1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a photographic film assemblage including a stack of instant or self-developing film units supported within a film cassette by a member having a generally rigid section for supporting major portions of the film units and an extension for resiliently supporting ends of the film units containing pods of processing liquid with a minimum of force.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Photographic film assemblages of the type which the present invention is directed to generally include a film cassette whose configuration is that of a parallelpiped. Stacked within the cassette is a plurality of instant or self-developing film units with an uppermost film unit in the stack having its photosensitive area located in alignment with and adjacent to an exposure aperture formed in a forward wall thereof and its leading end, which carries a rupturable container of processing liquid, located in alignment with an elongate slot or egress formed in a leading end wall of the cassette. A spring platen is positioned between the lowermost film unit in the stack and a bottom wall of the cassette for resiliently urging the entire stack of film units toward the forward wall. A dark slide, formed from any suitable opaque materal, is located betwen the uppermost film unit in the stack and the cassette's forward wall to prevent premature exposure of the film units by the ambient light during the loading of the film assemblage into a camera.
After loading of the film assemblage into the camera and the removal of the dark slide, the uppermost film unit is photographically exposed and moved to the exterior of the cassette via the egress for subsequent processing of its latent image. It has been found that movement of the exposed film unit from the film cassette may result in the next adjacent film unit in the stack being dragged along therewith into the egress thus resulting in the two film units becoming stuck therein because of the dimensions of the egress. This dragging of the next adjacent film unit is due in part to the sliding fricitional forces that are built up between the two film units during such relative movement, and partly as a result of forces which are biasing the stack of film units toward the film cassette's forward wall.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds