Device for automatic removal of a photographic film from a cartridge

US5708905A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Agfa-Gevaert NV · BE

Inventors

• Helmut Zangenfeind · Puchheim, DE
• Reinhart Wuerfel · Hersbruck, DE
• H. Peter Mihm · Munich, DE
• Vasile Gherasoiu · Munich, DE
• Juergen Brunner · Starnberg, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Oct 16, 1996
• Grant date: Jan 13, 1998
• Expiry date: Oct 16, 2016

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G03D13/005
• WIPO field: Optics
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A device for automatic removal of a photographic film from a cartridge, in which the film is rolled up on a spool. The feed channel for the cartridge is disposed so that the cartridge moves through the channel by its own weight in the direction of its spool axis. The channel has a cross section that permits admission of the cartridge in only one direction. The device includes a mechanism to turn the cartridge into a position in which the spool axis is aligned horizontally. The devices also includes a mechanism for unwinding and separating the film from the spool in a light-impervious housing. A mechanism turns the empty cartridge so that its spool axis is vertical, with a prescribed orientation. A replaceable magazine sequentially collects and orders a plurality of empty cartridges.