JPH0655498B2 - Automatic loading method for photosensitive materials - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a method for automatically loading a photosensitive material in an apparatus for optically outputting characters / images, for example, a computer typesetting machine such as a laser typesetting machine.

[Problems of Prior Art] FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a laser typesetting machine which exposes a photosensitive material with a light beam to output characters and images.

In this laser typesetting machine, a light beam 1 emitted from a light source (not shown) is used to form an image forming position P on a photosensitive material 3 which holds an outer peripheral surface of a cylindrical holding drum 2 as a position defining surface.
It is irradiated on the substrate, and is exposed and scanned to print out characters and images.

The photosensitive material 3 in this typesetting machine is sequentially fed from the unexposed magazine 4 in the direction of the arrow, exposed and scanned while being held by the holding drum 2, and then stored in the already-exposed magazine 5. R ₁ , R ₂ and R ₃ in the figure are rollers.

By the way, as a preparatory step before exposing the photosensitive material and outputting characters / images, the photosensitive material is drawn at a predetermined position so that the photosensitive material pulled out from the unexposed magazine is stored in the already-exposed magazine through a predetermined transport path. Must be loaded into. Since this loading is normally done manually by an operator, it is performed in a bright state with the cover for light shielding opened. Therefore, a so-called black loss portion in which the photosensitive material of the portion pulled out from the non-photosensitive magazine is exposed during loading, and the photosensitive material is wasted.

Therefore, it is desirable that the light-sensitive material is automatically loaded with the light-shielding cover closed. However, the photosensitive material is loaded so that it does not meander or sag,
Furthermore, there is a problem that various technical problems must be solved in order to automatically load the photosensitive material so as to prevent useless portions such as black loss and white loss.

The idea of automatically loading a photosensitive material has been proposed in the past, and Japanese Patent Publication No. 50-23298 is one of them. If such an idea is adopted, the slack and black loss of the photosensitive material can be removed to some extent. However, the problem of meandering is still unsolved. That is, meandering or sagging of the photosensitive material is a fatal defect for producing a precise printed matter, and it appears as uneven density or uneven scanning during exposure. Particularly when printing a dot or a continuous tint block, a slight meander of the photosensitive material has a great influence on the print quality. The occurrence of the meandering or the like is a problem that occurs whenever an attempt is made to automatically load the photosensitive material, and an automatic loading method for preventing the meandering has been awaited.

[Means for Solving Problems] The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and provides an automatic loading method of a light-sensitive material that prevents meandering of the light-sensitive material, prevents slack from occurring, and is less wasteful. The purpose is to provide a back tension, which is arranged along the conveyance path of the photosensitive material from the unexposed magazine to the already exposed magazine, for applying a tension in the forward or reverse direction to the photosensitive material. An application unit, a cylindrical holding drum that holds a photosensitive material with the outer peripheral surface as a position defining surface, a feed roller that holds the photosensitive material between the holding drum, a passage detector, and a cutter. In the method for automatically loading the photosensitive material, which comprises loading the photosensitive material between the back tension roller, the holding drum, and the feeding roller, the holding of the photosensitive material by the feeding roller is released. In this state, the holding drum and the back tension applying means are both rotated in the forward feeding direction of the photosensitive material to feed out the photosensitive material, and after the passage detector detects the leading end portion of the photosensitive material, it is further moved by a predetermined amount to move the photosensitive material. By stopping before the photosensitive magazine, the process of preliminarily setting the photosensitive material on the outer peripheral surface of the holding drum and the rotation of the holding drum with the holding of the photosensitive material by the feed roller released , A driving force in the reverse feed direction is applied to the back tension applying means to move the photosensitive material in the reverse feed direction, and after a predetermined time has passed, the photosensitive material is nipped by the feed roller, whereby A rewinding process that eliminates meandering and slack between the tension applying means and the feed roller,
While holding the photosensitive material between the feed rollers, the holding drum is rotated in the forward feeding direction, and a driving force in the reverse feeding direction is applied to the back tension applying means to feed a predetermined amount of the photosensitive material in the forward feeding direction. In the state of removing the black loss portion so that the photosensitive material is cut by the cutter after stopping the feeding, and the feeding roller holding the photosensitive material,
The white drum part removing process in which the holding drum is rotated in the reverse feeding direction, the driving force in the reverse feeding direction is given to the back tension applying means, and the cutting portion of the photosensitive material by the cutter is rewound to the vicinity of the feeding roller. And are included in the automatic loading operation of the photosensitive material.

[Embodiment] FIG. 1 is a flow chart showing the processing steps of an embodiment of the present invention. The present invention automatically loads a photosensitive material according to the flow of FIG. The details will be described later. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a laser typesetting machine to which the present invention is applied, and the same components as those in FIG. 2 are designated by the same reference numerals.

In FIG. 3, a back tension roller 6 is provided with a driving force in the direction opposite to the feeding of the photosensitive material 3 (in the direction of the arrow) by the roller motor 7 during normal exposure scanning, and the photosensitive material 3 is held on the holding drum. The slack generated on the surface of No. 2 is removed.

Reference numeral 8 denotes a roller that applies pressure to the photosensitive material 3 from above the back tension roller 6, and is composed of a roller having a width narrower than that of the photosensitive material 3 to be used, and applies pressure to the central portion of the photosensitive material 3. Further, the roller 8 is driven to rotate by the movement of the photosensitive material 3.

Reference numeral 9 is a guide for guiding the photosensitive material 3 fed along the surface of the holding drum 2 when the photosensitive material 3 is loaded, and an opening 9A is formed at the exposure scanning position of the laser beam 1 so that the exposure scanning of the laser beam 1 can be performed. You can do it.

Reference numeral 10 denotes a drum motor that drives the holding drum 3 to rotate,
Reference numeral 11 denotes a feed roller that holds the photosensitive material 3 with the holding drum 2 so that the driving force from the holding drum 2 is transmitted to the photosensitive material. The feed roller 11 has one end of an arm 13 pivotally supported by a rotary shaft 12. A spring 14 and a solenoid 15 each having one end fixed to a main body (not shown) are provided at the other end. When the solenoid 15 is turned on and off, the feed roller 11 separates from or comes into contact with the surface of the holding drum 2 so that the photosensitive material can be held freely.

Reference numeral 16 is a passage detector for detecting the passage of the photosensitive material 3, 17 is a cutter for cutting the photosensitive material 3, 18 is a CPU for controlling the operation of each portion, 19 is a roller motor control portion for controlling the roller motor 7. , 20 are drum motors 10
Drum motor control unit 21 for controlling the solenoid 21
5 is a solenoid control unit for controlling ON / OFF of No. 5.

FIG. 4 is a time chart showing the operation timing of each part when the photosensitive material is automatically loaded according to this embodiment.

The automatic loading operation will be described below. Automatic loading is
As described above, the process is performed according to the flowchart of FIG.

Before the automatic loading of the photosensitive material, the photosensitive material 3 is manually set as described below. In FIG. 3, the photosensitive material 3 is pulled out from the unexposed magazine 4 and its tip 3A
However, it is set at a position slightly fed from between the back tension roller 6 and the roller 8. Since this work is performed by opening the light-shielding cover of the machine body (not shown), the pulled-out portions (3A to 3B) are exposed and become so-called black loss portions. After that, close the cover and give the automatic loading command C
Put on PU18.

Step. Preliminary setting of photosensitive material (wrapping around holding drum) First, the CPU 18 gives operation commands to the roller motor control unit 19, the drum motor control unit 20, and the solenoid control unit 21, respectively. Each control unit controls the operation of each unit according to the time chart () in FIG. That is, the solenoid 15 is turned on to separate the feed roller 11 from the surface of the holding drum 2. After that, the roller motor 7 and the drum motor 1
0 for normal rotation and back tension roller 6 and holding drum 2
Are rotated in the forward feeding direction of the photosensitive material 3.

As a result, the photosensitive material 3 is fed along the gap between the holding drum 2 and the guide 9. Then, when the leading end 3A passes through the passage detector 16, it is detected that the leading end 3A of the photosensitive material has passed and is sent to the CPU 18, as shown in FIG. After the detection, the CPU 18 further gives an operation command to feed the photosensitive material 3 by a fixed amount, and then stops the roller motor 7 and the drum motor 10 to stop the feeding of the photosensitive material 3. By doing so, the front end portion 3A of the photosensitive material 3 comes to the position shown in FIG. 5 (1), and the first step is completed.

However, the photosensitive material 3 in this state has the holding drum 2 and the guide 9
It can be considered that there is a gap between them and that meandering or sagging occurs due to the tip portion 3A of the opening 9A of the guide 9 being caught by the tip portion 3A when passing through.

FIG. 6 schematically shows this state. In the figure, the photosensitive material 3 pulled out from the unexposed magazine 4 is
It is stopped at the front end of the already-exposed photosensitive magazine 5 via the holding drum 2. However, the photosensitive material 3 has meandering as shown in the figure. Therefore, it is necessary to correct and remove these meandering and slack that may occur in the middle.

Step. Rewinding process (removal of meandering and slack) When the preliminary setting of the photosensitive material 3 is completed, the CPU 18
An operation command for removing the meandering and slack of the photosensitive material 3 is given to each control unit, and the operation control of each unit is performed according to the time chart () in FIG.

First, the solenoid 15 remains ON, that is, the feed roller 11 is kept in a state of being separated from the surface of the holding drum 2. The drum motor 10 is turned off and the rotation of the holding drum 2 is stopped. The roller motor 7 rotates in the reverse direction to rotate the back tension roller 6 in the reverse feed direction to apply back tension to the photosensitive material 3 and feed it in the reverse direction including the slack portion. Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 4A, the solenoid 15 is turned off, and the photosensitive material is nipped by the feed roller 11 and the holding drum 2 without meandering or slack.

The principle of removing meandering and slack will be described below with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 7, the upper roller 8 is configured to be narrower than the width of the photosensitive material 3 as described above. The roller 8 is set so that the roller 8 is located at the center of the photosensitive material 3. Therefore, the back tension is transmitted to almost the center of the photosensitive material 3. The transmitted back tension acts only on the central portion of the photosensitive material 3 near the roller 8 as shown in FIG. 7A, but when the photosensitive material 3 has no meandering, the back tension of the photosensitive material 3 (3A direction). ), The back tension acts evenly over the entire width direction (FIG. 7C). On the contrary, when the photosensitive material 3 meanders, the back tension acts biased in the width direction of the photosensitive material 3. The back tension acts unevenly to correct the meandering of the photosensitive material 3.

The rewinding process of the second step is completed as described above.

Step. Removal of Black Loss Part When the meandering and the slack are removed, the CPU 18 gives each control section a command of an operation for removing the black loss part (3A to 3B) of the photosensitive material 3 described above, and the time chart () of FIG. As described above, the operation of each unit is controlled.

The black loss portion is removed by sending the black loss portion end portion 3B of the photosensitive material 3 to a position slightly past the cutter 17, and then cutting with the cutter 17. First, the solenoid 15 remains off, and the feed roller 11 holds the photosensitive material 3 therebetween. The drum motor 10 normally rotates to rotate the holding drum 2 in the forward feeding direction, and the back tension roller 6 is given a driving force in the backward feeding direction.

By doing so, the photosensitive material 3 is fed in the forward feeding direction while the back tension is always applied to the photosensitive material 3 from the back tension roller 6. Then, as shown in FIG. 5 (2), when the black loss end portion 3B is sent to a position slightly past the cutter 17, the rotation of the holding drum 2 is stopped (FIG. 4-1), and then the cutter 17 exposes the photosensitive material. The material 3 is cut (Fig. 4-2).

As a result, the black damaged portion of the photosensitive material 3 is stored in the already-exposed photosensitive magazine 5.

This step is a process of removing the black loss portion, but it is a process that may be omitted from the point of automatically loading the photosensitive material. Therefore, it will be done as necessary, but the purpose of removing the black loss part is to store a large amount of photosensitive material in the already-exposed photosensitive magazine and to develop the unnecessary black loss part at the time of development. This is to prevent the developer from fatigue and shorten the developing time.
To do so, cut the black loss part in steps,
It is necessary to remove the black loss portion in the already-exposed photosensitive magazine 5 before starting the exposure scanning.

Step. Removal of the white loss portion In the above process, the loading of the photosensitive material 3 is temporarily finished, but
As can be seen from Fig. (3), the cut portion 3C of the photosensitive material 3
And a position 3D scanned by the laser beam 1 is a portion in which nothing is printed, that is, a so-called white loss portion, although it is a portion that can be exposed and scanned as the photosensitive material 3, which is very uneconomical.

Therefore, when the photosensitive material 3 is cut, the CPU 18 gives each control section an operation command to rewind the cutting section 3C to the vicinity of the feed roller 11 as shown in FIG. 5 (4), and the time chart () in FIG. The operation of each part is controlled as follows.

First, the solenoid 15 maintains the OFF state. The holding drum 2 rotates in the reverse feed direction. A driving force is also applied to the back tension roller 6 in the reverse feed direction. As a result, the photosensitive material 3 is fed in the reverse feeding direction without slack or meandering. On the way, the cutting portion 3 of the photosensitive material 3
When C passes through the passage detector 16, its signal (Fig. 4-1) is sent to the CPU 18, and after receiving the signal, the CPU 18 sends each of the photosensitive materials 3 in the reverse feed direction by a predetermined amount. Give a command to the control unit. Each section operates accordingly and stops when the cutting section 3C comes near the feed roller 11 shown in FIG. 5 (4).

When the automatic loading of the photosensitive material is completed as described above, the laser beam is used to perform exposure scanning, and characters and letters are printed on the photosensitive material.
Output the image. During the exposure scanning, the holding drum 2 rotates in the forward feeding direction, the back tension roller 6 is given a driving force in the backward feeding direction, and the occurrence of meandering and slack is prevented. In this way, as the printing proceeds, the photosensitive material is fed forward and stored in the already-exposed photosensitive magazine 5.

[Effects of the Invention] As described in detail above, according to the present invention, even if the photosensitive material is first preliminarily moved and, as a result, meandering or slack occurs, it can be absorbed by the rewinding process. After that, the light-sensitive material was moved again so that the light-sensitive material was properly set. As a result, even if the photosensitive material is automatically loaded, meandering and slack do not occur, and the black loss portion can be greatly reduced compared to the case of manually loading the photosensitive material, and the white loss portion is also minimized. It has a great effect that it can be suppressed and the printing quality can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 and 3 are views showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a view showing the outline of a general laser typesetting machine, FIG. 4 is a time chart, and FIG. 5 is a processing state during automatic loading. It is the figure which showed step by step. FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining the meandering state of the photosensitive material, and FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining the principle of the meandering removal of the photosensitive material. 1 ... Laser beam, 2 ... Holding drum 3 ... Photosensitive material, 4 ... Unexposed magazine, 5 ... Exposed magazine, 6 ... Back tension roller, 9 ... Guide, 11 ... Feed roller, 15 ... Solenoid, 16 ... Passage detector 17 ... Cutter, 18 ... CPU 19 ... Roller motor control unit 20 ... Drum motor control unit 21 ... Solenoid control unit

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A back tension applying means for applying a tension in a forward feeding direction or a backward feeding direction to the photosensitive material, which is arranged along a conveyance path of the photosensitive material from a non-photosensitive magazine to an already-exposed magazine, and an outer peripheral surface. The back tension includes a cylindrical holding drum that holds the photosensitive material with the position defining surface as a position defining surface, a feed roller that holds the photosensitive material between the holding drum, a passage detector, and a cutter. In a method for automatically loading a photosensitive material in which a photosensitive material is loaded between a roller, a holding drum, and a feed roller, in a state where the holding of the photosensitive material by the feed roller is released,
The holding drum and the back tension applying means are both rotated in the forward feeding direction of the photosensitive material to feed out the photosensitive material, and the passage detector detects the leading end portion of the photosensitive material and further moves it by a predetermined amount to move the photosensitive material of the already-exposed magazine. By stopping in front, the process of preliminarily setting the photosensitive material on the outer peripheral surface of the holding drum, and in the state where the holding of the photosensitive material by the feed roller is released,
The rotation of the holding drum is stopped, a driving force in the reverse feed direction is applied to the back tension applying means to move the photosensitive material in the reverse feed direction, and after a predetermined time has elapsed, the feed roller narrows the photosensitive material. By rewinding so as to eliminate meandering and slack between the back tension applying means and the feed roller by holding the holding material, the holding roller holds the photosensitive material in the forward feeding direction. By rotating the back tension applying means and applying a driving force in the reverse feeding direction to the back tension applying means, a predetermined amount of the photosensitive material is fed in the normal feeding direction, and then the feeding is stopped, and then the sensitive material is cut by the cutter. In the black loss part removing process described above, the holding roller holds the photosensitive material, and the holding drum is rotated in the reverse feeding direction. Given, an automatic loading process of the photosensitive material, characterized in that it comprises a Shiroson partial removal process was to rewind to the vicinity of the feed roller a cutting portion of the photosensitive material by the cutter, the during the automatic loading operation of the light-sensitive material.