Patent GB-892003-A (GB)
Title: A photographic film treating apparatus
Inventor: SARDESON ROBERT
IPC: G03D3/10
Filed: 1960-03-16
Abstract: 892,003. Film processing apparatus. PAKO CORPORATION. March 16, 1960, No. 9325/60. Class 98(2). [Also in Group XXX] A film processing apparatus in which separate film strips are treated successively in a sequence of adjacent tanks has an elevator bar 70 which is raised or lowered by means of an endless chain 76, which can also impart to it a slight longitudinal movement (sufficient to carry it from above one tank to the next) at the top of its vertical traverse, and back again at the bottom; spaced along the elevator bar are a series of arms 71 extending at rightangles therefrom, across the tanks; also extending across the tanks are a number of rods 100b from which are suspended the film strips for dipping into the tanks; at their ends the rods rest on progressing means which progress the rods, and the strips they carry, along the tanks from one wall to the other; the arms 71 can lift the rods to transfer them from one tank to the next. The successive tanks are shown (Fig. 3) as 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, and may contain such a sequence of liquids as developing solution, stop solution, hypo solution, washing liquid, and "wetting agent". Just above the row of tanks are two toothed bars 37, one along each edge and traversing the whole row. The teeth have one vertical edge and one sloping edge, and the teeth of the two bars are in alignment laterally. A short distance outwardly of each bar 37 is a further toothed bar 38, having similarly shaped teeth to those of bar 37. The teeth of bars 38, however, are slightly offset with regard to those of bars 37. Thus a rod 100b rests across the toothed bars 37, so that film strips attached to the rod hang down into the liquid in the bath. As the toothed bars 38 are raised above the level of bars 37, the rod 100b is lifted off the latter by the former. Since the teeth of bars 37 and 38 are not quite in alignment, the rod is lifted on the sloping surface of the teeth of bars 38, and runs down this slope into the notch between the successive teeth, thus having moved a very small distance to the right, as seen in Fig. 3. As bars 38 are lowered again, so that rod 100b rides off bars 38 on to bars 37 once more, the same thing happens. Bars 38 are moved up and down, so as to bring them above and then below bars 37, by a continuously rotating cam 56 having a cut-away portion 56a. A camfollowing roller 59 at the end of an arm 58 pivoted on a shaft 52 transmits the up-anddown motion to the bars 38. The rod 100b, with its depending film strips, thus gradually traverses the width of the tank from wall to wall (in the "line ahead" direction of the sequence of tanks, i.e. from left to right in Fig. 3). The same motor which drives the cam 56 also drives an endless chain 76 moving in a vertical plane round sprockets 77, 78. The elevator bar 70 is connected by a pin to a particular link of chain 76, so that as this link moves upwards the bar 70 also moves upwards, until it reaches its maximum height (shown in full lines in Fig. 3). As the pin moves over the top sprocket 78, the bar 70 is given an additional traversing movement to the right. It now moves down again (intermediate position shown in dotted lines) until it reaches its lowest position, when, as the pin moves round the lower sprocket 77, it is given a similar traversing movement back again to the left, and the whole cycle is then repeated. As the bar 70 moves through its lowest position, its leftward traverse brings the arms 71 underneath the rods 100b, and so as bar 70 rises once more, the arms 71 lift the rods with them. When the bar 70 reaches its highest position, the film strips hanging from the rods are lifted completely clear of the tanks. The lateral traversing movement of bar 70 is then just sufficient to move the bars and film strips along to the next tank. As the bar 70 descends once more, the strips are lowered into the tanks again, and as the bar reaches its lowest position, the rods are deposited on the toothed bars 37 again. The bar is steadied and guided in its vertical motion by a sleeve 90 sliding on a vertical shaft 84. A partition 98 in the upper part of the apparatus, and another partition 97 in the lower part, whose ends overlap, form a light shield between tanks 33 and 34, but do not interfere with the automatic progression of the film strips right through the whole sequence of tanks. Thus in tanks 31, 32, and 33 the processing takes place in darkness, while from tank 34 onwards the films may be exposed to light. After the films are lifted out of the last tank 35, their carrier rods 100b slide down guide members 107 into a drying chamber 112. The carrier rods 100b here rest on helically grooved rods 110. As the latter rotate, the films are moved slowly through the drying chamber.