Photocopying – Contact printing – Exposing on sensitized printing press plate or cylinder
Reexamination Certificate
2002-08-06
2004-11-30
Kim, Peter B. (Department: 2851)
Photocopying
Contact printing
Exposing on sensitized printing press plate or cylinder
C355S027000, C101S138000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06825917
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image exposure apparatus in which a sheet material, such as a photosensitive planographic printing plate, is exposed so that an image is formed thereon.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a printing plate which includes a support formed of a thin aluminum plate and a photosensitive layer formed on the support is used in printing. After an image has been formed on this printing plate by exposure, the exposed printing plate is subjected to a development processing, and a printing plate which is ready for printing is thereby formed.
In an image exposure apparatus which carries out image exposure on this printing plate, a plurality of printing plates are loaded in a cassette in a superposed manner. These printing plates are taken out from this cassette one at a time and are subjected to image exposure. Further, the size of the printing plate is selected so as to correspond to the size of a material to be printed. For this reason, in the image exposure apparatus, image exposure can be performed on printing plates having different sizes (for example, those in the range of 1030 mm (length)×950 mm (width) to 500 mm×400 mm, or the like). Furthermore, the image exposure apparatus is structured in such a manner that printing plates having various sizes are loaded into a cassette, and after a printing plate having a desired size has been taken out from the cassette, image exposure is carried out on the printing plate.
One type of the image exposure apparatus is structured such that a printing plate is made to closely contact the outer peripheral surface of a rotating drum. In this type of the image exposure apparatus, while sub-scanning is carried out by rotating the printing plate together with the rotating drum, image exposure is carried out on the printing plate by a light beam emitted from an exposure head which is disposed opposite to the rotating drum.
The support of the printing plate has a thickness of 0.3 mm and therefore is very thin, and the photosensitive layer is brittle. For this reason, when the printing plate is curved at a small curvature, cracks or the like are inevitably formed in the photosensitive layer. Accordingly, in the image exposure apparatus in which image exposure is carried out in such a manner that the printing plate is wound onto the outer peripheral surface of the rotating drum, the printing plate which has been taken out from the cassette needs to be conveyed such that, as far as possible, the printing plate is not curved.
For example, in a conventional image exposure apparatus
200
illustrated in
FIG. 12A
, cassette loading sections
206
A and
206
B are disposed adjacent to a recording section
204
which effects image exposure on a printing plate
202
. A plate-supplying conveyor
208
is disposed at the upper side of the cassette loading sections
206
A and
206
B. The plate-supplying conveyor
208
conveys, in a substantially horizontal manner, the printing plate
202
which is taken out from the cassettes
210
each loaded in the cassette loading sections
206
A or
206
B, and supplies the printing plate
202
to the recording section
204
.
A plate-discharging conveyor
212
is disposed above the plate-supplying conveyor
208
. The plate-discharging conveyor
212
conveys the printing plate
202
which has been taken out from the recording section
204
after completion of image exposure and sends it out to an automatic development apparatus
214
which is provided outside the image exposure apparatus
200
. The image exposure apparatus
200
is an inner spinner type in which the printing plate
202
is exposed while closely contacting the inner peripheral surface of a drum
216
.
In the image exposure apparatus
200
in
FIG. 12A
, by loading the cassettes
210
at a relatively gentle angle (at an angle close to 180°) and conveying the printing plate
202
substantially horizontally by the plate-supplying conveyor
208
, image exposure can be carried out while curving of the printing plate
202
is suppressed. Moreover, the height of the apparatus
200
can be made relatively low.
On the other hand, in an image exposure apparatus
220
shown in
FIG. 12B
, a cassette loading section
224
is provided adjacent to a recording section
222
. Cassettes
226
are disposed substantially upright at the cassette loading section
222
. Plate-supplying carriers
228
and a plate-discharging carrier
230
are provided so as to convey printing plates
202
in a substantially upright manner.
In the image exposure apparatus
220
in
FIG. 12B
, the printing plate
202
which has been pulled out upward from the cassette
226
is conveyed by the plate-supplying carrier
228
and supplied to the recording section
222
. Further, the printing plate
202
which has been subjected to image exposure is pulled upwards from the recording section
222
, and is held and discharged to the outside of the apparatus
220
by the plate-discharging carrier
230
. In this image exposure apparatus
220
, the printing plate
202
is wound onto the outer peripheral surface of a rotating drum
232
which is provided at the recording section
222
, and scanning exposure is effected on the printing plate
202
by rotating the printing plate
202
together with the rotating drum
232
.
This image exposure apparatus
220
is structured such that the cassettes
226
are loaded substantially upright in the cassette loading section
224
. Therefore, the installation space for the apparatus
220
can be made small.
In both the image exposure apparatuses
200
and
220
, the printing plate
202
is curved while image exposure is carried out, and is made straight when conveyed.
However, as in the image exposure apparatus
200
, in case of a structure in which the printing plate
202
is conveyed so as to be substantially horizontal, the height of the apparatus is low, but a considerably large installation space is necessary. Further, as in the image exposure apparatus
220
, in case of a structure in which the printing plate
202
is conveyed so as to be substantially upright, the installation space for the apparatus is relatively small, but the height of the apparatus is considerably high. Namely, there is a drawback in that both the conventional apparatuses are large.
Further, when the printing plate which has been subjected to image exposure is taken out from the recording section and is sent out to a device for the next process such as an automatic development device, the printing plate needs to be sent out at a speed which corresponds to the speed at which the printing plate is conveyed in the device for the next process. Therefore, a space in which the printing plate is temporarily stored after image exposure thereof is needed inside the image exposure apparatus. This storage space may be an obstacle to making the apparatus compact.
As a technique relating to the present invention, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 5-278843 discloses a printing plate conveying apparatus which connects a printing apparatus to a development apparatus. This apparatus includes a rotating section for rotating a printing plate on a horizontal surface, a belt conveying section for conveying the printing plate in a horizontal direction, and a roller conveying section for conveying the printing plate in an opposite horizontal direction. In order to make it possible to change the conveying direction by 90°, the structure of this apparatus is large and very complicated.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An aspect of the present invention is an image exposure apparatus for carrying out image exposure on a sheet material, comprising: a recording section which records an image on the sheet material by exposing the sheet material; an accommodating section which is disposed adjacent to the recording section and accommodates a plurality of sheet materials in such a manner that the plurality of sheet materials are inclined at a predetermined angle (&thgr;) relative to a horizontal plane; and a diverti
Fuji Photo Film Co. , Ltd.
Kim Peter B.
Sughrue & Mion, PLLC
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