1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a photographic processing machine and, more particularly, to a method of and an apparatus for drying photographic light-sensitive material, such as film sheet, by applying drying air thereto in the photographic processing machine.
2. Description of the Related Art
In such a photographic processing machine, particularly, a typical automatic developing machine, a drying device is arranged in such a manner that, immediately after a power switch of the automatic developing machine has been turned on, a fan and a heater are turned on to introduce the outside air from an air inlet and supply warm air through an air duct to a drying chamber, and thereby the interior of the drying chamber is heated.
More specifically, the outside air which is introduced through the air inlet is heated by the heater irrespective of the condition of the introduced air (for example, temperature and humidity). Thus, the relative humidity of the introduced air is reduced and the temperature of a film sheet to be dried by warm air is raised, to evaporate moisture from the film sheet. The warm air containing the moisture is discharged from the machine.
However, in a case where a film sheet is dried by using such a device, the moisture carried on, or contained in, the sheet is evaporated and discharged irrespective of the ambient temperature, humidities, and other conditions of the outside air. Therefore, if the amount of sheet to be processed per unit time is large, if the ambient temperature is low, or if the ambient humidity is high, the temperature in the drying chamber may not reach a predetermined temperature under the same conditions that warm air is supplied, or humidity may become excessively high. As a result, the environment within the drying chamber deteriorates with time, and thus film sheets may stick each other because imperfect dryness or nonuniform dryness may take place. For these reasons, a heater and a fan each having a capability which corresponds to the maximum amount of film sheets to be processed per unit time are needed. This causes the problem of increases in the size of the apparatus and the cost of production. Otherwise, the film sheet may be excessively dried, and thus the curl or nonuniform dryness thereof may take place.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method of and an apparatus for drying photographic light-sensitive material, both of which are suitable for applications in a photographic processing machine for light-sensitive material, and both of which are capable of maintaining a necessary and appropriate degree of dryness by using a minimum required level of energy (the temperature and flow rate of warm air) to achieve a suitable dryness of the photographic light-sensitive materials.