And Scrub Brush, Wipers, Squeegee, Or Squeeze Rollers Patents (Class 396/614)
  • Patent number: 7306384
    Abstract: A processing apparatus for a lithographic printing plate, which has a photosensitive material coated thereon and has an image formed with an FM screen or a high definition AM screen, by a developing part and a rinsing part in this order, in which a concavo-convex part or grooves are provided on a lower roller of a pair of feeding roller at a feeding port of the rinsing part.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 2005
    Date of Patent: December 11, 2007
    Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation
    Inventors: Keiichi Adachi, Hisao Kanzaki
  • Patent number: 7168866
    Abstract: A washing bath in a photographic paper processor has plural washing chambers for washing photographic paper with washing water by passage of the photographic paper. Plural cell units are coupled with one another vertically by a modular structure. Each of the cell units has one of the washing chambers. A sealing medium of silicone rubber keeps a cell connection portion between the cell units in a liquid-tight state. A blade mechanism is secured to a panel constituting the cell units, allows the photographic paper to pass between the washing chambers, and blocks passage of the washing water. A transporting rack transports the photographic paper serially to pass the washing chambers. The cell connection portion includes a connection surface, disposed to extend horizontally, and separable for removal of the cell units in the vertical direction. The sealing medium is secured to one of two cell units being coupled.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2004
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2007
    Assignee: Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Koji Itoh
  • Patent number: 6655860
    Abstract: A brush roller is structured such that a web body having wire members is wound in a helical manner around a roller main body to which an axial end member is mounted. A fastening member is mounted to a rotary shaft of the axial end member, and one end of the web body is fixed to a holding member which is arranged between the fastening member and the axial end member so as to freely rotate relatively. The holding member relatively rotates in a winding direction due to an urging force of a torsional coil spring when elongation occurs in the web body, thereby preventing slack from occurring in the web body.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 2001
    Date of Patent: December 2, 2003
    Assignee: Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Ryoei Nozawa, Hideto Yamamoto, Shinichi Matsuda
  • Patent number: 6648524
    Abstract: A device for removing moisture from individual sheets of a photographic material has a pair of transport rollers at the incoming side and another pair of transport rollers at the exit side of the device. Arranged between the roller pairs is a squeeze-out surface with a wiper blade set against the squeeze-out surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 19, 2002
    Date of Patent: November 18, 2003
    Assignee: Agfa-Gevaert Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Wilfried Hehn, Ernst Schweiger, Stefan Huber
  • Patent number: 6547461
    Abstract: In a photosensitive material processing apparatus of the present invention, a brush roller used in a pre-water-washing section and a developing section is formed by winding a slender band wherein bristles are woven into a knitted fabric onto the peripheral surface of a roller which is a core member. This makes it possible to arrange the bristles closely and uniformly on the whole of the peripheral surface of the roller. Therefore, the brush roller can be applied to a photopolymer plate, which uses a non-polymerizable layer as a photosensitive layer and requires strong rubbing without causing brushing unevenness.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2000
    Date of Patent: April 15, 2003
    Assignee: Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shinichi Matsuda, Kenji Inoue
  • Patent number: 6435740
    Abstract: In a shutter facing an aperture portion in a partition plate in a photosensitive material processing device, a blocking member, formed substantially in a semicircular cylindrical shape, is placed by the rotation of a shaft between blades thereby closing the aperture portion. The opening between the blades is opened by rotating the blocking member integrally with the shaft so that a photosensitive material can pass through. Multi-leveled surfaces are formed on the top surface of a guide plate. Aperture portions for mounting rollers with adaptors are formed in an alternating pattern on the surfaces. A plurality of protruding guide ribs are provided extending across the surfaces. A plurality of brush roller parameters are adjusted so that a winding mark index defined by the parameters falls within a predetermined range. Rollers are washed when a finisher control system is restarted after an unforeseen long stoppage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 9, 2000
    Date of Patent: August 20, 2002
    Assignee: Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Ryoei Nozawa, Toshihiro Suya, Hideto Yamamoto, Takayuki Iwamoto, Shinichi Matsuda
  • Patent number: 6076980
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for processing a photosensitive material. The apparatus includes a narrow processing channel through which a photosensitive material passes. A drive mechanism for transporting of the photosensitive material through the processing channel, and a scrubbing roller which extends across at least a portion of the photosensitive material passing through the processing channel. The scrubbing roller is positioned such that it contacts the photosensitive material passing thereby and is rotated in the opposite direction to the direction of travel of the photosensitive material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 1998
    Date of Patent: June 20, 2000
    Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
    Inventors: Ralph L. Piccinino, Jr., Kevin H. Blakely, Ross T. Fortunato
  • Patent number: 6068414
    Abstract: The roller (20) comprises a main body member (31), a shaft (46) fixed to the main body member (31) and extending from one end thereof, and an end member (34) in contact with the main body member (31), characterised in that the end member (34) is mounted on the shaft (46) in a replaceable manner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 19, 1998
    Date of Patent: May 30, 2000
    Assignee: Agfa-Gevaert
    Inventors: Bart Verhoest, Fran.cedilla.ois Joos
  • Patent number: 5960226
    Abstract: The roller comprises a core (56) having an elastomeric covering which comprises an outer exposed region (60) and an intermediate region (58) positioned between the outer region (60) and the core (56). The outer region (60) has a thickness which decreases towards each end of the roller and the intermediate region (58) has a thickness which increases towards each end of the roller. When associated with another such roller to form a nip in an apparatus for wet processing sheet materials, carry-over is reduced, leakage when no sheet material is passing through the nip is reduced, and the risk of physical damage to the sheet material is reduced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 23, 1998
    Date of Patent: September 28, 1999
    Assignee: Agfa-Gevaert
    Inventors: Ludo Van Schepdael, Bart Verhoest
  • Patent number: 5905924
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a replaceable coating cartridge and a method of coating at least one surface of a photosensitive material using the replaceable coating cartridge. The method and apparatus can be used in a photographic processing device, and the apparatus can be built into an existing or new photographic processor or added on as an accessory. The method and apparatus are utilized to apply a viscous solution to at least one surface of processed photosensitive materials prior to drying in a manner that allows the solution to be uniformly applied to the at least one surface at a specific thickness. The viscous solution after drying functions as a protective coating which can protect the processed photosensitive material against scratches and moisture.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 6, 1997
    Date of Patent: May 18, 1999
    Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
    Inventors: David L. Patton, Kevin M. O'Connor, Anne E. Bohan, Ralph L. Piccinino, Jr.
  • Patent number: 5884115
    Abstract: A first roller, which contacts a photographic printing paper with the first roller being formed longer than the width of the photographic printing paper, is disposed at the conveying direction downstream side of the photographic printing paper with respect to a developing tank. A second roller, which contacts the photographic printing paper with the second roller being formed shorter than or equal to the width of the photographic printing paper, is disposed at a position at which the photographic printing paper can be nipped by the first and second rollers. The first and second rollers form squeeze rollers. Because the clearance between the sides of the squeeze rollers in the widthwise direction of the photographic printing paper is wide, the squeezed processing solution conveyed from the clearance to the downstream side of the photographic printing paper is small.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 1998
    Date of Patent: March 16, 1999
    Assignee: Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Atsushi Maruhashi
  • Patent number: 5834156
    Abstract: A method for processing a photosensitive material characterized in that an exposed photosensitive material is subjected to dip coating with a processing solution, according to which there are no problems encountered in plate making by the conventional dip developing method and coating developing method, rapid processing can be attained, maintenance is easy, less waste processing solution is produced, and lithographic printing plates on which uniform print images can be formed from the top end portion thereof by silver complex diffusion transfer process, and an apparatus used for the processing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 1997
    Date of Patent: November 10, 1998
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Papers Mills Limited
    Inventors: Jun Urasaki, Toshiyuki Morito, Masahiko Saikawa, Yoshikazu Takano, Eiji Kanada
  • Patent number: 5805949
    Abstract: A photosensitive material processing apparatus in which a pair of rollers respectively having water absorbing surface layers is disposed downstream of a washing processing section and the rotating shafts of said rollers are urged in the directions in which said rollers approach each other, wherein the thickness of said water absorbing surface layer of at least one roller of said rollers gradually decreases toward end portions of the at least one roller. In this way, since the thickness of the water absorbing surface layer of the at least one roller gradually decreases toward the end portions of said at least one roller, a gap is prevented from occurring between said water absorbing surface layer and said photosensitive material at the central portions of the rollers due to the flexing of the rollers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 29, 1996
    Date of Patent: September 8, 1998
    Assignee: Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Ryouei Nozawa, Kazuyuki Kagawa, Koji Tashiro, Kazuyuki Akiyama
  • Patent number: 5745816
    Abstract: A roller, for use in a photographic sheet material processing apparatus, comprises a core (32) provided with a covering of relatively soft material (34). The roller has a length (L) of from 0.4 to 2.0 m. The core has a maximum diameter (D) of less than 0.04*L m. The roller is characterised by having a deflection as measured by a specific test and a weight (W) below levels defined by a specified boundary condition formulae (1) & (2). Rollers satisfying this condition are characterised in that the core is formed of a composite material comprising fibers and a resin matrix. Such rollers have a relatively small diameter, are light and yet still have sufficient stiffness to avoid substantial wrinkling of the sheet material in the apparatus and to satisfy the requirements of high processing quality.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 1996
    Date of Patent: April 28, 1998
    Assignee: Agfa-Gevaert N.V.
    Inventors: Bartholomeus Verlinden, Bart Verhoest, Jan Claes, Ludo Van Schepdael
  • Patent number: 5689750
    Abstract: An apparatus for the wet processing of photographic sheet material comprises at least one treatment vessel (12, 12', 12") having upper and lower openings (17, 18), one of the openings (17) constituting a sheet material inlet and the other of the openings (18) constituting a sheet material outlet, the inlet and outlet defining there-between a substantially vertical sheet material path (20) through the vessel. The vessel comprises a rotatable roller (28) biased towards a reaction surface (30) to define a roller nip (36) there-between through which the sheet material path extends and associated with sealing means (38) to retain treatment liquid (24) in the vessel (12). The apparatus is characterised in that the roller (28) comprises a core (32) carrying a covering (34) of elastomeric material, the ratio (.phi./L) of the maximum diameter (.phi.) of the elastomeric material covering to the length (L) thereof being at least 0.012.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 7, 1996
    Date of Patent: November 18, 1997
    Assignee: Agfa-Gevaert N.V.
    Inventors: Bartholomeus Verlinden, Marc De Niel, Bart Verhoest