JP2000003020A - Photosensitive material drying device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To facilitate the maintenance by constituting a suction means of an attaching part for attaching a suction case to be freely shiftable between the use position nearer to a ventilating means and the retreat position away therefrom to secure the retreat position, whereby widening the space between the ventilating means and a suction chamber. SOLUTION: A ventilating case 16 is constituted of a thin box type case main body 40 and a ventilating plate 41. Many slits are formed on the plate 41. The suction case 20 is made a thin box. An endless belt 15 is arranged in the case 20. The belt 15 is constituted of a mesh belt. Dry air is made to blow off photographic paper from the case 16 so as to press the photographic paper to the belt 15. The case 20 is provided with a hinge part 26 at its upper part and freely displaced between the use position and the retreat position. The case 20 is fixed at the use position or the retreat position by a locking lever 32. By setting the case 20 to the retreat position, a maintenance aperture 30 between the case 16 and the case 20 is widely secured, thereby, the maintenance is facilitated.

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 for drying a photosensitive material such as photographic paper.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An automatic developing machine such as a printer processor used in a photographic developing station is provided with a drying section for drying photographic paper developed with a processing solution. In the drying section, if the conveyance is performed in contact with the surface of the photosensitive emulsion by a nip roller, a staggered arrangement roller, or the like, damage due to the contact, roller pressing marks, gloss unevenness, and the like may occur. In particular, this phenomenon becomes remarkable when contact conveyance is performed in a semi-dry state.

On the other hand, a method of carrying by suction using a suction fan or a method of blowing dry air onto a photosensitive material on an endless belt and bringing the photosensitive material into close contact with the belt has been carried out.
In particular, the present applicant blows the photosensitive material on the transport belt from the blower case, and causes the transport belt to suck the photosensitive material by the suction case disposed on the back side of the transport belt so that the transport can be reliably performed. (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 9-43826).

[0004]

Incidentally, in order to make a printer processor or the like compact, a conveyor belt is arranged to be inclined and a photosensitive material is sent obliquely upward (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-48804). No.). In such a photosensitive material drying apparatus, when performing maintenance on the drying section, it is necessary to remove a plurality of covers and suction cases, so that maintenance cannot be performed easily.

[0005] The present invention is to solve the above problems,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a photosensitive material drying apparatus that can easily perform maintenance of a drying unit.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, a photosensitive material drying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a suction case having a suction chamber, a use position of the suction case close to the blowing means, and a blowing means. And a mounting portion movably attached to a retracted position distant from the suction means. In addition, it is preferable to dispose an exterior plate on the suction case on the side opposite to the side facing the blower. It is preferable to have a latch fixing means for fixing the suction case at the use position and the retracted position. Further, it is preferable that the attachment portion is constituted by a hinge portion provided on an upper portion of the suction case.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a schematic structural view showing an entire photosensitive material drying apparatus. This photosensitive material drying device 10 includes:
The cut sheet type photographic paper 12 processed by the processing device 11 of the printer processor is dried and discharged to a tray 13. The drying device 10 is configured to convey the photographic paper 12 obliquely upward due to a demand for a compact printer processor.

The photosensitive material drying apparatus 10 includes an endless belt 15, a blower case 16, a heater unit 17 and a blower 18 as drying air generating means, a blower duct 19, a suction case 20, and a suction duct 21. It is composed.

The endless belt 15 includes a suction case 20
It is wrapped around belt rollers 22 and 23 arranged near the upper and lower ends of the inside. The upper belt roller 22 has a motor 2
4 are connected. The motor 24 is an endless belt 1
5 is rotated clockwise, and the photographic paper 12 is conveyed from obliquely downward to obliquely upward. The endless belt 15 has a diameter of 1.
The mesh belt is made of 1 mm polyester yarn and has a rectangular opening having an opening area of 4 mm ² formed by the gap between the yarns. Silicon rubber is applied so that no slippage occurs between the printing paper 12 and the printing paper 12, and the friction coefficient is set so as to be 0.5 or more.

The suction case 20 is formed in a thin box shape, and sucks dry air from each ventilation port of the endless belt 15 and both sides of the belt 15. For this reason, the suction case 20
Is connected to a blower 18 via a suction duct 21.

A mounting bracket 25 is fixed to the upper part of the suction case 20, and a hinge portion 26 is provided on the mounting bracket 25. The hinge 26 includes a hook 27 formed on the mounting bracket 25 side and a machine frame 28 of the photosensitive material drying apparatus 10.
The suction case 20 can be easily removed by removing the hook 27 from the mounting shaft 29 (see FIG. 2). In addition, mounting shaft 2
By rotating the suction case 20 around the center 9 as shown in FIG. 2, the use position close to the blow case 16 as shown in FIG. 2 and the blow case 16 retracted from the use position as shown in FIG. It can be freely displaced between a maintenance position where the maintenance opening 30 is opened.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the suction case 2
0 is provided with a locking mechanism 31. Locking mechanism 31
Is a locking lever 3 having two locking claws 32a and 32b.
2 and a first locking shaft 3 on which the locking claws 32a and 32b are locked.
3 and a second locking shaft 34. The locking lever 32
It is rotatably attached to the lower part of the suction case 20 by an attachment shaft 32c, and is urged in a counterclockwise direction by a coil spring (not shown). In the use position, as shown in FIG. 2, the first locking claw 32a of the locking lever 32 is locked to the first locking shaft 33 on the side of the blower case 16, so that the suction case 20 is moved to the use position. Fix it.

Further, as shown in FIG. 3, in the maintenance position, the second locking claw 32b of the locking lever 32 is locked to the second locking shaft 34, thereby fixing the suction case 20 to the maintenance position. . In this maintenance position, the suction case 20 is separated from the blower case 16 and the maintenance opening 30 is formed between them, so that the suction case 20 can be removed without removing the suction case 20 as in the related art.
6 can be easily maintained.

An air blowing case 16 is arranged so as to be close to and confront the conveying surface of the endless belt 15.
As shown in FIG. 4, the blower case 16 includes a thin box-shaped case body 40 and a blower plate 41 that covers an opening of the case body 40. Case body 40 and blower plate 4
1 is a molded article made of a synthetic resin.

The blower plate 41 is formed with five or six slits 42 and 43 arranged in a line in a direction perpendicular to the direction in which the photographic paper 12 is conveyed (the direction of arrow A). These slits 42 and 43 are formed at a predetermined pitch in the transport direction of the printing paper 12. The ends of the slits 42 and 43 are adjacent to each other in the conveying direction of the printing paper 12.
43 are arranged in a staggered manner so that the ends of the 43 do not become the same position. For this reason, one adjacent line has five long slits 42, and the other line has four long slits 42 and two short slits 43 that are about half as long as the long slit 42. . As a result, the drying air from each of the slits 42 and 43 is blown almost uniformly to the emulsion surface of the photographic paper 12, and the occurrence of drying unevenness is suppressed. In the blower plate 41, the photographic paper 12
The arrangement pitch of each slit line is narrower at the entrance side and the exit side part than at the center part, thereby suppressing a decrease in the blowing amount at both ends.

FIG. 5 shows a cross section of the slits 42 and 43 parallel to the photographic paper transporting direction. The edge on the downstream side in the photographic paper transporting direction is cut off at an angle to form the inclined guide surface 4.
4, 45 are formed. Therefore, even when the photographic paper 12 is dried and curled by the drying air during the conveyance, and the corners of the curled photographic paper 12 enter the slits 42 and 43, the corners are guided by the inclined guide surfaces 44 and 45. As a result, the corners of the printing paper 12 are not locked to the slits 42 and 43 because they come out of the slits 42 and 43. For this reason, jamming of the photographic paper 12 due to curling, and breakage of ears at which corners are bent can be suppressed.

As shown in FIG. 6 and FIG.
0, the bottom of the end opposite to the connection port 46 of the air duct 19 is obliquely raised, and the inclined bottom 4
7 Further, a parallel bottom 48 is formed parallel to the blower plate 41 so as to be continuous with the inclined bottom 47. Therefore, dry air is efficiently guided along the parallel bottom 48 and the inclined bottom 47.

Further, the photographic paper 12 is controlled so that the blowing amount of the dry air near the center of the blower plate 41 does not decrease.
In the width direction, two straightening plates 50 and 51 are inserted in parallel with the blower plate 41. These rectifying plates 50 and 51 are provided at both ends 5.
0a and 51a are bent obliquely upward, and guide the dry air from the air blow duct 19 to each part.

The central portions of the bottom portions 47 and 48 are hollowed out.
The molding tonnage can be reduced, and molding distortion or the like due to sink when molding the thin box-shaped case body 40 is prevented. This hollow part 5
2 is attached so as to cover the metal sheet 53.

An upper pressing roller 55 is rotatably mounted on the upper part of the case body 40. The pressing roller 55 is pressed against the upper belt roller 22 of the endless belt 15 as shown in FIG. 7, thereby holding the printing paper 12 with the endless belt 15 as shown in FIG. From the photographic paper 12 to the tray 13
Send out. Upper edge of blower plate 41 and pressing roller 55
A guide plate 56 is attached between the guide paper 56 and the guide plate 56 to guide the photographic paper 12 to a nip portion between the pressing roller 55 and the endless belt 15.

A pressing roller 57 is also disposed on the lower belt roller 23 of the endless belt 15. By the nip between the pressing roller 57 and the endless belt 15, the photographic paper 12 is fed to the drying device 10 from the processing device 11.

As shown in FIG. 4, a duct connection port 46 is formed at the lower right side of the blower case 16, and the blower duct 19 is connected thereto. A heater unit 17 is removably incorporated in the air duct 19. The heater unit 17 is formed by arranging a number of coiled heaters 63 between a pair of holding plates 61 and 62. As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, when air from the blower 18 passes therethrough, It becomes high temperature dry wind.

A suction case 20 (see FIG. 4) is connected to the air suction port side of the blower 18 via a suction duct 21. As shown in FIG. 8, the suction duct 65 has a suction port 65.
Is formed. As a result, the air blown out from the blower case 16 is sucked from the opening and both sides of the endless belt 15 and is taken in and circulated by the blower 18.

Next, the operation of the present embodiment will be described. FIG.
As shown in FIG. 5, the rectangular cut sheet type photographic paper 12 processed by the processing device 11 is
And is transported onto the endless belt 15 by the nip portion between the belt and the endless belt 15. The photographic paper 12 is transported with the emulsion side facing upward.

The air sent from the blower 18 is heated by the heater unit 17 and sent to the blower case 16. Then, as shown in FIG. 7, the drying air is guided by the flow straightening plates 50 and 51 in the blowing case 16, and the drying air is blown out from the slits 42 and 43 of the blowing plate 41 almost uniformly. The printing air 12 on the endless belt 15 is pressed against the endless belt 15 by the drying air.
Therefore, as shown in FIG.
The photographic paper 12 is sent between the blower case 16 and the photographic paper 12 during this time. Moreover, since the photographic paper 12 on the endless belt 15 is sucked by the suction duct 21, the photographic paper 12 is reliably pressed against the endless belt 15, and the photographic paper 12 is transported reliably.

As described above, the blowing from the blowing case 16
Since the photographic printing paper 12 is securely pressed onto the endless belt 15 by the suction from the suction case 20, even if the photographic printing paper 12 is curled by drying, the curl is suppressed. In addition, strong curl occurs for some reason,
This curl causes the corners of the photographic paper 12 to be slits 42, 4
The corners are guided by the inclined guide surfaces 44 and 45 of the slits 42 and 43 so as to go outside. Therefore, the occurrence of clogging of the photographic paper 12 and breakage of the ears are reliably prevented.

Further, as shown in FIG.
The lengths of the slits 42 and 43 are shorter than the width of the printing paper 12 in the width direction.
Since it is 3, the photographic paper 12 is prevented from entering the blower case 16. Moreover, since the ends of the slits 42 and 43 on adjacent lines are shifted so as not to be at the same position, the printing paper 12
The unevenness of the blowing of the drying air to the air is suppressed, and the occurrence of the uneven drying is suppressed.

Since the dried printing paper 12 is guided by the guide plate 56 to the nip portion between the endless belt 15 and the pressing roller 55, the leading end corner of the printing paper 12 is not broken by the pressing roller 55. Ear breaks are suppressed.

The thickness of the yarn of the endless belt 15 is not limited to the numerical value of the above-described embodiment. For example, the diameter of the yarn may be 1.1 to 1.5 mm. It is good to set as large as possible within a range that does not impair. Further, the material of the yarn and the coating agent for increasing the friction coefficient are not limited to those described above. For example, the yarn is PET (polyethylene terephthalate), P
EEK (polyetheretherketone) can be used. Instead of applying silicone rubber or the like to the yarn, the yarn may be impregnated.

Also, instead of using a mesh belt,
An endless belt having suction holes formed of a large number of through holes as described in JP-A-9-43826 may be used. Instead of using a wide endless belt having a ventilation hole, a plurality of narrow endless belts may be provided separately, and the photographic paper 12 may be conveyed. Instead of using a belt, a plurality of feed rollers may be provided and driven in the transport direction.

The slits are formed parallel to the direction perpendicular to the transport direction of the printing paper 12, but may be any as long as they intersect the transport direction.
Without being limited to the degree, it may be appropriately changed.

In the above embodiment, the hinge 26 is provided on the upper part of the suction case 20, but it may be provided on the lower part of the suction case 20. In this case, the locking mechanism 3
1, the suction case 20 is fixed at the use position and the retracted position. The locking mechanism 31 is composed of the locking lever 32 having the locking claws 32a and 32b. Instead, any mechanism that can lock the suction case 20 at the use position and the retracted position may be used. For example, a click locking mechanism may be provided to fix the suction case 20 at the use position and the retracted position.

[0033]

According to the present invention, the suction means comprises a suction case having a suction chamber, and a mounting portion which displaceably attaches the suction case to a use position close to the blower means and a retracted position away from the blower means. With this configuration, the space between the blower and the suction chamber can be widened by setting the evacuation position, and the maintenance opening can be secured. Therefore, maintenance of the blowing means can be easily performed. In addition, it is only necessary to displace the suction case from the use position to the retracted position, and there is no need to remove the exterior plate or the suction case.

Since the exterior plate is arranged on the suction case on the side opposite to the side facing the air blowing means, it is only necessary to move the suction case to the retracted position, and it is not necessary to remove the exterior plate as in the conventional case. In addition, by having the latch fixing means for fixing the suction case to the use position and the retracted position, the suction case can be securely set at each position, and the suction case does not shake during the maintenance work, so that the suction case can be safely moved. Can work. By forming the attachment portion from the hinge portion provided on the upper portion of the suction case, a wide maintenance opening near the lower portion of the drying device can be secured.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the entire photosensitive material drying apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a left side view of the photosensitive material drying apparatus in a state where a suction case is in a use position.

FIG. 3 is a left side view of the photosensitive material drying apparatus in a state where a suction case is at a retracted position.

FIG. 4 is a front view of a photosensitive material drying device.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of FIG.
It is sectional drawing which follows the VV line.

FIG. 6 is a front view showing the case main body with the blower plate removed.

FIG. 7 is a view showing the arrangement of the flow straightening plate in the blower case;
It is sectional drawing which follows the VII line.

FIG. 8 is a right side view of the photosensitive material drying device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 10 photosensitive material drying device 12 printing paper 15 endless belt 16 blower case 17 heater unit 18 blower 19 blower duct 20 suction case 21 suction duct 26 hinge portion 27 hook 30 maintenance opening 31 locking mechanism 32 locking lever 33, 34 locking shaft 41 Blow plate 42, 43 Slit

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A conveying means for conveying a photosensitive material obliquely upward, and a drying air is blown out from an outlet toward an emulsion surface of the photosensitive material conveyed by the conveying means to convey the base material side of the photosensitive material. A photosensitive material drying apparatus, comprising: a blowing means for pressing the suction means, and a suction means for holding the transport means and circulating the drying air from the blowing means, wherein the suction means comprises a suction case having a suction chamber; and the suction case. A photosensitive material drying device, comprising: a mounting portion which is displaceably attached to a use position close to the blowing means and a retracted position remote from the blowing means. 2. An exterior plate is arranged on a suction case on a side opposite to a side facing said air blowing means.
A photosensitive material drying apparatus as described in the above. 3. The photosensitive material drying apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising latch fixing means for fixing the suction case at a use position and a retracted position. 4. A photosensitive material drying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said attachment portion is constituted by a hinge portion provided on an upper portion of a suction case.