JPS6224284Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a heating device suitable for sheet-like or roll-like image forming materials, particularly heat-developable photosensitive materials.

As a heating device as a heat developing device, one using an infrared lamp or one using a heat roller has been proposed. A heat developing apparatus using an infrared lamp has a drawback that since the heat conducting medium is air, it cannot maintain a constant heating temperature due to the influence of external ambient temperature and the generation of fluid air. A heat developing device using a heat roller is disclosed in, for example, Utility Model Publication No. 44-541 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 52-87036.
No., Utility Model Application Publication No. 54-45553, etc. These conventional thermal developing apparatuses generally employ a method of thermally developing an image forming material by holding it between a pair of heat rollers or a heater block and a roller. However, few image forming materials have dimensional stability against heat, especially image forming materials using paper or baryta paper as a support.
Expansion, particularly in the lateral direction, is significant when heated, and many plastic film-supported imaging materials tend to shrink when heated.
Therefore, when an image-forming material whose dimensions have changed irregularly during heating is held between a pair of heat rollers, wrinkles occur there, which also causes uneven development.

An object of the present invention is to provide a heating device that effectively eliminates the above-mentioned drawbacks.

The object of the present invention is to provide (a) a heat-resistant belt that slides on a heater block surface, and (b) a flat plate disposed at the front of the conveyance path of the image forming material in the heat-resistant belt area, the flat plate having an angle with respect to the heat-resistant belt. but
A wide opening is adjusted to 0.5° to 6° and has a gap of 5 to 12 mm between the tip of the flat plate and the heat resistant belt, and a wide opening of 2 to 6 mm between the rear end of the flat plate and the heat resistant belt. (c) a roller placed in contact with and pressurized on the heat-resistant belt at the rear of the image-forming material conveyance path; and (d) a device for heating the heater block. This is achieved by a heating device equipped with a

The present invention will be explained below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the heating device of the present invention. The device is
A heater block 1 that has a built-in heating device 7 (for example, an electric heater, etc.), a heat-resistant belt 3 that slides on a surface 2 of the heater block 1, and a heat-resistant belt 3.
The angle θ with respect to the heat-resistant belt 3 is formed between the rear part of the conveyance path of the image forming material consisting of the roller 5 that is uniformly pressed and in contact with the heat-resistant belt 3, and the heat-resistant belt 3 region.
It has a flat plate 4 whose angle is adjusted to 0.5° to 6°, and a wide opening having a distance of 5 to 12 mm is formed between the tip A of the flat plate 4 and the heat-resistant belt 3, and the rear end B of the flat plate 4. and a front portion of the image forming material conveyance path, which is formed by the heat-resistant belt 3 and forming a narrow opening having an interval of 2 to 6 mm.

The image forming material is conveyed while being heated by driving the heat resistant belt 3 in the direction of the arrow. The heat-resistant belt 3 is driven by a motor 8 (indicated by a broken line), which is engaged with, for example, a chain belt 9 (indicated by a broken line), while the chain belt 9 is connected to a gear 1.
0 (indicated by a broken line), and the drive roller 6, which is supported by the same bearing (not shown) as the gear 10, is rotated in the direction of the arrow at the same time as the motor 8 starts driving. Ru. In this case, the heat-resistant belt 3 is connected to the heater block 1 as shown in the figure.
It is stretched between two drive rollers 6 so as to slide on the surface 2 of the roller. Further, it is preferable that the chain belt 9 is always tensioned constantly by providing an idler 11 (indicated by a broken line) so that the drive can be transmitted smoothly.

The image forming material sent from the carry-in rollers 12 and 13 moves from the front part of the conveyance path to the rear part of the conveyance path as the heat-resistant belt 3 is driven. At this time, the image forming material at the front of the conveyance path causes irregular dimensional changes in the horizontal and vertical directions due to heating by the heater block 1, but the irregular dimensional changes are converted into regular dimensional changes by the flat plate 4. can be corrected.

The flat plate 4 used in the present invention is generally preferably smooth, and particularly preferably a metal plate or a plastic plate (eg, a polyvinyl chloride plate, a polyethylene plate, a polystyrene plate, etc.) having a smooth surface. Furthermore, if the angle of the flat plate 4 with respect to the heat-resistant belt 3 exceeds 6 degrees, sufficient effects cannot be expected. , it is not possible to obtain the effects of our office.

It is preferable that the outer periphery of the roller 5 used in the present invention is coated with a fluorinated ethylene resin, for example, a tetrafluoroethylene resin. It is preferable that a plurality of rollers 5 be provided on and in contact with the heat-resistant belt 3 at appropriate intervals.
At this time, the roller 5 is installed inside the roller unit 14 and contacts the heat-resistant belt 3 while being uniformly pressed by the weight of the roller unit 14. In particular, in a preferred embodiment, in order to uniformly apply an appropriate pressure to the roller 5, the pressure of the pressure spring 15, which has one end of the pressure spring 15 fixed to the outer box 16 on the roller unit 14, is applied to the roller 5. It is possible to apply uniform pressure to the The pressing spring 15 may be a helical pressing spring other than the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, and is not particularly limited in the present invention. Further, although the number of pressure springs 15 provided is not limited, it is preferable to use a number that allows uniform pressure to be applied.

The heat-resistant belt 3 used in the present invention can be made of any heat-resistant material, but common materials include metal (e.g., iron, copper, stainless steel, etc.), polycarbonate film, and fluorinated ethylene resin. Examples include film, silicone rubber, and composite fluorinated resin film.

Image forming materials that can be suitably used in the present invention include, for example, heat-developable photosensitive materials (materials that can form images by heat development after image exposure), free radical recording materials (for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 38-24188
No. 49-204, JP-A-50-126228, No. 53-
Materials described in Publication No. 73133, etc.), other Japanese Patent Publications No. 10551/1983, No. 32036/1973, and Japanese Patent Publication No. 1973/1983
68221, 52-120823, etc., such as heat-stabilized photo-developable silver halide photographic materials that require heat treatment at some step during the formation of the final image. Examples of photographic materials include: In particular, the heating device of the present invention
It is preferable to apply the present invention to a heat developing device or a heat fixing device for heat-developable photosensitive materials or free radical recording materials.

According to the heating device of the present invention, it is possible to uniformly heat the image forming material, and the image forming material that is conveyed while being held between the heat resistant belt 3 and the pressurized roller 5 has the characteristic that no wrinkles are formed at all. have. Furthermore, it also has the advantage of being able to effectively eliminate development spots caused by such wrinkles.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 shows a sectional view of the heating device of the present invention.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] (a) A heat-resistant belt that slides on the heater block surface;
(b) A flat plate disposed at the front of the conveyance path of the image forming material in the heat-resistant belt area, the angle of the flat plate with respect to the heat-resistant belt being adjusted to 0.5° to 6°, and the tip of the flat plate and the heat-resistant belt and 5-12mm
(c) a flat plate forming a wide opening with a spacing of 2 to 6 mm, and a narrow opening with a spacing of 2 to 6 mm between the rear end of the flat plate and the heat-resistant belt; A heating device comprising: a roller placed in contact with the belt and pressurized; and (d) a device for heating the heater block.