Conveying apparatus for photographic light-sensitive materials

Abstract: A photographic light-sensitive material conveying apparatus (3) for conveying a photographic light-sensitive material (B) in a dryer chamber (20) comprises a hollow guide member (6) fixedly mounted in the dryer chamber for shifting the conveying direction of the photographic light-sensitive material, an air suction duct (7) connected to the inner space of the guide member, a plurality of perforations (64) formed in the guide member for communication between the inner space (63) of the guide member and the interior of the dryer chamber, and a conveyor belt (5) having an air permeability and provided over the guide member for conveying the photographic light-sensitive material, wherein the conveyor belt can slidingly run on and along the outer side of the guide member.

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a conveying apparatus for conveying a photographic light-sensitive material in a dryer chamber of an automatic photographic developer machine. In a common automatic developer machine, a tape of photographic light-sensitive material is subjected to a series of developing, fixing, and rinsing processes, where it is immersed in different processing fluids including a developer, a fixer, and other solutions which are contained in their respective tanks, before transferred into a dryer chamber. The photographic light-sensitive material is then dried out as conveyed throughout the drier chamber. For increasing the efficiency of drying the photographic light-sensitive material in a limited path in the dryer chamber, it is desired to turn back the photographic light-sensitive material at the other end of the path in the dryer chamber so that it can run forward and backward in the dryer chamber. As disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 6-54379, a conveying apparatus which comprises guide rollers of a cylindrical shape having a plurality of suction holes and arranged movable, a net-like conveyor belt mounted for running on the guide rollers to convey the photographic light-sensitive material, and a duct communicated between the inner space of the guide rollers and the suction inlet of an air blower is provided in the dryer chamber wherein the air blower when driven draws air via the duct from the inner space of the guide rollers and its suctioning action causes the photographic light-sensitive material to be attached to the outer side of the guide rollers as being conveyed on the conveyor belt. Hence, the movement of the photographic light-sensitive material along the outer side of the guide rollers can smoothly be shifted to another direction. GB-1211916 A discloses a conveying apparatus comprising both guide rollers and a curved, perforated guide member on which a conveying belt having air permeability is arranged to run, which apparatus is mounted in a dryer chamber for photographic light-sensitive material. However, the construction of the conventional apparatus is featured in that the guide rollers have to be rotated in relation to the duct and the sealing at the joint between the duct and guide rollers will be made difficult. If the sealing between the duct and the guide rollers is inadequate, the suctioning capability is declined and may prevent the photographic light-sensitive material from shifting its moving direction smoothly along the guide rollers. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been developed in view of the above aspect and its object is to provide a photographic light-sensitive material conveying apparatus which facilitates the sealing at the joint between a member of turning the photographic light-sensitive material and a duct while smoothly shifting the moving direction of the photographic light-sensitive material. For achievement of the object of the present invention, a photographic light-sensitive material conveying apparatus for conveying a photographic light-sensitive material B in a dryer chamber 20 including a tubular guide member 6 enclosing an inner space and fixedly mounted in the dryer chamber 20 for shifting the conveying direction of the photographic light-sensitive material B, an air suction duct 7 connected to the inner space 63 of the guide member 6, the guide member 6 having a plurality of perforations 64 for communication between the inner space 63 of the guide member 6 and the interior of the dryer chamber 20, and a conveyor belt 5 having air permeability and provided over the guide member 6 for conveying the photographic light-sensitive material B, wherein the conveyor belt B is arranged to slidingly run on and along the outer side of the guide member 6. In addition, the guide member 6 is finished with a surface coating for increasing the slidability of the conveyor belt 5, whereby the conveyor belt 5 can slidingly move on the guide member 6. Moreover, an air blowing means 9 is provided outside the guide member 6 for directing a blow of air to the guide member 6, whereby the photographic light-sensitive material B can closely be attached to the outer side of the guide member 6 as being conveyed along the guide member 6. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 is a schematic front view showing a partially cutoff primary section of a conveying apparatus according to the present invention; Fig. 2 is a schematic side view of the partially cutoff primary section of the conveying apparatus installed in a dryer chamber; Fig. 3 is a schematic perspective view of a guide body; Fig. 4 is a schematic perspective view of a blowout duct mounted to a blower; and Fig. 5 is a schematic explanatory view of an automatic developer machine to which the present invention is applied. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PROFFERED EMBODIMENT The present invention will be described referring to the accompanying drawings. Fig. 5 schematically illustrates an automatic developer machine to which the present invention is applied. A case A of the developer machine contains a plurality of processing tanks 1 and a dryer housing 2 arranged in a row. The processing tanks 1 are filled with a fixer, a stabilizer, and other processing solutions respectively. While a series of conveying apparatuses 11 are provided in the processing tanks 1 for conveying a photographic light-sensitive material B through the processing solutions as immersed in the solutions, a conveying apparatus 3 for conveying the photographic light-sensitive material B throughout a dryer chamber 20 of the'dryer housing 2 is provided in the dryer chamber 20. In the automatic developer machine, the photographic light-sensitive material B such as a photographic paper is immersed in the processing solutions, including the developer and the fixer, in the processing tanks 1 for a sequence of development, fixing, and rinsing processes and then, transferred into the dryer chamber 20 of the dryer housing 2 where it is first conveyed towards the bottom of the dryer chamber 20 by the conveying apparatus 3 and shifted its moving direction or U-turned at the bottom of the dryer chamber 20 before returned back towards the upper of the dryer chamber 20 so that the sensitive material B can be dried out by dried air blown into the dryer chamber 20. The present invention resides in the conveying apparatus 3 provided in the dryer chamber 20 of the automatic developer machine. The conveying apparatus 3 is now described in more detail referring to the illustrated preferred embodiment. The conveying apparatus 3 substantially comprises an elongated rack 4 mounted in the dryer chamber 20 of the dryer housing 2, and an endless conveyor belt 5 having air permeability, located between two, left and right, side plates 41 and 42 of the rack 4, and driven by a plurality of drive pulleys 50 rotated by a drive mechanism (not shown) for upward and downward circular movement along a guide member 6, described later. Also, a plurality of guide rollers 43 which directly touch the conveyor belt 5 are rotatably mounted between the two side plates 41 and 42 so that the photographic light-sensitive material B conveyed on the conveyor belt 5 are guided by the guide rollers 43. The conveyor belt 5 shown is made of a net form where the welf is 0.2 mm in thickness and the warp is 0.8 mm in thickness, having an aperture rate of about 40 percent. The welf and warp threads of the conveyor belt 5 may preferably be polyester resin which has a higher thermal resistance. The guide member 6 is made of a metal sheet, as shown in Fig. 3, which has a tubular shape consisting of an upper wall 61 and a substantially U-shaped arcuate wall 62 extending downwardly from both ends of the upper wall 61. The arcuate wall 62 has a multiplicity of circular perforations 64 provided therein for fluidly communication between the inner space 63 of the guide member 6 and the outside of the arcuate wall 62. The guide member 6 sandwiched between the left and right side plates 41 and 42 of the rack 4 is fixedly joined with its left and right open ends to the two side plates 41 and 42 respectively and allows the conveyor belt 5 to run on and along the outer side of the arcuate wall 62 so that the moving direction of the conveyor belt 5 or the photographic light-sensitive material B conveyed on the conveyor belt 5 can be shifted from downward to upward. In the illustrated embodiment, the outer side of the arcuate wall 62 is covered with a coating of fluoroplastic resin or the like for promoting the sliding movement of the conveyor belt 5 on the arcuate wall 62. For promoting the sliding movement of the conveyor belt 5 on the arcuate wall 62, it is also possible to has the arcuate wall 62 made of a highly slidable material or polished at its outer side to a mirror surface. The conveyor belt 5 may also be made of a highly slidable material or covered with a coating of fluoroplastic resin or the like to increase its slidability over the arcuate wall 62. One of the left and right side plates 41 and 42, the left side plate 41 in this embodiment as shown in Fig. 1, has a through hole 44 provided therein for communicating the inner space 63 of the guide member 6 and a joint bracket 45 mounted to the outer side thereof to cover a rim of the through hole 44. A suction duct 7 which has separately been formed is joined at one lengthwise end to the joint bracket 45. An air blower 8 is mounted beneath the rack 4 in the dryer chamber 20 and joined at its suction opening side to the other end of the suction duct 7 so that when the air blower 8 is driven, it draws air via the suction duct 7 from the inner space 63 of the guide member 6 and the outside of the arcuate wall 62. In this embodiment, an air blowing duct 9 which is formed of substantially a horse-shoe shape having an arcuate slotted wall 91 thereof spaced by a predetermined distance from the outer side of the arcuate wall 62 of the guide member 6 is mounted on the air blowing side of the air blower 8 as shown in Fig. 4. A blow of air from the air blower 8 can thus be directed to the outer side of the arcuate wall 62 through a number of slits 92 provided in the slotted wall 91. As shown, denoted by 81 is a heater mounted to the suction opening side of the air blower 8. The operation of the conveying apparatus having the above arrangement is now explained. The photographic light-sensitive material B which has been developed in the processing tank 1 of the automatic developer machine and transferred into the dryer chamber 20 is conveyed on the conveyor belt 5 to the downward end of the dryer chamber 20, turned along the arcuate wall 62 of the guide member 6, and moved back upwardly as is being dried in the dryer chamber 20. The driving of the air blower 8 draws the air from the inner space 63 of the guide member 6 via the suction duct 7 and from the outside of the arcuate wall 62 via the perforations 62. Simultaneously, a blow of air from the air blower 8 is delivered via the slits 92 provided in the slotted wall 91 of the air blowing duct 9 to the conveyor belt 5 which is directly running on the outer side of the arcuate wall 62. Accordingly, the photographic light-sensitive material B conveyed on the conveyor belt 5 can smoothly be turned to the opposite direction as moved closely along the outer side of the arcuate wall 62 separated by the conveyor belt 5. As set forth above, the guide member 6 and the suction duct 7 communicated with the inner space 63 of the guide member 6 in the embodiment are mounted stationary and a sealing arrangement between the guide member 6 and the suction duct 7 will be simple in the structure thus reducing the production cost and facilitating the assembly work. In the embodiment, although the blow of air from the air blower 8 is directed via the blowing duct 9 to the outer side of the arcuate wall 62, it is not of limitation. Also, the shape of the perforations 64 is not limited to a circular shape and a square or a slit-like shape may be used. The guide member 6 may be of a molded resin form. Advantage of the Invention According to the present invention, the hollow guide member 6 is fixedly mounted in the dryer chamber 20 for shifting the conveying direction of the photographic light-sensitive material B and the air suction duct 7 is connected to the inner space 63 of the guide member 6. Provided over the guide member 6 with the perforations 64 for communication between the inner space 63 of the guide member 6 and the interior of the dryer chamber 20 is the air permeable conveyor belt 5 for conveying the photographic light-sensitive material B. Since the conveyor belt 5 can slidingly be moved on and along the outer side of the guide member 6, the sealing arrangement between the guide member 6 and the suction duct 7 which both are located stationary is made simple in the structure hence reducing the production cost and facilitating the assembly work. Moreover, as the conveying apparatus is being driven, the air is drawn out via the suction duct 7 from the inner space 63 of the guide member 6 and via the perforations 64 from the outside of the guide member 6. Accordingly, the photographic light-sensitive material B conveyed on the conveyor belt 5 is closely attached to the outer side of the guide member 6 and can smoothly be turned its moving direction along the outer side of the guide member 6. The guide member 6 is provided with a surface coating for increasing the slidability of the conveyor belt 5, whereby the sliding movement of the conveyor belt 5 along the guide member 6 can be performed more smoothly. The air blowing means 9 is provided outside the guide member 6 for directing a blow of air to the guide member 6, whereby the photographic light-sensitive material B conveyed along the guide member 6 can be shifted its moving direction smoothly while being closely attached to the outer side of the guide member 6.

Claims: A photographic light-sensitive material conveying apparatus (3) for conveying a photographic light-sensitive material (B) in a dryer chamber (20) including a tubular guide member (6) enclosing an inner space (63) and fixedly mounted in the dryer chamber for shifting the conveying direction of the photographic light-sensitive material, an air suction duct connected to the inner space of the guide member, a plurality of perforations (64) formed in the guide member for communication between the inner space of the guide member and the interior of the dryer chamber, and a conveyor belt (5) having air permeability and provided over the guide member for conveying the photographic light-sensitive material, the conveyor belt being is arranged to slidingly run on and along the outer side of the guide member. A photographic light-sensitive material conveying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the outer side of the guide member is finished with a surface coating for increasing the slidability of the conveyor belt. A photographic light-sensitive material conveying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an air blowing means (8) is provided outside the guide member for directing a blow of air to the guide member. A photographic light-sensitive material conveying apparatus according to claim 2, wherein an air blowing means (8) is provided outside the guide member for directing a blow of air to the guide member.

Inventors: SUGATA YOSHIHISA, TODOKI KENJI, SUGATA, YOSHIHISA, TODOKI, KENJI
Applicants: NORITSU KOKI CO LTD, NORITSU KOKI CO., LTD.
Application year: 1998
Main classification: G03D15
IPC codes: G03D15