PHOTOGRAPHIC APPARATUS AND METHOD

• US 3,647,441 A
• Filed: 03/06/1969
• Issued: 03/07/1972
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/1969
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Albert J. Bachelder
• Original Assignee: Albert J. Bachelder
• Inventors: Bachelder, Albert J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Torchin, Norman G.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Goodrow, John L.
• Application Number:
  US04/804,819
• Time in Patent Office: 1,097 Days
• Field of Search: 96/29,76 95/13
• US Class Current: 430/403
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 17/52 of the Land type

Abstract

A self-developing camera for use with a photographic film unit including a photosensitive sheet and a second sheet secured in face-to-face relation by external binding strips secured to the lateral margins of the sheets and adapted to be processed to produce a visible image by a liquid processing agent distributed between the sheets in a uniform thin layer at least coextensive with the exposed area of the photosensitive sheet. The camera includes a pair of juxtaposed pressure-applying rolls for distributing the processing liquid between the sheets, and one of the rolls includes annular grooves near its ends for receiving lateral edge portions of the binding strips during movement of the film unit between the rolls to relieve the pressure on the edge portions of the binding strips while the medial sections of the rolls engage the sheets and are spaced apart by engagement of the end sections of the rolls with the binding strips at the lateral edges of the film unit.

Claims

2. Photographic apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said one member is a cylindrical roller and said shallow recesses comprise annular grooves in the peripheral surface of said roller.

3. Photographic apparatus as defined in claim 2 wherein said means for moving said film unit include means for rotating said roller in engagement with said film unit to advance said film unit between said roller and the other of said members.

4. Photographic apparatus as defined in claim 3 wherein said other member comprises a roller having a substantially cylindrical peripheral surface.

5. Photographic apparatus as defined in claim 4 wherein said means for moving said film unit include means for rotating both of said rollers in engagement with a film unit to advance said film unit between said rollers in a direction parallel with the lateral edges of the exposed area of said film unit.

6. In a method of treating a photographic film unit including a photosensitive, image-recording sheet and a second sheet secured in face-to-face relation by binding strips secured around and to the lateral margins of said sheets, to produce a visible image in said film unit, an area of said photosensitive sheet intermediate said binding strips and extending thereto having been exposed to actinic radiation transmitted through one of said sheets to produce an image in said area of said photosensitive sheet and wherein a viscous liquid processing agent is introduced between said sheets adjacent a transverse edge of said exposed area, the improvement comprising:

distributing a viscous liquid processing agent between said sheets in a substantially uniform layer at least coextensive with said area and extending laterally beyond the edges thereof by moving said film unit lengthwise, beginning in the region of said viscous liquid, through a gap defined by substantially parallel portions of the surfaces of a pair of juxtaposed pressure-applying members resiliently biased toward one another, one of said surfaces including a pair of recesses spaced apart from one another by a distance slightly less than the width of said area and having a depth at least approximate equal to the thickness of said binding strips;

moving said film unit between and in engagement with said surfaces with said binding strips aligned with said recesses so that lateral edge portions of said binding strips located inwardly from the lateral edges of said film unit are located within said recesses and said pressure-applying members are spaced apart from one another by engagement of said surfaces of said members with said binding strips in the regions thereof immediately adjacent the lateral edges of said film unit.

7. In the method of treating a photographic film unit defined in claim 16, moving said film unit between said pressure-applying members with said second sheet located in contact with said one surface and portions of said binding strips secured to said second sheet located within said recesses.

8. In the method of treating a photographic film unit defined in claim 16 wherein said pressure-applying member providing said one surface is a roller, rotating said roller in contact with one of said sheets and said binding strips during movement of said film unit between said pressure-applying members.

9. In a method of producing a visible photographic image utilizing a film unit comprising a first sheet including a layer of a photosensitive image-recording medium and having generally parallel lateral edges, a second sheet at least laterally coextensive with said first sheet and arranged in face-to-face relation therewith with said layer of said image-recording medium innermost and binding strips secured to the outside of said sheets at the lateral margins thereof to retain said sheets in face-to-face relation, said binding strips having longitudinal edges extending substantially parallel with said lateral edges of said sheets and spaced inwardly therefrom toward one another to define the lateral edges of an area in which a visible image is formed between said sheets, said image-recording medium having been exposed to the action of light to produce an image in said area bounded at opposite sides by said longitudinal edges of said binding strips and wherein a quantity of a viscous liquid processing agent is introduced between said sheets adjacent a transverse edge of said area, the improvement comprising:

distributing said processing liquid between said sheets in a uniformly thin layer at least coextensive with said area and extending laterally beyond the lateral edges of said area by moving said film unit lengthwise relative to and between a pair of pressure-applying members having juxtaposed pressure-applying surfaces, one of which includes recesses spaced from one another by a distance slightly less than the spacing between said lateral edges of said area and each having a depth at least substantially equal to the thickness of said binding strips;

during movement of said film unit between said pressure-applying members, guiding said film unit so that portions of said members engage said binding elements adjacent said lateral edges of said film unit and are spaced apart by the combined thickness of said sheets and said binding strips and longitudinal edge portions of said binding elements are received within said recesses to permit the separation of said sheets within regions underlYing said portions of binding strips during movement of said film unit between said pressure-applying members; and

reacting said processing agent with said exposed image-recording medium to produce a visible image between said sheets extending at least to said lateral edges of said area.

10. In the method of producing a visible photographic image defined in claim 16, exposing said image-recording medium through said second sheet.

11. In the method of producing a visible photographic image defined in claim 16 adapted to utilize pressure-applying members in which the width of each of said recesses slightly exceeds the spacing between said longitudinal edges of said binding strips, guiding said film unit so that edge portions of said binding strips secured to said other sheet are received within said recesses during movement of said film unit between said pressure-applying members.

12. In the method of producing a visible photographic image defined in claim 11, exposing said image-recording medium by light transmitted through said second sheet.

13. In the method of producing a visible photographic image defined in claim 17, wherein said one pressure-applying member is a roller, said pressure-applying surface thereof is cylindrical, and said recesses of said cylindrical pressure-applying surface include recessed cylindrical surfaces having a radius differing from the first-mentioned cylindrical pressure-applying surface by approximately the thickness of said binding strips, rotating said roller in contact with one of said sheets during movement of said film unit between said pressure-applying members.