JP2652719B2 - Processing method of photosensitive material - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION <Industrial Application Field> The present invention relates to a photosensitive material processing apparatus used in, for example, a silver halide photographic copying machine, an automatic developing machine, and the like.

<Prior Art> In general, a silver halide photographic copying machine sends a photosensitive material taken out of a magazine of a photosensitive material supply unit to an exposure unit to expose a document image, and exposes the exposed photosensitive material to a processing unit. The photosensitive material is sent to a developing unit, and the photosensitive material is dried in a drying unit to obtain an object of an original image.

In the processing section, a developing tank, a bleaching / fixing tank, and a washing tank are sequentially arranged in order, and the processing is performed by sequentially immersing the photosensitive material in a processing solution in these tanks.

In the drying section, the wet photosensitive material conveyed from the processing section is passed through a drying chamber, where the photosensitive material is dried by blowing hot air at about 50 to 100 ° C.

By the way, in such a drying section, drying air is taken in from the outside of the apparatus, and air once used for drying is exhausted to the outside. Further, a part of the air once used for drying may be circulated and reused.

The reason for this is that since the air used for drying has a high humidity, a relatively low humidity of outside air is taken in to suppress an increase in the humidity in the drying chamber and prevent a reduction in the drying efficiency.

<Problem to be Solved by the Invention> However, in the above configuration, in order to take in low-temperature outside air, the capacity of the heater must be increased in order to heat it to an appropriate temperature, and energy consumption also increases.

In addition, since the air used for drying is exhausted to the outside, the environment in the room where the copying machine is installed may be adversely affected. That is, the air used for drying is high temperature,
Due to the high humidity, there is a problem in that the temperature and humidity in the room rise, and that the odor of various components (eg, ammonia) contained in the exhaust gas is diffused into the room, giving a feeling of discomfort.

Further, the humidity of the outside air varies depending on the season and the region. For example, since the humidity of the outside air is high in summer, the humidity in the drying room increases, and the drying efficiency decreases.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of processing a photosensitive material which can be dried with little energy consumption, has little change to an external environment, and has a good drying efficiency.

<Means for Solving the Problems> Such an object is achieved by the present invention of the following (1) to (3).

(1) After the exposed photosensitive material is immersed in a processing solution in a processing tank and developed, and then dried by a drier, an electronic cooling element is provided in an air inlet for introducing air into a drying chamber of the drier. A method for processing a photosensitive material, comprising: drying with air dehumidified by the electronic cooling element; and supplying water generated by dehumidification to the processing tank.

(2) After the exposed photosensitive material is immersed in a processing solution in a processing tank and developed, and then dried by a dryer, the air is introduced into the drying chamber of the dryer and discharged to the outside of the drying chamber. A method for processing light-sensitive material, wherein heat is exchanged between the air and the air, and water generated by the heat exchange is supplied to the processing tank.

(3) The volume of the drying chamber is 40 times the volume of the photosensitive material to be processed.
The method for processing a light-sensitive material according to the above (1) or (2), which is within 0 times.

<Operation> The operation of the present invention having the above-described configuration performs drying with air dehumidified by the electronic cooling element, so that the drying efficiency is high,
In addition, heat is exchanged between high-temperature air discharged outside the drying chamber and low-temperature air introduced into the drying chamber to increase the temperature of the intake air and decrease the temperature of the exhaust air, thereby heating the outside air with the heater. In addition to saving energy at the time of heating, the amount of heat exhausted to the outside and the like are reduced, and changes to the external environment, that is, temperature rise, humidity rise, odor emission, etc.) are reduced.

Further, since water generated by dehumidification and heat exchange is supplied to the treatment tank, the amount of water used is reduced.

<Examples> Hereinafter, the processing method of the light-sensitive material of the present invention will be described in detail based on preferred embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings. The configuration will be described by taking as an example the case where the present invention is applied to a silver halide photographic color copying machine.

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional front view of a silver halide photographic color copying machine which is an apparatus for carrying out the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, in the copying machine 1, the apparatus main body 11 has a photosensitive material supply section 12 on the right side thereof, an exposure section 15 on the upper side, a processing section 16 below it, and an air chamber 17 on the left side thereof. A processing liquid storage unit 19 is provided below the drying unit 18 and the processing unit 16 via the drying unit 18 and the processing liquid storage unit 19, respectively.

The photosensitive material supply unit 12 of the silver halide photographic color copying machine 1
Is covered with a detachable casing 120, into which a pair of upper and lower magazines 13 and 14 can be loaded.

The same or different types of photosensitive materials S ₁ and S ₂ are stored in the magazines 13 and 14 in a state of being wound in a roll shape, respectively, and are taken out from the leading end to the transport path 121 of the photosensitive material supply unit 12. It has become.

Here, examples of the types of the photosensitive materials S ₁ and S ₂ include the following.

Sensitive material for normal copy (positive type) Sensitive material for photo copy (positive type) Sensitive material for negative print (negative type) Sensitive material for overhead projector (positive type) And these photosensitive materials are two magazines
13 and 14 are stored in the following combinations, for example.

Example 1 - Example 2 - Example 3 - Example 4 - Example 5 - Example 6 - photosensitive material S ₁ or S drawn from the magazine 13
₂ (hereinafter represented by S ₁ ) is sent to the exposure window 46 of the exposure unit 15 through the transport path 121 of the photosensitive material supply unit 12,
Color original on transparent platen 30 provided above
32 images are to be exposed. The color document 32 is pressed against the document table 30 by a document holder 34, and the light source unit
The image of the color document 32 illuminated by the light source 38 in the light source 36 and reflected by the plurality of mirrors 40 passes through the optical unit 47 and passes through the shutter 44.
Is adapted to be exposed to the photosensitive material S ₁ in the exposure window 46 by the opening.

When the shutter 44 is closed, the document image is not
The light is reflected by the inner mirror of 44 and input to the image sensor 45 to determine the exposure correction condition (pre-scan).

In the middle of the conveying path 121 of the photosensitive material S ₁ (the downstream side of the exposure window 46), the switching guide 43 is provided, the switching guide 43
It is adapted to introduce into the processing unit 16 side when the need of the photosensitive material S ₁ sent vertically downward by the rotation.

1, a developing tank 161, a bleaching / fixing tank 162, and two washing tanks 163 and 164 (collectively referred to as processing tanks) are arranged in this order from the right side in FIG. Conveying means consisting of rollers and guides installed on the
The 165 sequentially immersed photosensitive material S ₁ with the treatment liquid that has been heated to an appropriate temperature in each tank, development, bleach-fixing and washing is performed.

A processing solution storage unit 19 below the processing unit 16 contains four bottle-shaped replenisher tanks 191, 192, 193 and 194 for storing a developer, a bleach / fixer, a dilution water and a washing water, respectively. I have.

As will be described later, the replenisher is supplied from each of the replenisher tanks 191 to 194 to the corresponding processing tank through a predetermined pipe.

Further, the processing liquid storage unit 19 also houses a drain tank (not shown) for storing the processing liquid discharged from each of the processing tanks 161 to 163 due to overflow.

Between the processor 16 and dryer 18, the air chamber 17 is provided, the photosensitive material S ₁ which washing is made in the processing unit 16 after passing through the air chamber 17 is fed to the dryer 18.

The installation of the air chamber 17 prevents heat in the dryer 18 described later from being transmitted to the processing unit 16 and prevents the temperature of the processing liquid from rising to an appropriate temperature.

An exhaust fan 171 is installed above the air chamber 17, and exhausts warm air that has entered from the dryer 18 to the outside.

In addition, the exhaust fan 171 is controlled to be stopped until the inside of the dryer 18 is heated up to the predetermined temperature at the start of copying, so that the heat-up time can be reduced and energy consumption can be reduced.

Also, if the exhaust fan 171 is constantly operated, the amount of processing liquid in each of the processing tanks 161 to 164 increases, so that the exhaust fan 171 should be stopped when the photosensitive material is not processed. Is preferred.

Although not shown in FIG. 1, the photosensitive material S ₁
Inlet opening and into the processing unit 16, the opening portions to migrate to the air chamber 17 from the processing unit 16, a shutter means for opening and closing them is provided, when at least the photosensitive material S ₁ is passed through open these openings The passage may be allowed, and the other may be configured to close the opening and substantially seal the inside of the processing unit 16. With such a configuration, the evaporation of the processing liquid can be suppressed.

The dryer (drying unit) 18 includes a casing 20 that defines a drying chamber 21, and an intake duct 22 and an exhaust duct 23 that communicate with the inside of the casing 20.

The first right side in the drawing and the left side of the casing 20 are inlet openings 201 and outlet openings 202 photosensitive material S ₁ is passed through each formation and the casing 20 is installed conveying rollers 24 for conveying the photosensitive material S ₁ ing.

An intake duct 22 that constitutes an intake section of the dryer 18 has one end connected near the photosensitive material input side of the casing 20, the other end penetrating a side wall of the apparatus main body 11, and an intake port 221 protruding outside the apparatus. ing. In the middle of this intake duct 22, the intake port 22
In order from the first side, a dehumidifier 25 composed of an electronic cooling element described later, a blower fan 26, and a heater 27 are provided.

One end of the exhaust duct 23 constituting the exhaust part of the dryer is connected near the photosensitive material outlet side of the casing 20, the other end passes through the side wall of the apparatus main body 11, and the exhaust port 231 protrudes outside the apparatus.

The exhaust duct 23 and the intake duct 22 intersect on the way, and a heat exchange section 28 described later is formed at the intersection.

Incidentally, the volume of the drying chamber 21 may preferably be within 400 times the volume sheet-shaped photosensitive material S _1, particularly preferably in the 20 to 300 times. If it exceeds 400 times, the supply (air intake and exhaust) and heat of the air used for drying will increase,
18 (heater 27 and blower fan 26
Energy consumption by the fan)
This is because it is necessary to use the one with a large ability.

In the case of a long strip-shaped photosensitive material such as a negative film, the volume of the drying chamber 21 is preferably within 400 times the volume of the photosensitive material in the drying chamber 21.

As the drying chamber having such a volume, for example, a slit-shaped one having a narrow cross section can be given.

The outside air is sucked in from the air inlet 221 by the operation of the blower fan 26, the air is first dehumidified by the dehumidifier 25, and then the heat of the exhaust gas is received by the heat exchange unit 28, and the heater 27 is suitable for drying. The air is heated to a temperature (for example, 50 to 15 ° C.), and the hot air is supplied into the drying chamber 21.

On the other hand, the photosensitive material S ₁ in a wet state enters into the drying chamber 21 from the inlet opening 201, which is sandwiched by the conveyance rollers 24 is conveyed a predetermined path, dried by hot air flowing through the photosensitive material S ₁ in the same direction during this time Is done. Drying the photosensitive material S ₁ was made pass through the outlet opening 202 and device-sensitive material passing through the gate 50 formed in the side wall of the main body 11 of the casing 20 is fed onto the take-out tray 51.

The air used for drying passes through the exhaust duct 23, and is cooled by applying heat to the intake air in the heat exchange unit 28.
It is discharged outside from 1.

Since the air introduced into the drying chamber 21 is dehumidified by the dehumidifier 25, the drying efficiency is high, and the drying can be performed at a constant low humidity even when the humidity of the outside air is high. For this reason, a constant excellent drying efficiency can be obtained irrespective of a change in the humidity of the outside air.

Further, the air introduced into the drying chamber 21 is heated by the exhaust heat in the heat exchange section 28, so that the energy consumption of the heater 27 can be reduced.

In addition, since the air discharged to the outside of the drying chamber 21 gives heat to the intake air and is cooled and dehumidified, the amount of heat discharged and the amount of water discharged to the outside of the device decrease, and the temperature and humidity of the outside air rise. Is suppressed.

Below the dryer 18, sub-tanks 61 and 62 for storing water generated in the dehumidifier 25 and the heat exchange unit 28 are provided. The water generated in the dehumidifier 25 is introduced into the sub-tank 61 by a drain pipe 71, and the water generated in the heat exchange unit 28 is introduced into the sub-tank 62 by a drain pipe 72.

The dehumidifier 25 is configured by an electronic cooling element using the Peltier effect. The structure of the dehumidifier 25 is shown in FIG.

As shown in the figure, the dehumidifier 25 has a hollow main body 250, in which a Peltier element (electronic cooling element) 251 utilizing the Peltier effect is installed.

The Peltier element 251 has a heat absorbing portion 252 on the left side in FIG.
The right side is arranged to be the heat radiating section 253.

In addition, a Peltier element 251 is provided on the heat absorbing portion 252 side of the main body 250.
An opening 254 is formed at a position facing the Peltier element 251 on the heat radiating portion 253 side of the main body 250. The intake duct 22 is connected to these openings 254 and 255.

At the lower end of the Peltier element 251 on the side of the heat absorbing section 252, a drain pipe 71 having a tray 710 is installed. It is to be stored at 61.

In the dehumidifier 25 having such a configuration, as indicated by an arrow in FIG. 2, the outside air introduced into the intake duct 22 by the action of the blower fan 15 passes through the opening 254 to the heat absorbing portion 252 in the main body 250.
And collides with the Peltier element 251 and is divided in the vertical direction in the figure. This air is cooled when passing through the heat absorbing portion 252, and dew is formed on the surface of the Peltier element 251. Water droplets generated by the condensation flow down by their own weight, and
Then, it is stored in the sub tank 61 via the drain pipe 71.

The air cooled and dehumidified in the heat absorbing section 252 is guided to the heat radiating section 253 through the upper and lower curved portions of the main body, where it is heated again.

The air heated by the heat radiating unit 253 is discharged from the opening 255 into the intake duct 22 again. The humidity of the discharged air is, for example, about 5 to 20% RH, and the humidity can be constant regardless of the humidity of the outside air.

A dehumidifier using such an electronic cooling element is preferable because it is small in size, has a high dehumidifying capacity, and consumes little power.

Note that a plurality of electronic cooling elements may be arranged in parallel or cascade-connected to further enhance the dehumidifying ability.

FIG. 3 shows the structure of the heat exchange section 28. As shown in the figure, in the heat exchange section 28, the intake duct 22 branches into three hollow plate-like heat exchange plates 281 and these heat exchange plates 281 are located in the exhaust duct 23.

Further, fins 282 for improving the efficiency of heat exchange are provided on the surface of each heat exchange plate 281.

The heat exchange plate 281 and the fins 282 are preferably made of a metal having a high thermal conductivity, such as copper, aluminum, and stainless steel, and their surfaces are subjected to plating or other surface treatments to provide corrosion resistance. Can be increased.

At the lower part of the heat exchange plate 281, a plurality of gutters 283 for receiving water droplets generated by condensation are installed at an angle.
The lower end of 83 is connected to a tray 284.

Further, one end of a drain pipe 72 is connected to the tray 284, and the other end of the drain pipe 72 is extended to the sub tank 62.

In such a heat exchange section 28, the high-temperature exhaust air (air used for drying) flowing in the exhaust duct 23 in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 3 passes between the heat exchange plates 281 while the fins 282 and Heat is given to the low-temperature intake air through the heat exchange plate 281 and further flows downstream.

The exhaust gas immediately after drying contains a lot of moisture (for example, humidity of 70 to 100% RH), and when cooled when passing between the heat exchange plates 281, dew forms on the surfaces of the heat exchange plates 281 and the fins 282. The water droplets generated by the condensation flow down due to its own weight and the wind pressure of the exhaust gas, drop onto the tongue 283, collect in the tray 284, and further pass through the drain pipe 72 to the sub tank 62.
Is stored in

In this way, the exhaust air is dehumidified, for example, a humidity of 10 to 60%.
It will be about RH.

On the other hand, the low-temperature intake air flowing in the intake duct 22 in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 3 is divided into the three heat exchange plates 281,
While passing through the heat exchange plate 281, it receives heat from the exhaust gas and is heated, and further flows downstream of the duct.

The temperature difference between the exhaust gas and the intake air before and after passing through the heat exchange unit 28 varies depending on conditions such as the heat exchange rate, the air supply amount, the temperature and the humidity of the air, but the temperature difference of the exhaust gas is about 10 to 40 ° C. It is preferable that the temperature difference between the intake air is about 10 to 40 ° C.

Note that a deodorizing filter or an aroma filter (not shown) may be provided in the exhaust duct 23, particularly in the exhaust duct 23 downstream of the heat exchange unit 28, to prevent the odor from being diffused to the external environment. .

As the deodorizing filter, various adsorbents, cation exchange resin filters, activated carbon filters and the like can be used.

As the adsorbent, for example, Kuraray Chemical 4T-B, 4T-A, T-B4 / 8, T-A4 / 8 manufactured by Kuraray Chemical Co., Ltd. can be used.

The cation exchange resin filter has an action of removing ammonia contained in exhaust gas, and is, for example, manufactured by Toray Industries, Inc.
Commercial products such as TIN-100 (sulfonic acid type) can be used.

Examples of the activated carbon filter include Kuraray Coal 3GG, GG4 / 8, 4GS-S, 4SA, and 4G manufactured by Kuraray Chemical Co., Ltd.
A can be used.

In addition, examples of the fragrance filter include a porous body such as a sponge, a woven fabric, and a nonwoven fabric impregnated with a fragrance.

 Next, the liquid feeding system of the copying machine 1 will be described.

As shown in FIG. 1, the developer A in the replenisher tank 191
Is sent to the developing tank 161 via the line 75, and the replenisher tank 192
The bleaching / fixing solution B therein is sent to a bleaching / fixing tank 162 via a pipe 76.

Further, since the respective processing solutions in the developing tank 161 and the bleaching / fixing tank 162 are concentrated by evaporation, the water (diluting water) C in the replenisher tank 193 is supplied to the pipe 77 and According to 78, the developing tank 161 and the bleaching / fixing tank 162 respectively.
Liquid.

 The water C may be used for diluting the concentrated replenisher.

In the developing tank 161 and the bleaching / fixing tank 162, almost the same amount of liquid as the replenished liquid is discharged by overflow.

The water (wash water) D in the replenisher tank 194 is supplied to the line 79
, The washing water in the washing tank 164 flows into the washing tank 163 in the preceding stage, and the same amount of washing water as the inflow is discharged by overflow.

The replenishment amount (per 1 m ^{2 of} photosensitive material) in each processing tank is, for example, as follows.

Developer: 60~350ml / m ² developer dilution water: 10~150ml / m ² Bleach-fixing solution: dilution water 60~350ml / m ² Bleach-fixing solution: 10~150ml / m ² wash water: 60 ~600ml / m ² the water in the sub tank 61 is fed to a replenisher tank 193 via line 73, the water in the subtank 62 is adapted to be fed to the replenisher tank 194 via line 74 .

That is, since the water in the sub tank 61 is formed by agglomeration of water vapor contained in the outside air, it has relatively few impurities,
Therefore, it is suitable as a diluting water for a developing solution and a bleaching / fixing solution.

On the other hand, the water in the sub tank 62 is the water contained in the air used for drying, that is, the water removed from the photosensitive material. It contains impurities such as components eluted from the photosensitive material and gas components in the air, and is therefore more suitable as washing water than diluting water.

In this way, by supplying the water obtained in the dehumidifier 25 and the heat exchange unit 28 to the treatment tanks 161 to 164 via the replenisher tanks 193 and 194, the amount of water D and C used can be saved. You.

Specifically, the water in the sub tank 61 is used to replenish the diluted water
The water in the sub tank 62 can cover about 3 to 30% of the replenishment amount of the washing water.

Although not shown in the figure, a liquid feed pump and a valve are provided in the middle of each of the pipes 73 to 79.

The timing of sending the water in the sub-tanks 61 and 62 includes, for example, the following.

1) The liquid level in the sub tanks 61 and 62 is detected, and the liquid is sent to the replenisher tanks 193 and 194 when the liquid level exceeds a certain set level.

2) The amount of water in the replenisher tanks 193, 194 is detected by liquid level detection or weight measurement, etc., and when the amount falls below a certain set amount, the supply of replenisher tanks 193, 194 is performed. Do.

3) Combination of 1) and 2) Note that the liquid feeding system of copying machine 1 is not limited to the illustrated one,
For example, the water in the sub tanks 61 and 62 is replenished with replenishers 13 and 19, respectively.
A configuration in which the liquid is directly sent to a predetermined processing tank without passing through 4 may be used.

Further, in the illustrated example, the sub-tanks 61 and 62 are provided separately, but these may be one sub-tank. In this case, the water in the sub tank can be used as dilution water and / or washing water.

Further, without providing the sub-tanks 61 and 62, the water from the dehumidifier 25 and the heat exchange unit 28 can be directly introduced into the replenisher tanks 193 and 194 by the drain pipes 71 and 72, respectively.

In the present invention, an apparatus having only one of the dehumidifier 25 and the heat exchange unit 28 may be used.
Water obtained from any one of them can be used as dilution water and / or washing water.

The present invention is carried out by various photosensitive material processing apparatuses such as an automatic developing machine, a printer processor, a video printer processor, a coin machine for making photo prints, and a color paper processing machine for plate inspection, in addition to the above wet copying machine. be able to.

<Experimental Example> Hereinafter, a specific experimental example of the present invention will be described.

A color copier AP-5000 manufactured by Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd. was modified to produce a copier having the structure shown in FIG. 1, and the original image was copied to Fuji Color Copy Paper, a color paper manufactured by Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd.

 The specifications of each part of the copying machine are as follows.

Drying chamber capacity: 3000 cm ³ (150 times the photosensitive material volume) Drying chamber suction / discharge volume: 6 / min Dehumidifier: Structure shown in Fig. 2 Peltier element / NSELECOOL.Model TECF-40 manufactured by Nippon Steel Corporation 40W (34KCal / hour) DC 4A 24V Dehumidification capacity 1.1 / 10 hours Heat exchange receiving: Structure shown in Fig. 3 Deodorizing filter: Cation exchange resin filter (TIN-100 manufactured by Toray Industries, Inc.) Replenishment amount: Developing solution: 330ml / m dilution water ² developer ... 39 ml / m ² bleach-fixing solution ... dilution water 300 ml / m ² bleach-fixing solution ... 20 ml / m ² washing water: 369Ml / m ² external environment: temperature 23 ° C. humidity 61% RH Examples 1 to 4 of the present invention used a copying machine having one or both of a dehumidifier and a heat exchange unit. Comparative Example 1 used a copy machine without a dehumidifier and a heat exchange unit. A conventional AP-5000 type color copier (having a drying chamber of 1500 times the volume of the light-sensitive material and a suction / discharge rate of 12 / min) was used.

For these copying machines, the time required for drying was measured as the drying efficiency of the photosensitive material, and the heater capacity of the dryer was determined.

 The effects on the external environment were also investigated.

The influence on the external environment was measured by installing a copier in a closed room of 24 m ³ , performing 800 copies continuously, and then examining the temperature rise, humidity rise and the presence or absence of odor in the room.

 The results are shown in Table 1 below.

 The symbols in the table are as follows.

◎… None ○… Somewhat △… Yes ×… Quite As shown in Table 1, in Examples 1 to 4 of the present invention, the drying time is short, the heater capacity is small, and the influence on the external environment is small. In particular, in Example 4 of the present invention provided with a deodorizing filter,
The emission of ammonia odor was significantly suppressed.

Next, the relationship between the amount of liquid sent from the sub-tank to the replenisher tank and the amount of replenishment from the replenisher tank to the processing tank was determined for inventive examples 1 to 4.

In Examples 1, 3 and 4 of the present invention, the water generated by the dehumidifier could cover about 20% of the dilution water replenishment amount.

Also, in Examples 2, 3 and 4 of the present invention, about 10% of the washing replenishment amount could be covered by water generated in the heat exchange section.

<Effects of the Invention> As described above, according to the method for processing a photosensitive material of the present invention, the drying efficiency is high, the energy consumption in the dryer is small, and the temperature is increased and the humidity is increased. Little effect.

Further, since water generated by dehumidification or heat exchange is used for washing or diluting the treatment liquid, the amount of water used can be saved, the frequency of water replenishment can be reduced, and the replenisher tank can be downsized.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional front view of a copying machine for carrying out a method for processing a photosensitive material according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a sectional front view showing a configuration example of a dehumidifier used in the present invention. FIG. 3 is a partially cutaway perspective view showing a configuration example of a heat exchange unit used in the present invention. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Copier 11... Main body 12... Photosensitive material supply section 120. Casing 121. Transport path 13 and 14. Magazine 15 Exposure section 16 Processing section 161. 162 Bleaching / fixing tanks 163, 164 Rinse tank 165 Transport means 17 Air chamber 171 Exhaust fan 18 Dryer 19 Treatment liquid storage unit 191 to 194 Replenisher tank 20 ... Casing 201 ... Inlet opening 202 ... Outlet opening 21 ... Drying chamber 22 ... Inlet duct 23 ... Exhaust duct 24 ... Transport roller 25 ... Dehumidifier 250 ... Body 251 ... Peltier element 252 ... Heat-absorbing section 253 Heat-dissipating sections 254, 255 Opening 26 Blower fan 27 Heater 28 Heat-exchange section 281 Heat-exchange plate 282 Fins 283 284 Table 32 Color document 34 Document holder 36 Light source unit 38 Light source 40 Mirror 43 Switching guide 44 Detector 45 Image sensor 46 Exposure window 47 Optical means 50 Sensitive material passage gate 51 Extract tray 61, 62 Sub tank 71, 72 Drain pipe 710 Receiving tray 73-79 … Pipe A… Developing solution B… Bleaching / fixing solution C… Dilution water D… Wash water S ₁ , S ₂ … photosensitive material

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A photosensitive material after exposure is immersed in a processing solution in a processing tank, developed, and then dried by a drier. An electron is introduced into an air inlet for introducing air into a drying chamber of the drier. A method for processing a photosensitive material, comprising installing a cooling element, drying with air dehumidified by the electronic cooling element, and supplying water generated by dehumidification to the processing tank. 2. A photosensitive material after exposure is immersed in a processing solution in a processing tank, developed, and then dried by a drier when air is introduced into a drying chamber of the drier and out of the drying chamber. A method for processing a photosensitive material, comprising performing heat exchange with discharged air and supplying water generated by the heat exchange to the processing tank. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the volume of the drying chamber is within 400 times the volume of the photosensitive material to be processed.