Patent GB-561241-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to apparatus for conveying strip material particularly motion picture film
IPC: G03C7/22
Filed: 1942-11-05
Abstract: 561,241. Conveyers; photographic printing and processing. KODAK, Ltd. (Eastman Kodak Co.). Nov. 5, 1942, No. 15626. A Specification was laid open to inspection under Sect. 91 on May 7, 1943. [Class 98 (ii)] [Also in Group XXX] In apparatus for conveying strip material e.g. -machines for continuously processing photographic films, or for printing films by imbibition, comprising a cylinder round which the film or films pass in a helical path for treatment, 'the cylinder is provided with a series of annular grooves into which may be inserted edge guide members for the films, or for a belt on which the films are conveyed, said ' members being adjustable into different grooves so that the length of the helical winding between predetermined positions on the cylinder may be varied. Where an endless belt is used as the conveyer, it may pass in a helical path round two such cylinders 'in turn, each provided with annular grooves and edge guide members. In the machine shown, intended for imbibition printing, spaced cylinders 1, 2 rotatably mounted on a frame to support an endless, toothed, film-conveying belt 15 which may be formed of or plated with metal inert to the processing liquids, or of cellulosic material, or of rubber reinforced by metal wires: The upper run of the belt may be supported by tiltable rollers 56. The cylinders are driven from a motor 12 through pinion and worm gearing operating through an adjustable drive which may be of the kind consisting of a pair of discs enclosed in a casing 13 and having complementary surfaces between which there is an oil layer of adjustable thickness. The drive on the cylinders, which is almost sufficient to overcome frictional resistance to their movement, is supplemented by a positive drive on the belt 15, consisting of a pair of rubbercovered rollers 60, one of which is chain-driven from a motor 61 through a reducing gear 62. 'Each cylinder has a series of peripheral annular grooves 40 spaced apart by a distance less than the width of the belt. Spaced around each cylinder are arms 44, preferably four in number, extending parallel to the axis. of the cylinder, and each provided with a. series of slote 43 registering with 'the grooves in the cylinder. Into these slots may be inserted studs 42, which are of roller form, having flattened pins 41 which extend into the grooves without touching the walls thereof, and serve as edgeguides for the belt 15. By selection of the slots 43 into which the studs 42 are inserted, the pins 41 may be arranged to define on the cylinder a helical path, which may be varied in length by appropriately shifting the studs from one set of grooves to another. Any excess of length of belt due to shortening of the helical path on the cylinder is taken up by passing the belt rim between the cylinders in an idle path over rollers (not shown). One of the films F<1> is'drawn from a roll by a chain driven sprocket 18, passed around a weighted roller in a treatment tank 26, and then on to the belt 15 by way of a socket wheel 21 where its feed perforations are pressed on to the teeth of the belt by a rubber counter-roller 27. The second film F<2> is similarly fed from a roll into a treatment tank 30 where it passes several times round upper and lower rollers, and is then delivered on to the belt between a socket wheel 35 and counter-roller 36 whereby it is pressed into contact with film F<1>. The two films are carried by the belt round the predetermined helical path on cylinder 2, and may be drawn off from the belt at roller 50 and separated at rollers 51, 52 for passage to drying or other treatment apparatus ; or if a longer period of contact of the films is desired, they may be carried by the belt also round the predetermined path on cylinder 1, and thereafter be stripped and separated by rollers 53, 54, 55.