JPH06337512A - Photosensitive material processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To detect the area of a photosensitive material by using the limited number of sensors, to restrain the deterioration of processing solution caused by the processing of the photosensitive material and to maintain processing performance. CONSTITUTION:Whether or not film is inserted in a machine frame from an insertion port is detected at a first step 150, and the length of the film is measured based on the number of pulses outputted from each insertion sensor at a step 152. Whether the trailing edge of the film passes through the insertion port is confirmed at a step 154. Whether or not the length of the film attains a specified value is confirmed at a step 156. In the case it does not attain the specified value, the film is judged to be a sheet film and replenishment amount is selected and set at steps 158 and 160. In the case the length of the film is equal to or above the specified value, the film is judged to be a roll film and the replenishment amount for the roll film manually inputted is set at a step 162.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a photosensitive material processing apparatus which replenishes a processing solution according to the size of a photosensitive material.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A photosensitive material such as a film on which an image is exposed is developed by an automatic developing device as a photosensitive material processing device. This automatic developing device is provided with a processing tank for storing a developing solution, a fixing solution, a rinsing water, etc., and the film is immersed in the developing solution, the fixing solution, and a rinsing water in order to perform the developing, fixing, and rinsing processes. After applying, it is dried.

The processing liquid stored in each processing tank gradually becomes fatigued according to the amount of processed film, and the processing performance deteriorates. For this reason, the automatic developing device is provided with a processing solution replenishing mechanism for replenishing a developing solution and a fixing solution with a processing solution such as a developing solution and a fixing solution. Such a processing liquid replenishing mechanism replenishes a preset amount of processing replenishing liquid each time the number of films inserted into the automatic developing device reaches a predetermined value by a sensor arranged at the insertion port of the automatic developing device. I do.

Further, some automatic developing devices have a plurality of sensors arranged at predetermined intervals along the width direction of the film at the insertion opening. When the film is inserted, some of the sensors pass through the film. Read what is being detected. The size (area) of the film is set in advance with respect to the number of sensors detecting the film, and the replenisher is replenished in an amount corresponding to this size. Further, in the automatic developing device, whether to process a so-called sheet-shaped film having a predetermined size or a long-sized so-called roll-shaped film is set before starting the processing, and when the film is inserted, a predetermined amount is set. The replenisher is replenished. In this way, in the automatic developing apparatus, the deterioration of the processing liquid due to the processing of the film is prevented, and the processing liquid is always processed with a constant quality.

[0005]

However, the conventional automatic developing device does not have a function of determining whether the inserted photosensitive material is a sheet of a predetermined size or a long roll. . Therefore, if the roll-shaped photosensitive material is processed while the replenishment amount is set so that the sheet-shaped photosensitive material is processed, an error occurs in the replenishment amount. Especially when processing roll-shaped film,
Even if there is a slight error in the setting of the film width, the error in the replenishment amount becomes extremely large. Further, in the above-described automatic developing device, when the width dimension of the photosensitive material is read by a plurality of sensors arranged at the insertion port, the sensors are arranged at equal intervals, and for example, if one sensor is 7 inches (178 mm).
Width, 14 inches (354 mm) width for 2 pieces, 21 inches (580 mm) width for 3 pieces, 28 inches (711 mm) width for 4 pieces, and simply set the film width dimension to an integer multiple is doing.

Therefore, the error between the width of the film actually inserted and the width of the film read by the sensor becomes large, especially when a large amount of a photosensitive material having a width greatly different from the set width is processed. In addition, the treatment performance of the treatment liquid cannot be compensated, and the treatment performance of the treatment liquid is significantly deteriorated, or an excessive amount of replenisher liquid is replenished.

As described above, since the size of the photosensitive material to be processed cannot be accurately read, it is difficult to replenish the optimum processing solution, and the photosensitive material cannot be finished to a certain quality, or the processing solution is replenished more than necessary. This causes a problem of increasing the running cost of the device. These are because the replenisher is replenished only by detecting the size of the light-sensitive material to be processed extremely roughly.

Although it is possible to reduce the error by increasing the number of sensors, it is not preferable because it increases the cost of the device.

The present invention has been made in consideration of the above facts. The area of a photosensitive material is detected by using a limited number of sensors, and the fatigue of a processing solution as a result of processing of the photosensitive material is detected. Provided is a photosensitive material processing apparatus capable of processing a photosensitive material with a constant quality by suppressing a decrease in processing performance of the processing solution due to processing of a photosensitive material to be processed later by replenishing a supplementary amount of a replenishing solution. The purpose is to do.

[0010]

In the photosensitive material processing apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention, the length and width of the photosensitive material are measured by the detecting means arranged near the insertion opening to determine the replenishing amount of the replenisher. A photosensitive material processing apparatus, wherein the photosensitive material inserted when the measured value of the length of the photosensitive material is less than or equal to a predetermined value is determined to be a sheet shape, and the length of the photosensitive material detected by the detection means and Replenish the replenisher based on the width,
When the measured value is equal to or more than a predetermined value, it is determined that the replenishing solution is replenished in an amount based on the measured value of the length and the width of the photosensitive material which is manually set by determining that it is long. To do.

A photosensitive material processing apparatus according to a second aspect of the present invention is a photosensitive material processing apparatus which replenishes a replenishing solution into a processing solution in a processing tank according to a processing area of an inserted photosensitive material,
A detection means for detecting the width and length of the photosensitive material inserted by a signal provided from a sensor provided at a predetermined interval along the conveyance width direction of the photosensitive material in the vicinity of the insertion port, and a sensor operated by the detection means. Select one of the replenisher's replenisher's replenisher's replenisher's replenisher's replenisher's replenisher's replenisher's replenisher's replenisher's replenisher's replenisher's replenisher's replenisher's replenisher's replenisher's replenisher's replenisher's replenisher's replenisher's replenisher's replenisher's replenisher's replenisher's replenisher's replenisher's replenisher And a replenisher replenishing means for supplying a replenisher to the processing tank according to the selection of the selecting means.

[0012]

In the light-sensitive material processing apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention, the length of the light-sensitive material is also measured when the insertion and width of the light-sensitive material passing through the insertion opening are detected by the detecting means. When the measured value of this length is equal to or less than a predetermined value, it is determined that the photosensitive material is in the form of a sheet, and the area of the sensitive material is calculated from its width and length to replenish the necessary processing liquid. When the length is less than the predetermined length, it is determined that the photosensitive material is a long roll, for example, and the replenisher is replenished according to the width and the length of the photosensitive material. Since there is a large error in the measured width value and a large area error in the roll-shaped long photosensitive material, the data input by the operator is used for the measured width value ignoring the detection by the sensor.

As described above, the length of the inserted photosensitive material is measured not only by detecting whether or not the photosensitive material is inserted by the detecting means, and whether the photosensitive material is a sheet having a predetermined length or Optimal replenishment can be performed by determining whether the roll is a long roll and changing the replenishment amount of the replenisher.

In the photosensitive material processing apparatus according to the second aspect of the present invention, the width of the photosensitive material passing through the insertion opening is detected by a plurality of sensors provided at the insertion opening as detecting means. At this time, depending on the number of sensors that have detected the photosensitive material, the width dimension of the passed photosensitive material is determined by selecting which of the photosensitive materials having a preset width of high processing frequency is selected,
Replenish the replenisher solution per unit length according to the applicable width dimension. By replenishing the replenisher with the width dimension of the photosensitive material that is frequently processed, even when controlling with a small memory capacity, replenishment is necessary and sufficient even when processing a photosensitive material of a different width dimension. It can be contained within the range of the amount, and the processing performance of the processing liquid can be maintained in a predetermined state.

That is, from the width and length of the photosensitive material passing through the insertion opening detected by the detecting means, the size of the photosensitive material is high in processing frequency by the selecting means and there is no large difference in replenishment amount (processing area equality etc.). ) Is selected to replenish the replenisher solution in an amount obtained by multiplying the replenishment amount per unit length corresponding to the photosensitive material by the length. This makes it possible to prevent the processing performance of the processing liquid from deteriorating and process the photosensitive material in a substantially constant state. Further, since it is possible to prevent the replenisher from being replenished in a large amount with respect to the processing amount of the photosensitive material, it is possible to suppress an increase in running cost of the apparatus.

As described above, since the replenishment amount is selected from the amount for the light-sensitive material having a high processing frequency, it can be said that the replenishment amount is almost the same as the proper replenishment amount over the course of one day.

[0017]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows an automatic developing apparatus 10 which is a photosensitive material processing apparatus to which the present invention is applied. The automatic developing apparatus 10 is a device in which the film 12 is dipped in a developing solution, a fixing solution, and washing water, and then processed, and then dried.

The automatic developing device 10 includes a developing section 18 having a developing tank 16 in a machine frame 14 and a fixing section 2 having a fixing tank 20.
2. A rinsing unit 26 including the rinsing tank 24, a rinsing unit 30 including a rinsing tank 28, and a drying unit 68 are provided.

Transport racks 38, 40, 42 having a plurality of roller pairs 32, 34, 36 (in the case of the water washing tank 28, roller pairs 32, 36) in the developing tank 16, the fixing tank 20, and the water washing tank 28, respectively. Are soaked in a developing solution, a fixing solution, and washing water.

The roller pairs 32 and 34 are arranged such that the line connecting the axes of the rollers facing each other is horizontal, and the roller pair 36 is
The line connecting the axes of the rollers facing each other is vertical, and the film 12 is sandwiched by these and transported to form a substantially U-shaped transport path.

The transport rack 38 of the developing tank 16 is provided with a pair of rollers 50 opposed to the insertion port 48 so that the film 12 inserted from the insertion port 48 is nipped and transported. The film 12 sandwiched by the roller pair 50 is guided substantially downward by a guide plate (not shown, which is integrally formed with the transport rack 38 or attached to the transport rack 38) and is sandwiched by the roller pair 32. It is like this. Further, on the outlet side of the transport rack 38, a roller pair 52 in which a part of the lower roller is immersed in the processing liquid (developing liquid) is arranged. The line connecting the axes of the roller pair 52 is inclined, and has a role of transferring the film 12 to the fixing tank 20.

On the inlet side of the transport rack 40 of the fixing tank 20, a roller pair 54 in which a part of the lower rollers is immersed in the processing liquid (fixing liquid) is provided, and the film from the developing tank 16 is reached. I am supposed to receive 12. The film 12 received is sandwiched by the roller pair 54, is directed downward, and is conveyed in a substantially U shape by the roller pair 32, 34, 36. On the outlet side of the transport rack 40, a roller pair 56 in which a part of the lower roller is immersed in the processing liquid (fixing liquid) is arranged. The line connecting the axes of the roller pair 56 is inclined, and has a role of transferring the film 12 to the rinse section 26.

The rinse section 26 includes a pair of rollers 58 provided on the transport rack 40 of the fixing tank 20. In the roller pair 58, the right side of the transport rack 40 in FIG.
It is attached to a portion extended in the direction, and a gap is provided between the extended portion and the fixing portion 20 and the water washing portion 30. A shallow rinse bath 24 is formed in the upper part of the gap between the fixing bath 20 and the washing bath 28. The rinse liquid is stored in the rinse tank 24. The rinse liquid is pumped up by the lower roller of the roller pair 58 to wash the film surface, and the roller pair 58 squeezes the fixing liquid together with the rinse liquid. Is.

The film 12 that has passed through the rinse section 26 is
It is sandwiched by a pair of rollers 64 provided on the inlet side of the transport rack 42 of the washing tank 28, the transport direction is changed downward, and thereafter, it is transported in a substantially U-shape by the roller pairs 32 and 36, and the roller pair on the outlet side. It is designed to be horizontally changed by 66. Here, the transport rack 42 of the washing tank 28 is extended on the right side in FIG. 1 toward the drying section 68, and a roller pair 70 is arranged. This roller pair 70
The film 12 is squeezed by being sandwiched between the two and is sent out to the drying section 68 in a horizontal state.

As described above, the film 12 has the insertion port 48.
Inserted from the transport racks 38, 40, 42 of the respective processing tanks
And is conveyed while being sequentially immersed in a developing solution, a fixing solution, and washing water, and is subjected to development, fixing, and washing treatments. Further, the film surface is washed with the rinse liquid while being transferred from the fixing bath 20 to the washing bath 28.

The drying section 68 includes a plurality of opposed roller pairs 72.
Are arranged at equal intervals. A guide plate 74 that guides the film 12 is disposed in the gap between the pair of opposed rollers 72 to surely move the film 12 to the next pair of opposed rollers 72.
To guide you. Here, the guide plate 74
Is integrally formed in the chamber 76 to which the dry air generated by the dry fan and the heater of the dry air generating means (not shown) is supplied. Guide plate 7 of this chamber 76
The mounting surface of No. 4 has slit holes 7 along the film width direction.
6A is provided, and the dry air is blown toward the film 12 from the gap between the pair of opposed rollers 72.
As a result, the film 12 is dried while being nipped and conveyed by the pair of opposed rollers 72, and reaches the discharge port 78.

A magnetic insertion sensor 80 for detecting whether or not the film 12 has passed through the insertion opening 48 is disposed inside the insertion opening 48 in the automatic developing device 10.
As shown in FIG. 2, the insertion sensor 80 includes a film 2
A plurality of them are arranged at a predetermined interval along the transport width direction of 0. In the present embodiment, as an example, the insertion sensors 80A, 80
Four of B, 80C, and 80D are arranged (hereinafter collectively referred to as "insertion sensor 80"). On the transport path side of the film 12 of each of the insertion sensors 80A to 80D,
A magnet roller 82 is arranged.

The magnet roller 82 facing the insertion sensor 80 is rotatably supported by a shaft 84 spanning the width direction of the insertion port 48. A plurality of magnets 86 are embedded inside these magnet rollers 82. In the present embodiment, as an example, two magnets 86 are attached so as to be point-symmetrical with respect to the axis of the magnet roller 82 as a point of symmetry. The magnetic force is increasing.

On the other hand, inside the insertion sensor 80, a substrate (not shown) mounted with a Hall IC is inserted and hermetically sealed, and when the magnetic force acting on this Hall IC changes, the level of the output signal from the substrate switches. It is like this. That is, when the magnet 86 approaches the insertion sensor 80 and the magnetic force increases, a signal of H (high) level is output, and when the magnet 86 is separated, the output signal switches to L (low) level. Therefore, when the magnet roller 82 rotates, the insertion sensor 80 outputs a pulse signal.

Below the magnet roller 82, a guide plate 88 for guiding the film 12 inserted from the insertion port 48 between the roller pair 50 is arranged, and the magnet roller 82 has an arrow on the guide plate 88. When it comes into contact with the surface of the film 12 that is slidably guided along the direction A, it is rotated by frictional force (rotation in the direction of arrow B). The guide plate 88 is made of a non-magnetic material or has a through hole or the like in a region facing the magnet roller 82 so that it is not substantially affected by the magnetic force of the magnet 86 of the magnet roller 82. .

As shown in FIG. 4, the cables 94 of the respective insertion sensors 80 (80A-80D) are connected to the microcomputer 92 of the control unit 90. The microcomputer 92 includes a CPU 100 and a ROM 1
02, RAM 104, and I / O port 106, which are connected by a bus 108.

As shown in FIG. 3, the insertion sensor 80A
˜80D are attached with a space dimension Y, and the insertion sensors 80A and 80D at both ends are attached with a space dimension X from the end of the insertion port 48. In this embodiment, the interval dimension Y is 172 mm and the interval dimension X is
Is 86 mm (Y = 2 × X) and the width dimension of the insertion port 48 is 688 mm so that the film 12 having a width dimension up to 27 inches (680 mm) can be processed.

Further, in the automatic developing device 10, the sheet-shaped film 12 which is frequently processed has a width of 16 inches (4 inches).
06 mm) film 12 and 26 inches wide (660
(mm) film 12, and a microcomputer 92 for supplying a developing replenisher and a fixing replenisher (diluting water at a predetermined ratio and replenishing stock solution) corresponding to the respective width dimensions to the developing tank 16 and the fixing tank 20. It is stored in advance in the memory. Further, in the automatic developing device 10, when processing a long roll-shaped film 12 (for example, 1 m or more) as the film 12, the data input by the operator from a keyboard (not shown) is stored as the amount of the replenisher liquid for each predetermined time. There is. The amount of these replenishers is based on a constant value according to the processing area of the film 12.

In the microcomputer 92, when the magnet roller 82 rotates by coming into contact with the surface of the film 12 inserted into the machine frame 14 from the insertion port 48, the magnet roller 82 is arranged corresponding to each magnet roller 82. The width of the film 12 is detected by the insertion sensors 80A to 80D. The sensor 80 detects the presence of the film 12 at regular intervals (for example, 0.1 seconds), and the length of the film 12 is constant (for example, 1 m).
When the presence of the film 12 is continuously detected for a time equal to or longer than, the film 12 is determined to be in a roll state. Alternatively, the length of the film 12 is measured by detecting the number of pulse signals output from the insertion sensor 80 by contacting and separating the magnet 86 in the magnet roller 82 with respect to the insertion sensor 80. .

For example, the insertion sensors 80A to 8A provided at the insertion opening into which a 27-inch wide film can be inserted.
Depending on how many of 0D detect the film 12 and output the pulse signal, whether the inserted film 12 among the films from 10 inch width to 27 inch width corresponds to the high processing frequency of 16 inch width. It is determined whether or not the width is 26 inches.

That is, 4 of the insertion port 48 of the film 12
By appropriately considering the arrangement of the individual insertion sensors 80A to 80D, when the film 12 is inserted along one end side (for example, the so-called “left-handed” or “right-handed” shown by a dashed line in FIG. 3), 10 For film 12 from inch wide to 16 inch wide, when only two insertion sensors 80A, 80B or 80C, 80D detect the passage of film 12, it is replenished as 16 inch wide film 12. 1
For a film 12 having a width of 7 inches to 23 inches, three insertion sensors 80A, 80B, 80C or 80B, 80
When C and 80D prevent the film 12 from passing (these can be judged as "left-handed" or "right-handed" in these cases), the film is replenished as a 21-inch wide film 12.
In the film 12 having a width of 24 inches to a width of 27 inches, all the insertion sensors 80A to 80D detect the passage of the film 12, and the film 12 having a width of 26 inches is replenished.

When inserted in alignment with the center (so-called "center through" indicated by the chain double-dashed line in FIG. 3), the width is 10 inches to 20 inches.
For film 12 up to inch width, two insertion sensors 8
When only 0B and 80C detect the passage of the film 12 (at this time, it can be determined as "through the center"), the film 12 having a width of 16 inches is replenished and all four insertion sensors 80A to 80D detect it. The film 12 having a width of 21 inches to 27 inches is replenished as a film 12 having a width of 26 inches.

That is, when the number of the insertion sensors detecting the passage of the film 12 is small, the detection width per insertion sensor is large, and when the number of the insertion sensors detecting is large, the insertion sensor per one is relatively large. The detection width of is small. Therefore, with respect to the film 12 detected by many insertion sensors, the error due to the interval between the insertion sensors is reduced.

When the film 12 is 16 inches wide,
Any two (insertion sensor 80A and 80B, insertion sensor 8
Since the insertion sensor 80 of 0B and 80C or the insertion sensors 80C and 80D) detects the passage of the insertion port 48, the detection width per insertion sensor 80 is 8 inches (203 mm).
Becomes Further, when processing the film 12 having a width of 26 inches, all the four insertion sensors 80 provided in the insertion port 48 are operated, and thus the insertion sensors 80 are 6.5 inches (165 mm) each. Note that the three insertion sensors 80
When the passage of the film 12 is detected, the insertion sensor 80 detects 1 as the film 12 having a width of 21 inches.
Each piece is 7 inches (178 mm).

As shown in FIG. 4, a development replenishing liquid pump 110, a diluting water pump 112, a fixing replenishing liquid pump 114 and a diluting water pump 116 are connected to the microcomputer 92 via drivers 96A to 96D, respectively. There is. When the developing solution replenishing pump 110 and the diluting water pump 112 are operated by the microcomputer 92, the developing replenishing solution is replenished while being diluted from a developing replenishing solution tank (not shown) to the developing tank 16 at a predetermined ratio, and the fixing replenishing solution pump 114 is used. When the dilution water pump 116 is operated, the fixing replenisher is supplied from the fixing replenisher tank (not shown) to the fixing tank 20 while being diluted with water having a predetermined ratio to replenish the fixing solution. At this time, for example, the operating time of each pump is controlled so as to supply the amount of the replenisher based on the set value.

The microcomputer 92 of the control unit 90 also collectively controls other controls of the automatic developing device 10. When it is detected that the film 12 has been inserted, each processing unit can process the film 12. It is designed to operate in a simple state.

The operation of this embodiment will be described below. The film 12 on which an image is recorded by exposure is inserted into the automatic developing device 10 through the insertion port 48 of the automatic developing device 10 and processed. In the automatic developing device 10, the film 12 inserted from the insertion port 48 is transferred to the transport rack 38 of the developing section 18.
The developing tank 1 is pulled in by the roller pair 50 provided in the developing tank 1.
Send to 6.

At this time, one of the magnet rollers 82 provided at the insertion port 48 comes into contact with the surface of the film 12 sliding on the guide plate 88 to rotate, and the magnet roller 82 is inserted so as to face the magnet roller 82. The internal magnet 86 approaches or separates from the sensor 80, and the magnetic flux from the magnet 86 increases or decreases, and the insertion sensor 80 outputs a pulse signal. The control unit 90 starts the processing of the film 12 in the automatic developing device 10 in response to the input of this pulse signal.

In the developing tank 16, a pair of rollers 32, 34 and 36 of the carrying rack 38 carry the developing treatment by immersing it in a developing solution while carrying it in a substantially U shape. The film 12 that has been processed by the developing unit 18 is sent to the fixing tank 20.
In the fixing tank 20, the roller pairs 32, 3 of the transport rack 40
The film 12 is conveyed while being guided in a substantially U-shape by means of Nos. Fixing tank 2
The film 12 that has been processed at 0 passes through the rinse section 26. When passing through the rinse portion 26, the roller pair 58
By being sandwiched between the film 12 and the fixing solution, the fixing solution is washed off by the rinse solution drawn up by the lower roller on the surface of the film 12, and the film 12 reaches the washing section 30.

In the rinsing tank 28 of the rinsing section 30, the film 12 is conveyed while being immersed in rinsing water by the conveying rollers 32 and 36 of the conveying rack 42 to wash the film 12 with water and remove the fixer component from the surface of the film. Remove.

The film 12 that has been washed with water is squeezed and leveled when it is sent out from the washing unit 30, and this level is maintained and reaches the drying unit 68. In the drying section 68, first, the film 12 is nipped by the pair of opposed rollers 72 and guided by the guide plate 74, so that the film 12 is conveyed horizontally. At this time, the chamber 7
The front and back surfaces of the film 12 are dried by the drying air blown out from the slit holes 76A provided in 6, and are discharged from the discharge port 78 and stocked in a receiving box (not shown).

In this automatic developing device 10, the film 12
The developing replenishing solution and the fixing replenishing solution are supplied to the developing tank 16 and the fixing tank 20 in accordance with the processing of No. 1 to supplement the processing performance of the processing solution which is deteriorated by the processing of the film 12. The setting of the replenishment amount of the liquid will be described.

In FIG. 5, the automatic developing device 10 is controlled by the control unit 90.
The flow chart for detecting the film 12 to be inserted into the sheet, determining whether the film 12 is in the form of a sheet or a long roll, and setting the replenishment amount of the replenisher (development replenisher, fixing replenisher). Shows. In the following description, setting of the basic amount of the replenisher will be described without distinguishing between the developer replenisher and the fixing replenisher.

In this flow chart, in the first step 150, the film 12 is inserted from the insertion port 48 into the machine casing 14
It is detected whether or not it is inserted inside. This is detected by outputting a pulse signal from the insertion sensor 80 when the magnet roller 82 rotates in contact with the surface of the inserted film 12 as described above.

At the next step 152, the insertion sensor 80
When a pulse signal is output for each of A to 80D, the number of pulses is counted and the length of the film 12 passing through is measured for each of the insertion sensors 80A to 80D. At this time, the number of insertion sensors 80 detecting the film 12 is also stored. Further, in step 154, it is confirmed whether the rear end of the film 12 has passed through the insertion opening 48. That is, it is confirmed that the film 12 is completely inserted. Film 1
If the trailing edge of 2 is not detected, the length of the film 12 measured by the insertion sensor 80 in step 156 is a predetermined value (for example, "1 m", and the film 12 is in a roll shape or a sheet shape). The length of the standard is not limited to this), and it has been confirmed.

In steps 154 and 156, the film 12
When the insertion sensor 80 determines that the rear end of the film 12 has passed without reaching the predetermined value, the inserted film 12 is determined to be a sheet and the process proceeds to step 158. In addition, the trailing edge detection of the film 12
When the rear end of the film 12 passes over the guide plate 88, the rotation of the magnet roller 82 stops and the insertion sensor 8
It can be confirmed by stopping the output of the pulse signal from 0.

In step 158, the width dimension of the film 12 is judged. That is, when the number of the insertion sensors 80 that has detected the passage of the film 12 and output the pulse signal in step 152 is two, it is determined that the film 12 has a width of 16 inches, and the four insertion sensors 80 pulse. 26-inch wide film 12 when outputting signals
Is determined to have been inserted. In the next step 160, based on this judgment, prestored data corresponding to the width dimension of the film 12 is read and the replenishment amount is set from the length of the film 12 measured by the insertion sensor 80.

On the other hand, when it is confirmed in step 156 that the length of the film 12 is not less than the predetermined length, it is determined that the film 12 is a roll-shaped long film 12, and the process proceeds to step 162. In step 162, when the roll-shaped film 12 is processed, the film width data input by the operator is read by operating the keyboard or the like to set the replenishment amount.

Further, in step 164, it is confirmed whether or not the rear end of the long film 12 has passed, and in step 166, for example, a power switch (not shown) is turned off and the operation of the apparatus is finished. Have confirmed.

The controller 90 replenishes the replenisher at predetermined time intervals (for example, every 30 seconds) based on the replenishment amounts (developing replenisher and fixing replenisher) thus set. That is, the developer replenisher pump 110 and the dilution water pump 112.
Is operated for a time corresponding to the set replenishment amount to supply the developer replenisher and water in a predetermined ratio to the developing tank 16 to replenish the developer, and the fixing replenisher pump 114 and the dilution water pump 11 are supplied.
6 is operated to replenish the fixing bath 20 with the fixing solution. As a result, the deterioration of the processing performance of the developing solution and the fixing solution due to the processing of the inserted film 12 is compensated. The developer and the fixer may be replenished at different timings.

When replenishing the replenishing solution in this manner, it is automatically determined whether the film 12 inserted into the automatic developing device 10 is sheet-shaped or roll-shaped, and the replenishment amount is set. Since it has been set, roll-shaped film 1
When processing 2, the detection error of the width of the film 12 greatly affects the total replenishment amount, so the width dimension is manually set.

When the sheet-shaped film 12 is processed, the width dimension is detected by the plurality of insertion sensors 80 arranged in the insertion port 48 to set the amount of the replenisher. At this time, since the width dimension of the film 12 having a high processing frequency is used as a reference, when the film 12 having a high processing frequency is processed, a predetermined amount of the replenishing solution is accurately replenished and the processing solution has a constant processing performance. Can be maintained at. Further, when the film 12 that does not correspond to this width dimension is processed, the prescribed amount of supplementation according to the processing area is not performed,
Since the processing frequency of the film 12 is low, the replenishing amount is not significantly reduced with respect to the processing amount of the film 12, and a large amount of processing liquid is replenished more than necessary.

As described above, the width dimension of the film 12 is not simply set according to the number of the insertion sensors 80 that have detected the film 12, but the insertion of the film 12 detected according to the processing state of the automatic developing device 10 is performed. If the width dimension is individually set with respect to the number of the sensors 80, it is possible to supply a replenishing solution of a proper amount to the throughput of the film 12 on average, and the developing tank 16 and the fixing tank 20 can be supplied. Developer in,
The processing performance of the fixer will not be significantly deteriorated or replenished more than necessary.

This prevents the amount of developing replenisher and fixing replenisher replenished to the developing tank 16 and the fixing tank 22 from greatly decreasing or exceeding the processing amount of the entire film 12. By doing so, the processing performance of the developing solution and the fixing solution in the developing tank 16 and the fixing tank 20 can be kept constant, so that the film 12 can be processed with substantially constant quality.

In this embodiment, the description has been given of the case where only one of the sheet-shaped film 12 and the roll-shaped film 12 is inserted from the insertion port 48. Both the roll-shaped films 12 may be inserted side by side at the same time. At this time, when a different film 12 is inserted, the insertion sensor 80 detects the insertion of the film 12 substantially at the same time.
When sheet-shaped films 12 having different sizes are inserted in parallel, the insertion sensor 8 is inserted into each film 12.
0 detects the trailing edge. The width dimension of each film 12 may be set according to the number of the insertion sensors 80 that have simultaneously detected the trailing edge, and the replenishment amount may be set for each film 12 from the width dimension and the length.

Further, in the apparatus for exclusively processing the sheet-shaped film 12 by the automatic developing apparatus 10, it is of course not necessary to discriminate between the sheet-shaped film and the roll-shaped film, and the width of the width and the length of the processing liquid can be taken into consideration. All you have to do is set the replenishment amount.

In this embodiment, the number of pulses output from the insertion sensor 80 is read when measuring the length of the film 12, but the method for measuring the length of the film 12 is not limited to this. Not something to do. Further, although the insertion sensor 80 and the magnet roller 82 are provided at the insertion opening 48 as the detection means to detect the passage of the film 12, the detection means of the film 12 is not limited to this, and mechanical detection is possible. Various general sensors such as means and optical detection means can be used. At this time, the film 12 is determined by whether or not each sensor detects the film 12 at predetermined time intervals, the transport speed of the film 12, and the like.
The length of can be calculated. Further, it is needless to say that the number of the insertion sensors 80 and the interval dimension are not limited to the present embodiment.

Further, in the present embodiment, the automatic developing device 10 for processing the film 12 applied as the photosensitive material is used, but the application of the present invention is not limited to the film, but other than printing paper, a photosensitive lithographic printing plate, etc. It can be applied to a photosensitive material processing apparatus for processing the photosensitive material.

[0064]

As described above, in the light-sensitive material processing apparatus of the present invention, the replenisher is replenished by judging whether the light-sensitive material is sheet-shaped or roll-shaped. Also, the replenisher is replenished by selecting which width of the photosensitive material corresponds to the width of the photosensitive material having a high processing frequency by a plurality of sensors. As a result, it is possible to replenish the replenisher solution according to the processed area of the light-sensitive material. Furthermore, since the replenisher is replenished according to the length and width of the photosensitive material, the photosensitive material can be processed while keeping the processing performance of the processing liquid substantially constant, and the processing area of the photosensitive material can be changed. Since the replenishment solution is replenished by using the above method, useless replenishment of the replenishment solution is prevented, which has an excellent effect of not unnecessarily increasing the running cost.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an automatic developing device applied to this embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view showing an insertion sensor and a magnet roller arranged at an insertion opening.

FIG. 3 is a schematic plan view showing the arrangement of insertion sensors.

FIG. 4 is a principal block diagram showing a control unit.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for discriminating a film.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Automatic Developing Device (Photosensitive Material Processing Device) 12 Film (Photosensitive Material) 48 Inserting Port 80 Inserting Sensor (Detecting Means) 82 Magnet Roller (Detecting Means) 90 Control Unit (Selecting Means, Replenisher Replenishing Means)

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A photosensitive material processing apparatus for determining a replenishing amount of a replenishing solution by measuring a length and a width of a photosensitive material by a detecting means arranged in the vicinity of an insertion opening, wherein a measured value of the length of the photosensitive material is When the photosensitive material inserted is below a predetermined value, it is determined that the photosensitive material is sheet-like, and the replenisher is replenished based on the length and width of the photosensitive material detected by the detecting means, and the measured value is above the predetermined value. At this time, the photosensitive material processing apparatus is characterized in that the replenisher is replenished in an amount based on the measured value of the width and the detected length of the photosensitive material which is determined to be long and is manually set. 2. A photosensitive material processing device for replenishing a processing liquid in a processing tank with a replenishing liquid according to a processing area of an inserted photosensitive material, the photosensitive material processing device having a predetermined width along a conveyance width direction of the photosensitive material. Detecting means for detecting the width and length of the photosensitive material inserted by signals from the sensors provided at intervals, and replenishment per unit length for replenishing the photosensitive material from the number of sensors operated by the detecting means. Selection means for selecting any one of the replenishment amounts of the replenishing liquid per unit length for a photosensitive material having a width dimension which is frequently set in advance as the replenishing amount of the liquid, and the replenishment is performed according to the selection of the selection means And a replenishing solution replenishing means for supplying a solution to the processing tank.