Holder for photographic processing machines

Claim 1

A holder for transporting photographic material through a processing bath of a photographic processing machine, comprising at least one pair of rollers rotatably arranged within a common frame with the surfaces of adjacent rollers pressed against each other, alternate ones of each pair of adjacent rollers having a rigid internal tube provided with radial openings along its length, the rigid internal tube carrying thereover and therealong a hoselike flexible cover, the flexible cover being permeable to the liquid in the processing bath, means for conducting liquid in the processing bath to the interior of the rigid roller having the flexible cover, said flexible cover being thereby subjected internally to hydraulic pressure, said flexible cover in its unloaded condition being spaced from the rigid internal tube which it surrounds due to said hydraulic pressure the cover having a smaller radial dimension in its loaded condition where it contacts the other, rigid, roller of each said pair of adjacent rollers, said contact defining a surface of contact, over an arc, along a portion of said flexible cover and along a portion of the other, rigid roller, whereby photographic material passing between said pair of rollers is contacted by the liquid in the processing bath over an arcuate surface of contact, and whereby the hydraulic pressure may be regulated to obtain the desired force along the arcuate surface of contact and the desired arc of contact.