JP2004223930A - Information recording medium, laminar structure thereof and printing ink therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information recording medium, in which no embossing crack develops and which has good designability, and printing ink employed therefor. <P>SOLUTION: In this information recording medium 1, a transferring pattern, on the surface of which a medium ink layer produced by a silk screen printing is provided, is transferred to a medium base material and then a transfer foil is transferred onto the medium ink layer in order to finally emboss characters on the transfer foil. Scale-shaped inorganic pigment is dispersed in the medium ink layer and the medium ink layer is transparent or semi-transparent. This printing ink for the information recording medium is a medium ink which is employed for undercoating the transfer foil of the transfer film for the information recording medium and includes the scale-shaped inorganic pigment having the average value of the maximum distance across length of 0.1-20 μm. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an improvement in processing suitability such as embossing of an information recording medium such as a magnetic card and an IC card, and an improvement in external visibility. More specifically, the present invention relates to an information recording medium which prevents embossed characters from being cracked when embossing characters embossed on a hologram foil transfer portion on a surface of a card or the like, a layer structure thereof, or a printing ink used therefor.
Therefore, the field of use of the present invention relates to the field of manufacturing or using information recording media such as magnetic cards and IC cards.
[0002]
[Prior art]
For information recording media such as magnetic cards, IC cards, etc., for the purpose of card identification and differentiation, etc., an individual design is formed on the card surface and a transfer foil such as a hologram is transferred, or a mark unique to the issuing company is printed. That is being done.
Since these parts perform an important function for preventing forgery and also exhibit a design property, they are often specially processed to prevent forgery, forgery, mark replacement, and the like.
[0003]
The layer configuration of a conventional information recording medium will be described with reference to FIGS.
6 and 7 are cross-sectional views showing the layer structure of a conventional information recording medium, and FIGS. 8 and 9 are cross-sectional views showing a transfer film used for the conventional information recording medium.
In the layer configuration of the information recording medium of FIG. 6, transparent substrates 13 and 14 are laminated on both surfaces of white substrates 11 and 12, respectively. The white substrate 11 has a pattern printing portion 18, and the pattern printing portion 17 is further transferred to the front transparent substrate 13 side.
A transfer foil 4 such as a hologram is transferred to a part of the transferred picture, and an opaque silk print 20 in which aluminum powder or the like is dispersed is provided on a lower surface of the transfer foil 4. The portions other than the transfer foil are printed with the transparent silk-medium print 16.
[0004]
The opaque or colored portion of the lower surface of the hologram foil should preferably have good transparency, but if it is made transparent, the film strength will be high, so the character embossing that will be inserted later into the transfer foil will have cracks. There is a problem that it is easy. When the crack of the character embossed portion becomes large, the user can look into the white base material 11 and is particularly disliked as a defective card.
Embossing cracks are likely to occur when there is a transparent medium printing layer without a pigment, and large pigments (cracks) are likely to occur. Therefore, in order to avoid transparency without stopping, inorganic pigments in the medium ink, such as aluminum powder as described above, are used. And the like, to make it opaque or colored.
This is because, when aluminum powder or the like enters, minute cracks tend to occur, but this has the effect of preventing large cracks (cracks).
[0005]
The issuer's mark and the like are also printed on the transfer film surface in the same manner as other transfer pictures, but the lower surface thereof is printed with silk screen silkscreen ink. This is because the white color of the mark is effectively expressed by making the white color of the white base material directly visible because the white color obtained by printing is not sufficient. In particular, a pigment-free medium ink is used.
[0006]
FIG. 7 is an example of an information recording medium having a magnetic tape. The concealing layer 15 and the pattern printing portion 17 are formed by transfer on the magnetic tape 2, but other configurations are the same as those in FIG.
[0007]
FIG. 8 shows a transfer film for producing the information recording medium of FIG.
The transfer film has a configuration in which a release layer / protective layer 19 is provided on the transfer film substrate 8, and a pattern printing portion 17 and an opaque silk print 20 are printed on a part of the release layer / protective layer 19. Note that an anchor layer for increasing the adhesion strength may be provided between the release layer / protective layer 19 and the pattern printing.
Although the release layer / protective layer 19 functions as a release layer as a transfer film, it remains on the surface of the information recording medium after transfer and functions as a protective layer. An opaque silk-silk print 20 by silk screen printing is printed on the lower surface on which the transfer foil 4 such as a hologram foil is transferred, and a transparent silk-medium print 16 is printed on the surface of the pattern printing unit 17.
The transparent silk-medium printing 16 is intended to provide transparency and secure strong adhesion to the transparent substrate 13.
[0008]
FIG. 9 shows a transfer film for manufacturing the information recording medium of FIG.
In this case, a concealing layer 15 is provided on the magnetic layer to conceal the magnetic layer.
Other configurations are the same as those in FIG.
[0009]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
In the production of the information recording medium, after the white bases 11 and 12 are press-laminated, the transparent bases 13 and 14 are press-laminated on the white base, and at the same time the transfer film is used as the release layer / protective layer 19 on the card surface. Then, the opaque silk print 20, the masking layer 15, and the transparent silk medium print 16 are transferred so as to be in contact with the transparent substrate 13, and the transfer film substrate 8 is peeled off.
However, in the magnetic card and IC card manufactured in this manner, in addition to the transparent silk-medium printing, an opaque silk-screen printing for ensuring the emboss quality of the transfer foil transfer portion must be separately provided, and the number of processes is increased. There was a problem.
In addition, if a shift occurs between the transfer foil and the opaque silk print, the opaque silk print is visually recognized and becomes unfavorable in appearance. Therefore, strict processing accuracy is required to secure the appearance.
In view of the above, the present invention is intended to solve such a problem by improving a medium ink for a transfer foil under a transfer foil such as a hologram.
[0010]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
A first aspect of the present invention for solving the above-mentioned problems is that, after transferring a transfer pattern having a medium ink layer by silk screen printing to a medium substrate, a transfer foil is transferred onto the medium ink layer, and the transfer is performed. In the information recording medium in which text embossing is performed on the foil portion, the scale ink pigment is dispersed in the medium ink layer, and the medium ink layer is transparent or translucent. .
[0011]
The second aspect of the present invention relates to a layer structure of an information recording medium in which a white base material / transparent base material / silk-screened medium ink layer / transfer foil is laminated in this order. Is a layer configuration of an information recording medium, wherein a scale-shaped inorganic pigment is dispersed, and a medium ink layer formed by silk screen is transparent or translucent.
[0012]
A third aspect of the present invention relates to a layer structure of an information recording medium in which a white base material / printing layer / transparent base material / medium printing layer / protective layer is laminated in this order. The printing layer has a layer structure of an information recording medium, in which a scale-shaped inorganic pigment is dispersed, and a medium printing layer formed by silk screen is transparent or translucent.
[0013]
The fourth of the gist of the present invention is a medium ink used for transfer foil under an information recording medium transfer film, wherein the medium ink has an average value of the maximum transfer length of 0.1 to 20 μm. A printing ink for an information recording medium, comprising a scale-like inorganic pigment.
Since this printing ink is used, it is excellent in embossing suitability.
[0014]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to prevent the occurrence of “cracks” due to embossing and to improve the appearance visibility and workability in the character embossing of an information recording medium, particularly in the character embossing applied to the hologram foil transfer portion.
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
1A and 1B are diagrams showing an information recording medium of the present invention. FIG. 1A is a plan view, FIG. 1B is a cross-sectional view showing a layer structure taken along line AA in FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a layer configuration in another embodiment of the information recording medium, and FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a layer configuration of a transfer film used for manufacturing the information recording medium.
[0015]
As shown in FIG. 1A, the information recording medium 1 has a magnetic tape 2 on the front surface or both sides, a transfer foil 4 such as a hologram foil, a mark print 17m, a character emboss 3, a pattern print unit 17, and the like. And the appearance is the same as that of a normal information recording medium.
As shown in FIG. 1B, the base of the information recording medium 1 has a configuration in which transparent bases 13 and 14 are laminated on both surfaces of white bases 11 and 12, but is not limited thereto. Can be taken. The magnetic tape 2 used is previously transferred to the transparent substrate 13. The magnetic tape 2 may be provided also on the transparent substrate 14 side.
[0016]
The transparent substrate 13 has a silk screen ink printed by silk screen (hereinafter, referred to as “silk medium printing 9”), and the pattern printing portion 17, the release layer and the protective layer are formed on the silk medium printing 9. 19 are sequentially laminated. The release layer / protective layer 19 remains on the surface of the information recording medium 1 and functions as a protective layer as described above.
Each of the above-mentioned layers is formed by transferring a printing layer previously formed on a transfer film described later to the surface of the transparent substrate 13.
The thickness of each of the white bases 11 and 12 is about 280 μm, and the thickness of each of the transparent bases 13 and 14 is about 100 μm. On the other hand, each print layer is within about several μm. Please understand that the thickness is shown enlarged.
[0017]
A transfer foil 4 such as a hologram foil is transferred to the outermost surface of the card. Although the character emboss 3 is also provided on this surface, illustration of the embossed state is omitted in FIG. 1 (B). A release layer / protective layer 19 is provided on the lower surface of the transfer foil 4 such as a hologram, and a silk-medium print 9 is provided below the release layer / protective layer 19.
The features of the information recording medium of the present invention reside in that the scale-shaped inorganic pigment is dispersed in the printing ink of the silk-medium printing 9, and the medium ink layer is transparent or translucent. As a result, as will be described later, such an effect is obtained that a large emboss crack (crack) does not occur.
FIG. 2 shows another embodiment of the information recording medium, and shows that the pattern printing portion 18 is also formed on the surface of the white base material 11. The pattern printing portion is to be printed on the surface of the base material 11 in advance without using transfer.
[0018]
FIG. 3 shows a layer configuration of the transfer film 10 used for manufacturing an information recording medium. Unlike the conventional transfer film shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, the opaque silk print 20 below the hologram transfer foil is eliminated, and is common to the transparent silk medium print 9 other than the transfer foil portion. The common use of the medium printing has the effect of reducing the number of steps.
Such a transfer film 10 is provided with a release layer / protective layer 19, a pattern print portion 17 and a mark print 17m on the transfer film substrate 8 by offset printing, and then a silk-medium print 9 by silk screen printing. It is a thing.
When it is desired to provide a concealing layer on the magnetic tape 2, a concealing layer may be provided as necessary.
[0019]
The transfer of the transfer film 10 is performed together with the steps of press-laminating the transparent substrates 13 and 14 on the white substrates 11 and 12. The silk-medium print 9 is laminated so as to be in contact with the surface of the transparent substrate 13, a press material is introduced between mirror plates of a press machine, and each printing layer is transferred to the transparent substrate 13 by applying heat and pressure. . After the transfer, the transfer film substrate 8 is peeled and removed.
The silk-medium printing 9 can be printed with a common medium ink, but an improved version of the conventional silk-medium ink is used.
[0020]
The transfer of the transfer foil 4 such as a hologram is performed by pressing the transfer foil with hot pressure. In a normal hologram foil, the hologram forming layer has a thickness of about 5 μm, and an acrylic-vinyl chloride-based adhesive is applied.
After the transfer of the hologram foil 4, the character embossing 3 is performed on the card surface including the hologram foil portion (FIG. 1). The embossing holds the card between the male and female type rings and presses the card from the male side to form a convex character on the card surface. The height of the emboss is about 0.40 to 0.48 mm from the card surface.
After the embossing of the characters, an Al vapor-deposited film is transferred to decorate the surface of the embossed characters 3. By pressing on the Al-deposited film with a soft rubber material, the silver decoration is applied only to the protruding portions of the characters.
[0021]
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a character embossed portion of an information recording medium according to the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a character embossed portion of an information recording medium made of conventional silk medium ink. In each case, the state after the transfer of the Al vapor-deposited film by the character emboss of the hologram transfer foil 4 part is shown.
FIG. 5 shows a case in which the conventional transparent silk medium is provided under the hologram transfer foil, but a large crack 6 occurs even when embossed under the same conditions.
On the other hand, in the case of FIG. 4, fine cracks 5 are generated, but no large cracks are recognized. In addition, even when the conventional opaque silk printing in which an aluminum powder inorganic pigment is dispersed is provided under the hologram transfer foil, no large cracks occur even when embossing under the same conditions. In the drawing, the hatched portion is a bright portion due to the reflection of the embossed surface, not a crack.
[0022]
In the case of character embossing, silver foil transfer is performed on the surface after embossing, but if a large crack occurs, the silver foil is not transferred, so that the white surface of the white substrate 11 is exposed and the appearance is significantly impaired. Will be. This suggests that at least the transparent substrate has cracks. On the other hand, in the case of the fine crack 5, the silver deposited film is transferred and the white surface of the white substrate 12 is not exposed, so that the appearance is not impaired.
In FIG. 5, when the transparent silk printing is provided under the hologram transfer foil, the large cracks 6 are generated compared to the case where the small cracks 5 are small. It is considered that the mechanism for preventing the occurrence of blemishes did not work.
[0023]
It is considered that such a difference in the generation of the "crack" is largely due to a difference in the ink composition used for silk-medium printing.
That is, in the silk ink under the hologram transfer foil used for the transparent silk printing, the inorganic pigment is not dispersed in the vinyl resin as in the following composition 3.
Further, the conventional silk ink for hologram transfer foil below used for opaque silk printing (colored portion) is obtained by dispersing aluminum particle powder having a diameter of about 10 μm in a vinyl resin as in the following composition 2, and embossing. Cracks do not occur, but the hollow area becomes opaque, requiring strict holographic processing accuracy and increasing the number of steps.
In the present invention, a scaly inorganic pigment (barium sulfate) having an average value of the maximum cross length (the maximum distance in the projected image of the pigment particles) of 0.1 to 20 μm is applied to a vinyl-based resin such as the composition 1. Was dispersed.
[0024]
Embossing cracks do not occur in both ink compositions 1 and 2, but in the case of ink composition 2, the printed portion becomes opaque (or colored). The embossed cracks shown in FIG. 5 were obtained by using an ink of the following composition 3 below the hologram transfer foil, and the appearance was the same as that of the composition 1, but the embossed cracks occurred due to the absence of the inorganic pigment. ing.
[0025]
<Ink composition 1>
50% by weight of vinyl chloride resin
50% by weight of vinyl acetate resin
Inorganic pigment (barium sulfate) 10% by weight
(Average value of maximum crossing length 0.1-20 μm)
Solvent (cyclohexanone) 20% by weight
<Ink composition 2>
50% by weight of vinyl chloride resin
50% by weight of vinyl acetate resin
Inorganic pigment (aluminum particles) 20% by weight
(Average particle size 10 μm)
Solvent (cyclohexanone) 20% by weight
<Ink composition 3>
Except for removing the inorganic pigment, the composition was the same as the composition 1.
[0026]
<Embodiments related to other materials>
(1) A white rigid vinyl chloride sheet is preferably used for the white substrate, but polyethylene terephthalate, polycarbonate, or polypropylene resin may be used as long as it is excellent in printability of silk medium ink.
Further, a PET-G (non-crystalline copolyester resin) sheet may be used.
(2) As the transparent substrate, a transparent vinyl chloride sheet can be preferably used, but similarly to the white substrate, polyethylene terephthalate, polycarbonate, polypropylene resin, or PET-G may be used.
(3) As the silk medium ink, a vinyl chloride / vinyl acetate resin having a softening temperature of 60 to 80 ° C., or a vinyl chloride / vinyl acetate / vinyl alcohol resin can be suitably used.
[0027]
(4) The hologram foil is formed on a polyethylene terephthalate film base material having a thickness of about 20 μm through a release layer, and is formed of a thermoplastic resin, a thermosetting resin, or an ionizing radiation curable resin having a thickness of about 5 μm. This is a material in which an adhesive layer is formed on the outermost surface of the hologram layer thus formed. If the release layer or the adhesive layer is too thick, the foil breakage becomes worse. Therefore, a thin layer having a thickness of 2 to 3 μm or less is used.
(5) As the inorganic pigment dispersed in the silk medium ink provided below the transfer foil, there can be used, for example, barium sulfate, calcium carbonate, silica (SiO ₂ ), and titanium oxide (TiO ₂ ). However, the material is not limited to these, and any material can be used as long as it can maintain a transparent or translucent (uncolored state).
[0028]
【Example】
(Example)
An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
<Preparation of transfer film>
Using a 100 μm thick polyethylene terephthalate film as the transfer film substrate 8, the release layer / protective layer 19, the pattern printing section 17, and the mark printing 17 m are printed by offset printing, and then silk-medium printing 9 by silk screen printing. Was done. Acrylic resin ink was used for offset printing, and silk-medium printing for silk screen printing was performed with the ink of the composition 1. Thus, the transfer film 10 was completed.
[0029]
<Manufacture of information recording medium>
Two white hard vinyl chloride sheets (TN828 manufactured by Taihei Chemical Co., Ltd.) having a thickness of 0.28 mm were used as the white bases 11 and 12, and hot pressure (145 ° C., 30 kg / cm) was applied between the white bases. ² , 10 minutes) for press lamination.
Next, the transparent substrates 13 and 14 to which the magnetic tape has been transferred are applied to both sides of the white substrate, and the previously prepared transfer film 10 is aligned with and superimposed on the transparent substrate 13 surface. It was sandwiched between them and press-laminated by applying heat and pressure (120 ° C., 25 kg / cm ² , 10 minutes).
The transfer film substrate 8 was peeled off to obtain the information recording medium 1 of the present invention.
[0030]
A comparative example of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
<Preparation of transfer film>
(Comparative Example 1)
A transfer film was prepared in the same manner as in the example, except that the silk-medium printing was the same as in the example except for the lower part of the hologram transfer foil, and the lower part of the hologram transfer foil was printed with the ink of the composition 2 above.
(Comparative Example 2)
The procedure was the same as in the example, except that the ink of the composition 3 was used for silk-medium printing.
[0031]
<Manufacture of information recording medium>
The production of the information recording medium was carried out under the same conditions as in the example except that the configuration of the transfer film was different.
[0032]
The hologram foil 4 was transferred onto the silk-medium printing of the information recording medium of Example and Comparative Example 2, and the hologram foil 4 was transferred onto the opaque silk printing of the information recording medium of Comparative Example 1.
The hologram foil 4 is a material in which a hologram layer made of an acrylic resin having a thickness of about 5 μm and an adhesive layer are formed on a polyethylene terephthalate film base material having a thickness of 20 μm via a release layer, and the same material is used.
[0033]
Character embossing is performed on the part after the hologram foil is transferred and the part other than the hologram foil under normal embossing conditions (emboss height: 0.45 mm), and the embossed card is used to emboss the character after the Al foil is transferred. The part was photographed and enlarged to check for cracks.
The results are as shown in FIG. 4 and FIG. 5. No large cracks were observed in Examples and Comparative Example 1, but large cracks were observed in Comparative Example 2 in which the inorganic pigment did not enter the medium ink. Was observed. Further, in Comparative Example 1, although no emboss cracking occurred, an opaque colored portion was generated around the hologram foil due to holo-transfer deviation. From the above results, it was confirmed that the best results were obtained with the ink compositions and printing conditions of the examples.
It should be noted that no significant difference was observed between the example and the comparative examples 1 and 2 in terms of the emboss curl and the heat resistance of the emboss.
[0034]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, in the information recording medium of the present invention or the layer structure thereof, since the transparent ink composition under the hologram foil is improved, no large cracks occur due to the embossing of characters.
Further, since the transparency is sufficient, the design of white expression is improved, and there is an advantage that the ink can be shared with the medium ink under the issuing company mark.
The effect of preventing embossing cracks can be similarly obtained by forming a similar layer structure in a portion other than below the hologram foil under the protective layer (release layer). This effect is particularly remarkable in the pattern printing section.
The ink for an information recording medium of the present invention has transparency and emboss resistance, and can be suitably used for an embossed card.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an information recording medium of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a layer configuration in another embodiment of an information recording medium.
FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a layer configuration of a transfer film used for manufacturing an information recording medium.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a character embossed portion when the information recording medium of the present invention is embossed.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a character emboss portion when a conventional information recording medium is embossed.
FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a layer configuration of a conventional information recording medium.
FIG. 7 is a sectional view showing another layer configuration of a conventional information recording medium.
FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a layer configuration of a conventional transfer film.
FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view showing another layer configuration of a conventional transfer film.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Information recording medium 2 Magnetic tape 3 Character embossing 4 Transfer foil of holograms etc. 5 Fine cracks 6 Large cracks 7 Luminous portions 8 Transfer film base material 9 Silk-medium printing 10 Transfer film 11, 12 White base material 13, 14 Transparent base material 15 Concealment layer 16 Transparent silk medium printing 17, 18 Pattern printing part 17m Mark printing 19 Release layer / protective layer 20 Opaque silk printing

Claims (9)

After transferring a transfer pattern having a medium ink layer by silk-screen printing to the surface of a medium substrate, a transfer foil is transferred onto the medium ink layer and the transfer foil portion is embossed with a character. An information recording medium, wherein a scale-like inorganic pigment is dispersed in the ink layer, and the medium ink layer is transparent or translucent. 2. The information recording medium according to claim 1, wherein the transfer foil is a hologram transfer foil. 2. The information recording medium according to claim 1, wherein the average value of the maximum length of the scale-shaped inorganic pigment is 0.1 to 20 [mu] m. In a layer configuration of an information recording medium in which a white base material / transparent base material / medium ink layer by silk screen / transfer foil are laminated in this order, a scale-shaped inorganic pigment is dispersed in the medium ink layer by silk screen printing. A layer structure of the information recording medium, wherein the medium ink layer formed by silk screen is transparent or translucent. In a layer configuration of an information recording medium in which a white base material / printing layer / transparent base material / medium printing layer / protection layer is laminated in this order, the scale printing inorganic printing layer is formed on the medium printing layer formed by silk screen printing. A layer structure of an information recording medium, wherein a pigment is dispersed and a medium-printed layer formed by silk screen is transparent or translucent. The layer structure of an information recording medium according to claim 4, wherein the transfer foil is a hologram transfer foil. The layer configuration of the information recording medium according to claim 4 or 5, wherein the average value of the maximum span length of the scale-like inorganic pigment is 0.1 to 20 µm. A medium ink for use under a transfer foil of a transfer film for an information recording medium, wherein the medium ink includes a scale-shaped inorganic pigment having an average maximum cross length of 0.1 to 20 μm. A printing ink for an information recording medium. 9. The printing ink for an information recording medium according to claim 8, wherein the medium ink after dispersing the inorganic pigment is transparent or translucent.

Images