JPH0697337B2 - Replenisher replenishing method for automatic processor - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a replenisher replenishing method for an automatic developing machine, and in particular, for replenishing a low activity replenisher suitable for recovering deterioration of the developer due to air. The present invention relates to a replenisher replenishing method for an automatic processor.

[Conventional technology]

When developing a light-sensitive material in high contrast, for example, a lith developer may be used. This lith developer contains hydroquinone as a developing agent, and a sulfite which is a preservative is used in the form of an adduct with formaldehyde so as not to impair the infectious developability thereof, and the concentration of free sulfite ion is made extremely low. Therefore, the lith developer has a serious drawback that it is extremely susceptible to air oxidation and cannot be stored for more than 3 days.

A method using a hydrazine derivative is known as a method of using a stable developing solution which is less susceptible to air oxidation. According to this method, since a high concentration of sulfite can be added to the developing solution, the stability of the developing solution against air oxidation is dramatically improved as compared with the lith developing solution. However, in the method using this hydrazine derivative, the pH of the developer is set higher than the pH of the usual lith developer, so that the pH value tends to fluctuate, and variations in the pH value cause variations in the photographic characteristics. There is a problem that it is easy.

On the other hand, attempts have been made to stabilize the developing solution by improving the method of replenishing the developing solution. However, all cases where the replenishment method is improved are limited to the case of the lith developer, and therefore, the time-dependent fatigue (deterioration due to oxidation), the processing fatigue (deterioration due to development), etc. of the replenishment method are taken into consideration. However, there is no sufficient replenishing method for stably processing a silver halide photographic material containing a hydrazine derivative for a long time by using an automatic processor.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

For example, in a high-contrast system using hydrazine (a system having a γ value of 10 or more), the liquid activity is increased by aerial oxidation of the developer, resulting in increased sensitivity and generation of black spots. In order to prevent this, in the case of automatic development processing, the liquid activity of the replenisher is made lower than that of the development starter. However, when the processing amount of the light-sensitive material per unit time increases, the replenishing amount of the low-activity replenishing liquid increases accordingly, so that the liquid activity gradually decreases.

In consideration of the above facts, the present invention replenishes the replenisher by changing the active state of the replenisher according to the fatigue pattern of the developer based on the processing state of the light-sensitive material, and the difference in replenishment amount based on the difference from the actual state. In consideration of the difference in the replenisher in the current (n-1) th processing state, the correction is made to reduce the error, and the photosensitive material can be stably processed at any time during the operation time. It is an object to obtain a replenisher replenishing method for an automatic developing machine.

[Means for solving problems]

The replenisher replenishing method for an automatic processor according to the present invention is a low activity replenisher for recovering both deterioration due to oxidation of a developer and deterioration depending on processing, and a method for recovering only deterioration depending on processing. When the active replenisher is used and the operation is stopped once, the n-th (n is an integer) when it is repeated a plurality of times, first, the low activity replenisher is replenished to the developer according to the processing amount. , When the replenishment amount reaches the n-th target replenishment amount obtained by calculation, when replenishing by switching to the active replenisher, a fixed amount of low activity replenishment determined based on standard operating conditions The amount of liquid is the temporary replenishment amount, the amount of low activity replenisher liquid that has been actually replenished is the actual replenishment amount, and the value of the low activity replenisher liquid that should have been originally replenished is calculated from the operating time and stop time. The replenishment amount, then the nth
A value obtained by adding the value obtained by subtracting the actual replenishment amount for the (n-1) th time from the true replenishment amount for the -1st time to the target replenishment amount for the (n-1) th time,
A replenisher replenishing method for an automatic developing machine, which is controlled so that the target replenisher of the nth low activity replenisher is controlled, wherein the calculated target replenisher of the nth low activity replenisher is a temporary replenisher. If it exceeds the above, the difference is replenished before processing the n-th photosensitive material, and the target replenishment amount of the n-th low activity replenisher is set to the same value as the temporary replenishment amount. Is characterized by.

The use of a low activity replenisher is to correct the deterioration of the developing solution due to oxidation and the rise of pH.
That is, the increase in pH caused by deterioration due to oxidation is much larger than the decrease in pH due to development processing.
A low activity replenisher is used to correct this.

In the present invention, the low-activity replenisher means that the photographic sensitivity when a silver halide photographic light-sensitive material containing a hydrazine derivative is developed under a certain condition is more than the photographic sensitivity when the development processing is performed using a development starter. It means low. Here, the photographic sensitivity is represented by the reciprocal of the exposure amount that gives a blackening density of 1.5. At this time, low photographic sensitivity means that the sensitivity value is 95
% Means less than or equal to%.

As the low activity replenisher used in the present invention, any one can be used as long as it has a low activity as compared with the development starter. Specifically, a solution having a lower pH than the development starter, a solution obtained by diluting the development starter with water, a solution containing more organic antifoggant than the development starter, and a developing starter containing more developer. Less liquid, etc. can be mentioned.

Here, the difference in pH is preferably 0.05 to 0.2.
When diluted with water, the ratio of diluted water / development starter solution is 0.05-0.
It is preferably 2. The difference in the content of the organic antifoggant is preferably 20% to 50%.

Among them, the method of using a development starter solution diluted with water as the low activity replenisher is particularly preferable because the method of replenishing the developer is simple.

In the present invention, the total amount of the low-activity replenisher replenished per a certain unit time is almost determined by the length of the unit time. , The amount of developing solution, the type of photosensitive material, etc. However, if such developing conditions are determined, the total replenishment amount suitable for the conditions can be determined in advance. That is, if the treatment is performed under predetermined standard operating conditions, it is possible to replenish the total amount of the low activity replenisher liquid replenished per fixed unit time without excess or deficiency.

Here, the actual development conditions, such as operating time, stop time,
The amount of photosensitive material to be processed is not constant. for that reason,
It is necessary to change the replenishment amount according to the changed conditions.

Therefore, for each replenishment calculation (for example, once every 24 hours, if it is started and stopped, it is once a day.), The minimum required amount of low activity replenisher is calculated, and the next replenishment amount is determined. To do. Then, even if there is a change in each of the above conditions, it is possible to eliminate excess or deficiency (MDR).

That is, the target value of the low activity replenisher volume for the day before operation is set as the target replenishment rate (hereinafter referred to as the target MDR), and the fixed amount of the low activity replenisher volume determined based on standard operating conditions is temporarily replenished. Volume (hereinafter referred to as “temporary MDR”), the actual replenishment volume of the low-activity replenishment fluid is the actual replenishment volume, and the value obtained by calculation of the low-activity replenishment fluid volume that should have been replenished at the end of operation is the true replenishment. Assuming that the amount (referred to as true MDR), first, a value obtained by subtracting the value obtained by subtracting the actual replenishment amount at the (n-1) th time from the (n-1) th true MDR is added to the (n-1) th target MDR. The target MDR of the low activity replenisher for the second time is controlled.

From this, the excess / deficiency amount of the low activity replenisher solution including the history up to the (n-1) th day including the nth to 2nd day can be known. That is, the history up to the (n-1) th time can be determined by comparing the provisional MDR with the nth target MDR.

Therefore, in the case of [temporary MDR> nth target MDR], it indicates that the replenishment amount of the low activity replenisher until the nth time is excessive. Since the excess cannot be dealt with, the target MDR obtained by the above calculation is set as the n-th target MDR.

Next, in the case of [target MDR on the nth day> temporary MDR], the nth −
It shows that the replenishment amount of the low activity replenisher solution by 1 day is insufficient. Since the deficiency can be dealt with by replenishment, if the deficiency (target MDR on the nth day-temporary MDR) is replenished, the replenishment amount of the low activity replenisher until the n-1th day becomes a regular amount. . Also, after replenishment, the target can be reduced accordingly.
The n-th target MDR becomes equal to the temporary MDR. The fact that there is no difference between the provisional MDR and the target MDR indicates that the replenishment amount of the low activity replenisher solution up to the previous time (before the (n-1) th time) is normal.

Thus, by considering the history of the replenishment amount of the low activity replenisher until the n-1th day including the n-2th time and before,
Compared to simply increasing or decreasing the difference between the true MDR and the actual replenishment amount only for the (n-1) th time, it is possible to prevent excessive replenishment liquid replenishment, and there is no problem that causes shortage and deteriorates quality. Therefore, the error can be reduced and appropriate processing can be performed.

The provisional MDR is calculated as a fixed amount, but if the type of automatic processor, the type of low-activity replenisher or developer, the volume in the processing solution tank, etc. changes, it will be constant for each hardware configuration difference. It goes without saying that the amount is different. Therefore, when defining this provisional MDR, "the amount required to correct the maximum permissible variation in liquid sensitivity under general (standard) development conditions"
Can be said.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows an automatic developing machine 10 to which a replenisher replenishing method according to an embodiment of the present invention can be applied.

The automatic processor 10 according to the present embodiment has a function of developing an untreated film, a function of defining, a function of washing with water, a function of drying,
Is equipped with.

The automatic processor 10 is provided with a housing 12. This case
An insertion stand 14 for inserting an unprocessed film is arranged on the upper side of the front part of 12, and a film stocker 16 for storing the processed film is arranged on the upper side of the rear part. A detector 80 for detecting passage of the film is attached in the vicinity of the insertion opening of the unprocessed film of the housing 12 to which the insertion table 14 is attached.

A plurality of the detectors 80 are arranged in the vicinity of the film insertion opening so that a plurality of light emitting elements and light receiving elements face each other along the film width direction. Each light receiving element is turned on and off according to the width of the inserted film and outputs a signal based on the width of the film. The detector 80 may be a type of detector that is turned on and off when the light receiving element receives the light of the light emitting element reflected by the film when the film is inserted.

Inside the housing 12, a developing tank 18, a fixing tank 20, a water washing tank 22, and a drying section 24 are sequentially arranged. Further, a replenishing device 28, a circulation device 30, and a control unit 34 are arranged inside the housing 12.

Developing tank 18 and fixing tank 20 arranged in the order of film processing
A plurality of guide rollers 18A, 20A, 22A, 24A for moving the untreated film are arranged in the washing tank 22 and the drying section 24. Multiple guide rollers 18A, 20A, 22A, 24A
Forms a transport path along which the film is transported, and the rotation of this roller transports the film.

As shown in detail in FIG. 2 (A), the circulation device 30 arranged inside the housing 12 includes a developer filter 36 and a heat exchanger 38.
And a circulation pump 40. The developing tank 18 and the circulation pump 40 are connected by a pipe 42, and the developing solution filter 36 and the developing tank 18 are connected by a heat exchanger 38.

As shown in FIGS. 2 (B) and 3, the replenishing device 28 includes a replenishing tank 44 in which a replenishing solution is stored, a diluting water tank 45 in which diluted water for diluting the replenishing solution is stored, and a bellows type pump 46. , 47, and motors 48, 49.

The bellows type pump 46 for supplying the replenishing liquid is composed of a bellows 46A that is expandable and contractible, a pipe line 64, and a replenishing liquid suction portion 50. The bellows type pumps are provided so as to supply the diluting water and the replenishing liquid to the developing tanks. When diluting water is supplied, the replenishing liquid suction part 50 becomes the diluting water suction part 51.

One end of the bellows 46A is connected so as to interlock with a connecting rod 52 that constitutes a crank mechanism, and the other end of the bellows 46A is filled with a replenisher in a replenisher or a diluting water filled in a replenisher tank 44 via a pipe 64. It is connected to 50 or the diluted water suction part 51.
One end of the connecting rod 52 is rotatably supported by an eccentric shaft 54A fixed at a position eccentric from the center of a rotary plate 54 attached to an output shaft 48A of the motor 48. The bellows pump 47 for supplying diluted water has the same structure.

As shown in FIG. 4, ball-shaped check valves 58, 60 are housed inside the replenisher liquid suction portion 50 which is placed in the replenisher liquid filled in the replenisher tank 44. The check valve 58 is stored so as to open and close the suction port 62, and the check valve 60 is stored so as to open and close a pipe line 68 that connects the pipe line 64 and the pipe line 66. The diluted water tank 45 has the same structure.

As shown in FIG. 1, the controller 34 includes a CPU 78, an input port 70, an output port 72, a ROM 74 and a RAM 76. Further, the control unit 34 includes a counter 75 and a counter 73.
Is connected, and the operating time and the downtime of the automatic processor 10 are measured. A detector 80 is connected to the input port 70. A pump 46 for replenishing replenishing liquid and a pump 47 for replenishing diluted water are connected to the output port 72.

Next, the operation of processing the unprocessed film of this embodiment will be described.

When the power of the automatic processor 10 is turned on, the unprocessed film is inserted from the insertion table 14 and the unprocessed film passes under the detector 80, the passage of the film is detected and the control unit 34
A signal is input to the input port of.

When the unprocessed film passes under the detector 80, the developing tank 18
The unprocessed film is guided to the bottom of the developing tank 18 through a film transport path formed by a plurality of guide rollers 18A arranged inside. The guide roller 18A arranged at the bottom of the guided film reverses the moving direction and conveys the film to the upper part of the developing tank. This allows the untreated film to pass through the developer. The unprocessed film passes through the developing tank 18 for development. The developed film is further guided to the fixing tank 20 through a film conveying path formed by a plurality of guide rollers 20A arranged in the fixing tank 20,
It is fixed. The film fixed in the fixing tank 20 is washed with water.
A plurality of guide rollers 22A arranged in 22 pass through a film conveying path to guide the film to a washing tank for washing. The washed film is dried by being guided by a plurality of guide rollers 24A and passing through the drying section 24,
Collected in the film stocker 16.

Further, the developing solution stored in the developing tank 18 is circulated by a circulation pump 40. During the circulation, the developing solution is purified by the processing solution filter, the temperature of the developing solution is adjusted by the heat exchanger, and the developing solution is circulated to the developing tank 18.

The replenisher replenished in the developing tank 18 is diluted with diluted water and replenished. When the deterioration of the developing solution due to development is corrected, the replenishing solution and the diluting water are replenished to the developing tank so that the ratio of the replenishing solution and the diluting water becomes 1: 1. When the developer is replenished to correct the deterioration due to air oxidation, replenish the developer tank so that the ratio of replenisher to diluted water is 4: 5. As shown in FIG. 1, the replenishing method is such that the replenishing liquid discharged from the replenishing liquid tank is supplied to the developing tank together with the diluting water discharged from the diluting water tank on the way. Has become.

The operation of the bellows type pump constituting the replenishing device 28 and the motor 48 will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4.

When the output shaft of the motor 48 rotates, the end portion of the connecting rod 52 that constitutes the crank mechanism, which is connected to the bellows 46A, linearly moves in the vertical direction to expand and contract the bellows 46A. When the bellows 46A contracts, the replenishing liquid stored inside the pump 46 and the pipe 64 acts on the check valve 58 to suck the suction port 62.
Block the valve and act on the replenisher stored in the conduit 68, and the check valve
66 is pushed vertically upward, and the replenisher is discharged from the conduit 66. Next, when the bellows 46A is expanded, the check valve 58 is sucked up vertically and moves, and the replenisher flows into the pipe line 68 from the suction port 62. The replenisher liquid discharged by repeating the above expansion and contraction is replenished to the developing tank 18 through the pipe 66. Similarly, diluted water is discharged from the diluted water tank to the pipe 66 by a bellows pump, mixed with a replenisher and replenished to the developing tank 18.

A method of replenishing the replenisher by controlling the replenishing device 28 as described above will be described with reference to the time chart shown in FIG. 5 and the flow chart shown in FIG. Here, "True MDR", "Target MDR", "Temporary MD" described below
“R” applies as defined above. Further, the n-1st time is the current time, and the nth time is the next time.

It should be noted that in FIG. 5 and FIG. 6, the value obtained by subtracting the actual replenishment amount from the true MDR (when the actual replenishment amount reaches the target MDR, the value obtained by subtracting the target MDR from the true MDR) is calculated as l ₁ Tentative
The value obtained by subtracting the target MDR from MDR is defined as l ₂ (above,
When the target MDR is less than the true MDR). On the other hand, when the target MDR is larger than the true MDR, the value obtained by subtracting the true MDR from the target MDR is defined as 1.

First, in step 100, it is determined whether or not the developing machine is operating, and if negative, this is repeated. When the result in step 100 is affirmative, the process proceeds to step 104.

In step 104, after calculating the true MDR of this time, step 10
At 6, the actual replenishment amount this time is compared with the target replenishment amount this time. Here, if the actual replenishment amount reaches the target replenishment amount, it is determined that the process is a large amount this time, and the process proceeds to step 108, and if it is less, the process proceeds to step 110.

In step 108, the target MDR and the true MDR are compared, and if the true MDR is larger than the target MDR, the true MDR and the target MDR are reached in step 114.
Difference l ₁ with the difference l ₂ between the tentative MDR and the target MDR is calculated at step 116.

Then, in step 118, this l ₁ and l ₂ are compared, and l ₁ > l ₂
In the case of, the process proceeds to step 120, the replenisher is replenished by the difference (l ₁ -l ₂ ), and the process proceeds to step 122. Step 122
Then, the target MDR is set as the temporary MDR and is set as the next target MDR (see graph A in FIG. 5).

If l ₁ ≤l ₂ in step 118, the process proceeds to step 126, in which l ₁ is added to the target MDR and the next target MDR is obtained. In this case, the replenisher is not replenished (see graph B in FIG. 5).
reference).

Here, when it is determined that the actual replenishment amount has not reached the target MDR in step 106, the actual replenishment amount and the true replenishment amount are compared in step 110 that has moved, and they are equal or the true MDR is If there is a large amount, the difference l ₁ between the true MDR and the replenishment amount is calculated in step 128, and then the process proceeds to step 116, and then to the above-mentioned steps 118, 120, and 122 (fifth step).
(See the graph C in FIG. 5), the process proceeds to steps 118 and 126 (see graph D in FIG. 5).

If the actual replenishment amount is larger than the true MDR at step 110, the process proceeds to step 130 and the difference between the actual replenishment amount and the true MDR is l.
Is calculated, and this l is subtracted from the target MDR in step 132 to obtain the next target MDR. Also in this case, the replenisher is not replenished (see graph E in FIG. 5).

If the target MDR is larger than the true MDR in step 108, the process proceeds to step 134, the difference 1 between the target MDR and the true MDR is calculated, and then the process proceeds to step 132 (see FIG. 5F).

As described above, the low-activity replenisher is determined by the aging pattern this time to determine whether or not to replenish it next time, and the replenishment amount is also calculated by the aging pattern. There is no significant difference in developing ability.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, the replenisher replenishing method for the automatic processor according to the present invention replenishes the replenisher by changing the active state of the replenisher according to the fatigue pattern of the developer over time based on the processing state of the photosensitive material, and The replenishment amount difference based on the difference from the actual value is corrected to reduce the error in consideration of the difference in the replenisher liquid in the current (n-1) th processing state, and at any time during the operation time. It has an excellent effect that a photosensitive material can be stably processed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing an automatic developing machine to which a replenisher replenishing method for an automatic developing machine according to the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 (A) is a piping diagram showing piping of a circulation device, and FIG. 2 (B). Is a piping diagram showing piping of a replenishing device, FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing an outline of a bellows pump, FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing a developing solution suction portion and a diluted water suction portion, and FIG. 5 is a replenishment amount and automatic development. FIG. 6 is an explanatory view showing the relationship between the operation of the machine and the stop time, and FIG. 6 is a flow chart of the present embodiment. 28 ... Replenishing device, 34 ... Control unit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A low-activity replenisher for recovering both deterioration due to oxidation of a developing solution and deterioration due to processing, and an active replenisher for recovering only deterioration due to processing are used to start and stop operations. N times when repeated multiple times
At the number of times (n is an integer), first, the low activity replenisher is replenished to the developer in accordance with the amount of processing, and when the replenishment amount reaches the n-th target replenishment amount calculated. When switching to the active replenisher and replenishing, the fixed amount of low active replenisher determined based on standard operating conditions is used as the temporary replenisher, and the amount of low active replenisher actually replenished is the actual replenisher. , The low replenishment solution amount that should have been originally replenished is the true replenishment amount calculated from the operating time and the stop time, and the true replenishment amount from the (n-1) th to the n-1th time. In the replenisher replenishing method of the automatic processor, the value obtained by adding the value obtained by subtracting the actual replenisher amount to the target replenisher amount of the (n-1) th time is set as the target replenisher amount of the low activity replenisher solution of the nth time. Therefore, the target replenishment amount of the n-th low activity replenisher solution calculated above is temporarily supplemented. If it exceeds the amount, the difference is replenished before processing the nth photosensitive material, and the target replenishment amount of the nth low activity replenisher is set to the same value as the temporary replenishment amount. A method of replenishing a replenisher for an automatic processor, comprising: