JPS63178237A - Heat-developing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the outflow of heat from an entering port and feeding-out port, and to suppress the temperature fall of an endless belt, by providing a shutter which is closed only when image recording is stopped, on the entering port and the feeding-out port of a photosensitive material. CONSTITUTION:In a photosensitive material entering port 68, a shutter 66 formed by a heat insulating material is provided and when image recording is stopped, it is closed for the purpose of hot insulation in a heating developing device. When an image recording operation is started and the heat-developing device is operated, the shutter 66 is opened, a photosensitive material S is carried and brought to a heat-development, and thereafter, peeled off from a heating drum 14 by a peeling claw 64 and carried out of a feeding-out port 69. The feeding-out port 69 is also provided with a shutter 67 formed by a heat insulating material, which is opened and closed simultaneously with the shutter 66, for the purpose of hot insulation in the heating developing device. After a transfer is ended, if an image recording start operation is not executed for a while, it is decided to be an image recording suspended state, the shutters 66, 67 are closed, and the outflow of heat in the heat-developing device is prevented.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a heat developing device for heat developing a photosensitive material after imagewise exposure.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

As an image recording method for recording imagination using a photosensitive material and an image-receiving material, for example, a patent application filed in 1983 by the applicant,
There is one disclosed in the specification of No. 0-121284. This image recording method first performs imagewise exposure to form a latent image, then develops it by heating, and polymerizes the polymerizable compound in the area where the latent image exists to form a macromolecular compound to form microcapsules. harden. Then, the image-receiving material having an image-receiving layer to which the color image-forming substance can be transferred is stacked and pressurized to rupture at least a portion of the microcapsules in the area where the latent image does not exist, and the color image-forming substance is transferred to the image-receiving material. to obtain an image on an image-receiving material.

Then, using the above-mentioned photosensitive material, this photosensitive material is subjected to imagewise exposure, heat development, and then superimposed on an image-receiving material and pressurized to obtain an image on the image-receiving material through automatic image recording. The device is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application No. 51896/1989 filed by the present applicant.

In the above-mentioned image recording apparatus, a heating drum having a heater inside and an endless belt wound around the drum are rotated, a photosensitive material is sandwiched between the heating drum and the endless belt, heat development is performed, and then an image-receiving material and an endless belt are rotated. A heat developing device has been proposed that delivers the image to an overlapping section.

In this heat developing device, the photosensitive material is held between the heating drum and the endless belt while simultaneously rotating.
Stable conveyance is performed, but if the heating drum and endless belt stop rotating before the start of image recording and the heating drum is heated by the heater, the part of the endless belt that makes contact with the heating drum becomes non-contact. As heating progresses compared to the other parts, the temperature of the entire endless belt is not uniformly heated.When the heating drum and endless belt are rotated, the low temperature part of the endless belt comes into contact with the drum surface and cools the drum surface, so the drum surface temperature increases. The temperature is about 6°C lower than the specified temperature.

At this time, when the photosensitive material is sandwiched and developed, the allowable range of development temperature change for the photosensitive material is approximately ±2°C and 2°C, so the photosensitive material is not heated uniformly, and the developing heat is insufficient in areas where the developing heat is insufficient. Further, the density becomes lower than that of a photosensitive material developed at a specified temperature.

In addition, the exposure section and other devices above the heat developing device rise in temperature due to the high-temperature hot air flowing upward from the photosensitive material inlet and then the outlet. When a photosensitive material before exposure or development is transported through the heated apparatus, image quality deteriorates. Furthermore, it has a negative effect on electrical parts, optical systems, etc. Furthermore, the heat retention efficiency of the heat developing device naturally decreases, and energy consumption for temperature control increases.

That becomes a problem.

[Purpose of the invention]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems, and to provide a heat developing device in which a heating drum and an endless belt are at a uniform predetermined developing temperature at the start of heat development.

[Means for solving problems]

The apparatus of the present invention is a heat-developing device that heats and develops a photosensitive material after imagewise exposure, and has an inlet and an outlet for the photosensitive material formed in a housing made of a heat insulating material. This is achieved by a configuration including a shutter that closes the inlet and outlet.

That is, shutters are provided at the inlet and outlet of the photosensitive material, and by opening these shutters only when the heat developing device is operating and closing them when the heat developing device is not in use, heat from the inlet and outlet during the pause is removed. prevent the outflow of
This prevents a temperature drop inside the heat developing device, and also prevents a temperature drop in a portion not in contact with the heating drum.

In the present invention, the photosensitive material may be a material for obtaining a visible image by applying pressure to a latent image generated by imagewise exposure.

In this case, it may include a step of preliminary heat development or wet development before applying pressure.

An example of such a material is a type of material in which a polymerizable compound is imagewise cured by imagewise exposure, and then a visible image is obtained by applying pressure, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 57-1991 filed by the present applicant. The material disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 179836 is mentioned. This material has a synthetic polymer resin wall capsule containing a vinyl compound, a photopolymerization initiator, and a colorant precursor supported on a support.

Further, after containing silver halide and imparting imagewise exposure, thermal development is performed to develop the silver halide, and the polymerizable compound is simultaneously cured in correspondence with this development.

As a type that obtains a visible image by applying pressure after that,
Examples include materials disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 121284/1984 filed by the present applicant. Said patent application 1986-
The material disclosed in No. 121284 is one in which a color image-forming substance is transferred to an image-receiving material having an image-receiving layer after thermal development to obtain an image on the image-receiving material.

At least a photosensitive silver halide, a reducing agent on the support.

Coated with a polymerizable compound and a color image-forming substance,
At least the polymerizable compound and the color image forming substance are encapsulated in the same microcapsule.

[Embodiment]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an image recording apparatus to which the apparatus of the present invention is applied.

A transparent supporting glass plate 2 on which a document is placed is provided on the upper surface of the housing 1, and an exposure device 3 is provided below the glass plate 2. The exposure device 3 is fixed within the housing 1, and the glass plate 2 is reciprocated horizontally in the direction of an arrow A over the exposure device 3 by a driving means (not shown).

The photosensitive material S is wound into a roll and stored in the magazine 4, and is pulled out from the magazine 4 by a pair of feed rolls 5. The magazine 4 is attached and detached after the upper cover 37 is rotated around its right end and opened. The photosensitive material S pulled out from the magazine 4 is transferred to a conveyor roll 7.
8.9, it is transported to the exposure section, and is cut into a predetermined length by the cutter 6 while being exposed.

The photosensitive material S having the exposed image and cut into sheets is then conveyed to the heat developing device 12 by conveyor rolls 10.11.

The heat developing device 12 includes a hollow cylindrical heating drum 14 , four belt support rolls 15 , and a belt extending from the support rolls 15 at an angle of about 240° to the outer periphery of the heating roll 14 in a heat-insulating housing 13 . Wrapped endless belt 1
6, the photosensitive material S is transferred to the belt 16 and the heating drum 14.
It is conveyed while being held between the heating drum 14 and heated at about 140° by a halogen lamp 17 provided in the heating drum 14.

Then, the temperature detector 60 detects the surface temperature of the heating drum 14, and the halogen lamp 1
It controls 7.

Heat developing bag a! The housing 1 is heated and developed by 12.
The photosensitive material S discharged from 3 is conveyed to the overlapping section 19 by the conveyance roll 18, is overlapped with the image receiving paper C supplied from the image receiving paper cassette 20 or the manual feed section 21, and is conveyed to the pressure transfer device 22. .

Pressure transfer bag [22 is a pair of pressure rolls 23 pressed together,
It consists of a backup roll 24 that is in pressure contact with each pressure roll 23, and a blade 72 for preventing wrinkles in the photosensitive material S and image-receiving paper C is provided at the entrance part, and its tip is elastically attached to the pressure roll 23. The photosensitive material S and the image-receiving paper C which are in contact with each other and overlapped are pressed at a pressure of about 550 kg/ad. When the image recorded on the photosensitive material S is transferred to the image receiving paper C, the superimposed photosensitive material S and the image receiving paper C are conveyed to a peeling device 25.

The peeling device 25 consists of a conveyance roll 26 and a peeling claw 27, and when the peeling claw 27 swings downstream of the conveyance roll 26, its tip enters between the photosensitive material S and the image-receiving paper C and peels them off. .

The photosensitive material S peeled off from the image receiving paper C by the peeling device 25 is conveyed to the waste tray 31 by conveyance rolls 28, 29, 30, discarded, and stored.

On the other hand, after the image-receiving paper C to which the image has been transferred is peeled off from the photosensitive material S, it is conveyed to the fixing device 33 by the conveyance roll 32. Then, the image-receiving paper C is irradiated with ultraviolet rays by, for example, an ultraviolet lamp 34 provided in the fixing device 33 to fix the image thereon, and is placed on a take-out tray 36 by a conveyance roll 35 .

FIG. 2 is an enlarged sectional view of the heat developing device 12.

The heat developing device 12 has a housing 1 made of a heat insulating material except for a photosensitive material inlet 68 and a photosensitive material outlet 69.
It is covered with 3.

A shutter 6 made of a heat insulating material is provided at the photosensitive material entrance 68.
6, which is closed to keep the heat inside the heat developing device 112 warm when image recording is stopped. When the image recording operation is started and the heat developing device is activated, the shutter 66 is opened and the photosensitive material S is allowed to enter. The incoming photosensitive material S is placed on a belt 6 stretched over rolls 61 and 62.
0 and is sandwiched between the roll 62 and the nip roll 63, and then sandwiched between the nip roll 63 and the heating drum 14 and conveyed. and.

After being heated and developed as described above, it is peeled off from the heating drum 14 by the peeling claw 64 and conveyed out through the delivery port 69. The outlet 69 is provided with a shutter 67 made of a heat insulating material that opens and closes at the same time as the shutter 66 to keep the inside of the heat developing device 112 warm.

After the above-mentioned transfer is completed, if the operation for starting recording of both images is not performed for a while, it is determined that one image recording is in a paused state, the shutters 66 and 67 are closed, and the heat developing device! 12 to prevent heat from escaping.

The shutters 66 and 67 are opened and closed by sliding them using a known device (not shown).

Although the image recording device of the embodiment forms an image on the image receiving paper by pressure transfer after heat development, the present invention is not limited to this, and for example, development and transfer may be performed only by heating. It can also be applied to other types of image recording devices.

〔Effect of the invention〕

By providing a shutter that closes only when image recording is paused at the inlet and outlet of the photosensitive material in the heat developing device, heat leakage from the inlet and outlet is prevented.
It is possible to suppress a decrease in the temperature of the endless belt due to the outflow of heat from inside the heat developing device.

Furthermore, since the outflow of heat is prevented, deterioration in image quality due to the influence of heat on devices other than the heat developing device can also be suppressed.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an image recording apparatus to which the apparatus of the present invention is applied, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a heat developing device that is an embodiment of the present invention. Symbol in the diagram

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1) A heat developing device that heat-develops a photosensitive material after imagewise exposure, in which an inlet and an outlet for the photosensitive material are formed in a housing made of a heat insulating material, and the inlet and outlet are opened when the heat developing operation is stopped. A heat developing device characterized by being equipped with a shutter that closes.