JP2003044822A - Card - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a card in which an adverse effect caused by using an amorphous polyethylenic sheet for a base material for a card, that is, breaking of embossed characters when an embossing is performed, does not occur. SOLUTION: The base material 1 for a card has a sheet where hollow particles 1a are dispersed within at least an amorphous polyester resin being a copolymer of terephthalic acid, cyclohexane methanol and ethylene glycol, a copolymer of terephthalic acid, isophthalic acid and ethylene glycol or a polymer alloy of the copolymer, polycarbonate and polyarylate, and this card is obtained by applying embossing to the base material for a card.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information recording medium used for, for example, a cash card, a credit card, an ID card (identification card), a membership card, a prepaid card, and the like. The present invention relates to a card which is not deformed even when used in a home electric appliance such as a vehicle or a computer, which may possibly be damaged, and which is more easily discarded when it is discarded after use.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, magnetic recording media have been widely used in the fields of cash cards, credit cards, ID cards, etc., and their materials are mainly polyvinyl chloride (PVC) resin and vinyl chloride / vinyl acetate. Polymers are used, especially polyvinyl chloride resins. Polyvinyl chloride resin is excellent in physical mechanical properties and embossability of characters, and is still widely used as the most suitable material as a card material.

As a general method for producing a card, printing is performed on a white vinyl chloride (PVC) substrate by a known printing method such as offset printing, gravure printing, screen printing,
A highly transparent PVC sheet (oversheet) is laminated on both sides of the sheet, a magnetic tape is transferred, the sheets are integrated by thermal fusion with a heating press, and punched with a die of a predetermined size to form a card shape. The thermal transfer type magnetic tape rises above the surface of the card after transfer, creating a step,
It is embedded at the time of heat fusion with a heating press machine and becomes flush with the card surface.

The role of the magnetic tape in the magnetic card is
It has an important role that you can record the unique data that you have and read it when you use it.If this magnetic tape is not flush with the card surface, you can carry it with a card holder, Repeated use by a reader / writer may damage or destroy the edge of the tape, resulting in an unusable card.

By the way, JIS X 6301 4.2.
The condition of the card surface specified in 6 is “There is a risk that normal writing of information to the magnetic stripe or reading of information recorded on the magnetic stripe may be impaired in the area of 6.35 mm from each of the periphery of the magnetic stripe. There should be no surface discontinuity, and for Type 2, 0.05 mm from the bottom edge of the card to a distance of 24 mm or more.
Do not provide the above parts. ···"a.

By the way, one of the drawbacks of the physical properties of vinyl chloride resin is its low heat resistance. In general, vinyl chloride resin is softened and deformed at about 60 ° C., so that it was not suitable for applications in a high temperature range, such as home appliances and in-vehicle applications. Recently, magnetic recording media are not limited to the fields of cash cards, credit cards, ID cards, etc., but also include IC cards with a magnetic stripe in which a contact type IC chip is embedded, non-contact IC cards with a magnetic stripe in which an antenna and an IC module are incorporated, Or, there are various cards such as those that have all of them, and the applications include electronic wallets, commuter passes, telephone cards, licenses, car cards, etc., and the materials used for these cards are more flexible than conventional cards. Strength such as scratch strength, tensile strength, storage characteristics, heat resistance,
High reliability including resistance such as chemical resistance is required.

Polyvinyl chloride resin has excellent physical properties, processability, and economic efficiency, but when it is discarded after use, hydrogen chloride gas is generated, especially during incineration, which damages the furnace and shortens its life, and is related to dioxins. Although the nature has not been clarified, the problem of PVC removal is becoming active in countries such as Germany and Northern Europe due to this problem, and there is a trend in the field of building materials and industrial materials in Japan.

Therefore, there is a possibility of using other resins, and there are halogen-free thermoplastic resins such as polyethylene resin, polypropylene resin, polyester resin, polycarbonate resin, polyacrylic resin, etc. However, the physical properties are quite different from those of vinyl chloride resin, so some ingenuity is required.

On the other hand, polyethylene terephthalate, which is a kind of polyester resin, can be formed by polycondensing terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol, but the crystallinity is increased by stretching orientation and heat setting during the sheet manufacturing process, or instead of stretching. By adding a crystal nucleating agent, a sheet having high crystallinity and high strength can be formed. However, in the unstretched state or in a system using terephthalic acid and isophthalic acid, a low crystalline sheet with low crystallinity can be obtained, and a sheet made from a copolymer of terephthalic acid and cyclohexanedimethanol and ethylene glycol is also low. It is a crystalline sheet.

Although the physical properties of these low crystalline polyethylene terephthalate resin sheets and the embedding suitability of magnetic tapes are similar to those of vinyl chloride resin, when embossed characters 31 are applied as shown in FIG. Since the embossed part (character height) becomes high, the embossed part is likely to crack, and it was considered difficult as a substitute.

[0011]

When a plurality of amorphous polyethylene terephthalate-based sheets are used as the base material of the card instead of the polyvinyl chloride resin as the base material for the card, the height of the characters after embossing is increased. Since it becomes higher, emboss cracks are more likely to occur, and embossing is more difficult than with polyvinyl chloride resin. The present invention is an adverse effect of using an amorphous polyethylene-based sheet for a card substrate,
That is, it is an object to provide a card in which embossed characters are not cracked when embossed.

[0012]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the invention according to claim 1 is characterized in that the card base material has a sheet in which hollow fine particles are dispersed in at least an amorphous polyester resin. The card is characterized in that the card base material is embossed.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the amorphous polyester sheet or the polyester sheet thereof is
2. The card according to claim 1, further comprising: an information recording means comprising at least one of a magnetic recording layer, an IC module, and a reversible thermosensitive recording layer, on the card substrate having a plurality of layers laminated.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the amorphous polyester sheet layer comprises a copolymer of terephthalic acid and cyclohexanedimethanol and ethylene glycol, and a copolymer of terephthalic acid and isophthalic acid and ethylene glycol. The card according to claim 1, wherein the card is a polymer alloy of a combination or a copolymer thereof and a polycarbonate or polyarylate.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the card according to the first aspect, the amorphous polyester sheet layer has a glass transition temperature of 80 ° C. or higher.
The card is required to have heat resistance. Therefore, the glass transition temperature must be at least 80 ° C. or higher.

Further, the second aspect of the present invention is the card according to the first aspect, wherein the amorphous polyester sheet and the heat-resistant sheet layer are formed into a sheet by an extrusion method.

[0017]

[Function] Conventionally, polyvinyl chloride resin has been used as the base material of the magnetic card, but if a polyester resin sheet is used as a measure for disposal processing, when the card shape is obtained, embossing with an embosser will result in The height was increased, and the embossed portion sometimes cracked. Therefore, in the present invention, when a card is made using this heat-resistant polyester-based sheet, when embossing by dispersing hollow microcapsules in this sheet, the polymer hollow microparticles in the sheet are crushed and then after embossing. The character height is small, the height of embossed characters can be controlled, and the feature is that emboss cracks do not occur.

[0018]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. FIG. 2 is a schematic sectional view showing an example of the structure of the card of the present invention. The amorphous polyester resin of the present invention (see FIG. 2)
5) is polyethylene terephthalate or a polymer alloy of polyethylene terephthalate and polycardnate. Polyethylene terephthalate is produced by copolymerizing ethylene glycol and cyclohexanedimethanol with terephthalic acid. Also, the crystallinity and glass transition temperature can be controlled by changing the blending ratio of ethylene glycol and cyclohexanedimethanol.

The heat-resistant sheet layer (9 and 10 in FIG. 2) in the present invention is a highly heat-resistant polyester sheet containing ester bonds in the main chains of its constituent molecules, and is a thermoplastic elastomer such as polyester elastomer and polyarylate. Is mentioned. The former polyester elastomer has an elastic recovery limit, and the deformation rate of the material itself is 7 to 25.
% Is the limit, and further deformation causes permanent set, but since the material strength is high, a large elastic deformation can be exhibited as an article. That is, when embossing is performed in the case of a card shape, the embossed portion remains as a permanent strain, but the periphery thereof returns to the original card shape as an elastic deformation, and thus curling that is likely to occur after embossing does not occur.

The amorphous polyester sheet and the heat-resistant sheet layer in the present invention can each be formed into a sheet by an extrusion method.

Next, as a card manufacturing method using the card base material of the present invention, there is a melt laminating method using a heating press machine. In the melt laminating method, transparent protective sheets are laminated on both sides of a printed substrate, but the types of protective sheets on both sides may be different. The melt laminating method is a method in which a card base material is produced by sandwiching the mirror surface plates with a slightly larger mirror plate, and then integrating the card materials by a heat melting press.

The mirror surface plate used at the time of this heat melting press is
A nickel-chromium plated copper plate, a surface-polished stainless steel plate, a surface-polished aluminum plate, or the like can be used. Also, the printing on the substrate is the same method as that for paper or plastic film, that is, the offset printing method,
Characters or patterns can be printed by a known printing method such as a screen printing method or a gravure printing method.

After the melt lamination, the card base material is peeled from the mirror surface plate and punched into a card shape by punching with a single-edged or male-female mold.

The card substrate may be provided with a magnetic recording layer, for example, a conventionally used thermal transfer type magnetic tape may be transferred to one or both sides of the card substrate, or A method of printing the magnetic recording layer directly on the substrate is used.

Usually, after forming a card shape, a floating character is embossed with an embosser, and a thermal transfer foil is used to tip and color the character, or magnetic information is encoded on a magnetic recording layer. Finish the card by transferring your face photo or barcode. Further, a protective layer may be provided for the purpose of improving the resistance against abrasion of the characters and the pattern print layer.

By the way, hollow fine particles (microcapsules) can be used as shrinkage inhibitors, lightening agents, heat insulating agents, cushioning agents, surface modification processing, and porosifying agents for plastics by combining with various resins. It is being appreciated.
The microcapsules have a particle size of 10 to 100 made of a shell wall of a copolymer such as acrylonitrile or vinylidene chloride.
Micron polymer hollow microspheres. It is strong under static pressure such as laminate, but weak against very strong dynamic pressure.

[0027]

EXAMPLES Examples of the present invention will be described in detail below.

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is a sectional view of the structure. White PE, which is an amorphous resin with a thickness of 0.8 mm, in which polymer hollow microparticles having a particle size of 20 μm and whose main component is polyacrylonitrile (Matsumoto Yushi-Seiyaku Co., Ltd .: Microsphere) are dispersed.
A TG / PC (Mitsubishi resin: Diafix) sheet 1 (hollow fine particles 3% by weight dispersed in the resin content) is provided with a pattern printing layer 2 on the front surface by offset printing, screen printing or the like, and a pattern printing layer on the back surface. 3 was printed similarly. Then, after punching into a card shape, a counterbore was put therein. After inserting the IC module 4 into the countersunk portion, embossing was performed. When the hollow fine particles were not mixed, the character height after embossing was 480 μm, but by inserting microspheres inside the sheet 1 which is the base material for cards, the character height was 41
It became 0 μm and became smaller. Further, when the hollow fine particles were not dispersed, the embossed portion was cracked. However, by dispersing the hollow fine particles, the character height was lowered, the elongation was reduced, and the crack did not occur at all.

(Embodiment 2) A sectional view of the structure is shown in FIG. White PE, which is an amorphous resin with a thickness of 0.6 mm, in which polymer hollow microparticles having a particle size of 20 μm and containing polyacrylonitrile as a main component (Matsumoto Yushi-Seiyaku Co., Ltd .: Microsphere) are dispersed.
TG (Mitsubishi Plastics: Diafix) Sheet 5 (PET
(G resin content is hollow fine particles), the surface pattern printing layer 6 is applied by offset printing, screen printing, etc.,
The pattern printing layer 7 on the back side was printed in the same manner. Then, a transparent PE with a thickness of 0.1 mm, with the magnetic tape 8 transferred to the surface
The T / PC (Mitsubishi resin: Diafix) sheet 9 is also laminated on the back side with the same sheet 10, sandwiched between stainless steel plates with a smooth surface, and heat-bonded at 120 ° C. for 20 minutes to cool and solidify the card. It was punched into a shape and made into a card. When the hollow fine particles were not dispersed, the character height after embossing was 470 μm, but by inserting microspheres inside the sheet, the character height became 420 μm, which was small. Further, when the hollow fine particles were not dispersed, the embossed portion was cracked, but by dispersing the hollow fine particles, the character height was lowered and the elongation was reduced,
No cracks occurred at all.

(Embodiment 3) A sectional view of the structure is shown in FIG. White PE, which is an amorphous resin with a thickness of 0.3 mm, in which polymer hollow fine particles having a particle size of 20 μm and containing polyacrylonitrile as a main component (Matsumoto Yushi-Seiyaku: Microsphere) are dispersed.
A TG (Mitsubishi resin: Diafix) sheet 11 and a 0.3 mm thick white PETG (Mitsubishi resin: Diafix) sheet 12 containing no microspheres are laminated at 110 ° C. On the sheet, the pattern printing layer 13 on the front surface was applied by offset printing, screen printing or the like, and the pattern printing layer 14 on the back surface was printed in the same manner. Then, PET / PC with a thickness of 0.1 mm, with the magnetic tape 15 transferred to the surface
(Mitsubishi resin: Diafix) Sheet 16 is also laminated on the back side with the same sheet 17, sandwiched between stainless steel plates with a smooth surface, heat-bonded at 120 ° C. for 20 minutes to heat-solidify, and then punched into a card shape. I made it into a card. When the hollow fine particles were not mixed, the character height after embossing was 470 μm, but by inserting microspheres inside the sheet, the character height became 430 μm, which was small. Further, when the hollow fine particles were not dispersed, the embossed portion was cracked, but by dispersing the hollow fine particles, the character height was lowered and the elongation was reduced, and the crack did not occur at all.

(Comparative Example 1) FIG. 4 shows a sectional view of the structure. PETG with a thickness of 0.6 mm (Mitsubishi Plastics: Diafix)
PETG sheet 18 having the same thickness as sheet 5 and having a thickness of 0.6 mm
In the same manner as in Example 2, except that the hollow polymer particles were not added.

(Comparative Example 2) FIG. 5 shows a sectional view of the structure. On a white polyvinyl chloride (Mitsubishi resin: vinyl foil) sheet 24 having a thickness of 0.6 mm, a pattern printing layer 25 on the front surface was applied by offset printing, screen printing or the like, and a pattern printing layer 26 on the back surface was similarly printed. After that, a 0.1 mm thick transparent polyvinyl chloride (Mitsubishi resin: vinyl foil) sheet 28 having a magnetic tape 27 transferred to the front surface is laminated with the same sheet 29 on the back surface, and is sandwiched by a stainless steel plate having a smooth surface, and 140 ° C. After 20 minutes of pressure bonding and heat fusion, the mixture was cooled and solidified, and then punched into a card shape to form a card.

As described above, the cards of Examples 1 and 2 did not show cracks in the embossed characters, and the required high heat resistance, light resistance, chemical resistance, etc. were not problematic in practical use. It was perfect as an in-vehicle card that requires heat resistance.

The card of Comparative Example 1 had a high heat resistance because it used a heat resistant polyester sheet.
However, since there were no hollow particles inside the sheet, the height of the letters after embossing was high and cracks occurred in the letters.
It was not usable as a magnetic card.

Since the card of Comparative Example 2 used a vinyl chloride resin, it had low heat resistance and was unsuitable as an on-vehicle card which requires high heat resistance, for example. Further, when incinerated after use, hydrogen chloride gas may be generated, and it cannot be said that the card has excellent disposability.

[0036]

EFFECTS OF THE INVENTION The card using the heat-resistant polyester resin had cracks after embossing. However, by dispersing the fine hollow particles in the base material for a card, the hollow fine particles are crushed after embossing. As a result, the height of the characters is reduced, and thus a magnetic card can be produced in which the embossed portion is not cracked at all. In addition, we will provide a magnetic card that does not have the problem of hydrogen chloride or dioxin when it is incinerated after use, considering the disposal. Further, a highly heat-resistant card is provided by using an amorphous polyethylene terephthalate-based resin base material as a base material of a polyester-based resin sheet in which heat-resistant polycarbonate or polyarylate is mixed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a cross section of a card according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a cross section of a card according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a cross section of a card according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing a cross section of a card of Comparative Example 1 of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing a cross section of a card of Comparative Example 2 of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a plan view of a card having embossed characters.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... White polyester / polycarbonate alloy (PETG / PC) sheet 5 in which hollow fine particles are dispersed 5, 11 ... White polyester (PETG) sheet in which hollow fine particles are dispersed 9, 10, 16, 17, 22, 23 ... Transparent polyester ( PETG / PC sheet 12, 18 ... Polyester (PETG) sheet 24 ... White polyvinyl chloride sheet 28, 29 ... Transparent polyvinyl chloride sheet 2, 3, 6, 7, 13, 14, 19, 20, 25, 26
... design, character printing layers 15, 21, 27 ... magnetic recording layer 4 ... IC module 30 ... card 31 having embossed characters ... embossed character 32 ... magnetic recording layer

Front page continuation (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI theme code (reference) C08L 67/00 C08L 69/00 69/00 G06K 19/00 K G06K 19/08 FF term (reference) 2C005 HA10 HA21 HB01 HB04 HB09 HB20 JA02 JA08 JA26 JB04 KA03 KA15 KA40 LA29 LA30 4J002 CF041 CF051 CF061 CF162 CG012 FA106 GS00 5B035 AA07 BA03 BB03 BB09 BB12 CA01

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A card, wherein the card substrate has a sheet in which hollow fine particles are dispersed in at least an amorphous polyester resin, and the card substrate is embossed. 2. An information recording means comprising at least one of a magnetic recording layer, an IC module, and a reversible heat-sensitive recording layer on the amorphous polyester sheet or a card substrate in which two or more layers of the polyester sheet are laminated. The card according to claim 1, which has. 3. The amorphous polyester sheet layer comprises a copolymer of terephthalic acid and cyclohexanedimethanol and ethylene glycol, a copolymer of terephthalic acid and isophthalic acid and ethylene glycol, or a copolymer thereof. The card according to claim 1, which is a polymer alloy of polycarbonate and polyarylate. 4. The card according to claim 1, wherein the amorphous polyester sheet layer has a glass transition temperature of 80 ° C. or higher. 5. The card according to claim 1, wherein the amorphous polyester sheet and the heat-resistant sheet layer are formed into a sheet by an extrusion method.