Agfa-Gevaert Ag

Bernhard Knor

Bernd Payrhammer

Helmut Treiber

Gunter Findeis

Berthold Fergg

Ernst Biedermann

Horst Bickl

Hans-Jurgen Rauh

Helmut Wahl

A strip of originals is copied onto a band of copy material at high speed using a highly automated copier which measures the densities of the originals in the primary colors and calculates exposures from the densities. The calculated exposures for each original in each primary color are recorded. The band of exposed copy material is developed and the copies are evaluated. Unsatisfactory copies are marked. The band of copy material is subsequently cut into individual copies and the unsatisfactory copies, as well as the corresponding originals, are collected. These originals are recopied in a second copier which is far less sophisticated and expensive than the first copier. The exposures used to recopy an original are derived by applying correction factors to the recorded exposures for the original. By performing the recopying procedures, which are rather slow because they require manual operations, in a second copier, the output of the high speed copier can be maintained.

Copying method and arrangement for difficult-to-copy originals

An exposed and developed film strip having a series of frames is conveyed by a copying station via a pair of rolls driven by a motor. Two or more photoelectric sensors upstream of the copying station generate signals indicative of the transparency of the film strip. The sensors are located on a reference line which extends normal to the longitudinal direction of the film strip. The signals from the sensors are processed to yield processed signals which are representative of significant transparency changes. The processed signals are evaluated to determine the definition of each frame and thereby determine whether a frame is worth copying. In order to locate the frames, the processed signals derived from each sensor are delivered to a common AND gate. The gate emits a pulse when processed signals from all sensors arrive at the gate simultaneously. This is a strong indication that an edge of a frame is in register with the reference line on which the sensors are located. The presence of an edge may be verified by comparing the known length of a frame, or the known distance of separation between neighboring frames, with the distance travelled by the film strip during the time interval between detection of consecutive edges. The motor which advances the film strip is controlled in dependence upon the results of the evaluation of the processed signals and in dependence upon the pulses emitted by the AND gate.

Method and arrangement for evaluating a series of originals for copying

A strip of negatives is transported over a slit extending transverse to transport, and the image of successive slit-like elements of each original is projected onto the row of photosensitive zones of a CCD image sensor unit. A photodetector also receives the image of each slit-like element, either simultaneously with the CCD image sensor unit or earlier at a more upstream location, and generates an output signal indicating the average transparency of the whole slit-like image element. The average-transparency signal is used to control the clocking frequency of the clock signal which drives the CCD image sensor unit, either by changing the clocking frequency for each read-out of the image sensor unit or by changing the clocking frequency once per original, in the latter case a peak detector circuit being used to ascertain the transparency of the maximum transparency slit-like element of each original. The CCD image sensor unit may be of the type whose clock signal identically establishes the read-out rate of the photosensitive zones of the CCD and the charge-accumulation interval thereof, or may be of the type whose clock signal establishes the charge-accumulation interval without establishing the read-out rate.

Apparatus for selecting originals for copying

Light from a light source is transmitted through an original at a scanning station to a light detector. A rotating scanning disk located in the path of this light is provided with equiangularly spaced radial scanning slots. A light-blocking plate located between the light source and the scanning disk defines a scanning slot extending transverse to the transport direction of the original. Light passing through both the original and the transverse scanning slot is projected as a slot image onto the surface of the scanning disk. The radial slots and the transverse slot cooperate to define a scanning spot which sweeps across the original, and thereby performs one line-scan operation, as one radial slot sweeps across the slot image on the scanning disk. The angular span between adjoining radial slot is greater than that of the slot image so that, during intermediate intervals between successive line-scan operations, light transmitted through the original does not reach the light detector. During the intermediate time intervals, reference light from the light source is directed onto the light detector along a reference light path not passing through the original. An evaluating circuit receives both the signal produced by the light detector during a line-scan operation and the signal produced during the preceding or subsequent intermediate time interval, and in dependence upon the values of both signals produces a signal whose value indicates the density of the extreme-density scanned spot on the scanned original.

Determination of extreme density values of a transported strip of

Each original in a strip of such originals is scanned during longitudinal travel of the strip using a scanning spot which repeatedly traverses a stationary scan line extending transverse to the direction of strip travel. The scanning spot has a scanning speed such that the scanning spot travels from one to the other end of the stationary scan line in a time less than the time in which the strip travels a distance equal to the breadth of the scan line. The scanning spot which repeatedly traverses the scan line is generated using a light shield having a slit which delimits the scan line and a rotating disk having equiangularly spaced apertures which move through a stationary light beam passing through the moving strip of originals.

Growing community of inventors

Munich, Germany

Bernhard Knor