Radiation imagery chemistry: process – composition – or product th – Regenerating image processing composition – Developer
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-02
2002-08-27
Le, Hoa Van (Department: 1752)
Radiation imagery chemistry: process, composition, or product th
Regenerating image processing composition
Developer
C430S440000, C430S441000, C430S446000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06440652
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method for processing a silver halide light sensitive photographic material (hereinafter, also referred to as photographic material), a processing apparatus of the photographic material and a processing system of the photographic material; in particular, to a processing method of a silver halide light sensitive photographic material, thereby leading to superior reproducibility in high contrast images and improvement in staining in processing.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In the field of photographic arts, methods of processing surface latent image type silver halide photographic materials containing hydrazine derivatives with a stable hydroquinone-metol developer (so-called MQ developer) or hydroquinone-phenidone developer (PQ developer) have been proposed and put into practical use as a system for forming ultra-high contrast images to achieve superior reproduction of continuous tone images through half-tone dots or reproduction of line images. In these development systems, however, dihydroxybenzene developing agents have been employed, and the use of hydroquinone has met with some doubt due to its potential toxicity to human skins and is also disadvantageous in regard to ecological and environmental consideration.
Recently, ascorbic acid and its derivatives have received attentions as a developing agent from the ecological and environmental points of view. WO93/11,456 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,236,816 disclose a method of processing a silver halide photographic material containing a hydrazine compound by the use of ascorbic acid as a developing agent. In the practical running process, however, it was proved to be insufficient in lowering of contrast and reproducibility of the original, and it is therefore desired to solve such problems. As a result of studies of the inventors of the present invention, it was found that specifically, in cases when ascorbic acid or its derivatives are used as a developing agent and the processing amount of photographic material is small, the problems concerning lowering contrast, reproducibility of original, sensitivity and silver sludge are marked.
In photographic processing, further, reduction of processing effluents is desired from the environmental consideration and a technique for reducing replenishment of developer and fixer solutions is desired. However, it was further proved that a processing system at a lower replenishing rate causes excessively highconcentration of the processing solution (such as developing or fixing solution) in the tank of automatic processors as the processing amount per unit time is reduced, resulting in adverse effects in processing performance during developing and fixing, and improvements thereof are therefore desired.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for processing a silver halide photographic material and a processing apparatus by the use thereof, thereby enabling ascorbic acid and its derivatives to use as a developing agent and achieving superior reproducibility of originals, without reduction in photographic contrast and sensitivity and causing silver sludge, even when processed at a low replenishing rate or the processing amount is decreased.
The object of the present invention mentioned above can be accomplished by the following constitution:
1. A method for processing a silver halide light sensitive photographic material comprising the steps of:
(a) developing an exposed photographic material with a developer solution,
(b) fixing the developed photographic material with a fixer solution, and
(c) washing with water or stabilizing with a stabilizer solution the fixed photographic material, wherein the photographic material comprises a support and a silver halide emulsion layer, and the developer solution comprises a compound represented by formula (2) as a developing agent, and
wherein in step (a), a first developer replenishing solution exhibiting activity lower than that of a developer mother solution used at the start of processing is replenished, a first amount to be replenished with the first developer replenishing solution is predetermined in terms of volume per prescribed unit time, so that when the replenished amount of the first developer replenishing solution exceeds the first amount within the prescribed unit time, a second developer replenishing solution exhibiting activity higher than that of the first developer replenishing solution is replenished thereafter:
wherein R
1
and R
2
are each a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl group, a substituted or unsubstituted amino group, a substituted or unsubstituted alkoxy group, or a substituted or unsubstituted alkylthio group, provided that R
1
and R
2
may combine together with each other to form a ring; k is 0 or 1; when k is 1, X is —CO— or —CS—; and M
1
and M
2
are each a hydrogen atom or an alkali metal atom;
2. The processing method described in 1., wherein the second developer replenishing solution exhibits activity substantially equivalent to that of the developer mother solution used at the start of developing;
3. The processing method described in 1., wherein the silver halide photographic material comprises a compound represented by the following formula (1):
wherein A is an aryl group or a heterocyclic group containing an oxygen atom or a sulfur atom; G is —(CO)n—, sulfonyl group, sulfoxy group, —P(═O)R
22
—, or iminomethylene group, in which n is an integer of 1 or 2 and R
22
is an alkyl, alkenyl, alkynyl, aryl, alkoxy, alkenyloxy, alkynyloxy, aryloxy or amino group; A
1
and A
2
are both hydrogen atoms, or either of them is a hydrogen atom and the other is a substituted or unsubstituted alkylsulfonyl group or a substituted or unsubstituted acyl group; and R is a hydrogen atom or a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl, alkenyl, aryl, alkoxy, alkenyloxy, aryloxy, heterocyclic-oxy, amino or carbamoyl group or oxycarbonyl group;
4. The processing method described in 1., wherein in step (b), a first fixer replenishing solution having a fixing agent content less than that of a fixer mother solution used at the start of processing is replenished, a first amount to be replenished with the first fixer replenishing solution is predetermined in terms of volume per prescribed unit time, so that when the replenished amount of the first fixer replenishing solution exceeds the first amount-within the prescribed unit time, a second fixer replenishing solution having a fixing agent content more than the first fixer replenishing solution is replenished thereafter;
5. The processing method described in 1., wherein the second fixer replenishing solution has a fixing agent content substantially equivalent to that of the fixer mother solution used at the start of processing;
6. An apparatus for processing a silver halide light sensitive photographic material comprising:
a developing section to develop an exposed photographic material with a developing solution,
a fixing section to fix the developed photographic material with a fixer solution, and
a washing or stabilizing section to wash with water or to stabilize with a stabilizer solution the fixed photographic material,
wherein the apparatus further comprises:
a developer replenishing section to replenish a first developer replenishing solution exhibiting activity lower than that of a developer mother solution used at the start of processing to the developing section,
a memory section to memorize a predetermined first amount to be replenished with the first developer replenishing solution in terms of volume per prescribed unit time or a predetermined amount of the photographic material to be processed per prescribed unit time, and
a detecting section to detect the amount of the first developer replenishing solution replenished per prescribed unit time or an amount of the photographic material processed per prescribed unit time;
and wherein when the detecting section detects that the amount of the first developer replenishing solution replenished exceeds the predetermined first amount memori
Bierman, Muserlian and Lucas
Konica Corporation
Le Hoa Van
LandOfFree
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