Method and apparatus for processing photosensitive material

Abstract

The invention provides an apparatus for developing and fixing a silver salt photosensitive material. The apparatus uniformly applies a fixed amount of new or unused processing solution onto the photosensitive material so as to maintain processing quality and reduce a required volume of the processing solution and labor for maintenance. New or unused developer supplied from a developer nozzle 82 and temporarily stored in a basin 143 is uniformly held in pores on the surface of a developer applying roller 93. While the developer applying roller 93 is rotated, the new developer held in the pores of the roller 93 is applied onto the surface of a photosensitive material PM, which is pressed against the circumference of the roller 93 during conveyance, to develop the photosensitive material PM. The apparatus of the invention develops the photosensitive material with new developer applied to the roller 93 and thereby maintains processing quality even when a large number of photosensitive materials PM are processed. Furthermore, the invention does not require troublesome discharge or replacement of processing solution, which is generally carried out after processing of a certain number, thus saving time and labor. The processing method of the invention also reduces a required volume of processing solution.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.