Fuji Photo Film Company, Limited

Shigeru Yamaguchi

Yasunori Ichikawa

Chuzo Kobayashi

Hiroshi Ohnishi

Keizo Matsui

Noboru Higuchi

Hiroki Saito

Akira Kojima

Fumitaka Terai

Kimio Yukawa

Mineo Suyefuji

Kazuhiko Fujiwara

Akira Kato

Hirokazu Yuhki

Sadao Kumazawa

The present invention relates to a device for preparing a photographic liquid which is to be applied in the manufacture of a photographic photosensitive material wherein multiple layers of photographic liquids are applied simultaneously. The present invention has at least one chemical measuring station which measures various kinds of chemicals sent from chemical storage tanks and prepares a photographic liquid which is to be applied to a film, supplies the measured chemicals to a pot and a conveys the chemicals in the pot to a hopper from which the chemicals are supplied to a liquid preparation tank.

Preparation device for photographic liquid to be applied

A method of dissolving a powder material is disclosed in which the material is wholly dissolved and the existence of bubbles in the resultant solution is greatly minimized. An agitating blade stirs a liquid in an air-tight tank while the powder material is inserted into the liquid. The pressure is then reduced in the tank causing large bubbles to swell. The bubbles are destroyed by the agitating blade. The pressure reducing operation is then turned off so that the bubbles do not leave the tank through a pressure reduction port. The pressure reducing operation is then repeated a number of times to dissolve the powder material and to destroy bubbles.

Dissolving and deaerating method

In a coating method using a coating head having a coating solution supplying inlet and a slot opening, the coating solution is caused to flow from the inlet to the slot opening in such a manner that the flow width increases gradually while the flow thickness decreases gradually. An apparatus according to the invention has a coating head in which a flow path is formed between an inlet and a slot opening, such that the flow width gradually increases while the flow thickness gradually decreases.

Coating method and apparatus

A flow control having a wide flow rate range and excellent linearity between the degree of valve opening and flow rate. The valve includes a cylindrical or conical valve head formed on a circular-truncated-cone-shaped working face which is tapered towards the outlet of the valve with the valve head being located inside the outlet-side casing. With respect to the area of the valve opening defined by the valve head and the valve seat, the valve head is shaped so that the rate of change of the flow rate with valve stroke is small and linear, whereby fine control of the flow rate can be accurately achieved over the entire flow rate range. The valve stroke to fully open the valve occurs in the inlet-side casing. A servo motor or the like is employed as the drive source for operating the valve.

Flow control valve

A liquid or powder measurement apparatus, usable also for mixing a plurality of measured materials and for distributing the mixture to a plurality of dispensing containers. A flow control valve having a wide flow rate range and excellent linearity between the degree of valve opening and flow rate is disposed in each of the liquid flow paths and is adjustable to have a flow rate linearly varying with the stroke of the valve. A mixing container receives the raw material from one or more supply containers and is weighed by a load cell to thereby detect the amount of material flowing into or out of the mixing container. A control unit operating according to fuzzy logic compares the measured weight with a target weight and accordingly adjusts the flow rate of a selected one of the flow regulators. The same load cell and control unit can also control the flows from the mixing containers to the dispensing containers.

Liquid and powder measuring apparatus

A method for producing gradient gel medium membrane for electrophoresis in which a monomer solution having a continuous concentration gradient and a polymerizing reaction initiator solution are supplied to a coating head as a gel forming solution for electrophoresis while mixing the monomer solution and the polymerizing reaction initiator solution with each other so as to coat a moving web with the gel forming solution. The coating liquid is supplied onto a moving web through the coating head in such a manner so that the flow of the coating liquid extends continuously in the direction of width and is continuously reduced in the direction of thickness along the coating head from its supply inlet to its slot opening.

Method of producing gradient gel medium membrane for electrophoresis

A method for measuring liquid to be transferred from a container or containers to a measurement pot includes the steps of: determining an initial degree of opening of the valve for controlling flow-rate of the liquid from the container to the pot based on the valve's flow-rate characteristics and an arbitrarily chosen set value; opening the valve by the initial degree of opening; detecting the actual amount of liquid that has flowed into the pot; determining a next degree of opening of the valve based on the actual measurement and the set value; and changing the degree of opening of the valve to the next degree of opening. The determination of the degrees of opening of the valve is based on fuzzy control, which uses a fuzzy inference from the set value and actual measured value. An apparatus for measuring liquid for use in a liquid mixing apparatus uses the above-mentioned method.

Method of and apparatus for measuring liquid

A measuring mixer for use with either liquids or powders in which different supply systems supply different stock liquids or powders to a receiving container from supply containers. A continuously variable flow regulator is associated with each supply container. The cumulative weight of the receiving container is measured and compared with a target weight. Then a computation section calculates a desired flow rate based upon both the deviation from the target weight and a time variation thereof. This calculation is preferably done according to fuzzy inference. The desired flow rate is then used to control a selected one of the flow regulators so that the measurement is sequentially performed between supply systems. Optionally, the receiving container can be movable between the different supply systems.

Controlling method and a measuring mixer for liquids and powders

A process for preparing an oil-in-water emulsion is described, comprising the steps of: adding a mixture of a hydrophobic substance and an emulsifying agent directly or after being dissolved in an organic solvent by heating in a dissolving-emulsifying tank with a high-speed agitation type dispersing means to form a hydrophobic substance solution as an oil phase, introducing water and/or an aqueous solution of gelatin into the tank through submerged inlet under the hydrophobic substance solution to form a water-in-oil emulsion, and further continuing the addition of water and/or an aqueous solution of gelatin to cause the phase inversion, whereupon the desired oil-in-water emulsion is formed. The mean particle size of the emulsion is decreased more than by the conventional emulsification method, and the particle size distribution is narrowed and made sharp.

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Kanagawa, Japan

Shigeru Yamaguchi