EP0773476B1 - Processing apparatus for photographic materials - Google Patents

Description

The invention relates to a device and a method for wet chemical processing a photographic material, especially a color negative material, the contains at least one silver halide emulsion layer on a carrier and with the Developing steps, if necessary bleaching, fixing, watering or stabilizing is processed, bleaching and fixing combined for bleach-fixing can be.

In particular, the invention relates to such a device, which is particularly space-saving but is still powerful and is characterized by particularly economical chemical consumption distinguished. Such devices, called "Minilab", are numerous in use and are used to make prints by processing the exposed photographic material used. These minilabs run one when processed color photographic material, especially a color photographic paper usually 5 processing stages through: color development, bleaching, fixing, stabilizing and drying.

Such a processing machine is known from EP 501 273. Located in a tank a so-called "rack", i.e. a stand on which several pairs of rollers perpendicular are mounted one above the other, the axes of the rollers parallel to the horizontal and the rollers of each pair of rollers are arranged parallel to each other are.

A liquid supply is provided under the top pair of rollers. The photographic Material is fed upwards through the pairs of rollers before it enters the next tank or into the drying.

The supply of liquid results in a cleaning countercurrent cascade from roller pair to roller pair. The device thus allows considerable chemical savings by avoiding chemical carryover in the next Tank and allows a compact design.

The problem with this device is that the roller pairs are at a standstill run dry. If you want to prevent this, you have to, even if there is no photographic material is constantly drizzled with liquid from above, causing the Unacceptably increased fluid consumption.

DE 32 30 175 A describes a device for wet treatment of photographic Layer support with several pairs of rollers horizontally attached to each other which the photographic support is carried out in a common, with wet treatment liquid filled tub, with the treatment liquid across to the direction of transport of the material. There is no cascade.

DE 14 97 447 A describes a similar device in which the lower roller each Roller pair is essentially in a bulge of the shell bottom and the upper roller is arranged offset in the transport direction such that the layer support is directed towards the tub floor. It should be avoided that the Layer carrier comes into contact with air within one treatment step. A Cascade does not result.

DE 26 15 932 describes a horizontal dish through which an endless Tape the material is guided. Even so, there is no cascade.

The object of the present invention is the disadvantage of the device of EP 501 273 to eliminate without losing their benefits.

This object is achieved in that the photographic material after exposure in at least one, preferably in each processing step with the layer side performed on a plurality of rotatable rollers in contact with these rollers being, the rollers at 30 to 300 ° of their circumference in such a way are encased in that in the space between the roller and the casing Processing liquid cannot drain completely, characterized in that the rollers of the racks lie on a straight line that is horizontal encloses an angle of 45 to 90 °.

The photographic material is in contact with the rollers in the uncovered Areas led. Preferably at least half of the rollers are in the one described Sheathed way.

The greater the angle, the greater the degree of sheathing, so that the advantages according to the invention are achieved. The is preferably Angle 80 to 90 °.

A processing stage comprises in particular 2 to 100 rollers, preferably 5 to 50 Rollers.

The space between the roller and the casing is kept small; the distance is in particular 0.5 to 20 mm, preferably 1 to 10 mm.

On the sides, i.e. The casing is closed over the end faces of the rollers and has only openings for the roller axes that against the roller axes are sealed.

The jackets between two successive rolls of a processing stage are preferably connected to one another, for example by sheet metal have lateral band strips.

The supplied liquid remains in the space between the rollers and the Sheathing.

So that the layer side of the photographic material with the roller surface in sufficient Contact is a device part so to the back of the photographic Material arranged that the desired contact is made automatically.

This device part can be a baffle, a baffle with knobs on the Surface, a variety of small rolls or a variety of rollers of the type how they touch the layer side, which are attached at the same height as that layer-side rolls or offset to these, these rolls also being encased For example, if an x-ray material is processed, which is usually a photosensitive silver halide emulsion layer on both sides of the support having.

If more liquid is fed into the system under the top roller, this will result an overflow in the corresponding casing, which then leads to the next lower one Roll casing is directed.

If the rack has an incline, e.g. Is operated at 90 ° results for those at the top Liquid supplied at the end of the rack has a direction of flow through a gradient, the Flow direction either the same or opposite to the direction of the photographic material is.

In the case of pairs of rollers, at least one roller of a pair of rollers is preferred in an elongated hole so that the rollers touch due to their own weight and yield when the photo material is transported between the pairs of rollers.

If necessary, the pressure with which the rollers touch each other can be caused by springs on the Axis pairs are reinforced.

If rollers are provided only on the layer side, these are preferably in one Elongated hole to produce the same effect.

1. Äußerst geringes Chemikalienvolumen im Einsatz. Es wird nur der untere Zwischenraum zwischen Ummantelung und Walzen gefüllt. Daher ist die Vorrichtung auch für eine Einmal-Entwicklung geeignet.

2. Durch den "Massageeffekt" der vielen Walzen ist keine Umpumpung erforderlich.

3. Die Temperierung kann zentral für alle Bäder erfolgen und zwar von außen durch die Wandung der Ummantelung hindurch.

The advantages of the construction method according to the invention are:

1. Extremely low volume of chemicals in use. Only the lower space between the casing and the rollers is filled. The device is therefore also suitable for one-time development.

2. Due to the "massage effect" of the many rollers, no pumping is necessary.

3. The temperature control can be carried out centrally for all baths, from the outside through the wall of the casing.

An embodiment of the invention is explained in more detail with reference to the figure:

Fig. 1 shows a section through a rack according to the invention.

Fig. 1 shows a rack of a processing stage, in which the photographic material 1 in Arrow direction is transported between a number of pairs of rollers 2. The rollers are provided with casings 3, the casings of two successive Rolls are interconnected by sheets 4. The resulting Room 5 is made up of walls arranged at the front of the rollers (not shown) and is used to hold a liquid, e.g. a development, Bleach-fix or stabilizer solution. The rack can be horizontal (as shown) be arranged or at any angle to the vertical. The rack can be enclosed in a space indicated by the walls 6 and 7, the if desired, the temperature is controlled so that the process is exactly as specified Temperature expires.

Due to the sheathing, the rollers are always at least partially filled with liquid wetted. In times of non-use, when the processing solutions are not should be removed, the rollers can be rotated with little energy, to prevent the non-wetted roller surface from falling dry.

The invention further relates to a method for wet chemical processing of a photographic material, the material in at least one processing step goes through a multiple cascade formed by a multitude of rotatable rollers is, each cascade level is defined by a roller that is 30 to 300 ° of its circumference is encased in such a way that in the space between Do not drain the processing liquid from the roller and jacket completely can, characterized in that the material in contact with the layer side with the rollers that volume is guided in the space between sheathing and roller, which is constantly filled with processing liquid, 0.2 to 5 ml / cm material width is that the material between the cascade levels does not fall into the Treatment liquid dips that at least 50% of the rolls of the processing step only partially immerse in the treatment solution and that the multiple Cascade encloses an angle of 45 to 90 ° to the horizontal.

Photographic materials in the device according to the invention and / or after can be processed in the method according to the invention are e.g. Black-and-white film, Black and white paper, color negative film, color reversal film and color photographic Paper.

Example 1 (comparison)

A commercially available photo paper, e.g. Agfacolor type 10 is standardized according to the Development process Kodak RA 4 processed by machine.

The photo material is guided through six different tanks: Develop 45 sec 38 ° C Tank 1 bleach-fixing 45 sec 38 ° C Tank 2 Stabilize step 1 22.5 sec Tank 3 Level 2 22.5 sec Tank 4 level 3 22.5 sec Tank 5 Level 4 22.5 sec Tank 6 dry

The tank volume of tanks 1 and 2 is 20 l.

The tank volume of tanks 3 to 6 is 10 l.

Stabilization takes place in a 4-stage countercurrent cascade.

With the prescribed regeneration rate of 250 ml / m ² and a carry-over rate of 50 ml / m ² , the bleach-fix bath introduced is diluted to 1/6 for each stabilization level. In a first approximation, the bleach-fixing bath content in stage 4 is therefore less than 1/1000 of the concentration in tank 2 in the equilibrium state of the regeneration, ie after a throughput of about 100 m ^{2 of} color paper.

The cleanliness of the photographic material, i.e. the absence of iron complexes and Silver thiosulfate complexes from the bleach-fix bath are decisive for the durability of the photo material during storage - especially in warm, damp storage.

Therefore, in the existing processing system, the stabilization from 90 to 45 seconds. shortened by halving the dwell time per level, this leads to a strong one Impairment of image whiteness when stored for 40 days at 35 ° C and 90% rel. Humidity.

Measurement of the minimum density of Agfacolor type 10 after 40 days at 35 ° C / 90% r. F. blue green red Stabilization 90 sec 0.17 0.16 0.11 Stabilization 66 sec. 0.21 0.18 0.12 Stabilization 45 sec 0.26 0.20 0.13

Example 2 (Invention)

The photo material is developed and fixed in bleach as in Example 1, after which it runs for 45 seconds. vertically from the bottom up a rack according to the invention with 18 pairs of rollers according to FIG. 1, which are only partially immersed in the stabilizing solution. As in Example 1, the regeneration rate is 250 ml / m ² . The roller pairs are covered by 120 °. The distance from the jacket to the roller surface is 2 mm in each case. The sheathing is arranged in such a way that the liquid volume of the stabilizing solution per cm of material width that cannot run off is 2.7 ml.

The minimum densities when stored for 40 days at 35 ° C / 90% r. F. despite the reduced stabilization time: blue green red 0.17 0.16 0.11

Claims (4)

1. A device for the wet-chemical processing of a photographic material, in which at least one processing stage comprises a rack having a plurality of rotatable rollers contacting the emulsion side of the material, said rollers being encased over 30 to 300° of their circumference in such a way that processing liquid present in the space between roller and casing cannot fully escape, characterised in that the rollers of the rack are arranged in a straight line that is inclined at an angle of 45 to 90° to the horizontal.
2. A device according to claim 1, characterised in that the casings of successive rollers of a processing stage are connected to one another.
3. A device according to claim 1, characterised in that the number of rollers is 2 to 100 and in that the distance between roller surface and casing is 0.5 to 20 mm.
4. A process for the wet-chemical processing of a photographic material, said material passing through a multiple cascade consisting of a plurality of rotatable rollers in at least one processing step, each cascade stage being defined by a roller being encased over 30 to 300° of its circumference in such a way that processing liquid present in the space between roller and casing cannot fully escape, characterised in that said material is guided in such a way that its emulsion side is in contact with the rollers, in that the volume in the space between casing and roller that is constantly filled with processing liquid is in the range of 0.2 to 5 ml/cm material width, in that the material is not immersed in the processing liquid between the cascade stages, in that at least 50% of the rollers of the processing step are only partially immersed in the processing solution and in that the multiple cascade is inclined at an angle of 45 to 90° to the horizontal.

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