roller pair 36 in the fixing tank 28 is fed.
It is transported by and immersed in the fixer. After this,
After passing through the rinse tank 30 by the crossover rack 46 from the fixing tank 28 and being sent to the washing tank 32, the treatment liquid (mainly the components in the fixing liquid) is washed off by the washing water.

The film 14 which has been washed with water is fed into the drying chamber 45A from the drying chamber insertion port 44 by the transport roller 42. In the drying unit 45, the heat roller 50 heated to a predetermined set temperature by the halogen lamp 56,
The film 14 is heated while being brought into contact with the outer peripheral surface of the film 51 and conveyed. Heated film 14
The water on the surface and inside is evaporated. Here, the heat capacity of the heat roller 50 is smaller than that of the heat roller 51. Further, the air containing a large amount of water evaporated from the film 14 by the dry air generated by the fan 82 and the heater 84 and discharged from the slit 70 of the guide 72 is removed from the surface of the film 14 to promote the drying of the film 14. To do. The film 14 heated and dried in the drying chamber 45A of the drying unit 45 is discharged from the discharge port 47 to the automatic processor 1.
It is discharged to the outside of the machine.

An example of processing the quarter-cut film 14 in the drying unit 45 will be described below. The average water content of the four-cut size film 14 inserted into the drying section 45 is about 2 g, and four films 14 are continuously passed in one minute at a transportation speed of 20 (mm / sec). It is possible. For halogen lamps, 300
A heat quantity of 00 (J / min) can be supplied to the heat rollers 50 and 51. The calculated calorific value required to evaporate 2 g of water at 15 ° C is about 20800 (J
/ Min).

In the drying section 45, the film 14 is heated by the heat roller 50 at a high temperature (80 ° C. in this embodiment). Therefore, when the film 14 contacts the heat roller 50, the water content on the surface is quickly heated and evaporated. The state where the film 14 is in contact with the heat roller 50 substantially corresponds to the constant rate drying area of the film 14. As shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B, the surface temperature of the film 14 is increased by the heat roller 50 in the constant rate drying region.
Occurs after the contact with the film 14. This is because the heat energy transferred from the heat roller 50 to the film 14 is larger than the evaporation energy lost when the water is evaporated from the surface of the film 14.

By maintaining the heat roller 50 at a high temperature and transferring heat to the film 14, the water content of the film 14 can be reduced in a short time.
Thus, the surface temperature of the film 14 temporarily rises above the wet-bulb temperature in the constant rate drying region, but the temperature of the heat roller 50 is 80 ° C. It does not rise to such a high temperature that it has an adverse effect. Further, since the heat roller 50 has a relatively small heat capacity (396 (J / K) in this embodiment), it can be heated to a high temperature by the halogen lamp 56 in a short time, and the apparatus startup time is long. It never happens.
However, when the film 14 is continuously processed, it is consumed due to heat radiation from the heat roller 50, so that the heat supply amount from the halogen lamp 56 cannot catch up with the surface temperature of the heat roller 50 slightly. Has been clarified by experiments. However, when the processing interval is opened in the middle, the heat capacity is small, so the heat roller 5
The surface temperature of 0 is a predetermined surface temperature.

The film 14 contacting the next heat roller 51 has been subjected to constant rate drying, and is subjected to rate reduction drying by the heat transmitted from the heat roller 51. In the rate-decreasing dry region, the water content of the film 14 gradually decreases to a predetermined water content (for example, the water content before exposure or the water content before processing). At this time, the surface temperature of the film 14 rises as the water content decreases, and the drying is completed before the temperature of the film 14 reaches the surface temperature of the heat roller 51.
The surface temperature of the film 14 discharged from the drying unit 45 is
Return to room temperature (room temperature) (shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B).

Since the surface temperature of the heat roller 51 is set low (40 ° C. in this embodiment), the change amount δ of the surface temperature of the film 14 per unit time becomes small,
It is possible to suppress a difference in shrinkage amount between the support of the film 14 and the dry layer and the like, and no error occurs between the support of the film 14 after the drying treatment and the dry layer. That is, the film 14 can be finished with good dimensional stability.

The surface temperature of the heat roller 51 gradually decreases due to contact with the film 14 and consumption due to heat dissipation, but since the heat capacity is increased to 1410 (J / K), the surface temperature is increased. It does not change suddenly.
Further, even if the film 14 has unevenness in water content, this unevenness does not affect the surface temperature of the heat roller 51, so that the film 14 can be heated at a substantially uniform temperature, and It is possible to prevent uneven drying.

In this embodiment, the transport speed of the film 14 is set to 20 (mm / sec), but when the transport speed is increased, the heat capacity of the heat rollers 50 and 51 can be increased. It is also possible to set the surface temperature of the heat roller 50 high. Further, when the conveying speed is slowed down, the heat capacities of the heat rollers 50 and 51 can be reduced, and the surface temperature of the heat roller 50 may be lowered. At these times, the heat roller 50 may perform constant rate drying of the film 14, and the heat roller 51 may perform rate reduction drying of the film 14 to finish the film 14.

In the present embodiment, the drying section 45 incorporated in the automatic developing machine 10 is used for explanation, but the construction of the photosensitive material drying device applied to the present invention is not limited, and the size of the heat roller and the like are not limited. Is not limited to the heat rollers 50 and 51 applied to the present invention. For example, it may be provided separately from a processing device for developing, fixing and washing the photosensitive material, or may be applied to a photosensitive material drying device for drying another photosensitive material such as photographic paper, and one or more heat rollers. It is needless to say that the present invention can be applied to a drying device that performs constant rate drying of the film 14 and then performs the rate drying of the film 14 with one or more heat rollers.

[0046]

As described above, in the photosensitive material drying apparatus of the present invention, the heat capacity of the heat roller on the downstream side of the conveying path of the photosensitive material is larger than that on the upstream side. It is possible to uniformly heat and dry the material. Further, the light-sensitive material can be dried quickly, and the light-sensitive material will not be overdried. As a result, the excellent effect that the dimensional stability of the light-sensitive material processed by the processing liquid can be finished well can be obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an automatic developing machine applied to this embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view showing the dimensions of a heat roller applied to this embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a schematic side view showing a configuration of a film transport path.

FIG. 4A is a graph showing a change in water content in the film in the drying section, and FIG. 4B is a graph showing a change in surface temperature of the film in the drying section.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Automatic Developing Machine 14 Film (Photosensitive Material) 20 Processing Section 24 Developing Tank 28 Fixing Tank 32 Washing Tank 45 Drying Section (Photosensitive Material Drying Device) 50 Heat Roller 51 Heat Roller 56 Halogen Lamp (Heating Means) 76 Drying Temperature Sensor 80 Control Department

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A heat roller heated by the heating means, comprising at least two heat rollers for transporting a photosensitive material processed by a processing liquid in contact with each other, and heating means for heating the heat roller. A heat-drying device for heating and drying the light-sensitive material by heat conduction of a heat roller, wherein the heat capacity of a heat roller arranged on the downstream side of the heat roller arranged on the upstream side of the conveyance path of the photosensitive material among the heat rollers is increased. A photosensitive material drying device characterized by the above. 2. The drying of the photosensitive material according to claim 1, wherein the surface temperature of the heat roller on the downstream side heated by the heating means is set to a predetermined temperature lower than the surface temperature of the heat roller on the upstream side. apparatus.