Automatic film processor

Abstract: An automatic film processor for passing an exposed film successively through a series of treating liquid vessels respectively containing developing liquid, fixing liquid and rinsing water. The film processor comprises pump means for forming a constant regular flow to rise a portion of the liquid surface of at least one treating liquid vessel, and flow guide means for guiding the constant regular flow onto the liquid surface, whereby the underside of the exposed film is allowed to contact with the surface of the rised portion of the liquid. In a modified embodiment, a vibrator for generating ultrasonic wave is associated with at least one treating liquid vessel for applying ultrasonic vibration to the film so as to accelerate the treating speed.

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION: Field of the Invention ; The present invention relates to an automatic film processor for passing an exposed film successively through developing, fixing, rinsing and drying stations to effect automatic development of the film. Prior Art Statement ; The known automatic film processors for the automatic development of an exposed film include the roller conveyer type, loop type and horizontal conveying type. In the roller conveyor type processor, the film is passed through the treating liquids, such as developing liquid, fixing liquid and rinsing water, by a number of rollers. This type of processor has disadvantages in that its construction is complicated and troublesome maintenance is required. An example of such a roller conveyor type processor is disclosed in US-A-2 945 760. In the loop type processor, the film is conveyed by rollers disposed above and below each of the treating liquid vessels. The disadvantages of this type of processor are similar to those of the roller conveyor type processor in that the construction thereof is complicated and that troublesome labours are required in maintenance thereof. In the horizontal conveying type processor, the film is conveyed linearly in the horizontal direction and treating liquids are vigorously sprayed onto the conveyed film. However, the treating liquids, particularly the developer liquid, are deteriorated due to oxidation. The known automatic developers have further disadvantages in that they are increased in size for the following reasons. In the roller conveyor type processor, the film is conveyed through each of the treating liquid vessels by a number of rollers disposed deep in the vessel which extends vertically for a long distance. In the loop conveying processor, the film is suspended between the rollers disposed at the upper and lower portions in the treating liquid vessels which are large in size. In the horizontal conveying type processor, the film is conveyed horizontally and each treating liquid is vigorously sprayed onto the film. However, in order to complete the treatment at a high speed, the film must contact with each treating liquid by a long pass in the horizontal direction, which results in increase of the size of the device. This virtually limits the treating speed of the device. The horizontal conveying type processor has another disadvantage in that it requires a pump for ejecting the treating liquid to complicate the structure of the film processor. On the other hand, the prior art film processor of US-A-2 945 760, discussed above, also includes a device in one or more of the stations, for generating ultrasonic waves which helps agitate the solution and thus improve the treating speed of the device. Prior art GB-A-2 075 372 discloses a developing station for automatic film processors which also includes a device for producing ultrasonic waves. The device being positioned inside the developing station in order again to improve the treating speed. Thus, it is known in the art to employ an ultrasonic wave generator to help with agitation of the solution and hence improve the treating speed of the device. In the automatic film processor in which an exposed film is processed continuously, successive processing operations including development, fixing and rinsing must be conducted in order and then the film should be dried sufficiently. In the drying step, water must be removed thoroughly, for example, by the use of a sponge. If water drops are left on the film, blurs are formed on the surface of the dried film. Drying at an excessively high temperature results in deterioration in granularity due to softening of the gelatine membrane, which might cause intense curling. On the contrary, the treating speed of the entire system is decreased if the drying speed is lowered. OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION : Accordingly, an object of this invention is to provide an automatic film processor which is simple in construction without requiring a pump and which is small in size and adapted for high speed processing. An additional object of this invention is to provide an automatic film processor which is free from the appearance of blurs due to uneven drying, deterioration in granurality or occurrence of curling, and which is adapted for high speed drying to realize high speed processing. The object of this invention is achieved by the provision of an automatic film processor for passing an exposed film successively through a series of treating liquid vessels containing respectively developing liquid, fixing liquid and rinsing water, which comprises the features set out in claim 1. In accordance with the present invention an ultrasonic wave generating means is associated with at least one of said treating liquid vessels for applying ultrasonic vibration to said treating liquid at the neighbourhood of the liquid surface of said treating liquid so as to form a rised portion on said liquid surface and for applying ultrasonic vibration to the downside of said exposed film to accelerate the treating speed. Ejecting flow is formed on the surface of the treating liquid by the utilization of the ultrasonic wave. At the same time, vibration by the ultrasonic wave is applied to the film in contact with the ejecting flow, whereby the treating speed is accelerated. An ultrasonic wave generating means may be associated with the drying station for applying an ultrasonic vibration to the film so as to accelerate drying of the film. By applying ultrasonic wave to the film, water adhering to the surface of the film is evenly dispersed to wet the surface uniformly so as to prevent the formation of blurs upon drying and to promote vaporization of water in order to decrease the time required for drying. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS : Fig. 1 is a schematic illustration showing an embodiment according to the invention. DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS : The present invention will now be described with reference to presently preferred embodiments of this invention. Initially an embodiment according to the first aspect of this invention will be described by referring to Fig. 1. An exposed film 10 is supplied from a supply reel 12, passed through a developing station 716, a fixing station 718, a first rinsing station 720, a second rinsing station 722 and a drying station 724, and taken up by a take-up reel 26. A developer liquid is contained in a developer liquid vessel 716a of the developing station 716, and a fixing liquid is contained in a fixing liquid vessel 718a of the fixing station 718. Rinsing water vessels 720a and 722a of the rinsing stations 720 and 722 contain rinsing water. A guide member 32 for guiding the film 10 close to the surface of each treating liquid contained in the treating liquid vessels 716 a to 722a is disposed between adjacent guide roller pairs 30. The film 10 travels above the opening of each of the treating liquid vessels 716a to 722a while being guided by each guide member 32 along an arcuated path coming close to the liquid surface. Ultrasonic vibrators 716g to 722g are mounted on the bottoms of respective treating liquid vessels 716a to 722a to serve as ultrasonic wave generating means. Each of the ultrasonic vibrators 716g to 722g are actuated by an actuating circuit (not shown) and focused at the vicinity of the center of the liquid surface. As a result, the treating liquid contained in each of the treating liquid vessels 716a to 722a forms a spout on the liquid surface near the focal point of the ultrasonic wave. The treating liquid contained in each of the treating liquid vessels 716a to 722a spouts upwardly from the liquid surface and scatters vigorously from the spouting liquid to form mists. As the film 10 travels at the vicinity of spouting liquid, the spouting mists contact with the downside of the film 10 so that development, fixing and rinsing are effected over the vessels 716a to 722a. The ultrasonic vibrations are transmitted to the film 10 per se so that treatments by respective stations are promoted to accelerate the treating speeds. In the developing station 716, penetration of the developer liquid into the photosensitive emulsion layer of the film 10 is promoted by the action of the ultrasonic wave so as to accelerate the reaction between the latent image in the silver halide crystallites and the developing agent to promote reduction of silver ions (blackening) in the silver halide crystallites. In the fixing station 718, the speed of dissolving silver halide is accelerated by the application of ultrasonic wave to promote the removal rate in the fixing step. In the rinsing stations 720, 722, removal of the fixing liquid or silver thiosulfate is accelerated to increase the rinsing rate. Each of the ultrasonic vibrators 716g to 24g may be made of a quartz vibrator, or a vibrator utilizing piezoelectric phenomenon of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) which is one of ceramics, polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) which is one of plastics or a composite material of ceramics (PECM). However, it is to be noted here that means for generating ultrasonic wave is not limited only to the vibrators described above for example only. The flow rate of the spouting flow rising from the liquid surface or the quantity of mists emitted therefrom may be controlled by changing the electric voltage for actuating each of the ultrasonic vibrators 716g to 722g. In this manner the treating speed at each treating station 716 to 722 may be controlled . The drying station 24 comprises an electric heater 24a serving as heating means, a fan 24b serving as air blower means, and an ultrasonic vibrator 24g serving as ultrasonic wave generating means. The ultrasonic vibrator 24g opposes to the underside, i.e. the side to be subjected to development, of the film 10, and the ultrasonic wave is applied to the underside of the film 10. Air blown from the fan 24b is heated by the heater 24a to form hot stream which impinges the film 10. Rinsing water adhering on the film 10 is dispersed rapidly under the action of the ultrasonic wave generated from the ultrasonic vibrator 24g and applied to the film 10, to form a thin membrane. The ultrasonic wave also acts to scatter water mists from the film. The drying speed is considerably increased by the combined action of ultrasonic wave and hot air stream heated by the heater 24b. The film 10 passing out of the drying station 24 is taken up by a take-up reel 26. Reference numeral 28 designates an optical sensor for detecting the fore end of the film 10, and ultrasonic vibrators 716g to 722g and 24g are actuated as the fore end of the film 10 is sensed by the sensor 28. In the illustrated embodiment, all of the developing, fixing and rinsing stations 716 to 722 are provided with ultrasonic vibrators, so that treatments at every step are promoted to decrease the passes in respective treating stations. Considerable simplification, compactmization and high speed operation of the entire system may be realized at the same time. However, the present invention includes a system in which ultrasonic vibrator is provided in any one or more of the treating stations. Although a single ultrasonic vibrator 716g to 722g is used in each of the treating stations 716 to 722 in the illustrated embodiment, plural ultrasonic vibrators may be used in each treating station. When plural untrasonic vibrators are used to share the effects so that one of them is used to generate an ultrasonic vibration suited for spouting the liquid over the surface of the treating liquid and the other is used to generate an ultrasonic vibration optimal for promoting processing of the film. Although it is preferred to transmit the ultrasonic vibration through the treating liquid to increase the efficiency of the action of the vibrator, the present invention includes those wherein ultrasonic vibration is applied through air above the treating liquid. As has been described hereinabove, since a spouting flow is formed on the liquid surface by the application of the ultrasonic wave and the film is moved so that the downside of the film contacts with the spouting flow according to this invention, the number of required conveyor rollers can be decreased and the pump means can be eliminated to simplify the construction of the system. The depth of each treating liquid vessel can be decreased and each treatment can be promoted by the utilization of the ultrasonic vibration to shorten the path of each treatment. Compactmization and high speed operation of the system can be realized, accordingly. When the rinsed film is dried during the application of the ultrasonic wave, waterdrops adhering on the film are dispersed by the action of ultrasonic vibration to form a thin membrane and are concurrently scattered to the atmosphere. Formation of blurs due to uneven drying is prevented and the film may be dried rapidly at a relatively low temperature. Deterioration in granularity and occurrence of curling are also prevented, accordingly. Rapid drying enables high speed operation of the system and the realization of a compact system.

Claims: An automatic film processor for treating an exposed film (10), comprising a series of treating liquid vessels (716-722) respectively containing developing liquid, fixing liquid and rinsing water, through which vessels the film is successively passed, which comprises: ultrasonic wave generating means (716g-722g) associated with at least one of said treating liquid vessels for applying ultrasonic vibration to said exposed film so as to accelerate the treating speed; characterised in that means are provided so that said film (10) is not immersed in the treating liquid but it is passed near from and over the horizontal surface of the treating liquid contained in the vessel, said ultrasonic wave generating means (716g-722g) applies ultrasonic vibration to said treating liquid near the liquid surface of the treating liquid, whereby said liquid surface is locally raised so as to contact the film. The automatic film processor according to claim 1, further comprising: a drying station (24) for drying the film passed through said series of treating liquid vessels; and ultrasonic wave generating means (24g) associated with said drying station for applying ultrasonic vibration to the film so as to accelerate drying of the film. The automatic film processor according to claim 2, wherein said drying station further comprises heating means (24a) for heating said film. The automatic film processor according to claim 2, wherein said drying station further comprises heating means (24a) for heating said film and air blower means (24b) for blowing air onto said film.

Inventors: SHIDARA SHINICHI C O FUJI PHOT, SHIDARA, SHINICHI C/O FUJI PHOTO FILM CO., LTD.
Applicants: FUJI PHOTO FILM CO LTD, FUJI PHOTO FILM CO., LTD.
Application year: 1988
Main classification: G03D3
IPC codes: G03D5, G03D3