Photothermographic media processor thermal control
AssigneeEastman Kodak Company
InventorsPaul B. Stumpf, Alan T. Brewen
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Abstract
A thermal processor for thermally processing a sequence of exposed photothermographic media comprising: a rotatable thermally conductive drum; a heat source for heating the drum to a setpoint temperature; a plurality of rollers spaced around a portion of the periphery of the drum for holding down exposed photothermographic media to the drum for thermal development thereof; a sensor for sensing the temperature of the drum; and a control for controlling the temperature of the drum as a function (1) of the setpoint temperature, (2) of the sensed drum temperature, and (3) of the status of the processor, i.e., whether or not photothermographic media is being processed by the drum, in order to compensate for heat loss due to media heating and roller heating.
Claims3
A thermal processor for thermally processing a sequence of exposed photothermographic media comprising:
- a rotatable thermally conductive drum;
- a heat source for heating said drum to a setpoint temperature;
- a plurality of rollers spaced around a portion of the periphery of said drum for holding down exposed photothermographic media to said drum for thermal development thereof;
- a temperature sensor for sensing the temperature of said drum;
- and
- a media sensor for sensing the presence or absence of media entering the nip between said drum and said first of said plurality of rollers;
- a closed loop control for controlling said heat source to heat said drum in a first made, when said media sensor senses the presence of media to increase said drum temperature to a first setpoint temperature higher than said temperature of said drum sensed by said temperature sensor and in a second mode, when said media sensor senses the absence of media to decrease drum temperature to a second setpoint temperature lower than said temperature of said drum sensed by said temperature sensor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.