JP2003127570A - Recording medium and method for writing information thereto - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a card type recording medium, in which the loss of information due to chafing and the fabrication through rewriting are effectively avoided. SOLUTION: This recording medium 10 includes at least a base material 11 and a non-transparent layer 12. A recessed part 30 can be formed in the non-transparent layer 12 through the irradiation of heat energy. At the formation of the recessed part 30 in the non-transparent layer 12, a surface, on which the non-transparent layer 12 is to be formed, is made to be visually recognized on the bottom part of the recessed part 30.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recording medium and a method for writing information on the recording medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 9 shows a schematic diagram of a credit card 40 as an example of a conventional recording medium. Conventional credit cards are generally made of plastic, and include a name 33, a membership number 34, and an expiration date 35.
Individual information such as is written by forming unevenness (embossing) on the card with characters and symbols, barcodes, dot codes, etc., and forming a magnetic stripe 31 in which other personal identification numbers are coded and recorded. Alternatively, the face photograph 32 of the owner is printed by a sublimation transfer method or the like.

[0003]

However, recent credit cards and the like are generally made into IC cards, and IC chips are embedded inside these cards. When various kinds of information as described above are written on the surface of such a card by forming unevenness (embossing), the internal IC chip may be damaged.
It is necessary to place restrictions on the embedded position of the IC chip.
Further, the IC card also has an antenna pattern necessary for communicating with a reader / writer with a radio signal embedded therein together with the IC chip. However, if unevenness (embossing) is formed in the same area as this antenna pattern, the antenna pattern becomes It may be deformed and may interfere with its operation. Therefore, similarly to the IC chip, it is necessary to place restrictions on the position where the antenna pattern is installed. Due to such a problem, it is required to display the above various information by a method other than unevenness (embossing), increase the degree of freedom in the IC chip arrangement position and antenna pattern design, and obtain a highly reliable and practical card. Was rising.

A method of printing various kinds of information on the surface of the card has been devised as a method for solving the above-mentioned problem. In this case, however, the information is lost because the surface of the card is slightly polished by friction or the like. there is a possibility. Further, it is easy to intentionally erase the information and re-write the information, which causes a problem that the reliability of the card is lowered.

As another method of writing information,
There is also a method of printing various kinds of information in the manufacturing process of the card, and a transparent or semitransparent protective sheet is attached to the surface in the subsequent process, but in this case, the loss of information due to friction can be avoided. Since the surface of the card is flat, the card can be forged by writing again from the outermost surface, which lowers the reliability in terms of security.

Therefore, according to the present invention, there is no fear that information will be lost due to friction, and forgery due to rewriting of information can be prevented, and a method of writing information on such a recording medium. I will provide a.

[0007]

The recording medium of the present invention comprises at least a base material and a non-transparent layer as constituent elements, and the non-transparent layer can form recesses by being irradiated with thermal energy. It shall be possible. When the concave portion is formed in the non-transparent layer, the user can visually recognize the surface on which the non-transparent layer is formed at the bottom of the concave portion, and this is used as the recording information.

The recording medium according to the second aspect of the present invention has a structure in which a predetermined underlayer is interposed between the base material and the non-transparent layer. In this case, when the recess is formed in the non-transparent layer, the user can visually recognize the surface of the underlayer on the bottom of the recess.

In the recording medium according to the third aspect of the present invention, it is assumed that the non-transparent layer is formed on both main surfaces of the base material.

Further, in the recording medium according to the fourth aspect of the present invention, it is assumed that an arbitrary underlayer and non-transparent layer are formed on both main surfaces of the base material.

Further, according to the information writing method of the present invention, when information is written to a recording medium having a non-transparent layer formed on a substrate, the non-transparent layer is irradiated with heat energy to form concave portions. Is formed so that the surface on which the non-transparent layer is formed can be visually recognized at the bottom of the recess.

According to the recording medium of the present invention, it is possible to avoid the loss of recorded information even when the surface is abraded by friction, and effectively prevent forgery due to rewriting of information.

According to the method of writing information on the recording medium of the present invention, the information can be surely written by a simple method, the disappearance or forgery of the recorded information can be prevented, and the visual appearance is excellent. Can be one.

[0014]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Specific embodiments of a recording medium and a method of writing information on the recording medium of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings, but the present invention is not limited to the following examples. Not something.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration diagram of an example of a recording medium according to the present invention. The recording medium 10 of the present invention has a structure in which a base material 11 and a non-transparent layer 12 are laminated.

The base material 11 functions as a carrier of a recording medium, and for example, vinyl chloride resin, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polycarbonate, PET.
-G, ABS, PEN resin sheets, aluminum,
It is formed of a metal sheet such as stainless steel, various types of paper sheets such as high-quality paper and synthetic paper. When the intended recording medium is an IC card, the base material 11
It is necessary to dispose an IC chip and an antenna pattern required for wireless signal communication inside. In this case, as shown in the schematic cross-sectional view of FIG. 2, the IC chip 2 and the antenna pattern 3 are arranged on the substrate 1 formed of the above-mentioned predetermined material, and the protective layer as the upper layer is formed as shown in FIG. 4 are laminated to form the base material 11 shown in the plan view of FIG. 4 as a whole. It is suitable that the substrate 11 has a thickness of 50 to 800 μm.

The non-transparent layer 12 is formed on the entire surface or a part of the base material 11. The non-transparent layer 12 is
For example, it is formed by using a material capable of forming the concave portion 30 by irradiating thermal energy such as laser light. When the recess 30 is formed in the non-transparent layer 12, the recess 30
The bottom surface of the non-transparent layer 12 is made visible by the user so that various information such as pictures, characters, symbols and codes are written. That is, when writing information, a through hole is formed in the non-transparent layer 12 by thermal energy, or a recess 30 having a thin bottom so that the surface of the lower layer can be visually recognized. Therefore, the non-transparent layer 12 is formed of a material that does not easily transmit visible light and is capable of forming a recess by thermal energy. Examples thereof include vinyl chloride, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), PET-G, PP (polypropylene), PEN (polyethylene naphthalate) and the like. It is suitable that the non-transparent layer 12 has a thickness of 5 to 150 μm. Further, it is desirable that the non-transparent layer 12 has a color different from that of the lower layer so that the written information can be easily seen.

Next, a method of manufacturing the recording medium 10 of the present invention will be described. First, the base material 11 that constitutes the recording medium 10
And the sheet for forming the non-transparent layer 12 is kept in a rolled state. Next, inject an adhesive such as epoxy resin between these sheets,
A desired recording medium is obtained by continuously thermocompressing and laminating to form a sheet having a laminated structure, and then cutting the sheet into a desired size. In addition, the sheets forming the respective layers are stacked, and for example, 100 to 200 ° C. and 10 to 2
The recording medium 10 can also be manufactured by press-bonding under heat and pressure conditions of 0 Kg / cm ² to press-bond and then cut into a desired size.

Next, a method of writing information on the above-described recording medium of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIG. 5, the surface of the recording medium 10 on which the non-transparent layer 12 is formed is irradiated with the laser light 21 emitted from the laser oscillator 20, and the non-transparent layer 12 is melted by thermal energy to form the recess 30. At this time, the intensity of the irradiation laser is such that the non-transparent layer 21 can be melted by the thermal energy of the laser light 21 to form the concave portion 30, and the lower layer of the non-transparent layer 12 can be formed.
In (1), the power is controlled so that the surface of the base material 11 is not damaged. By doing so, the non-transparent layer 12
The surface of the lower layer is visually recognized by the user at the bottom of the concave portion 30, and various kinds of recorded information such as pictures, characters and symbols are written.

The laser oscillator 20 is a YAG laser, a carbon dioxide gas laser, a sapphire laser, a LiSAF.
A variable wavelength solid-state laser such as a laser, a rare gas excimer laser, or the like can be applied. Note that the laser power, the irradiation time, and the writing speed are adjusted so that the laser melts only the non-transparent layer 12 and does not melt even the lower layer of the non-transparent layer 12 according to the applied laser. For example, when a carbon dioxide gas laser is applied, the laser wavelength is 10.6 μm, the power is about 10 to 20 W, and the writing speed is 1
It is preferable that the 6-digit, 8-point level is about 1 to 5 seconds.

As described above, according to this embodiment, since information is written by forming the concave portion on the card surface after manufacturing the recording medium, it is possible to avoid the disappearance of the information due to the friction of the card surface. It is possible to prevent forgery of the card due to rewriting of information. In addition, writing information,
Since it is performed by forming the recesses 30 in the non-transparent layer 12 formed on the upper layer of the base material 11, there is no risk of damaging the IC chip and the antenna pattern inside the base material 11, and a highly reliable recording medium is obtained. can get.

The recording medium of the present invention is not limited to the embodiment described above, and various modifications and changes can be made. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, a predetermined underlayer 13 may be formed between the base material 11 and the non-transparent layer 12 by using an arbitrary material. The recording medium having the configuration shown in FIG.
1, sheets for forming the non-transparent layer 12, and the base layer 13 are prepared, and the sheets are joined with an adhesive,
It is made by laminating. It can also be produced by pressing and adhering each of the above-mentioned sheets under heating and pressurizing conditions.

In the recording medium shown in FIG. 6, when the non-transparent layer 12 is melted by irradiating the non-transparent layer 12 with a laser beam to form the recess 30, the base layer 13 is formed on the bottom of the recess 30. The surface of is exposed so that information is written. Even in this case, the intensity of the laser is controlled to such a level that the non-transparent layer 21 can be melted by the thermal energy of the laser light 21 to form the recesses 30 and the surface of the underlying layer 13 below the non-transparent layer 12 is not damaged. To do. The underlayer 13 is preferably formed of a material that is hard to be deteriorated by the heat of the laser beam, and also makes pictures, characters, symbols, etc. written as information clearer or improves aesthetics. Therefore, various colors can be applied. The underlayer 13 is formed to have a film thickness of about 5 to 30 μm by offset printing, gravure printing, or the like using an ink in which the carbon content is suppressed to a small amount.

The recording medium of the present invention may have a structure in which the non-transparent layer 12 is formed on the whole or a part of both main surfaces of the substrate 11 as shown in FIG. With such a configuration, it is possible to write information on both main surfaces,
The amount of information recorded can be increased.

As shown in FIG. 8, the recording medium of the present invention may have a structure in which the underlayer 13 and the non-transparent layer 12 are formed on the whole or a part of both main surfaces of the base material 11. With such a configuration, the amount of information recorded can be increased, the recorded information can be made clearer, and aesthetics can be improved.

In the above example, a laser was applied as the thermal energy for writing information, but the present invention is not limited to the above example. That is, the concave portion 30 can be formed in the non-transparent layer 12,
As long as the surface of the lower layer can be visually recognized, for example, a thermal printer or the like can be applied.

[0027]

As described above, according to the recording medium of the present invention, since the information is written by forming the concave portion on the card surface after the recording medium is manufactured, the information disappears due to the friction on the card surface. This can be avoided and counterfeiting due to rewriting can be prevented. In addition, information is written on the base material 11
Since the recess 30 is formed in the non-transparent layer 12 formed above, there is no risk of damaging the IC chip and the antenna pattern inside the base material 11, the degree of freedom in designing these electric circuits is increased, and reliability is improved. And the practicality can be improved. Further, since the information can be individually written at the stage immediately before the use by the user, the production efficiency of the recording medium can be improved. The recording medium of the present invention is, in addition to credit cards, various membership cards such as cash cards and point cards, and various cards that are expected to be IC cards in the future, such as health insurance cards and licenses. It can also be applied to medical records.

According to the second aspect of the invention, when the recess 30 is formed in the non-transparent layer 12, the underlayer 13 is formed on the bottom of the recess 30.
The surface of is made visible to the user,
The recorded information is clarified and the aesthetics are improved.

According to the third aspect of the invention, it becomes possible to write information on both main surfaces of the recording medium, and the amount of information can be increased. Further, according to the invention of claim 4, by further forming the underlayer 13 on both main surfaces, the recorded information can be made clearer and the aesthetics can be improved.

According to the method of writing information on the recording medium of the present invention, the information can be surely written by a simple method, the loss or forgery of the recorded information can be prevented, and the visual appearance is excellent. Can be one.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration diagram of a recording medium of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a schematic cross-sectional view of a main part of a base material.

FIG. 3 shows a schematic sectional view of a substrate.

FIG. 4 shows a schematic plan view of a substrate.

FIG. 5 shows a state diagram for writing information to a recording medium.

FIG. 6 shows a schematic cross-sectional view of another example of the recording medium of the present invention.

FIG. 7 shows a schematic cross-sectional view of another example of the recording medium of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a schematic cross-sectional view of another example of the recording medium of the present invention.

FIG. 9 shows a schematic plan view of an example of a credit card.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Substrate, 2 ... IC chip, 3 ... Antenna pattern, 4 ... Protective layer, 10 ... Recording medium, 11 ... Base material,
12 ... Non-transparent layer, 13 ... Underlayer, 20 ... Laser oscillator, 21 ... Laser light, 30 ... Recessed portion.

Continued front page    F term (reference) 2C005 HA01 HB01 HB03 HB08 HB09                       HB20 JA26 JA30 JB03 LB07                       MA02 MB01 MB08 MB10 NA08                       NB01                 5B035 AA07 AA13 BA04 BA05 BB02                       BB09 CA02 CA06 CA23

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. At least a base material and a non-transparent layer formed on all or part of at least one main surface of the base material, wherein the non-transparent layer is irradiated with heat energy. , It is possible to form a recess, and when the recess is formed in the non-transparent layer, at the bottom of the recess,
A recording medium characterized in that the surface on which the non-transparent layer is formed is visually recognizable. 2. A base layer is interposed between the base material and the non-transparent layer, and when the non-transparent layer is irradiated with thermal energy to form a recess, the bottom of the recess is provided with the above-mentioned material. The recording medium according to claim 1, wherein the surface of the underlayer is made visible. 3. The recording medium according to claim 1, wherein the non-transparent layer is formed on all or a part of both main surfaces of the base material. 4. The underlayer is formed on all or part of both main surfaces of the base material.
The recording medium described in. 5. A method for writing information to a recording medium having at least a base material and a non-transparent layer formed on all or a part of at least one main surface of the base material, the method comprising irradiating with thermal energy. A method of writing information, characterized in that a recess is formed in the non-transparent layer so that the surface on which the non-transparent layer is formed can be visually recognized at the bottom of the recess. 6. The method for writing information according to claim 5, wherein the recess is formed by irradiating the non-transparent layer with a laser beam.