Process and device for automated production of images on all types of photographic supports

Claim 1

Process for producing images on independent supports, each having a rear face and a sensitized front face able to record a latent image in a photographic development apparatus, comprising successively an exposure station, a plurality of processing stations for carrying out a development and for drying the supports, an extracting station and a driving station, wherein the supports, once developed and dried, are extracted, said process comprising: i--an initial phase of storing a succession of said supports on a belt, during which phase the supports are disposed, unit by unit, on the belt at given positions and are carried and held in position on this belt by temporary adhesion by means of an adhesive material, said belt adhering on said rear face in a region located behind said image; and ii--a phase of transferring the supports by exerting on the belt a traction in the driving station, so as to cause a continuous advance movement of the belt and by guiding the belt, so as to move the supports along a path passing through said stations according to a sequence comprising: an exposure step which is effected by an enlarger using a light source consisting of an electronic flash controlled in synchronism with the passage of the supports over an exposure area; a development step in the processing station; a drying step; an extraction step in the extracting station, wherein the supports are separated from the belt by forcing said belt to follow a curved path having a small radius of curvature.