Winding – tensioning – or guiding – Unwinding – With supply coil replenishment
Patent
1995-03-07
1996-09-10
Darling, John P.
Winding, tensioning, or guiding
Unwinding
With supply coil replenishment
B65H 1910
Patent
active
055538088
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to the feeding of machines with strips and particularly machines having multiple feed magazines disposed on a turret to enable the strip of paper being used, and which comes from one of the magazines, to be changed automatically. More particularly, the strips used are photosensitive products such as paper and the machine is a photographic printer.
Photographic printers using loaders are well known. However, the loaders are installed manually on the machines and their weight limits the lengths of strip available in such loaders. Large-capacity loaders which cannot be moved manually have therefore been produced. Such loaders are described for example in WO 91/19222 and, between the loaders and the machine, an interface is used similar to the one described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,383,591.
High-output photographic printers also exist on the market, for example the KODAK CLAS 35 printer. In this type of machine, the photosensitive paper strip feed is obtained by means of loaders. The loaders are disposed on a turret so that the magazine used as a strip dispenser can be changed automatically. A splicing station enables the new strip to be connected to the strip already fed in during use. Since the operation of these machines is controlled by a computer, it has been easy to modify the operation provided in order to take maximum advantage of the capabilities of the machine. It is advantageous to dispose on the feed turret chargers fitted with strips of photosensitive paper of different qualities, for example matt or glossy, or having different grades. The computer automatically manages the feeding of the strips so as to match the type or quality of the strip to the order to be filled. To do this, the strip is cut during feeding, the turret is rotated so as to present another strip to the feed station, the strip of paper with the new quality is spliced on and the length of strip desired is delivered. This series of operations is repeated each time it is required to change the quality of the paper in order to produce the prints ordered.
It has been noted that generally great lengths of strips of photosensitive paper of a given quality are used, compared with the lengths of strips of photosensitive paper with the other qualities, and that it would be desirable to be able to use large-capacity loaders for this type of quality.
The aim of the invention is to provide a machine which resolves the above problems without losing the advantages in use provided by the machine. To this end, the machine comprises: a) an inlet slot for receiving a strip and directing it to a station where it is to be used; b) a feed device provided with a rotary turret able to receive several removable feed magazines containing rolls of material in strip form; c) a means for driving, towards the inlet slot, a strip coming from a given feed magazine; and d) a means for interrupting the feed of the strip for the purpose of changing the feed magazine used. It is characterised in that it also comprises an interfacing device arranged so as to connect the inlet slot to an external strip feed source, in that the said interfacing device comprises a guide path for the strip coming from the external source and in that the said guide path has a part able to rotate with the turret.
In the preferred embodiment according to the invention, for which photosensitive strips are used, the interfacing device comprises a first part for connecting the external source to the part of the path able to rotate with the turret when this path part is used, the said first part being able to tilt between a first position so as to provide a lightproof path during use and a second position situated outside the space defined by the removable magazines disposed on the turret when the latter rotates. The interfacing device comprises a means for returning the strip situated in the part able to rotate with the turret to the external source when use is made of the means for interrupting the feed of the strip coming from the external source.
Other characteristics and
REFERENCES:
patent: 3951023 (1976-04-01), Ashburner
patent: 4948060 (1990-08-01), Kurz et al.
patent: 4957247 (1990-09-01), Nakamura et al.
patent: 5107296 (1992-04-01), Ozawa et al.
patent: 5308005 (1994-05-01), Hutteman et al.
patent: 5383591 (1995-01-01), Thibert
Thibert Daniel G.
Vassos Alain A.
Bocchetti Mark G.
Darling John P.
Eastman Kodak Company
Ruoff Carl F.
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