GB1172218A - Processing System for Photographic Material - Google Patents

Abstract

1,172,218. Processing photographic material. PRINTING DEVELOPMENTS INTERNATIONAL S.A. June 28, 1968, No. 31108/68. Heading G2A. A film-processing apparatus comprises three sections, a reagent storage section (10), a processing section (11), and a controller section (12). Hot and cold water is supplied to the equipment via inlets 13 and 14 respectively. The two input streams are mixed in a regulated manner by parts in the back of section 12 to form an output stream maintained at a selected temperature and serving as a tempering agent for sections 10 and 11. The same tempering water may also be used to wash the film being processed. Storage section (10) comprises nine similar open-topped stainless-steel cylindrical containers 160a-i, Fig. 4 for different reagents to be used in a processing cycle for a batch of film. Those containers are respectively coupled to nine corresponding level gauges (17). All of the containers are seated in a tempering tank and are surrounded therein by tempering water which maintains the reagents at a selected temperature. The containers are coupled through respective and selectively operable dump valves 165a-i to a manifold which conducts any liquid therein to the processing section 11. Section 11 comprises a transparent plastic processing drum 55 having open ends spaced inwards of the end enclosure walls 41, 42, of a wall 45. Drum 55 rests with its axis horizontal on two pairs of rolls 56 disposed at opposite ends of the drum sack that the ten rolls in each pair contact the drum at points on opposite sides of the drum bottom. In each pair the front element is an idler roller and the rear element is a driver roll. Drum 55 may rotate around its axis either clockwise or counter-clockwise through a coupling to a reversible motor 62. On its interior are two pairs of similar horizontal rows of axially spaced film holding hooks 70. A manifold 80 for supplying liquid leads from the storage section 10 through casing 25 and to housing 40 to be coupled with the drum by way of a port 81 extending through end walls 41 of the housing. Liquid emerging from that port flows to the bottom of the drum by way of the left hand one of two channels 85 and 86. The channels 85 and 86 are in the form of rubber trough members each one of which is of arcuate shape in the drum's peripheral direction. In the drum's axial direction each member extends to and beyond the corresponding one of the two opposite open ends of the drum. Members 85 and 86 are so placed on walls 41 and 42 that before drum 55 comes to rest on rolls 56 the weight of the drum presses down on lips 89 and deflects those lips downwards to produce a liquid-tight sealing engagement between the lip and drum allowing rotation of the drum. The drum may be completely drained by gravity flow from the drum to channels 85 or 86 and through drain lines 106, 114. At least two passages to the drum are provided so that the processing liquid may be circulated through the drum by means of impellers 96, 108 via the return pipe 107 which is surrounded by an outer jacket 121 of tempering water. The directions of drum rotation and axial liquid flow may be reversed to cause different directions of relative motion between the liquid and film. Also disposed within the section 11 is an array of four fluorescent lighting tubes 130 which may be used to provide a second uniform exposure of the film within the transparent drum. Each processing cycle may include a preliminary tempering step, a sequence of steps wherein the film is subjected to the action of different reagents and a sequence of steps wherein the film is treated by being washed with tempered water. In any such cycle the nature, time of initiation and subsequent treatment time of each step may be determined by a programme recorded on a plastic card 30 slipped into a slot 31 of an automatic controller mounted in section 12.