FR91965E - - Google Patents

Description

FRENCH REPUBLIC

MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY

INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY SERVICE

1st ADDITION

THE PATENT OF INVENTION

No 1.504.046 P. V. n ° 8.340, Alpes-Maritimes N ° 91.965

International classification: B 41 m / / C 09 d

Transfer medium supported by a spongy material.

Company known as: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION residing in the United States of America.

(Main patent issued on October 11, 1966.)

Requested on January 31, 1967, at 3:26 p.m., in Nice.

Issued by decree of July 29, 1968.

(Official Bulletin of Industrial Property, No. 36 of September 6, 1968?)

(Patent application filed in the United States of America on February 23, 1966, under No. 529,269, in the names of Messrs. Hugh T. Findlay and William H. Horne.)

This invention relates to improvements, modifications and additions made to the patent application n ° PV 8.081 AM filed by the applicant in France on October 11, 1966 under the title “Transfer medium supported by a spongy material” and it relates to transfer media and , more particularly, transfer media which can be used while providing good print quality.

Conventional ribbons for typewriters for complete transfer usually take shape by tilting a large amount of wax. Other materials offering some plasticity, for example synthetic polymers, can also function as a base in this complete transfer printing medium. The transfer layer contains the coloring material, for example carbon black, and various coloring substances. Transfer layers of this sort may be referred to as "compact inks" since plastic provides body to materials which are not found in liquid ink.

The fragile nature of the body presents many surfaces with the power to reflect light within the boundaries of a printed character. This results in a desirable "luster" which often cannot be reproduced by liquid inks. Conventional "compact inks" also remain on the surface of the copy paper, thus blocking the surface in a way that contributes to opacity. Liquid inks differ greatly in this regard, as they tend to penetrate the paper and are then dampened by absorption on the white copy.

Typewriter ribbons that provide the special printing characteristics that come

8 210610 7

The objects to be described almost always include a paper or plastic substrate which supports a resin-wax-based "compact ink" layer, lightly bound to the substrate. Ribbons providing the best print quality, completely transfer the ink layer when printing onto paper or other receiving material and, therefore, cannot be reused. In general, the entire surface of this transfer medium is successively used and then the transfer element must be discarded.

A fundamental drawback of the ink transfer media of the prior art then lies in their possibility of reuse when the transfer element is intended to reproduce a high print quality.

It is a fundamental object of the present invention to provide a typewriter ribbon with high print quality which ribbon can be overprinted and similarly reused multiple times.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a transfer element offering improved characteristics which allow its reuse.

Current typewriter ribbons for full transfer often lose small amounts of their transfer layer as the ribbon is put into use in the typewriter. These small amounts can fall into the typewriter where the pigments they contain act as destructive abrasives in the machine.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a transfer element carrying a compact ink which offers better resistance to any loss of the material of the transfer layer.

[91.965 / 1.504.046]

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fert.

In accordance with the present invention, a transfer medium is produced which is provided with a resinous support surface, covered with a surface made from any mixture, comprising a resin phase and a “compact ink” phase; the surface of the mixture fuses and is covered with an outer surface containing substantially only the compact ink.

In accordance with the present invention, a method is designed to achieve the desired product. A resin layer having strictly no transfer material, is rested on a temporary substrate. This layer can be very thin since the temporary substrate will withstand most of the mechanical stresses created during the process. A "compact ink" layer dispersed in a solvent for the resin is then deposited on the resin layer, and the solvent is removed. Mixing occurs since the solvent initially dissolves large amounts of the resin. A compact ink is obtained in which the amount exceeds the amount of ink mixed with the dissolved resin in the process of operation, so that a substantial part of the "compact ink" is left on the outer surface. In this way, the desired product can be obtained.

The product obtained undoubtedly has a little compact ink trapped in the cavities of the resin, thus forming a spongy transfer medium similar to that described in French Patent No. 1,353,683 entitled “Transfer element and its manufacturing process”. . The characteristics of the products described therein as having both a resin phase and a sponge-like ink phase contribute significantly to the reuse characteristics of the product of the present invention since the compact ink will exude from the middle body under the pressure of inscription.

The outer surface of the resin is jagged or appears in any other irregular shape. This tends to retain the compact ink. In this way, the transfer layer cannot fall apart during normal operation of the transfer element.

The final product obtained is about as thin as the prior art high print quality compact ink ribbons. Thin ribbon benefits both from good print quality and the ability to store more ribbon in a typewriter. In the product according to the present invention, the outer surface has substantially a pure "compact ink" layer, and more ink is available from the inner layers of the product. At least the first two layers have been found to be of essentially as good a print quality as the print quality obtained by the prior art compact ink ribbons considered to be of the best quality.

Other objects, characteristics and advantages will emerge from the description which follows, given by way of non-limiting example.

To obtain the preferred product according to the present invention, it is first necessary to produce the following liquid ink mixture:

LIQUID INK MIX

Part by weight

Carbon black with precipitate of dyes (Uhlich 1686 - Product of Paul Uhlich et Cie) 6

Carbon black with precipitate of dyes (Uhlich 245 IL - Product of Paul Uhlich et Cie) 10

Nigrosine Oleate (DS 2183 - Product of

“Dye Specialties Inc.”) 63

Methyl violet (basic coloring matter) .. 3 Liquid mixture of fatty acid ethers ("Kro-nisal R-9 - Product FMC Corp.) 18

The above mixture is made by simple combination of the components and by ball milling for a time necessary to achieve complete dispersion. No temperature rise is necessary. The carbon black will be suspended colloidally. Nigrosine oleate is a viscous liquid that dissolves in fatty acid ethers. Methyl violet base is a solid substance that dissolves in fatty acid ethers. The resulting dispersion will remain indefinitely without setting or otherwise separating.

All of the components of liquid ink are either liquid vehicles or reproducing substances. The selected combination is one that will produce an intense dark color and not the black obtained by using carbon black alone as the breeding material.

An inking, dispersed mixture can have the following composition:

INK MIX, DISPERSE

Parts by weight

Ethyl alcohol (denatured) (Jaysol - Product of A. M. S. C. O. Solvants and Cheminai Co) 37.5

Liquid ink mixture (formulas above) 5

High Melting Point Wax (Acrawax C, Atomized - Synthetic Wax A - Product of Glyco Cheminai, Division of Chas. L. Muisking & Co., Inc.) 2-3

In the composition of the above mixture, the wax is first subjected to ball milling in the liquid ink mixture. A mix

Claims (22)

- 3 - [91.965 / 1.504.046] of this type to finally obtain a mixture of about 1 kg was carried out by means of ball milling for two hours. The desired temperature should be around 49 ° C, but not significantly above it. (This great heat can be generated by the internal friction of the ball device.) The important criterion, with regard to the temperature at this point in the process, is that the temperature should be below the melting point of the wax. This mixture is essentially the ink medium of the preferred embodiment of the present invention, and the ink medium will subsequently be solidified by raising the heat of the process. Ethyl alcohol is then added to the ball mill. The grinding continues at 49 ° C until a permanent fluid mixture is obtained. With a 1 kg ink medium mix, it may take up to two hours of grinding. Wax is not soluble in alcohol. However, complete dispersion is obtained. This would be colloidal in nature at least as regards the carbon black and the wax. The coloring materials used are soluble in alcohol and are believed to function in the dispersion as a dispersing agent for insoluble materials. The dispersed, enerous medium mixture will remain indefinitely without setting or otherwise separating. The final composition of the product can be done by means of a conventional apparatus. First, a pure 0.002 cm thick film made of alcohol-soluble nylon is deposited by a temporary substrate. Preferably, the substrate is a large, flexible roll of polyethylene glycol tetrephthalate. Preferably, the nylon film is applied, in solution, by a roller coating device in a manner similar to that described in the French patent mentioned above. The nylon solvent is evaporated by heat and air circulation and the polyethylene glycol terephthalate carrying a solid film of nylon 0.02 cm thick is wound up at the end of the coating device. The roll thus formed is ironed through the same coating device when it is desired to continue manufacturing in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention. For the deposition of the compact ink, the nylon deposited on the temporary substrate moves to receive the coating by means of the roller coating device. The coating mix is the layered ink mix described above. It is applied by the application roller at a rate of approximately 3 kg per ream of nylon (500 sheets of 500 × 750 cm). The temporary substrate moves continuously to transport the coated nylon almost immediately to a drying medium. In the drying medium, the ambient air is cycled vigorously and the temperature is initially maintained at 82 ° C for about a minute. The temperature is then raised to 140 ° C for one minute. This performs the drying operation. During drying, the alcohol is expelled. Before this expulsion, however, the alcohol partially dissolves the nylon (without a temporary substrate, the nylon would give way under the constraints of the movement of the system). In addition, the heat of the drying medium is above a critical point with respect to the liquid ink-wax mixture. Some internal reorganization takes place, which causes the mixture to solidify. The temporary substrate carrying the transport element thus produced is wound up in the form of a large roll. The transfer element can be easily "peeled" or separated by any other method from the polyethylene glycol terephthalate. After this separation, the transfer member can be cut and rolled into typewriter ribbons, or cut in any other way desired. The final product is a unitary film approximately 0.0037 cm thick. One side of the film is basically pure nylon. This is desirable to make the transfer member cut resistant and to prevent ink expression from the struck side. (An inert, finely pulverized filler could be added to the neat nylon, if, for example, a stiffer ribbon was needed.) Within the transfer medium, the compact ink is located in cavities and openings, or pores. On the side opposite to the pure nylon is a pure layer of the ink medium, without nylon, having a thickness of approximately 0.0012 cm. The pores transmitting the compact ink to the ink surface. The opposite surface is probably somewhat rough, and projections of the nylon penetrate the pure compact ink layer for a considerable distance. In normal use, for example of a typewriter tape, the tape is clean during operation. Only negligible amounts of the transfer material fall into the typewriter. The particularly important factor is that at least two strikes of the same region of the ribbon will both produce a print quality comparable to that of the best ink ribbons currently available commercially. The quality remains good even for other re-uses of the ribbon which may amount to four or five. It remains of course that the above description has been given only by way of non-limiting example and that numerous variants can be envisaged without thereby departing from the scope and the scope of the present invention. ABSTRACT The present invention has for objects: 1 ° A transfer element comprising a [91.965 / 1.504.046] - 4 - porous resin layer of which a certain number 2 ° A method of manufacturing such a pore element contains a compact ink, and a transfer ink, consisting in applying on a layer of pure compact ink in communication che resin a mixing a compact ink with the pores; | and a solvent for this resin. Company known as: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION Vicarious : R. Depelsenaibe For the sale of the booklets, please contact the Imprimer Nationale, 27, rue de l'Ia Convention, Paris (15 ").