Locking arrangement for guides in photographic material developer apparatus

A conveying arrangement in a developing apparatus for photographic material has pairs of conveying rollers as well as guiding and/or deflecting sheets which extend between two opposite sidewalls. Fastening elements are provided on both sidewalls and are adapted to hold the ends of a guiding and/or deflecting sheet against movement in all directions except for an unlocking direction. A removable, deformable locking element is further provided and is adapted to prevent movement of the sheets in the unlocking direction. The fastening element for a guiding and/or deflecting sheet includes a cutout in each of the sidewalls and a positioning pin in at least one of the cutouts. The positioning pin cooperates with an opening in the corresponding guiding and/or deflecting sheet.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention relates generally to a conveying arrangement in 
photographic material developer apparatus and, more particularly, to such 
a conveying arrangement in developer apparatus of the type having a pair 
of conveying rollers and a corresponding pair of guiding and/or deflecting 
sheets which extend between the sidewalls of the apparatus for guiding the 
photographic material within the apparatus for processing therein. 
In such conveying arrangements, it is well known to provide means for 
guiding or deflecting the photographic material between the pair of 
rollers in order to properly position the material during conveyance 
thereof. The roller pairs in such prior art arrangements are typically 
supported by the two sidewalls of the apparatus while the guiding or 
deflecting means are normally secured to the sidewalls by the use of screw 
connections. It will of course be appreciated that by so mounting the 
guiding and deflecting means, it requires a relatively long period of time 
to effect mounting as well as to remove or otherwise exchange the guiding 
or deflecting means for repair or for cleaning. In both circumstances, 
much time is lost. 
OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
It is an object of the present invention to provide a conveying arrangement 
in a photographic material developer apparatus in which the guiding and 
deflecting means may be readily installed and removed. 
It is another object of the present invention to provide such an 
arrangement wherein the guiding and deflecting sheets are fixedly 
maintained in position during use by removable locking elements. 
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide such an 
arrangement wherein the locking elements are deformable. 
Against the foregoing background and objects, the present invention, in 
brief summary, comprises a conveying arrangement in photographic material 
developer apparatus wherein the conveying arrangement includes a pair of 
conveying rollers and a pair of guiding and/or deflecting sheets which 
extend between the sidewalls of said apparatus. The conveying arrangement 
includes fastening elements at both sidewalls which prevent movement of 
the ends of a guiding and/or deflecting sheet in all directions other than 
the locking direction. The conveying arrangement further includes a 
removable, deformable locking element which prevents movements of the ends 
of the guiding and/or deflecting sheet in an unlocking direction. 
It will of course be appreciated that the aforementioned conveying 
arrangement achieves substantial savings in time and labor during 
installation and removal of the guiding or deflecting means. Moreover, 
such an arrangement eliminates the necessity for the use of tools in 
effecting installation and/or removal. Further, manufacture of the guiding 
and/or deflecting sheets and of the sidewalls is simplified in that it no 
longer becomes necessary to provide exact and/or precision dimensions. 
Still further, expensive, acid resisting fastening elements may be 
replaced by a simple locking element of conventional deformable material, 
such as, for example, rubber or synthetic resins. 
The novel features which are considered as characteristic of the invention 
are set forth in particular in the appended claims. The conveying 
arrangement of the subject application together with additional features 
and advantages thereof will, however, be best understood upon perusal of 
the following detailed description of certain specific embodiments of the 
novel arrangement of the subject application.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
Referring first to FIG. 1, a photographic developer apparatus having a 
vessel identified by reference numeral 1 is illustrated in cross section. 
The vessel 1 includes a processing bath 2 of suitable developer chemicals; 
a pair of entry rollers 3, 3a to permit introduction of photographic 
material into the vessel and a plurality of conveying rollers 4, 5 
arranged in said apparatus to convey or otherwise advance said 
photographic material through the processing bath 2. At least one pair of 
a deflecting sheet 6 and a guiding sheet 7 are provided between each pair 
of conveying rollers 4, 5 to assist in conveyance of the photographic 
material. The pairs of conveying rollers 4, 5 as well as deflecting sheets 
6 and guiding sheets 7 are supported by the opposite sidewalls 8 of vessel 
1, one of said sidewalls being illustrated in FIG. 1. The mounting of 
deflecting sheets 6 and guiding sheets 7 to the sidewalls 8 is illustrated 
in greater detail in FIGS. 2 and 3. 
FIG. 2 illustrates in a perspective view a portion of a sidewall 8 which 
includes a plurality of rectangular cutouts 9 through which the sheets 6,7 
are affixed to the sidewall 8. Guiding sheets 7 (as well as deflecting 
sheets 6, not illustrated) includes at both ends thereof a locking tongue 
7a which is adapted to be inserted into cutout 9 on sidewall 8 to effect 
locking of the sheet to the sidewall. A positioning pin 10 is provided on 
one of the longer dimensioned sides of cutout 9 and is complementary to 
and is adapted to cooperate with opening 11 on locking tongue 7a of 
guiding sheet 7. 
A locking element 12 formed from a deformable material such as, for 
example, rubber, is further provided. Locking element 12 includes a 
parallelepipedal portion 13 and a projecting abutment portion 14. 
Parallelepipedal portion 13 has approximately the same shape and 
configuration as cutout 9 in sidewall 8 but the width of parallelepipedal 
portion 13 is less than that of cutout 9 by an amount approximately equal 
to the thickness of locking tongue 7a of guiding sheet 7. Parallelepipedal 
portion 13 is further provided with a groove 15 the depth of which is 
approximately equal to the length of positioning pin 10 less than the 
thickness of locking tongue 7a. 
In order to install guiding sheet 7 on sidewall 8, one of the locking 
tongues 7a is first inserted into one of the cutouts 9 of sidewall 8 with 
the guiding sheet 7 pushed in the direction of the sidewall 8 until the 
body portion of guiding sheet 7 abuts sidewall 8. Thereupon, locking 
tongue 7a at the opposite end of guiding sheet 7 is inserted in the 
corresponding cutout 9 on the opposite sidewall 8 of the photographic 
developing apparatus. The lengths of the respective locking tongues 7a are 
such that a portion of a locking tongue 7a which projects beyond the 
associated sidewall 8 when the body portion of the guiding sheet 7 abuts 
the sidewall 8 is shorter than the distance between the guiding sheet 7 
and the opposite sidewall 8. Upon insertion of the two locking tongues 7a 
of guiding sheet 7 into their respective cutouts, the openings 11 in both 
locking tongues are drawn over the positioning pins 10 in each cutout thus 
securing the guiding sheet against movement in all directions except an 
unlocking direction, i.e., a direction away from the positioning pins 10 
or, in other words, the direction in which the guiding sheet 7 must be 
moved in order to remove same from the positioning pin 10. 
Upon securing openings 11 to positioning pins 10, the locking element 12 is 
then installed as illustrated in FIG. 3. Due to the elasticity and 
deformability of locking element 12, the element presses the locking 
tongue 7a against the edge of cutout 9 which is provided with positioning 
pin 10. The elasticity or deformability of element 12 causes compression 
of the element in the cutout 9 so that locking tongue 7a is securely held 
therein. Accordingly, the guiding sheet 7 is prevented from moving in the 
unlocking direction. 
It will of course be appreciated that deflecting sheets 6 may be configured 
similarly to guiding sheets 7 and may be similarly secured between the two 
sidewalls 8 in a conveying arrangement in accordance with the subject 
invention. 
It will be further appreciated that manufacturing tolerances for the 
guiding sheets and sidewalls may be compensated for as a result of the 
ability of the locking element 12 to deform and fit within cutouts of 
slightly different sizes. The guiding sheets 7 or deflecting sheets 6 are 
thus capable of being positioned relatively precisely and installation and 
removal thereof may be performed easily and very rapidly. In order to 
remove a guiding sheet 7 or a deflecting sheet 6, it is merely necessary 
to pull out the locking element 12 at either end of a sheet 6, 7 and to 
reverse the procedure outlined previously for inserting the sheet 6, 7 in 
the sidewalls 8. 
Without further analysis, the foregoing will so fully reveal the gist of 
the present invention that others can, by applying current knowledge, 
readily adapt it for various applications without omitting features which, 
from the standpoint of prior art, fairly constitute essential 
characteristics of the generic and specific aspects of our contribution to 
the art and, therefore, such adaptations should and are intended to be 
comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalence of the claims.