The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 24, 1984
Filed:
Jul. 30, 1982
John D Plumadore, Westfield, MA (US);
Photon Chroma, Inc., Westfield, MA (US);
Abstract
Apparatus for imaging and developing electrophotographic elements includes a single module (16) within which there is housed three processing stations (18, 20, 22) equidistantly spaced apart at distances corresponding to the distance separating the image frames of an electrophotographic element microformat. The first station (18) charges and exposes a first image frame of the element (12), the second station (20) tones and preliminarily dries the first image frame while a second image frame is located at the first station (18) for charging and exposure, and the third station (22) completes the drying and fuses the first image frame while the second image frame is now toned and partially dried, a new third image frame being presented to the first station (18) for charging and exposure. An intermittent film transport system, not shown, conveys the film element (12) in a unidirectional mode throughout the processing as indicated by the directional arrow (24). The aforenoted inter-station spacing is facilitated by the compact arrangement of the components at the station with the toning components at the second station (20) partially overlapping the charging/exposure components at the first station (18) and the final dry/fuse components at the third station (22). Processing of any particular single image frame of the film element (12) is thus completed in a minimum amount of time as is the processing of a multiplicity of image frames of the element (12) due to the simultaneous processing of the image frames at the three stations (18, 20, 22) in a time-staggered mode.