Patent GB-307659-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in apparatus for printing kinematograph and like films
IPC: G03C7/22
Filed: 1928-05-14
Abstract: 307,659. Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation, and Comstock, D. F. May 14, 1928. Printing processes; rotary machines.-In apparatus for printing a kinematograph &c. dyeabsorptive film from a matrix film by imbibition, the films are held against relative movement whilst in contact by a number of registering pins mounted on a flexible strip which may be the matrix film but is preferably a separate metallic belt permitting the blank and matrix films to travel along either a straight or a curved path while in contact. Fig. 2' shows diagrammatically the sequence of operations performed in obtaining a two-colour record by printing from a red-dyed matrix and a green-dyed matrix successively. The blank film 2 is fed from a spool 320 and passes through a water-tank 6 to a water-tank 8. The matrix film 3 is fed from a spool 30 and passes through a tank 7, in which it is wetted and impregnated with red dye, to the tank 8. In the tank 8 the two films are brought into contact and pressed together by rollers 9, 10 and, whilst in contact, they are brought into exact register, by pins 11', Fig. 2a, which enter the perforations in the films, the pins being mounted on a flexible endless metallic belt 11 passing over pulleys 12 - - 15. The pulley 14 is mounted in guides 163, Fig. 9, and is provided with a weight 165, Fig. 3, for applying tension to the belt. The two films are carried by the belt over pulley 12 and are then separated from the belt, the printed film being passed through a drying conduit 167 and through the water-tank 6' of the apparatus for subjecting it to the green-dyed matrix. The matrix film is passed through a chamber 17 in which the dye is removed therefrom, then through a rinsing tank 18, a horizontal drying-chamber 19, and into a vertical drying chamber 20, being finally wound on a rell 26 ready to be treated with green dye. The application of the green-dyed matrix 5 to the film 2 is performed in a similar manner to that above described. Fig. 9 shows the arrangement of the tank 8, the rollers 92, 93 corresponding to the rollers 9 in Fig. 2. The matrix film 3 passes around pulleys 75, 91 and is passed between the rollers 92, 93 with the film 2 and belt 11, the roller 92 being provided with weights 96 so that pressure is exerted on the films. The upper roller 10 is fitted with a belt 98 passing over a roller 99 on an arm 100, the function of this belt being to press the films 2, 3 together between the sprocket holes. The films just before passing between the rollers 92, 93 are acted on by a jet of water from a nozzle 400. The tank is supplied with means for circulating water therethrough. The films and belt leave the tank through an aperture 104 and are passed through a series of drying rollers 107 - -108b, Fig. 3, the roller 108 being provided with a belt 112 having a function similar to that of the belt 98. They then pass along a guideway 116 conveying them to and from from the pulley 12, a number of electric heating-elements being arranged at the commencement of the guideway. The guideway consists of a series of enclosed chambers, Fig. 12, comprising an upper chamber 131 separated by a partition 136 from a lower chamber 132 to which water is supplied by pipes 133. At the end of the guideway 116 the film 2 is passed over pulleys 190, 191, between which it may pass between air nozzles 177, and into the drying chamber 167, where it is subjected to an air current from a blower 170. The matrix film 3 passes over pulleys 16 to the chamber 17 and the belt 11 passes over pulleys 16 to the chamber 17 and the belt passes on to the pulley 13. For removing superflous dye from the matrix film as it leaves the bath 7 it is subjected to the action of jets of water emerging from two nozzles arranged adjacent the two surfaces of the film.