JP2003205679A - Ink jet recording element and ink jet printing method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an ink jet recording element having a fast ink drying time when used in ink jet printing, preferably having good coating quality, especially reduced cracking properties and more preferably imparting good image quality after printing, and to provide an ink jet printing method using the ink jet recording element. <P>SOLUTION: The ink jet recording element has a substrate material supporting an undercoating layer (a) comprising a polymeric binder and borate or a borate derivative and characterized in that borate or the borate derivative is present in an amount of 3-50 g/m<SP>2</SP>and the mass ratio of the polymeric binder to borate or the borate derivative is 0.2:1-2:1, and an image receiving layer (b) containing a crosslinkable polymer having a hydroxyl group and particles and characterized in that the crosslinkable polymer is present in an amount of 20-150 g/m<SP>2</SP>and the mass ratio thereof to the particles is 10:90-30:70. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to ink jet recording elements and printing methods using such elements. More particularly, the present invention relates to subbing layers for inkjet recording elements.

[0002]

In a typical ink jet recording or printing system, ink droplets are jetted at high velocity from a nozzle toward a recording element or recording medium to produce an image on the medium. The ink droplets (or recording liquid) generally comprise a recording agent (eg dye or pigment) and a large amount of solvent. The solvent (or carrier liquid) is generally water, organic material (eg,
Made from monohydric alcohols, polyhydric alcohols, or mixtures thereof.

Ink jet recording elements generally comprise a support bearing, on at least one surface, an ink-receptive or imaging layer, such elements having a opaque support. Those for the purpose of formal observation and those for the observation by transmitted light having a transparent support are included.

In order to achieve and maintain photographic quality images on such image recording elements, it is well known that ink jet recording elements must meet the following conditions.

· Easily wet and puddling
(Ie no agglomeration of adjacent ink dots leading to non-uniform density). -No bleeding of the image at all. Absorbing high concentrations of ink and drying quickly to prevent the elements from blocking together when laminated to the next print or other surface. Not exhibit any discontinuities or defects (eg cracks, repellings, combs, etc.) due to interactions between the support and / or the layer (s). The unabsorbed dye does not aggregate on the free surface, causing crystallization of the dye and no bloom or ferro-burn effects in the imaged areas. Have an image fastness that is optimized to prevent discoloration due to contact with water or exposure to sunlight, tungsten lamps, or fluorescent lamps.

An inkjet recording element that simultaneously provides an almost instantaneous ink dry time and good image quality is desirable. However, it is difficult to meet these requirements of inkjet recording media at the same time due to the wide range of ink compositions and ink capacities that the recording elements need to meet.

Ink jet recording elements are known that use a porous or non-porous single layer coating or a multi-layer coating that acts as a suitable image-receiving layer on one or both sides of a porous or non-porous support. Recording elements using non-porous coatings generally have good image quality, but exhibit poor ink dry times. Recording elements that use porous coatings generally contain colloidal particles and have poorer image quality, but exhibit excellent dry times.

Although a wide variety of different types of porous image recording elements for use with ink jet printing are known, there are many unsolved problems in the art, and known products include those There are many deficiencies that have severely limited the commercial usefulness of. A major challenge in the design of porous image recording layers is to have as little non-particulate matter as possible to obtain good quality, crack-free coatings. If too much non-particulate is present, the image recording layer will not be porous and will exhibit inadequate ink dry time.

US Pat. No. 4,877,686 discloses a method for ink jet printing in which boric acid or its derivatives are used to cause gelation in a filler comprising a polymeric binder containing hydroxyl groups and particles. Regarding recording sheet. However, there is a problem with this element in that the amount of boric acid used does not provide the element with a fast dry time without cracking when printed with an inkjet printer.

Prior art document information relating to the invention of this application is as follows.

[Patent Document 1] US Pat. No. 4,877,686

[0011]

It is an object of the present invention to provide an ink jet recording element that has a fast ink dry time when used in ink jet printing. Another object of the invention is to provide a porous recording element with good coating quality, especially with few cracks. Yet another object of the present invention is to
It is an object of the present invention to provide an inkjet recording element that exhibits good image quality after printing. Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a printing method using the above described element.

[0012]

These and other objects include: a) a subbing layer comprising a polymeric binder and a borate or borate derivative, wherein the borate or borate derivative is 3 to 50 g / m ^2. A subbing layer present in an amount of 0.1 to 2: 1 and having a weight ratio of the polymeric binder to the borate or borate derivative of 0.2: 1 to 2: 1; and b) crosslinkable polymers and particles containing hydroxyl groups. An image receiving layer comprising: the crosslinkable polymer is present in an amount of 20 to 150 g / m ² , and the weight ratio of the crosslinkable polymer to the particles is 10:90 to 3
An ink jet recording element comprising a substrate carrying an image receiving layer which is 0:70.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The ink jet recording element of the present invention has good coating quality and image quality and has a fast dry time when printed using an ink jet printer.

Another aspect of the present invention is: A) providing an ink jet printer responsive to digital data signals, B) loading the printer with the ink jet recording element described above, and C) using the ink jet printer in the printer. Loading an ink composition, and D) printing on the inkjet recording element using the inkjet ink composition in response to the digital data signal.

The polymeric binder in the subbing layer used in the present invention is preferably a water-soluble polymer or a water-dispersible polymer (eg polyvinyl alcohol, polyvinylpyrrolidone, gelatin, cellulose ether, polyoxazoline, polyvinylacetamide, partially). Hydrolyzed poly (vinyl acetate / vinyl alcohol), polyacrylic acid, polyacrylamide, polyalkylene oxide, sulfonated or phosphorylated polyester or polystyrene, casein, zein,
Albumin, chitin, chitosan, dextran, pectin, collagen derivative, collodian, agar, arrowroot, gar, carrageenan, tragacanth, xanthan, rhamsan, etc.), latex (for example, poly (styrene-co-butadiene), Polyurethane latex, polyester latex, or polyacrylate, polymethacrylate, polyacrylamide,
Or copolymers thereof). In a preferred embodiment, the polymeric binder is a sulfonated polyester dispersion (eg, AQ29 ™ (Eastman Chemical C
o.)), gelatin, polyurethane, or polyvinylpyrrolidone.

The polymeric binder for the subbing layer is preferably used in an amount of 1 to 50 g / m ² , preferably 1 to 20 g / m ² .

The borate or borate derivative used in the subbing layer of the ink jet recording element of the present invention may be, for example, borax, sodium tetraborate, boric acid, phenylboronic acid, or butylboronic acid. As mentioned above, the borate or borate derivative is 3-50.
g / m ^2, preferably used in an amount of 3 to 10 g / m ^2. It is believed that the borate or borate derivative in the subbing layer diffuses into the image-receiving layer during coating to crosslink the crosslinkable binder in the image-receiving layer.

The particles used in the image receiving layer of the present invention may be either inorganic or organic. Inorganic particles that may be used include, for example, metal oxides, metal oxide hydrates, boehmite, clays, calcined clays, calcium carbonate, aluminosilicates, zeolites, or barium sulfate. In a preferred embodiment, the metal oxide is silica, alumina, zirconia, or titania.

Organic particles that may be used in the present invention include, for example, acrylic resins, styrene resins, or cellulose derivatives (eg, cellulose acetate, cellulose acetate butyrate, cellulose propionate, cellulose acetate propionate, and ethyl cellulose). ), Polyvinyl resins (eg, polyvinyl chloride, copolymers of vinyl chloride and vinyl acetate, and polyvinyl butyral, polyvinyl acetal, ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymers,
Ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer), and ethylene-allyl copolymer (for example, ethylene-allyl alcohol copolymer, ethylene-allylacetone copolymer, ethylene-allylbenzene copolymer, ethylene-allyl ether copolymer), ethylene acrylic copolymer and polyoxymethylene copolymer, Included are polymeric particles such as particles made from condensation polymers (eg, polyethylene terephthalate, polybutylene terephthalate, polyurethanes, and polyesters such as polycarbonate). Examples of organic particles useful in the present invention include US patent application Ser. Nos. 09 / 458,401 (filed December 10, 1999), 09 / 608,969 (filed June 30, 2000), 09/6.
No. 07,417 (filed June 30, 2000), No. 09 / 608,466 (20
No. 09 / 607,419 (filed June 30, 2000) and No. 09 / 822,731 (filed March 30, 2001)
Are disclosed and claimed in the respective specifications. In a preferred embodiment of the invention said particles are present in said image receiving layer in an amount of 50-350 g / m ² .

The crosslinkable polymer containing a hydroxyl group used in the image receiving layer is, for example,
Polyvinyl alcohol, partially hydrolyzed poly
(Vinyl acetate / vinyl alcohol), copolymer containing hydroxyethyl methacrylate, copolymer containing hydroxyethyl acrylate, copolymer containing hydroxypropyl methacrylate, hydroxy cellulose ether (eg hydroxyethyl cellulose) And so on. In a preferred embodiment, the crosslinkable polymer containing hydroxyl groups is polyvinyl alcohol or hydrolyzed poly
(Vinyl acetate / vinyl alcohol).

If desired, additional polymeric binders (eg, any of the polymeric binders listed above for the subbing layer) may be added to the image-receiving layer with the crosslinkable polymer. Good.

Although the amount of binder used in the image-receiving layer should be sufficient to impart cohesive strength to the ink jet recording element, the continuous porous structure formed by the particles is It should also be kept to a minimum so that it is not blocked by the binder.

In addition to the image receiving layer described above, the recording element of the present invention may also contain a layer above the image receiving layer which has the function of providing gloss. Materials useful for this layer include submicron inorganic particles and / or polymeric binders.

The support for the ink jet recording element used in the present invention may be a resin coated paper, paper, polyester, or microporous material (eg Pittsburgh, Penn.
Polyethylene polymer-containing material sold under the trade name Teslin ™ by PPG Industries, Inc. of Sylvania), Tyvek ™ synthetic paper (DuPont Corp.),
Impregnated paper such as Duraform ™, and OPPalyte ™ film (Mobil Chemical Co.), as well as US patents
It can be any of those commonly used in inkjet receivers, such as the other composite films listed in 5,244,861. Opaque supports include plain paper, coated papers, synthetic papers, photographic paper supports, melt extrusion coated papers, and laminated papers (eg, biaxially oriented support laminates). Biaxially oriented support laminates are described in US Pat.
5,853,965, 5,866,282, 5,874,205, and
5,888,643, 5,888,681, 5,888,683, and 5,888,714. These biaxially oriented supports include a paper base and a biaxially oriented polyolefin sheet (typically polypropylene) laminated to one or both sides of the paper base. Transparent supports include glass, cellulose derivatives (eg, cellulose ester, cellulose triacetate, cellulose diacetate, cellulose acetate propionate, cellulose acetate butyrate), polyesters (eg, polyethylene terephthalate, polyethylene naphthalate, poly-1,4). -Cyclohexane dimethylene terephthalate, polybutylene terephthalate, and their copolymers), polyimide, polyamide,
Included are polycarbonates, polystyrenes, polyolefins (eg polyethylene or polypropylene), polysulfones, polyacrylates, polyetherimides, and mixtures thereof. The papers listed above include a wide range of papers, from high quality papers (eg photographic paper) to low quality papers (eg newsprint).

The support used in the present invention is 50-
It may have a thickness of 500 μm, preferably 75 to 300 μm. Antioxidants, antistatic agents, if desired
Plasticizers, and other known additives may be incorporated into the support.

To improve the adhesion of the image receiving layer to the support, the surface of the support may be subjected to a corona discharge treatment prior to applying the subbing layer.

The coating composition may be applied from either water or an organic solvent, although water is preferred. Total solids should be chosen to yield a useful coating thickness in the most economical way, and in fine particle coating formulations, 10
A solids content of ~ 40 wt% is typical.

The coating composition used in the present invention can be prepared, for example, by dip coating, wire wound rod coating, doctor blade coating, gravure and reverse roll coating, slide coating,
It may be applied by some of the well known techniques such as bead coating, extrusion coating, curtain coating and the like. Known coating and drying methods are described in Research Disclosure, published in December 1989.
Sclosure), No. 308119, pp. 1007-1008. Slide coating is preferred,
In this case, the base layer and overcoat can be applied simultaneously. After application, these layers are typically dried by simple evaporation, although drying may be facilitated by known techniques such as convection heating.

The coating composition may be applied to one or both surfaces of the substrate by conventional pre-metering or post-metering coating methods (eg, blade coating, air knife coating, rod coating, roll coating, etc.). it can. The choice of application method will depend on the economics of operation, which in turn will determine the formulation specifications such as coating solids, coating viscosity, and coating speed.

The thickness of the image-receiving layer can range from 1 to 60 μm, preferably 5 to 40 μm.

After coating, the above ink jet recording element is subjected to calendering or super calendering,
The smoothness of the surface may be enhanced. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the inkjet recording element has a temperature of 65 ° C,
Subjected to high temperature soft nip calendering at a pressure of 14000 kg / m and a speed of 0.15 m / s to 0.3 m / s.

In order to impart mechanical durability to the ink jet recording element, small amounts of additional cross-linking agents which act on the cross-linkable binders discussed above may be added. Such additives improve the cohesive strength of the layers. For example, carbodiimide, polyfunctional aziridine,
Any cross-linking agent can be used, such as aldehydes, isocyanates, epoxides, polyvalent metal cations and the like.

To improve the discoloration of the colorant, a UV absorber, a radical quencher, or an antioxidant well known in the art may be further added to the image receiving layer. Other additives include pH modifiers, adhesion promoters, rheology modifiers, surfactants, biocides, lubricants,
Includes dyes, optical brighteners, matting agents, antistatic agents and the like. To obtain a reasonable coatability, for example, a surfactant,
Additives known to those skilled in the art may be used, such as defoamers, alcohols and the like. Typical amounts of coating aids are 0.01 to 0.30% by weight active coating aid, based on total solution weight. These coating aids may be nonionic, anionic, cationic or amphoteric. A specific example is Emulsifier, Volume 1 of MCCUTCHEON.
s and Detergents, 1995, North American Edition.

Ink jet inks used to image the recording elements of the present invention are well known in the art. Ink compositions typically used in inkjet printing are liquid compositions comprising a solvent or carrier liquid, dyes or pigments, wetting agents, organic solvents, detergents, thickeners, preservatives and the like. The solvent or carrier liquid can be simply water or it can be water mixed with other water-miscible solvents such as polyhydric alcohols. In addition, an ink in which an organic material such as polyhydric alcohol is a main carrier or solvent liquid may be used. Particularly useful are mixed solvents of water and polyhydric alcohols. The dyes used in such compositions are generally water-soluble direct or acid type dyes. Such liquid compositions are described, for example, in US Pat.
81,946, 4,239,543, and 4,781,758.

The following examples are provided to illustrate the present invention.

[0036]

EXAMPLES The following elements were prepared with the listed subbing layers.

Control Standard Element C-1 (with low amount of borax
) Borax (sodium tetraborate decahydrate) and sulfonated polyester dispersion AQ29 ™ (Eastman Chemical Co.)
And a coating surfactant Olin 10G ™ in a 10% by weight aqueous solution (the ratio of borax to polyester binder is
33:67) was applied to the corona discharge treated resin coated paper by rod coating at a total dry laydown of 1.5 g / m ² , and the dry laydown of borax was set to 0.5 g / m ² .
The dry laydown of the polyester binder was 1.0 g / m ² . The coating was dried in an oven at 40 ° C for 20 minutes.

Control element C-2 (borax and binder
The amount that is less) The element of over the dry laydown of borax and 1.0 g / m ^2, a dry lay-down of the polyester binder except that the 0.5 g / m ^2, was prepared the same as C-1.

Control element C-3 (borax and binder
The amount that is less) The element of over the dry laydown of borax and 1.0 g / m ^2, a dry lay-down of the polyester binder except that the 1.0 g / m ^2, was prepared the same as C-1.

Control element C-4 (with high amount of borax
Of) this element, the dry laydown of borax and 12.0 g / m ^2, a dry lay-down of the polyester binder except that the 12.0 g / m ^2, was prepared the same as C-1.

Control Element C-5 (high binder content)
Casting) This element, the dry laydown of borax and 10.0 g / m ^2, a dry lay-down of the polyester binder except that the 25.0 g / m ^2, was prepared the same as C-1.

Element 1 of the Invention This element was prepared the same as C-1 except that the dry laydown of borax was 5.0 g / m ² and the dry laydown of the polyester binder was 1.0 g / m ² .

Element 2 of the Invention This element was prepared the same as C-1 except that the dry laydown of borax was 5.0 g / m ² and the dry laydown of the polyester binder was 5.0 g / m ² .

Element 3 of the Invention This element was prepared the same as C-1 except that the dry laydown of the borax was 7.0 g / m ² and the dry laydown of the polyester binder was 7.0 g / m ² .

Element 4 of the Invention This element was prepared the same as C-1 except that the dry laydown of the borax was 10.0 g / m ² and the dry laydown of the polyester binder was 10.0 g / m ² .

Element 5 of the Invention This element was prepared the same as C-1 except that the dry laydown of the borax was 10.0 g / m ² and the dry laydown of the polyester binder was 20.0 g / m ² .

Image-Receiving Layer Next, to each of the above elements having the above-mentioned undercoat layer, a blade coater and porous polymer particles (polyethylene glycol dimethacrylate, 0.18 μm) and polyvinyl alcohol binder (AH22 manufactured by Nippon Gohsei) 18% by mass
Solution (ratio of particles to polyvinyl alcohol 80:20
Was used to overcoat the image-receiving layer at a dry laydown of about 43 g / m ² . Coating surfactant Olin 1
0G ™ was also used at about 0.1% of the total liquid mass.
These coatings were dried in an oven at 40 ° C for 20 minutes.

Testing Each element was imaged using an Epson 870 inkjet printer and inkjet inks (cartridge T007 (black) and cartridge T008 (color)) and tested for dry time. This dry time test was carried out immediately after printing by rubbing cyan, magenta, yellow, red, green, blue and black color patches with a latex glove to determine the amount of smudge according to the scale of Table I. This is a stain test to be recorded.

[0049]

[Table 1]

Each element after printing was then evaluated for cracks and rated according to Table II.

[0051]

[Table 2]

The following results were obtained.

[0053]

[Table 3]

The above results show that the use of the subbing layer according to the invention provided elements with better dry times and less cracking than the control elements.

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Charles L. Bower             United States of America, New York 14580,             Webster, Imperial Drive             1227 F-term (reference) 2C056 EA04 FC06                 2H086 BA12 BA15 BA31 BA33 BA34                       BA41

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A) a subbing layer comprising a polymeric binder and a borate or borate derivative, said borate or borate derivative being present in an amount of ³ to 50 g / m ² , and said polymeric binder. Mass ratio of the borate or borate derivative is 0.2: 1 to
A subbing layer of 2: 1 and b) an image-receiving layer comprising a crosslinkable polymer containing hydroxyl groups and particles, said crosslinkable polymer being present in an amount of 20 to 150 g / m ^2. And the mass ratio of the crosslinkable polymer to the particles is 10: 90-3.
An ink jet recording element comprising a substrate carrying an image receiving layer of 0:70. 2. The recording element of claim 1, wherein the polymeric binder in the subbing layer comprises a water soluble polymer or a water dispersible polymer. 3. The recording element of claim 1, wherein the polymeric binder in the subbing layer comprises a sulfonated polyester dispersion, gelatin, polyurethane, or polyvinylpyrrolidone. 4. The recording element of claim 1, wherein the polymeric binder in the subbing layer comprises a sulfonated polyester dispersion. 5. A recording element according to claim 1, wherein the polymeric binder is present in the subbing layer in an amount of 1 to 50 g / m ² . 6. A recording element according to claim 1, wherein the polymeric binder is present in the subbing layer in an amount of 1 to ²⁰ g / m ² . 7. The borate or borate derivative is:
Recording element according to claim 1, which is borax, sodium tetraborate, boric acid, phenylboronic acid or butylboronic acid. 8. The borate or borate derivative is 3
A recording element according to claim 1 present in an amount of -50 g / m ² . 9. The borate or borate derivative is 3
The recording element according to claim 1, which is present in an amount of -10 g / m ² . 10. A) preparing an inkjet printer responsive to a digital data signal, B) loading the inkjet recording element of claim 1 into the printer, C) inkjet printer ink composition into the printer. And D) printing on the inkjet recording element using the inkjet ink composition in response to the digital data signal.