Agfa-gevaert Ag

Agfa-gebaert Aktiengesellschaft

Erich Nagel

Wolfgang Zahn

Bernd Payrhammer

Siegfried Bartel

Helmut Treiber

Gerhard Benker

Wilhelm Nitsch

Ernst Biedermann

Leonhard Huber

Peter Lermann

Herbert Wilsch

Christian Gotze

Rainer Turcke

Gunter Lammel

Friedrich Hujer

Wolfgang Viehrig

Adolf Fleck

Volker Weinert

Wolfgang Ermer

Hans-Joachim Vedder

Ulrich Klueter

Karl Dreher

Heinz Ludemann

Ferdinand Schaner

Reimund Muench

Heinz Kolbl

Horst Wildner

Karl-Heinz Wagner

Ernst Ismann

Franz Ziegler

Lothar Himmelsbach

Alfred Zwischenberger

Friedbert Freitag

Helmut Neudecker

Franz Kramer

An exposed and developed photographic film is moved through a copying machine between a fixedly mounted lower guide member and an upper guide member which is movable up and down away from and toward the lower guide member. The confronting surfaces of the guide members have raised portions which surround registering windows of the guide members and engage a film all the way around a film frame which is aligned with the windows when the film is brought to a halt. Once the imaging of the frame which is aligned with the windows is completed, several springs lift the upper guide member, and ports in the raised portions of the confronting surfaces discharge jets of compressed air which cause the film to levitate between the two guide members during advancement of the next film frame to a position of alignment with the windows. This reduces the likelihood of scratching of and/or other damage to the film during transport. The ports can receive compressed air without interruption or only while the upper guide member is lifted above and away from the lower guide member.

Apparatus for advancing, guiding and locating webs of photosensitive

A cassette for storage of a roll of convoluted web of photosensitive material which is to be fed to the copying station of a copying machine has a device for unwinding the web from the roll, rollers which advance selected lengths of the web into the copying station, and a mechanism which loosens or relaxes the web between the roll and the rollers so that the rollers need not overcome the inertia of the roll in order to advance selected lengths of the web from the housing of the cassette into the copying station. This can be achieved by driving the unwinding device and the rollers at different speeds so that the web forms a loop in the housing of the cassette between the outermost convolution of the roll and an outlet of the housing or by otherwise loosening the web between the roll and the outlet.

Cassette for supplying webs of photosensitive material to copying

A one-piece clip of flexible metallic plastic material has a first section which can be separably affixed to a belt conveyor, and an elongated slotted second section. A web of photosensitive material is caused to extend through the slot of the second section so that its leader is located at one side and the next-following portion of the web is located at the other side of the slot. The leader is then folded against the respective major surface of the second section, and the web is form-lockingly connected to the second section. The form-locking connection can be established by one or more pairs of complementary tooth-shaped protuberances which extend into the slot and penetrate into and through the folded portion of the web behind the leader, by securing the leader to the next-following portion of the web by a clamp in an enlarged window-like portion of the slot, or by bonding a small part of the leader to the next-following portion of the web in such window-like portion of the slot.

Method of and device for separably connecting webs of photosensitive

Apparatus for making prints of exposed and developed film frames on discrete sheets of photographic paper and for developing the sheets has a copying station for successive exposed and developed film frames and a printing station where a discrete sheet of photographic paper receives an image of the frame at the copying station. A platform at the printing station carries a turntable which can change (when necessary) the orientation of a sheet, e.g., through 90.degree., to thus properly position a larger or smaller sheet for reception of the image. The turntable can receive sheets which are severed from different webs of unexposed photographic material, and each such web has a different width. The turntable can attract a sheet by suction during turning and/or during exposure. Such turntable can cooperate with one or more conveyors to maintain a sheet at the printing station in a predetermined plane during imaging of a film frame.

Apparatus for making prints of exposed and developed photographic films

Strips of coherent, exposed and developed film frames are advanced past, and discrete frames are placed onto, a window at a monitoring station where successive increments of the film frames are monitored by a device having photocells forming at least one row which extends transversely of the path of advancement of strips. The monitoring device is at a standstill during advancement of strips but is transported past a discrete frame at the monitoring station. Such monitoring device can ascertain the density of film frames, and its photocells generate signals which are used to image the frames onto photographic paper.

Method of and apparatus for ascertaining the characteristics of shorter

Photographic prints which issue from the outlet of the dryer in a developing machine are gathered into stacks, and successive stacks are admitted into successive empty compartments between the outwardly extending partitions of a belt or chain conveyor. The conveyor is advanced in stepwise fashion, to move successive empty compartments to a station for reception of stacks, by a panel which receives motion from a crank drive in such a way that it constitutes an extension of a partition at the station and during a certain stage of movement of such partition behind the stack in the freshly filled compartment. This renders it possible to maintain in proper orientation stacks which are assembled of relatively small, medium-sized or large prints.

Apparatus for gathering and storing stacks of photographic prints

Successive exposed photographic films are connected, either individually or in groups of two or more, to discrete sheet-like leaders which are transported along an elongated first path extending through the baths and the dryer of a developing unit. The leaders are separated from the respective webs downstream of the developing unit but upstream of a copying unit for developed films, and the separated leaders are directed into a second path to be gathered in a receptacle. The separation involves severing the leading end of each web close behind the respective leader, and the thus separated webs are caused to continue to advance along the first path through a magazine and thence into the copying unit. The severing mechanism includes a stationary first knife and a second knife which is movable relative to the first knife between a first position in which an oncoming leader is free to enter the second path and a second position in which the knives cooperate to sever the leading end of the web behind the leader in the second path.

Apparatus for transporting exposed photographic films through and beyond

Apparatus for copying the images of selected frames on sections of exposed and developed roll films or of diapositives has a set of advancing rolls or a reciprocable pusher to move a film section or a diapositive from a discrete first portion of a first path into a second portion which terminates at the copying station, and thereupon from a first portion of a second path (such first portion is common to the second portion of the first path) into a discrete portion of the second path. A switching device is located at the junction of the first and second portions of the first path to prevent copied film sections or diapositives from reentering the first portion of the first path on their way away from the copying station. This renders it possible to introduce a fresh film section or a fresh diapositive into the first portion of the first path while a film section or a diapositive is located at the copying station or is on the way toward the discharge end of the second path.

Apparatus for reproducing the images on sections of exposed and

Apparatus for convoluting exposed and copied photographic films on the cores of takeup reels has an advancing mechanism which transports successive films along a given path so that the leaders of successive films can be engaged by the gripper of a pivotable arm serving to transfer the leader of the film in the path toward the peripheral surface of the core of an empty takeup reel. The reel has no flanges or is provided with a single flange carrying or adjacent a fixedly mounted or movable protuberance which defines with the peripheral surface of the core a gap for the leader of the film. Once the leader has entered the gap and the takeup reel is set in rotary motion, the film is wound onto the protuberance and is thus affixed to the core. The length of the protuberance is less than the axial length of the core but exceeds one-fourth of such axial length.

Apparatus for storing flexible webs on the cores of takeup reels

A photographic copying machine wherein the images of successive frames on a long roll of spliced-together exposed and developed customer films are copied while successive films are advanced stepwise from a supply reel on a first driven mandrel toward and is convoluted on a takeup reel on a second driven mandrel. The copying machine employs a third mandrel which can support a fresh roll in the plane of the roll on the first mandrel, and a fourth mandrel which can support an empty takeup reel in the plane of the rotating takeup reel. The leader of the fresh roll is located adjacent the film path ahead of the copying station and is automatically advanced into the range of an automatic attaching mechanism when the trailing end of the expiring roll has advanced beyond the copying station. The attaching mechanism secures the leader of the fresh roll to the core of the empty takeup reel, and the machine is then ready to make copies of frames forming part of the fresh roll. The filled takeup reel on the second mandrel is replaced with an empty takeup reel and a fresh roll is placed onto the first mandrel while the machine copies the frames of the roll which is supported by the third mandrel and is convoluted on the takeup reel on the fourth mandrel.

Apparatus for replacing rolls of customer films in copying machines

A photographic roller copying apparatus for processing films of different sizes includes a scanning device for determining a size of the film to be processed, an illuminating device, a film-supporting platform having at least one aperture adjustable to the size of the film to be processed by a pivotable plate provided on the illuminating device, and two projection systems interchangeably movable into a path of light from the illuminating device. One of the projection systems includes a pair of porroprisms for rotating the image of an original positioned in the image aperture by 90.degree..

Photographic roller copying apparatus

A photographic roller copier apparatus for photographing original copies having different side lengths onto a ribbon form copier material, the ribbon width corresponding to a desired copy size. The original copies have various formats and are provided in ribbon form, one format lying lengthwise in the ribbon direction and the other format perpendicular thereto. The apparatus consisting of a lens having an adjustable focal length so that from both formats of originals it is possible to make copies that are equal in size and that fill the width of the copier material ribbon, and that in the area of a picture gate the ribbon of originals is provided in a plane parallel to the lens axis. Between the picture gate end of the lens is provided a deflecting part which deflects the beams of light from the picture gate through 90.degree. into a lens. The picture gate with the ribbon of originals, the illuminating apparatus and corresponding film rollers is rotatable around the lens axis through 90.degree. to a smaller format position.

Photographic roller copier apparatus

Disc films are transported to, rotated at and transported away from the copying station of a copying machine by an apparatus having a first turntable which receives successive films from one or more supply magazines and delivers the films seriatim to a transferring unit which transfers successive films onto a second turntable that partly overlaps the first turntable. The second turntable delivers successive films to the copying station and, if necessary, to one or more additional treating stations where the films are rotated by discrete prime movers prior to returning into the range of the transferring unit. The latter transfers a film from the second onto the first turntable subsequent to each transfer of a film from the first onto the second turntable, and the first turntable delivers the thus returned films to one or more collecting magazines. The turntables are mounted at different levels and are indexed by discrete mechanisms so that vibratory and/or other strap movements of the first turntable are not communicated to films on the second turntable. The apparatus constitutes a module which can be installed in existing copying machines.

Apparatus for transporting developed disc films in copying machines

Apparatus for convoluting a web of photographic paper issuing from a copying machine onto a core of a cassette which is movable to a predetermined position with reference to the machine has an operating device which can deactivate the web catcher mechanism in the cassette in response to detection of adequate attachment of the leader of the web to the core. The catcher mechanism serves to guide the leader of the web into engagement with the core and is activated on movement of the cassette to its predetermined position. The circuit which monitors the engagement between the leader of the web and the core compares the peripheral speed of the core with that of a rotor which is installed in the machine and whose peripheral speed is lower than that of the core prior to completion of attachment of the web to the core. The operating device utilizes an electromagnet or an electric circuit whose condition is changed by the monitoring circuit when the attachment of the leader of the core is completed, and such change in condition initiates the deactivation of the catcher mechanism. The rotor advances the web toward the core during attachment of the leader to the core but is rotated by the web when the attachment is completed.

Apparatus for introducing strip-shaped material into cassettes or the

A copying machine admits a web of freshly exposed photographic paper directly into a cassette whose core engages and convolutes the web therearound. The progress of engagement between the leader of the web and the core is monitored by comparing the peripheral speed of the core with the peripheral speed of a rotor forming part of an advancing roll for the web and receiving torque from a variable-speed motor which also drives the core. The peripheral speed of the rotor increases when the leader of the web is adequately attached to the core, and this is detected by a circuit having first and second photoelectronic monitoring devices which respectively monitor the peripheral speeds of the rotor and the core. The signals which are generated by the monitoring devices are processed, and the processed signals are used to change the speed of the variable-speed motor, to deactivate a catcher mechanism which directs the leader of the web toward the core and assists in the establishment of adequate engagement between the leader and the core, to change the supply of energy to the motor as the diameter of convoluted web on the core increases, and/or to actuate an alarm device when the completion of attachment of the leader to the core is unduly delayed.

Growing community of inventors

Anzing, Germany

Erich Nagel