JP2018176663A - Thermal transfer ink ribbon and indirect thermal transfer recording method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a thermal transfer ink ribbon and an indirect thermal transfer recording method capable of, when forming a security layer on a recording surface of a recording medium, efficiently forming the security layer without requiring an excessive transfer step.SOLUTION: A thermal transfer ink ribbon 10 includes, on a heat-resistant base material film 11, a plurality of color ink layers 12 and a primer layer 14 arranged in a face order, each of which is thermo-transferable. The primer layer is composed of two layers (P1, P2), and a security layer (S)142 is arranged between the two layers.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a thermal transfer ink ribbon used in an indirect thermal transfer printer, and more particularly to a thermal transfer ink ribbon and an indirect thermal transfer recording method capable of adding a security pattern to a recording medium without increasing the number of transfer steps in the printer.

  Conventionally, ID cards represented by credit cards, shop cards, membership cards, etc. have personal names such as name, membership number, face picture etc. for identifying the owner, shop name etc. in the case of shop cards The identification information is recorded, and as a security function for preventing forgery or falsification of the card, complex copy-patterns, fine-patterns or holograms, printing with special ink, etc. are printed on the entire surface or partial area of the card. In particular, since illegal use due to card forgery and falsification has increased in recent years and has become a social problem, the enhancement of security functions for preventing card forgery and falsification has been a continuing issue.

  The devices for offset printing and screen printing conventionally used for recording information on such ID cards are large and expensive, and are difficult to apply to small amounts of production and recording of individual information. Digital printing printers have come to be used, making it easy to record individual information on a card. Among various printers, a thermal head transfers a desired character / image image onto a recording medium from a thermal transfer ink ribbon provided with color ink layers of cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), and black (K). It is known that a thermal transfer recording type printer for recording can obtain high print quality with a simple mechanism.

  In the thermal transfer recording method, a direct thermal transfer method for transferring and recording an image directly from a thermal transfer ink ribbon to a recording medium, and a transfer and recording of an image from the thermal transfer ink ribbon once on an intermediate transfer film, and then heating and pressing means such as a heat roller. There is an indirect thermal transfer method for transferring an image onto a recording medium, and it is known that the print quality is high and the face photograph and character information can be reproduced to details. In addition to image recording, it is also possible to add a security pattern to a recording medium by using a thermal transfer ink ribbon to which various functional layers for a security function are added. Further, in the indirect thermal transfer method, since transfer is performed using a heat roller, there is a feature that the degree of freedom is large with respect to the shape of the recording medium and the form of recording.

  For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a thermal transfer ribbon in which yellow, magenta, cyan, and black colorant layer forming areas and a security layer forming area are provided on a base material on a substrate to be transferred. A metallic ink layer, a pearl pigment containing layer, a fluorescent ink layer, an infrared absorbing layer and the like are exemplified. In addition, a heat-sensitive transfer ribbon in which the security layer forming area is laminated on the colorant layer forming area is exemplified. However, the security layer formation area can only be provided with one of the illustrated security layers, and there has been a problem that a plurality of security layers can not be provided to enhance security. In the case where the security layer formation region is provided by being laminated on the colorant layer formation region, the security layer is transferred together with the colorant layer to a transfer target, and thus together with the colorant layer of the security layer. There is a problem that only a part transferred to a transferee is used.

Further, Patent Document 2 includes a first ink layer containing a fluorescent colorant excited by excitation light of a first wavelength, and a fluorescent colorant excited by excitation light of a second wavelength. When a thermal transfer ink ribbon is disclosed in which two ink layers are alternately provided on a support and the wavelengths excited by the first ink layer and the second ink layer are different, when transferred to the recording medium, It is difficult to understand that patterns of two types of fluorescent colorants are formed, so that it is highly effective in suppressing forgery and tampering, and has high security. However, the first ink layer and the second ink layer are alternately provided on the support, and further, a colored ink layer for recording visual information and, if necessary, an adhesive layer are similarly provided in a plane-sequential manner. Since each layer is repeatedly superimposed on the recording medium in a sequential manner and transferred and recorded by a recording head such as a thermal head, when two types of security layers are provided in a sequential manner, the number of ink layers to be transferred increases. There is a problem that the number of processes increases.

Unexamined-Japanese-Patent No. 2004-50754 JP 2005-7692 A

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and in the case where a security layer is provided on the recording surface of a recording medium such as a card or a booklet, an extra transfer step is not necessary for that purpose. It is an object of the present invention to provide a thermal transfer ink ribbon and an indirect thermal transfer recording method capable of providing a security layer.

In order to solve the above-mentioned subject, the invention concerning claim 1 of the present invention is:
A thermal transfer ink ribbon, wherein a plurality of color ink layers and a primer layer having thermal transferability are provided surface-sequentially on a heat resistant base film, the primer layer is composed of two layers, and the two layers are provided. A thermal transfer ink ribbon characterized in that a security layer is provided therebetween.

The invention according to claim 2 is
The security layer is selected from among a fine print layer, a fluorescent ink print layer, a pearl ink print layer, an infrared absorbing ink print layer, an infrared reflective ink print layer, an infrared transmissive ink print layer, and a color shift ink print layer It is a thermal transfer ink ribbon according to claim 1 characterized by being.

The invention according to claim 3 is
The thermal transfer ink ribbon according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a second security layer different from the security layer is provided between the color ink layer and the primer layer.

The invention according to claim 4 is
The second security layer is selected from among a fine print layer, a fluorescent ink print layer, a pearl ink print layer, an infrared absorbing ink print layer, an infrared reflective ink print layer, an infrared transmissive ink print layer, and a color shift ink print layer The thermal transfer ink ribbon according to claim 3, characterized in that:

The invention according to claim 5 is
The binder resin of the layer on the side opposite to the base film side among the two layers constituting the primer layer is the same type as the binder resin of the color ink layer. It is a thermal transfer ink ribbon described in.

The invention according to claim 6 is
In the indirect thermal transfer recording method, an image is formed on an image receiving layer provided on an intermediate transfer film using a thermal transfer ink ribbon and a thermal head, and the formed image is heat and pressure transferred onto a recording medium to record the image on the recording medium. In the case where the color ink layer is transferred from the thermal transfer ink ribbon according to any of claims 1 to 5 in accordance with image data to be recorded on the image receiving layer, and the second security layer is provided. Is the same as in the indirect thermal transfer recording method characterized in that the primer layer is transferred overlappingly on the entire area to be transferred by heat and pressure onto the recording medium.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, an image is formed on an intermediate transfer film by a plurality of color ink layers of, for example, three primary colors yellow, magenta, cyan, and black for recording a color image, When the primer layer for enhancing the adhesion to the recording medium is transferred over the entire area to be transferred onto the recording medium, the security layer can be simultaneously transferred, and a thermal transfer ink ribbon can be obtained in which the security layer can be formed without extra steps. Be

  Further, according to the invention described in claim 2, the security layer is a fine print print layer, a fluorescent ink print layer, a pearl ink print layer, an infrared absorbing ink print layer, an infrared reflective ink print layer, an infrared transmissive ink print layer, color shift By making the ink printing layers different from each other, the security layer can be printed by the same printing method as the other ink layers, and the security layer can be efficiently provided.

  According to the third aspect of the present invention, it is possible to obtain a thermal transfer ink ribbon capable of transferring a second security layer of a different type from the security layer after transfer of the color ink layer and forming two types of security layers.

  According to the invention described in claim 4, the second security layer comprises a fine print, a fluorescent ink print, a pearl ink print, an infrared absorbing ink print, an infrared reflective ink print, and an infrared transparent ink print. By selecting from the color shift ink printing layer, two different types of security layers can be printed by the same printing method as the other ink layers, and the security layers can be provided efficiently.

  According to the invention of claim 5, when the primer layer is transferred to the intermediate transfer film by the thermal head, it can be transferred by adhering to the portion of the color ink layer transferred previously with good adhesion.

According to the invention of claim 6,
When an image is formed by the indirect thermal transfer recording method, the thermal transfer ink ribbon in which a color ink layer, a second security layer, and a primer layer provided with a security layer in between are provided in a surface sequential manner according to image data to be recorded. When the color ink layer and the second security layer are sequentially superimposed on the intermediate transfer film and transferred, and the primer layer is transferred over the entire area to be transferred to the recording medium, the security layer can be transferred simultaneously and combined with the second security layer. An indirect thermal transfer recording method is obtained in which two security layers can be formed without extra steps.

It is a schematic diagram which shows the laminated constitution of the thermal transfer ink ribbon of this invention. It is a schematic diagram which shows another layer structure of the thermal transfer ink ribbon of this invention. It is a fragmentary sectional view explaining the composition of the primer layer of the thermal transfer ink ribbon of the present invention. It is a schematic diagram of the indirect transfer recording device using the thermal transfer ink ribbon of this invention. It is a cross-sectional schematic diagram of the card recorded by the thermal transfer ink ribbon of this invention. It is a top view of a card on which an image was recorded by the thermal transfer ink ribbon of the present invention.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail. The present invention is not construed as being limited to the following embodiments.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing the layer structure of an embodiment of the thermal transfer ink ribbon of the present invention. The thermal transfer ink ribbon 10 of the present invention is a thermal transfer ink ribbon used in the indirect thermal transfer recording method, and is configured by coating a thermal transferable ink layer surface-sequentially on the heat resistant long base film 11, It is wound into a roll and used. The thermal transferable color ink layer 12 has three primary colors of yellow (Y) 121, magenta (M) 122 and cyan (C) 123 for color printing and black (K) mainly for printing character information and the like. 124 are provided sequentially. As the color ink layer 12, it is also possible to provide a special color ink layer for printing logos and marks of a specific color.

  Next, a primer layer 14 which is thermally transferred is provided so as to cover the entire area to be transferred to the recording medium. The primer layer 14 is provided to improve the adhesion when the image thermally transferred onto the intermediate transfer film is transferred onto the recording surface of the recording medium under heat and pressure, and as shown in FIG. And the lower layer (P2) 141 on the side to be adhered to the intermediate transfer film, and the lower layer (P1) 143 on the side to be adhered to the recording medium, with the security layer (S) 142 provided between It is done. When the binder resin of the upper layer 141 is of the same type as the binder resin of the color ink layer 12, it is preferable because the adhesiveness with the color ink layer 12 which has been thermally transferred to the intermediate transfer film first is improved. .

  The security layer 142 is provided to provide security to the recording medium, and includes a fine print layer, a fluorescent ink print layer that emits fluorescence when irradiated with ultraviolet light, a pearl ink print layer that exhibits pearly luster, and infrared light. The layer is appropriately selected from an infrared absorbing ink printing layer, an infrared reflecting ink printing layer reflecting infrared rays, an infrared transmitting ink printing layer transmitting infrared rays, and a color shift ink printing layer which changes color when the angle is changed. At this time, since the security layer 142 is transferred simultaneously with the thermal transfer of the primer layer 14, there is no need to add a separate step to thermally transfer the security layer 142, which is efficient.

  The above layers are provided on the base film 11 in a size covering the recording surface of a predetermined recording medium, and are provided by known printing techniques such as gravure printing, gravure offset printing, bar coat printing, hot melt printing, etc. be able to.

  FIG. 2 shows an example in which a thermal transferable second security layer (S2) 13 is provided following the color ink layer 12. The second security layer 13 is thermally transferred to the portion where the color ink layer 12 is thermally transferred onto the intermediate transfer medium and image recording is performed. The second security layer 13 for giving security to the recording medium is, for example, a fine print, a fluorescent ink print, a pearl ink print, an infrared absorbing ink print, an infrared reflective ink print, an infrared transparent ink print , The color shift ink printing layer is selected to be different from the security layer 142. By doing so, two different types of security can be provided to the recording medium by the thermal transfer ink ribbon 10 of the present invention. The second security layer 13 is also provided on the base film 11 in a size covering the recording surface of the predetermined recording medium, and is formed by a known printing technique such as gravure printing, gravure offset printing, bar coat printing, hot melt printing, etc. It can be provided.

  Each layer will be described below.

<Base film>
The base film 11 can use the well-known heat-resistant plastic film suitably, and illustrates plastic films, such as a polyethylene terephthalate, a polyethylene naphthalate, a polypropylene, a polystyrene, a polycarbonate, nylon, a polyimide, polyvinylidene chloride, cellophane etc. Particularly preferred is polyethylene terephthalate. The thickness is 2 to 50 μm, more preferably 2 to 16 μm.

<Color ink layer>
The color ink layer 12 may be either a fusion thermal transfer ink or a sublimation thermal transfer ink except for the ink 124 provided by the fusion thermal transfer ink, and in the case of a fusion thermal transfer ink, pigments of respective colors, It can be prepared by combining known materials such as binders, waxes, additives such as dispersants, and the like. Examples of the pigment include azo pigments such as phthalimide yellow, benzimidazolone orange, sulfonamide yellow and benzimidazolone yellow, phthalocyanine pigments, diketopyrrolopyrrole, quinophthalone, isoindolinone, diaminodianthraquinone and the like. Examples of the binder resin include ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer, polyamide resin, rosin derivative, acrylic resin, epoxy resin and the like. As the waxes, paraffin wax, microcrystalline wax, carnauba wax, montan wax, polyethylene wax, ester wax, oxidized wax and the like are used.
The black ink 124 can be suitably prepared by using carbon black which is a black pigment as a pigment and other known black pigments.

  If it is a sublimation heat transfer ink, it can prepare combining the well-known material in the aspect which the sublimation resin of each color was carry | supported by binder resin. As dyes, conventionally known dyes can be used. Specific examples of yellow include Kaysert Yellow AG, Kaysert Yellow TDN, PYT 52, Plasto Yellow 8040, Holon Brilliant Yellow S6 GLPI and the like. Examples of magenta include Kaya set red B, Kaya set red 13 Celestre 7B, and Macrorec thread Violet R. Examples of cyan include Kayaset Blue 714, Ceres Blue GN, MS Blue 50 and the like. As the binder resin, resins excellent in heat resistance such as polyvinyl acetal resin, polyvinyl butyral resin, polyester resin, phenoxy resin, styrene-acrylonitrile copolymer resin, ethyl cellulose, hydroxyethyl cellulose, polycarbonate and the like and dye transferability can be used. When a sublimation transfer ink is used, the image receiving layer of the intermediate transfer film is dyed with a sublimation dye resin, such as butyral resin, polyethylene, polyurethane, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, polybutadiene, polyvinyl acetate, vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate A vinyl copolymer, an ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer, or a blend of these may be used.

<Primer layer>
The upper layer 141 and the lower layer 143 of the primer layer 14 are mainly composed of known thermoplastic resins, and examples thereof include polyester resins, polyethylene resins, polypropylene resins, acrylic resins, polyurethane resins, vinyl resins and the like. It can be selected and combined and configured. The binder resin of the upper layer 141 is preferably selected from the same type as the binder resin of the color ink layer 12 because the adhesiveness with the color ink layer 12 is excellent.

  The security layer 142 provided between the upper layer 141 and the lower layer 143 can be prepared by dispersing or dissolving known functional pigments and the like in a binder resin. As the binder resin, thermosetting acrylic resin, thermoplastic acrylic resin, polyethylene terephthalate, polypropylene, polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, polyimide, unsaturated polyester, polycarbonate, synthetic resin such as polymethyl methacrylate, polymethacrylic acid ester, urea Formalin resin, vinyl chloride / vinyl acetate copolymer, alkyd resin, etc. can be exemplified.

  When the security layer 142 is a fine print layer, the fine print can be provided by printing the fine print using a known printing ink such as a gravure printing ink. The fluorescent agent in the case of forming a fluorescent ink printing layer is exemplified by a high purity fluorescent substance of zinc sulfide or a sulfide of an alkaline earth metal, and a trace amount of metal (copper, silver, manganese, It can be obtained by baking at high temperature after adding bismuth, lead and the like as an activator. As a pearl pigment in the case of using a pearl ink printing layer, synthetic alumina, mica and the like can be exemplified. In the case of forming an infrared absorbing ink printing layer, examples of the infrared absorbing agent include organic compounds such as polymethylene type, azulenium type, squalilium type, thiobilylium type and anthraquinone type, and organic metal complexes such as phthalocyanine type, azo type and thioamide type. it can. In the case of an infrared reflective ink printing layer, the infrared reflective agent includes phthalocyanines, azos, azomethines, anthraquinones, perinones and perylenes, indigo / thioindigos, dioxanezines, quinacridones, isoindolinones And organic pigments and dyes such as, etc., and examples of inorganic pigments include white or colored pigments such as titanium oxide, iron oxide, calcined pigment, metal powder pigments, and body pigments. The said pigment | dye and pigment can be used individually or in combination of 2 or more types. When it is set as an infrared rays permeable ink printing layer, the coating material etc. which contain infrared rays permeable dyes, such as Orazole black and Orazole 2RG, can be illustrated. When used as a color shift ink printing layer, it is a relief type or volume type hologram, a grating image in which plural types of diffraction gratings are arranged as pixels, a diffraction grating image such as pixelgram, a thin film of ceramics or metal material causing color shift. It can be appropriately selected from known structures such as a laminate.

<Second security layer>
The configuration of the second security layer 13 may be selected from those exemplified in the security layer 142 and types different from the security layer 142.

The indirect thermal transfer recording using the thermal transfer ink ribbon of the present invention as described above can be performed by, for example, an apparatus schematically shown in FIG.
The thermal transfer ink ribbon 10 and the intermediate transfer film 20 wound in the form of a roll are respectively pulled out from the unwinding roll, and are nipped between the thermal head 1 and the platen roller 2 opposite thereto in the traveling path. At this time, the ink layer side of the thermal transfer ink ribbon 10 and the image receiving layer side of the intermediate transfer film 20 are opposed to each other. The thermal transfer ink ribbon 10 that has passed through the thermal head 1 is taken up by a take-up roll. On the other hand, the intermediate transfer film 20 passes between the recording medium 30 set at a predetermined position and the heat roller 3 at a later stage after passing the thermal head 1 and is taken up by a take-up roll. The recording medium 30 is movable in the direction of the arrow X in accordance with the rotation of the heat roller 3 and the conveyance of the intermediate transfer film 20.

An example of the procedure in the case of performing thermal transfer on a recording medium by the indirect thermal transfer recording method using the thermal transfer ink ribbon of the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 2 will be shown below.
The thermal transfer ink ribbon 10 and the intermediate transfer film 20 are pressed and held by the thermal head 1 and the platen roller 2, and the heat generating elements of the thermal head 1 according to the desired image data from the thermal transfer ink layer of each color provided on the thermal transfer ink ribbon 10 Is heated to thermally transfer the thermal transfer ink to the intermediate transfer film 20. At this time, the thermal transfer of the thermal transfer ink of each color is performed face-to-face, for example, when the recording of yellow 121 is completed for one recording surface, the intermediate transfer film 20 is rewound to the initial position, and the thermal transfer of magenta 122 of the next color is performed. Do the same. Similarly, thermal transfer of cyan 123 and black ink 124 is performed, and the second security layer 13 is further overlapped to perform thermal transfer. Subsequently, the primer layer 14 is superposed on the entire surface in accordance with the area of the recording surface of the recording medium 30 and thermally transferred, and the thermal transfer to the intermediate transfer film 20 is completed. At the same time as thermal transfer of the primer layer 14 is performed, transfer of the security layer 142 is also performed.

Next, the transfer start position at which the intermediate transfer film 20 is transferred to the recording medium 30 by heat and pressure is conveyed to the portion of the heat roller 3. The heat roller 3 is brought into pressure contact with the recording medium 30 and rotated while being aligned with the recording medium 30, and the intermediate transfer film 20 and the recording medium 30 are conveyed together and the image etc. thermally transferred onto the intermediate transfer film 20 is intermediately transferred. It is transferred by heat and pressure to the recording medium 30 together with the image receiving layer of the film 20. Indirect thermal transfer recording on the recording medium 30 is performed as described above.

  FIG. 5 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the ID card 30 which is the recording medium 30 on which the indirect thermal transfer recording has been performed as described above. On the upper layer of the ID card 30, the layers heat and pressure transferred from the intermediate transfer film 20 are laminated. The color ink image 22 transferred from the color ink layer 12 and the second security image transferred from the second security layer 13 are formed on the primer layer 14 composed of the lower layer 143, the security layer 142, and the upper layer 141. In this embodiment, 23 are stacked. Furthermore, the image receiving layer 21 of the intermediate transfer film 20 is transferred so as to cover the whole from the upper layer, and functions as a protective layer.

  FIG. 6 is a plan view of an example of the ID card 30 on which the indirect thermal transfer recording has been performed as described above. A flower 22 which is a color ink image 22 formed by the color ink layer 12 and a fluorescent ink image 23 which is a second security image 23 transferred from the second security layer 13 are provided, and as a security layer 142 under them The provided pearl print layer 142 is visible.

  As described above, according to the thermal transfer ink ribbon of the present invention, it is possible to provide a thermal transfer ink ribbon and a thermal transfer recording method capable of forming a security layer with an image without extra steps when recording an image on a recording medium.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Thermal head 2 ... Platen roller 3 ... Heat roller 10 ... Thermal transfer ink ribbon 11 ... Base film 12 ... Color ink layer 121 ... Yellow (Y)
122 ・ ・ ・ Magenta (M)
123 ... cyan (C)
124 ··· Ink (K)
13 ・ ・ ・ Second security layer (S2)
14: primer layer 141: upper layer 142: security layer (S), pearl print layer 143: lower layer 20: intermediate transfer film 21: image receiving layer 22: color ink image 23 ... Second security image 30 ... Recording medium (ID card)

Claims (6)

  A thermal transfer ink ribbon, wherein a plurality of color ink layers and a primer layer having thermal transferability are provided surface-sequentially on a heat resistant base film, the primer layer is composed of two layers, and the two layers are provided. A thermal transfer ink ribbon characterized in that a security layer is provided therebetween.   The security layer is selected from among a fine print layer, a fluorescent ink print layer, a pearl ink print layer, an infrared absorbing ink print layer, an infrared reflective ink print layer, an infrared transmissive ink print layer, and a color shift ink print layer The thermal transfer ink ribbon according to claim 1, wherein   The thermal transfer ink ribbon according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a second security layer of a type different from the security layer is provided between the color ink layer and the primer layer.   The second security layer is selected from among a fine print layer, a fluorescent ink print layer, a pearl ink print layer, an infrared absorbing ink print layer, an infrared reflective ink print layer, an infrared transmissive ink print layer, and a color shift ink print layer The thermal transfer ink ribbon according to claim 3, characterized in that:   The binder resin of the layer on the side opposite to the base film side among the two layers constituting the primer layer is the same type as the binder resin of the color ink layer. Thermal transfer ink ribbon described in.   In the indirect thermal transfer recording method, an image is formed on an image receiving layer provided on an intermediate transfer film using a thermal transfer ink ribbon and a thermal head, and the formed image is heat and pressure transferred onto a recording medium to record the image on the recording medium. In the case where the color ink layer is transferred from the thermal transfer ink ribbon according to any of claims 1 to 5 in accordance with image data to be recorded on the image receiving layer, and the second security layer is provided. In the indirect thermal transfer recording method, the primer layer is transferred in the same manner, and the primer layer is transferred over the entire area to be heat and pressure transferred to the recording medium.

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