Patent GB-319924-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to imbibition printing apparatus for kinematograph films
IPC: G03C7/22
Filed: 1928-09-24
Abstract: 319,924. Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation, and Kienninger, J. F. Sept. 24, 1928. Printing processes; rota.ry machines.-Relates to imbibition printing-apparatus for kinematograph films in which a blank film is conducted over a predetermined path in imbibition contact with one matrix film and is then separated therefrom and fed into imbibition contact with another matrix film with which it passes over a second predetermined path, the printed film being finally separated from the matrix. According to the invention the speed of movement of the films in one of the paths is controlled by the speed of a portion of the blank film outside the said path so that all the films move in synchronism. Fig. 2 shows diagrammatically the sequence of operations. The blank film 2 is passed through a water tank 6 and the matrix 3 through a dyevessel 7, the two films being brought together in a water tank 8 and into contact with an endless conveyer belt 11 passing over a driving pulley 12 and guide rollers 13, 14, 15. After the two films have been carried round in contact and in register by the belt 11 the blank film passes over a pulley 16 and through a drying conduit 190 and drying chamber 20, whence it passes through a water tank 6<1> to be printed by the second matrix film 5. The matrix film 3 passes over a pulley 160, through a tank 17 for removal of residual dye, and then through a drying conduit 19 into the chamber 20, after passing through which it is wound up on a spool 26. The film 3 is impregnated for example with red dye and the film 5 with green. The blank film after being subjected to both the matrix films is wound on a spool 27<1>. The pulley 12 for the belt 11 is driven by a constant-speed motor 35, Fig. 6, and the pulley 12' for the belt 11<1> by a variable-speed motor 39 controlled by the film 2 in its passage through the drying chamber 20. The film passes over fixed pulleys 85, Fig. 4, and over a weighted floating pulley 87 to another fixed pulley 86. A cord 89, Fig. 5, attached to the pulley 87, passes over fixed pulleys 90 and is connected to a lever 91 operating the control lever 93 of the motor 39, the arrangement being such that as the pulley 87 falls the speed of the motor is increased. A variable-speed motor 40, Fig. 7, drives a shaft 43 geared to a sprocket 51 which drives the spool 26 on which the matrix 3 is wound, and a similar motor 41 drives a shaft 57 which at one end drives a sprocket 67 connected to the spool 27<1> on which the printed film is wound and at the other end drives a sprocket 68 connected to the spool 26<1> receiving the matrix 5. The matrix film 3 in its passage through the drying-chamber 20 passes round a. number of fixed rollers 80 driven from a sprocket 56 operated by the shaft 43, and also passes round further fixed pulleys 81 and floating pulleys 84. One of the pulleys 84 is weighted and is connected by a cord 98 to a lever 99 operating the speed-control 102 of the motor 40. The matrix film 5, in its passage through the drying-apparatus, similarly controls means for varying the speed of the motor 41.