US3796187A - Apparatus for developing continuous electrophotographic photosensitive web material - Google Patents

Apparatus for developing continuous electrophotographic photosensitive web material Download PDF

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Publication number
US3796187A
US3796187A US00159345A US3796187DA US3796187A US 3796187 A US3796187 A US 3796187A US 00159345 A US00159345 A US 00159345A US 3796187D A US3796187D A US 3796187DA US 3796187 A US3796187 A US 3796187A
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United States
Prior art keywords
developing
photosensitive material
latent image
drums
support
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Expired - Lifetime
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US00159345A
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English (en)
Inventor
M Sato
O Fukushima
S Matsumoto
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Fujifilm Holdings Corp
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Fuji Photo Film Co Ltd
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    • G—PHYSICS
    • G03—PHOTOGRAPHY; CINEMATOGRAPHY; ANALOGOUS TECHNIQUES USING WAVES OTHER THAN OPTICAL WAVES; ELECTROGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY
    • G03G—ELECTROGRAPHY; ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY; MAGNETOGRAPHY
    • G03G15/00—Apparatus for electrographic processes using a charge pattern
    • G03G15/06—Apparatus for electrographic processes using a charge pattern for developing
    • G03G15/10—Apparatus for electrographic processes using a charge pattern for developing using a liquid developer
    • G03G15/108—Apparatus for electrographic processes using a charge pattern for developing using a liquid developer with which the recording material is brought in contact, e.g. immersion or surface immersion development

Definitions

  • ABSTRACT An apparatus for developing continuous electrophotographic photosensitive web material which comprises plural support drums in an array in a container for liquid developer, plural developing electrodes which are larger in dimension than the latent image area formed on the photosensitive material and which are arranged along the periphery of the support rollers so as to be in facing relationship with slight spacing therebetween with the continuous electrophotographic photosensitive web material to be wound the support drums at least over the length of the latent image area with the rear side thereof towards the drums, a means for supplying liquid developer into the space between the developing electrodes and the photosensitive material, and advancing the photosensitive material intermittently so as to bring all the latent imageareas in the developing sectioninto facing relationship with developing electrodes respectively when the photosensitive material is brought to standstill.
  • This invention relates to an apparatus for liquid development of continuous electrophotographic photosensitive web material, and particularly to an apparatus I capable of providing uniform images free from uneven development under intermittent advancement. Also this invention is to provide an apparatus capable of extending the length of developing section without using very large dimension of the apparatus, of obtaining sufficiently long developing time and of enhancing the effect of developing electrode thereby enabling to obtain continuous tone image of extremely high quality exactl'y corresponding to the electrostatic charge distribution of latent image.
  • the electrophotographic image by liquid development can be prepared by uniformly charging electrostatically by means for exampleof corona discharge an electrophotographic photographic layer provided on a suitable electroconductive support material thereby endowing photosensitivity to said layer, subjecting said layer to imagewise exposure of original pattern to be reproduced thereby modulating said uniform electrostatic charge corresponding to said pattern (hereinafter referred to as electrostatic latent image), bringing said layer into contact with liquid developer consisting of colored charged fine particles (hereinafter referred to as toner) dispersed in an electroinsulative liquid thereby depositing said colored charged fine particles onto said electrostatic latent image selectively to obtain visible image. It is extremely. difficult, however, to obtain developed image exactly corresponding to the latent image.
  • This invention is to provide an apparatus capable of forming images without uneven development and exactly corresponding to the latent image even in such case of forming images successively on said web material.
  • Said developing electrode generally consists of an electroconductive counter plate provided parallel to the latent image surface in order to increase the number of flux of electric force and to absorb said flux thereby generating the distribution of electric field exactly corresponding to the distribution of electrostatic charge.
  • developing electrode distance the distance between the developing electrode and the latent image surface
  • developing electrode distance the distance between the developing electrode and the latent image surface
  • Such local fluctuations are inevitably unavoidable since the latent image surface and the developing electrode cannot be ideally flat.
  • the unevenness in developed density isenhanced even by a slight fluctuation of said distance if said distance is made smaller in order to obtain an image exactly corresponding to the charge distribution of latent image and being almost free from edge effect and halo.
  • each image is made to face at least two developing electodes until the completion of development under supply of fresh liquid developer for each developing electrude thereby to cancel the unevenness generated by each developing electrode.
  • this invention is to provide an apparatus for developing intermittently advanced photosensitive continuous web material to form images successively at a determined interval on said web material, which comprises developing an image on said web material under facing relationship with a developing electrode, then advancing said web material by the length of one frame thereby bringing said image into facing relationship with a second developing electrode, further developing said image under facing relationship with said second developing electrode, thus completing the development after facing plural developing elec trodes thereby obtaining developed image free from edge effect and halo as well as unevenness in developed density.
  • the apparatus according to this invention is particularly suitable for combining with an electrophotographic apparatus in which the photosensitive web material is advanced intermittently and subjected to imagewise exposure while it is kept in standstill, but it is also naturallypossible to combine this developing apparatus according to this invention with an electrophotographic apparatus in which the exposure is carried out on a photosensitive web material advanced continuously.
  • This invention is to remove such drawback, and to provide an apparatus for developing said web material under intermittent advancement in the developing section.
  • FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional side view of an electrophotographic apparatus for forming images on a continuous electrophotographic photosensitive web material provided with the developing apparatus according to this invention.
  • FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional side view of another example embodying this invention.
  • FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 are perspective views of guide roller to be employed in the apparatus of FIG. R.
  • FIG. 5 is a perspective view of dancer roller to be employed in the apparatus embodying this invention.
  • FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a support drum.
  • FIG. ll showing cross-sectional side view of an example embodying this invention represented are a continuous electrophotographic photosensitive material (hereinafter referred to as photosensitive material) I in rolled state with the photosensitive layer thereof outward, a pair of pinch rollers 2 and 3 made for example of rubber rollers for advancing said photosensitive material by a determined amount, a dancer roller l shaped as shown in FIG.
  • photosensitive material a continuous electrophotographic photosensitive material
  • a pinch roller 5 made of elastic material such as rubber to press said photosensitive material against a drum 6, which determines the amount of advancement of said photosensitive material for realizing the registration thereof in the longitudinal direction, by means for example of providing sprocket on the end portions of said drum band corresponding per forations on the edge portions of said photosensitive material.
  • a'corona discharge device 7 which applies corona discharge on the surface of photosensitive layer during the advancement of said photosensitive material thereby to obtain uniform surfacial charge thereon
  • a projecting optical system a for projecting the original image onto said photosensitive material to modulate said surfacial charge corresponding to said original image thereby forming latent image
  • guide rollers 9 and lltl made for example of rubber for guiding said photosensitive material after exposure toward the developing section.
  • rollers 11-16 for changing the advancing direction of said photosensitive material and at the same time acting as developing electrodes during advancement step.
  • Said rollers can be shaped in a simple cylindrical drum as shown in FIG. 3, or shaped to have a central portion with smaller diameter as shown in FIG. 4 so as to prevent direct contact of said roller with image area.
  • Said rollers can be composed for example of metal, metal with a surfacial insulative layer thereon, plastic material with electroconductively treated surface, electroconductive rubber etc., and the surface coarseness thereof is preferred not to exceed IOOS stipulated in JIS standard.
  • photosensitive material supporting drums l72O on which the continuous photosensitive web material is tightly wound with the rear surface toward said rollers.
  • Said support drums can be composed of simple cylinder of uniform diameter, it is preferable to provide a spiral ditch of which spiral direction is inverted in the center of said drum in order to pull said photosensitive material toward the edge sides thereof upon rotation of said drums thereby preventing the formation of wrinkles when said photosensitive material is wound on said drums.
  • Naturally such ditch should not be so large enough as to form concave portions on said photosensitive material resulting in uneven development.
  • the characteristics of this invention capable of effecting development without any unevenness even under intermittent advancement of photosensitive material are realized by the arrangement of said support drums. More specially each rear side of image areas 33-40 represented by black portions is brought into intimate contact with one of the said support drums when said photosensitive material is in standstill.
  • the entire photosensitive material is advanced by the length of one frame thereby to displace the image area 33 to the position 34, the image area 3% to the position 35 and so on.
  • the photosensitive material is brought to standstill again in this position and subjected to development during the exposure of succeeding frame.
  • the image area 36 is not supported by a support drum and is guided in a space connecting the arrays of support drums.
  • Said support drums 17-20 can be made of any underformable material not affecting the liquid developer such as metal, rubber, plastic, etc.
  • developer supply nozzles 21-25 and the liquid developer is taken out from an outlet 3t provided at the bottom of a developer tank 32 and cycled repeatedly to said nozzles 21-25 through a pump (not represented).
  • a pump not represented
  • the supply of liquid developer from said nozzles is carried out exclusively while the photosensitive material is advanced and is interrupted while said material is brought to standstill. Said liquid developer is supplied into a space between the latent image surface of said photosensitive material supported on the support drums and the developing electrode plate mounted in facing relationship with said surface.
  • developing electrode plates 26-30 at a constant distance from the latent image surface electrode plate.
  • the developing electrode distance is not necessarily identical for all the developing electrodes 26-30. It is already found that, for realizing developing exactly corresponding to the charge density, said developing electrode distance should be relatively large at the initial stage of development and be gradually smaller toward the latter stages of development. In the example shown in FIG. 1, satisfactory result can be obtained by employing distances of 5, l, 0.5 and 0.3 mm for the developing electrodes 26-29, respectively.
  • the developing electrode distance should be relatively large in order to prevent uneven developing since said distance is difficult to define on this electrode.
  • Guide rollers 41-43 for guiding the photosensitive material after development toward the rinse section are made for example of metal, rubber, plastic material etc., and are preferably shaped as shown in FIG. 5 or FIG. 6.
  • a dancer roller 44 is provided in order to give the photosensitive material driven by the rollers 5 and 6 a determined tension over the exposure section and developing section thereby preventing slackening.
  • Said roller is shaped as roller 4 shown in FIG. 5 to hold said photosensitive material between the flanges 50.
  • a pair of pinch rollers 45 and 46 also for squeezing off the liquid developer remaining on thephotosensitive material consist preferably of smooth metal roller and rubber roller, respectively. The photosensitive material is-advanced by rotating either one of said rollers, for example the roller 46.
  • the photosensitive material is advanced intermittently in the exposure and developing sections, it is possible to rotate the pinch rollers 2, 3, 45 and 46 continuously and to absorb the aberration in the velocity of advancement by means of dancer rollers 4 and 44. Also it is naturally possible to advance said photosensitive material intermittently throughout from the unwinding drum to the drum. Also provided are supply nozzles 47-50 for rinse solution, which is contained in a rinse solution tank 51 and circulated repeatedly from an outlet provided at the bottom thereof to said nozzles through a pump (not represented). The photosensitive material washed and squeezed is taken up on a winding drum 53, which is preferably driven by means of a constant-tension motor.
  • FIG. 1 Although the example shown in FIG. 1 is provided with only four support drums, it is naturally possible to employ longer developing section by providing larger number of support drums in vertical direction or by utilizing plural units of developing sections shown in FIG. 1.
  • FIG. 2 shown is another example with simplest structure with a horizontal array of support drums.
  • This example is provided with support drums 201-203 simi lar to those employed in FIG. 11, guide rollers 204-207, developer supply nozzles 208-210 and developing electrodes 211-213.
  • Image areas 214-217 are placed on the support drums to define the position thereof in the developing section, with the latent image surface thereof outwards to face said developing electrodes.
  • the advancement is always carried out by the distance between the succeeding frames so as to displace each image area to facing relationship with the succeeding developing electrode according to the spirit of this invention.
  • the apparatus of this example is provided with only three support drums, it is naturally possible to employ larger number of support drums.
  • An apparatus for developing continuous electrophotographic photosensitive web material which comprises plural support drums in an array in a container for liquid developer, plural, stationary developing electrodes disposed in said liquid developer which are larger in dimension than the latent image area formed on said photosensitive material and which are arranged along and outside the periphery of said support rollers so as to be in facing relationship with slight spacing therebetween with said continuous electrophotographic photosensitive web material to be wound on said support drums at least over the length of said latent image area with the rear side thereof towards the drums, a means for supplying liquid developer into the space between said developing electrodes and said'photosensitive material, and means for advancing said photosensitive material intermittently so as to bring all the latent image areas in the developing section into facing relationship with developing electrodes respectively when said photosensitive material is brought to standstill so the latent image areas may be subjected to simultaneous developing action.
  • An apparatus for developing continuous electrophotographic photosensitive web material which comprises plural support drums in an array in a container for liquid developer, plural developing electrodes which are larger in dimension than the latent image area formed on said photosensitive material and which are arranged along the periphery of said support rollers so as to be in facing relationship with slight spacing therebetween with said continuous electrophotographic photosensitive web material to be wound on said support drums at least over the length of said latent image area with the rear side thereof towards the drums wherein said spacing is relatively large at the former support drum and relatively small at the latter support drum, a means for supplying liquid developer into the space between said developing electrodes and said photosensitive material, and advancing said photosensitive material intermittently so as to bring all the latent image areas in the developing section into facing relationship with developing electrodes respectively when said photosensitive material is brought to standstill.

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  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Wet Developing In Electrophotography (AREA)
US00159345A 1970-07-03 1971-07-02 Apparatus for developing continuous electrophotographic photosensitive web material Expired - Lifetime US3796187A (en)

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JP45058130A JPS5117053B1 (enrdf_load_stackoverflow) 1970-07-03 1970-07-03

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US (1) US3796187A (enrdf_load_stackoverflow)
JP (1) JPS5117053B1 (enrdf_load_stackoverflow)
BE (1) BE769412A (enrdf_load_stackoverflow)
CA (1) CA934541A (enrdf_load_stackoverflow)
DE (1) DE2132978C3 (enrdf_load_stackoverflow)
FR (1) FR2098107A5 (enrdf_load_stackoverflow)
GB (1) GB1332534A (enrdf_load_stackoverflow)
NL (1) NL7109166A (enrdf_load_stackoverflow)

Cited By (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3870514A (en) * 1973-06-18 1975-03-11 Xerox Corp Liquid development for the electronic photography
US4410260A (en) * 1981-12-09 1983-10-18 Coulter Systems Corporation Toning apparatus and method

Families Citing this family (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
JPS5211595B2 (enrdf_load_stackoverflow) * 1972-09-29 1977-03-31

Citations (7)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3186326A (en) * 1962-03-28 1965-06-01 Houston Schmidt Ltd Fluid bearings for strip material
US3227549A (en) * 1965-02-24 1966-01-04 Xerox Corp Multiple image forming xerographic reproduction process
US3307458A (en) * 1964-06-04 1967-03-07 Harris Intertype Corp Electrophotographic apparatus
US3415223A (en) * 1967-04-24 1968-12-10 Pitney Bowes Inc Development apparatus for electrostatic copiers
US3556050A (en) * 1968-06-24 1971-01-19 Eastman Kodak Co Liquid development apparatus
US3577259A (en) * 1968-09-19 1971-05-04 Xerox Corp Liquid development of electrostatic latent images utilizing a tonerfree zone
US3601092A (en) * 1969-02-28 1971-08-24 Ricoh Kk Developing device for wet process electrophotography

Patent Citations (7)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3186326A (en) * 1962-03-28 1965-06-01 Houston Schmidt Ltd Fluid bearings for strip material
US3307458A (en) * 1964-06-04 1967-03-07 Harris Intertype Corp Electrophotographic apparatus
US3227549A (en) * 1965-02-24 1966-01-04 Xerox Corp Multiple image forming xerographic reproduction process
US3415223A (en) * 1967-04-24 1968-12-10 Pitney Bowes Inc Development apparatus for electrostatic copiers
US3556050A (en) * 1968-06-24 1971-01-19 Eastman Kodak Co Liquid development apparatus
US3577259A (en) * 1968-09-19 1971-05-04 Xerox Corp Liquid development of electrostatic latent images utilizing a tonerfree zone
US3601092A (en) * 1969-02-28 1971-08-24 Ricoh Kk Developing device for wet process electrophotography

Cited By (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3870514A (en) * 1973-06-18 1975-03-11 Xerox Corp Liquid development for the electronic photography
US4410260A (en) * 1981-12-09 1983-10-18 Coulter Systems Corporation Toning apparatus and method

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
CA934541A (en) 1973-10-02
FR2098107A5 (enrdf_load_stackoverflow) 1972-03-03
DE2132978C3 (de) 1976-01-08
DE2132978B2 (de) 1975-04-24
GB1332534A (en) 1973-10-03
BE769412A (fr) 1971-11-16
NL7109166A (enrdf_load_stackoverflow) 1972-01-05
JPS5117053B1 (enrdf_load_stackoverflow) 1976-05-29
DE2132978A1 (de) 1972-01-05

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