Photography – Fluid-treating apparatus – Heating – cooling – or temperature detecting
Reexamination Certificate
2000-11-03
2001-09-18
Rutledge, D (Department: 2851)
Photography
Fluid-treating apparatus
Heating, cooling, or temperature detecting
C396S579000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06290404
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to a processing method and system for photographic elements such as silver halide photographic elements, and particularly to the recovery and use of sources of heat within the processing machine as used for photographic processing purposes.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
It is desirable, especially with small scale dispersed photofinishing equipment or stand-alone equipment to reduce the heat consumption of the photographic processing machine. The benefit for the owner is lower operating costs and hence more profit per roll of film processed. Many processing machines in the marketplace today from large photofinishing machines to small microlabs have power saving features. The most prevalent is a standby mode for overnight periods, and periods of non-use. In this mode the chemical tank heaters are either switched off or operated at a lower temperature so that the tank can be returned to the processing temperature more quickly.
Heat from some sources within processing machines has been used to help perform other tasks within the machine. For example, a processing machine has been described in which at least one part of the heating section of a heat pump is utilized as a hot blower heating source of the drying section of the apparatus (JP 3266840A).
JP 9258405A describes an automated photographic processing apparatus in which waste liquid is evaporated and concentrated. Part of the heating air of a drying section is blown into the evaporator to accelerate the evaporation of the waste liquid.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,995,298 describes a photographic processing apparatus in which waste processing solutions are heated to evaporate them, the evaporated steam is condensed, providing heat to assist the drying of the photographic materials.
Despite these methods of saving heat, there remains the need to improve the recovery and reuse of heat by photographic processing machines. For example, heat that can be useful for photographic processing is often lost from several sources in the machine.
This invention describes processing machine designs that improve the recovery and reuse of heat by the machines where loss of heat from the processing machine is minimized.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide for a system and method in which warm air from at least a dryer used to dry processed photographic materials in the processing machine is used to provide heat to other components of the processor that require heat. These other components may include the chemical supply cartridges, a chemical heating module (if present) used to heat selected finite volumes of processing solutions prior to use in the processing machine, a hot air chamber (if present) within which the processing of photographic materials takes place, or a heat exchanger to provide heat to other components of the processing machine.
Materials with a high heat capacity (refractory materials such as those used in electric storage heaters) can be used in the processing machine to store heat for use at another time.
Heat from components of the processing machine that generate heat as a by-product of their operation can be stored in refractory materials for heat storage or conveyed and used to help keep other processor components warm that are required to be warm or hot during photographic processing. Such by-product heat generating components include transformers, power supplies, pumps, dryers, and circuit boards.
Less heat is required to process photographic material in small scale processors such as the processor described in GB 0023091.2. Small scale processors tend to use very small volumes of processing solutions to process photographic material. For example, in some cases, only a few milliliters of solution is used. Therefore, the heat required to bring the solution to processing temperature is very small. A significant proportion of the heat for such small volumes can be provided by other sources of heat in the equipment. Some small scale processors also tend to have a hot air enclosure to heat it. Prevention of heat loss by lagging (insulating) prevents the wasteful loss of heat. The lower heat capacity of air compared to water means that less heat is required to reach the desired temperature for the processing of photographic material.
The present invention therefore relates to a processing arrangement which comprises: a processor adapted to process photographic material, with the processor being located in a first enclosure; a dryer adapted to dry the processed photographic material; a first heated air delivery system adapted to provide a first heated air from the dryer to the first enclosure; operational components adapted to be used during at least a processing of the photographic material, with the operational components producing a second heated air as a by-product of their operation; and a second heated air delivery system adapted to provide the second heated air to the first enclosure.
The present invention further relates to a method of recovering and/or reusing heat generated as a by-product of processing photographic material which comprises: introducing a first heated air from a dryer which is adapted to dry processed photographic material into a first enclosure, with the first enclosure including at least a processor for processing the photographic material; and introducing a second heated air into the first enclosure, with the second heated air being produced as a by-product of an operation of at least one of electrical, mechanical or electro-mechanical components which are operative for at least the processing of the photographic material.
The present invention further relates to a processing arrangement which comprises: a processor adapted to process photographic material; a dryer adapted to dry the processed photographic material; and a heated air delivery system adapted to provide heated air from the dryer to at least an enclosure which includes the processor.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3995298 (1976-11-01), Vandeputte et al.
patent: 4791444 (1988-12-01), Fujimoto et al.
patent: 5526087 (1996-06-01), Suzuki et al.
patent: 5721999 (1998-02-01), Calisto et al.
patent: 5739896 (1998-04-01), Patton et al.
patent: 3-266840 (1991-11-01), None
patent: 9-258405 (1997-10-01), None
Earle Anthony
Twist Peter J.
Wildman Nigel R.
Eastman Kodak Company
Novais David A.
Rutledge D
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