Eastman-kodak Company

William F Garbe

David D Kessler

John C Boutet

Anthony R Lubinsky

Robert W Kulpinski

Joseph J Wrobel

James F Owen

Ronald R Firth

Nea Y Woo

Light collector for stimulable phosphor imaging apparatus

To prevent banding in a flat field exposed--by means of a linear array of photosources--upon a moving photosensitive web, the invention not only provides that the photosources be pulsed in correspondence with the movement of the photosensitive web, but that the lengths of the printing spots which are employed be equal (or approximately so) to the raster line spacing, whereby smear of any one exposure spot will blend into the smear from the next exposure spot to provide a perfectly flat field exposure.

Banding-free printing by linear array of photosources

To provide high intensity, uniform and specular illumination over a relatively large area, the present invention provides a specially configured reflector and a radiation source so positioned within the reflector that an apparent source is produced comprising the true source plus a spherical array of virtual images of the source.

Reflector arrangement for providing high intensity, uniform and specular

Apparatus and method are disclosed for contact printing information from a master record carrier onto a replicate material of a type that emits gas during the contact print exposure (e.g., a diazo-film emulsion). It has been discovered that the emitted gas acts as an efficient lubricant of the master-replicate interface and contributes to relative movement between the master record carrier and the replicate material during the contact print exposure. In the case of videodisc replication, wherein video information is recorded in the form of billions of micron-sized apertures, such relative movement severely degrades the replicated imagery. To limit such relative movement, a preferred embodiment of the present invention provides contact printing apparatus, including a specially filtered exposing source, that substantially eliminates relative movement between the master record carrier and the replicate material.

Contact printing apparatus

Growing community of inventors

Rochester, NY, United States of America

William F Garbe