JP2917337B2 - Retransfer sheet for dry transfer material production - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a thermal transfer type printer, a typewriter,
The present invention relates to a retransfer sheet suitable for retransferring images of characters, symbols, figures, and the like formed by a printing device such as a word processor onto the surface of an object to be transferred by pressure-sensitive transfer.

[Prior Art] A report on a basic sheet from which a dry transfer material can be manufactured by a thermal transfer method has been reported in Japanese Patent Application No. 61-275537.

In this report, it is reported that the contact angle with water is 95 ° or more (preferably 105 ° or more), such as films of polyethylene, polypropylene, fluororesin, etc., which have a smooth surface property, or silicone on the surface of paper, metal foil, or plastic film. A sheet on which a coating layer made of a resin is formed is used.

In order to form an image on such a sheet by thermal transfer, the surface tension of the ink is reduced and the sheet is wetted on the sheet, and the adhesive force between the sheet and the ink is set to be larger than the cohesive force between the inks. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the temperature of the ink. In order to achieve this, high printing energy is required, which is extremely disadvantageous for the thermal transfer apparatus, such as the durability of the head and the load on the power supply.

Further, an image formed on a surface having poor wettability by thermal transfer has a weak adhesive force, and is retransferred only by applying a small pressure. For this reason, an unnecessary image is re-transferred, causing stains. In addition, there is also a problem that an image can be obtained with a slight touch during handling.

Further, since the static friction coefficient of the surface of the sheet is remarkably small, there is a problem that the sheet is easy to move and is difficult to fix when retransferring the thermally transferred ink image. Therefore, a complete image cannot be obtained because the retransferred image is displaced or distorted.

By the way, in order to prevent the movement of the sheet which is problematic at the time of pressure-sensitive retransfer, Japanese Patent Application No. 62-80127 reports that an adhesive layer is provided on a sheet separately from a transfer pattern.

However, providing the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer partially at a predetermined position requires a device for manufacturing and requires a dedicated device, resulting in a large cost. In order to cover the pressure-sensitive adhesive surface until use, it is necessary to attach release paper or the like, and furthermore, a device needs to be devised and the cost is high. In addition, in a sheet provided with a release coating layer of a silicone resin, it is necessary to apply two types of coating layers and an adhesive layer, and whichever is applied first, is applied later. Sometimes it can be enough. That is, if silicone is applied first, squeezing will occur when the adhesive is applied.On the other hand, if the adhesive is applied first, application becomes difficult due to stickiness, and release paper must be used to prevent this stickiness. Even if it is applied, it is still difficult to apply because of its thickness. Even if it can be manufactured successfully, since the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer is only partially present, the entire area around the image is not fixed, so the sheet will still move, making it difficult to form a complete image. is there.

In any case, the retransfer sheet reported so far is not such that the surface treatment agent retransfers together with the ink image from the sheet substrate, and the releasability between the retransfer sheet and the ink image is eliminated. Therefore, it was necessary to lower the wettability of the surface and weaken the adhesion between the ink image and the retransfer sheet. For this reason, various problems have occurred, such as poor thermal transferability, a large amount of transfer energy, and poor abrasion resistance.

Furthermore, in the conventional thermal transfer method, since the transfer object is usually white paper, the demand for the hiding power for the formed characters and figures is not so large. For example, it is necessary to form white characters and figures. There was no.

However, in the dry transfer material, various colors and
Large hiding power is required because of the possibility of substances.However, in most colors other than black, the hiding power of the colorant is not so large. The problem that it became difficult occurred.

Although the problems described above have arisen, no reports have been reported to solve them.

Here, the present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and a first object of the present invention is to provide a retransfer sheet that facilitates fixing of a sheet at the time of retransfer and has a slow movement. It is in.

It is a second object of the present invention to provide a retransfer sheet in which an ink image on the retransfer sheet is not peeled off by a slight pressure or rubbing.

Further, a third object of the present invention is to provide a retransfer sheet capable of obtaining good transfer quality with low transfer energy.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a retransfer sheet that allows a transferred ink image to be completely retransferred without residual ink.

A fifth object of the present invention is to provide a retransfer sheet that makes it easy to check whether or not an ink image has been retransferred.

A sixth object of the present invention is to provide a retransfer sheet capable of improving the abrasion resistance of a retransferred ink image.

Still further, a seventh object of the present invention is to provide a dry type in which even a colorant having a small hiding power has sufficient hiding power for retransferred characters / graphics and the like, and the characters / graphics can be easily confirmed. An object of the present invention is to provide a retransfer sheet that can produce a transfer material.

Means for Solving the Problems In the present invention, an ink image thermally transferred onto a sheet substrate by a thermal transfer method is formed by reducing the pressure from the surface of the sheet substrate opposite to the ink image transfer side. A dry transfer material manufacturing retransfer sheet for manufacturing a dry transfer material for receiving and retransferring to any receiver, a surface treatment agent layer formed on the ink image transfer side surface of the sheet substrate But polyethylene, ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer, vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate copolymer, polyvinyl butyral, celluloses, ethylene-ethyl acrylate copolymer, ethylene-acrylic acid copolymer, ionomer, ethylene-methacrylic acid copolymer Including one or more of polymers, polyvinyl alcohol, polyvinylpyrrolidone, and silicone, and including a colorant Is formed with a fine dispersion of emulsions such as,
By setting the tensile strength to 1 kg / cm ² or more and 100 kg / cm ² or less, at the time of the re-transfer, a part or all thereof is configured to be transferred to a receptor together with the ink image. Things.

Also, the surface treatment agent has a melting point of 100 ° C. or higher,
Alternatively, a softening point may be imparted or melt adhesion at 100 ° C.
By using a surface treatment agent having a volume of 000 poise or more, the object can be advantageously achieved.

[Operation] The retransfer sheet 10 according to the present invention has, for example, as shown in FIG.
Is formed.

Such a substrate 11 has a thickness of 25 to 200 μm, preferably 50 to 150 μm.
It is desirable to have a thickness of μm. And in manufacturing,
While having sufficient mechanical strength in handling, it is desirable to have a certain degree of flexibility so that pressure is easily applied at the time of pressure-sensitive retransfer and that a dry transfer material can be easily manufactured by thermal transfer. .

However, if the stretch is too large, the substrate is stretched by applying pressure at the time of retransfer, causing distortion of the image. Therefore, a film having a stretch of 200% or less is preferable.

In addition, the substrate is preferably transparent or translucent so that the image can be accurately retransferred onto the material to be transferred during pressure-sensitive retransfer. In particular, it is necessary to check whether the thermal transfer image has been completely retransferred. A translucent sheet that is easy to use is desirable.

As a substrate having such characteristics, a plastic film, paper, metal foil, or the like is generally used. Examples of the plastic film include a fluorine-based film made of a fluororesin such as ethylene, polypropylene, ethylene-tetrafluoroethylene copolymer or tetrafluoroethylene-hexafluoroethylene copolymer,
Examples include polyethylene terephthalate, nylon, polyimide, polyvinyl chloride, polycarbonate, polysulfone, ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer, acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer, and ionomer.

Next, the surface treatment agent layer 12 formed on one surface of the base material 11,
It is desirable that the tensile strength be 1 kg / cm ² or more and 100 kg / cm ² or less.

This is necessary to re-transfer the transfer image formed by the thermal transfer together with the surface treating agent when re-transferring from the sheet to the transfer target.

In other words, if the tensile strength is 100 kg / cm ² or more, the cohesive force of the surface treatment agent is too large to form a strong film.
If it is 1 kg / cm ² or less, the strength of the membrane is too weak, and the sheet may be broken, and the problem of peeling off may occur.Therefore, the tensile strength of 1 kg / cm ² or more and 100 kg / cm ² or less It is desirable.

Further, the melting point and softening point of the surface treatment agent are desirably 100 ° C. or higher, and the viscosity at 100 ° C. is 100
Desirably, it is 0 poise or more.

This is because if a material that melts or softens extremely below 100 ° C is used as a surface treatment agent, the surface treatment agent will also dissolve during image formation by thermal transfer, and the adhesive force between the sheet substrate and the surface treatment agent will decrease. The reason for this is that it causes an increase in retransfer failure.

By using a surface treatment agent having the above-mentioned tensile strength and melting point, the ink image formed by thermal transfer can be retransferred together with the surface treatment agent. Is gone. Therefore, a good heat-sensitive transfer image can be obtained with low energy, and a re-transfer sheet having good abrasion resistance and a large adhesive force between the ink image and the surface treating agent can be obtained. In addition, since the coefficient of static friction of the surface can be increased, the movement of the sheet at the time of retransfer is almost eliminated, and a retransfer image can be easily and clearly formed.

Further, heretofore, when a large image is transferred by a thermal transfer apparatus, if the head is a small serial, it is necessary to form the image several times, and the image must be transferred in an overlapping manner. For this reason, there was a problem that the head was scraped off at the time of the next transfer of the previously transferred image, and a complete image could not be formed. Therefore, split the image line by line,
By separating and transferring, the image was prevented from being scraped by the head, and the re-transferred image was completed by successively aligning the divided images at the time of re-transfer, but if the sheet of the present invention is used, the adhesive force is reduced. Because of the large size, thermal transfer can be performed while a large image is connected.

Also, as an advantage of retransferring the entire surface treatment agent,
Since the surface treating agent is retransferred together with the ink image, a complete retransfer image can be formed without any residual ink, and
It is easy to confirm whether or not it has been retransferred,
The surface treatment agent retransferred together serves as a protective layer for the ink image to improve the scratch resistance of the retransferred image.

Furthermore, a colorant is added to the surface treatment agent. Examples of the coloring agent include pigments and dyes. Thus, the same effect as the thickening of the ink layer due to the addition of the coloring agent is exhibited,
As a result, a retransferred image having a sufficient hiding power can be obtained even when a colorant having a low hiding power is used.

As an example of the above, which is used as a surface treatment agent,
Polyethylene, ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer, vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate copolymer, polyvinyl butyral, celluloses, ethylene-ethyl acrylate copolymer,
Examples include resins such as ethylene-acrylic acid copolymer, ionomer, ethylene-methacrylic acid copolymer, polyvinyl alcohol, polyvinylpyrrolidone, and silicone, and coloring agents such as pigments and dyes. And one of these resins
Seeds or a mixture of two or more kinds is used by adding a colorant to the mixture.

In addition, in order to finely adjust the tensile strength of the surface treatment agent and to increase the range of selection of materials to be used and to improve retransferability, a kind of wax such as polyethylene wax, montan wax, Fischer-Tropsch wax, and synthetic wax is used. Alternatively, two or more kinds may be added or used as an overall substitute for the resin.

Here, when this resin is used as a main component,
When used by dissolving in a solvent or using hot melt, the tensile strength becomes too large, so it is better to use as a fine dispersion such as an emulsion or a suspension. A filler may be added for the purpose of adjusting the tensile strength and the adhesive force.

By providing such a surface treatment agent on the sheet, thermal transferability, retransferability, abrasion resistance, image adhesion during handling, fixing of the sheet during retransfer, and confirmation of retransfer A retransfer sheet having good properties and scratch resistance of the retransfer image can be obtained.

The ink ribbon used to thermally transfer a desired transfer image onto the retransfer sheet is a wax-based ink used in a printing device such as a normal thermal transfer type printer, typewriter, or word processor. It is possible to use an ink ribbon having a two-layer structure composed of a transferability adjusting layer and an ink layer, in which the thermal transferability and the pressure-sensitive retransferability are further improved. This transferability adjusting layer is provided on the ink layer as a top coat layer, and is a layer having higher heat-sensitive adhesiveness, hardness, viscosity, and cohesive force than the ink layer, and thus has poor wettability. The heat-sensitive transferability onto the retransfer sheet is significantly improved, and the pressure-sensitive retransfer can be performed integrally. In addition, by giving the ink layer a pressure-sensitive adhesive property, the pressure-sensitive retransfer property is further improved.

[Examples] Hereinafter, some examples of the present invention will be shown to clarify the present invention more specifically. However, the present invention is not limited by such descriptions. That goes without saying.

In addition, in addition to the following examples, the present invention, in addition to the above-described specific description, various changes, corrections, and modifications based on the knowledge of those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the present invention. It should be understood that improvements and the like can be made.

Example 1 A surface treating agent having the following composition was applied on a polyethylene terephthalate film having a thickness of 50 μm, and dried at 80 ° C. to obtain a contact angle with water of 39 ° and a coefficient of static friction of about 0.42. A retransfer sheet having a smooth surface was obtained. The surface treatment agent has a tensile strength of about 20 kg / cm ² and a melt viscosity at 150 ° C. of about 2 kg / cm 2.
000-4000 poise. Composition of surface treatment agent by weight polyethylene 80 [Chemipearl M-200 manufactured by Mitsui Petrochemical Industry Co., Ltd.] Titanium oxide 20 [Taipe A-100 manufactured by Ishihara Sangyo Co., Ltd.] On the retransfer sheet thus obtained, Thermal transfer type word processor (P-touc manufactured by Brother Industries, Ltd.)
The white ink was thermally transferred according to h) to obtain a dry transfer material having a desired transfer image. At that time, the energy can be reduced as compared with the related art, and a good transfer image can be obtained. Then, using the obtained dry transfer material, pressure-sensitive retransfer to an object to be transferred such as paper or plastic was performed.As a result, a white retransfer image having sufficient hiding power could be obtained. Was. In addition, since there is little movement of the sheet and the image can be fixed and retransferred, there is an advantage that a good retransfer image is easily obtained. Also, since the surface treatment agent is re-transferred together, it is easy to confirm whether the ink image has been re-transferred, and since the surface treatment agent covers the re-transferred ink, the scratch resistance of the re-transferred image is also improved. It got better.

Example 2 A 100 μm-thick nylon film was coated with a surface treating agent having the following composition, dried at 80 ° C., the contact angle with water was 76 °, and the static friction coefficient was about 0.77. A retransfer sheet having a smooth surface was obtained.

This surface treatment agent has a tensile strength of 15 kg / cm ² and a melt viscosity at 150 ° C. of about 5,000 poise. Composition of surface treating agent in parts by weight ionomer 80 [Chemipearl SA-100 manufactured by Mitsui Petrochemical Industry Co., Ltd.] Azo-based organic pigment 20 [CROMOPHTAL Yellow 3G manufactured by Ciba Geigy Co., Ltd.] A dry transfer material was manufactured in the same manner as in Example 1, and a retransferred image was formed on the transfer object by pressure-sensitive retransfer. As a result, a clear and good retransfer image having sufficient hiding power was obtained. I was able to.

Comparative Examples 1-2 In the transfer sheets of Examples 1 and 2, a dry transfer material was manufactured in the same manner as in the example using the transfer sheets (Comparative Examples 1 and 2) in which the colorant was not added to the surface treatment agent. When a retransferred image was formed on the transfer material by pressure-sensitive retransfer, the transferred print image became thin due to insufficient concealing power, making it difficult to confirm the image.

[Effects of the Invention] As is apparent from the above description, when a dry transfer material is manufactured using a printing device such as a thermal transfer printer, a typewriter, or a word processor, a retransfer sheet on which the printing is to be performed, According to the present invention, 1 kg / cm ² or more, 1
It has a tensile strength of 00 kg / cm ² or less, a melting point of 100 ° C. or more, a softening point, or a melt viscosity at 100 ° C. of 1000 poise or more, and is wetted by using a surface treatment agent containing a colorant. Since the retransfer sheet can be manufactured without considering the properties, a good transfer image can be formed with low energy. Therefore, the adhesive force is increased, so that the abrasion resistance is improved, and the coefficient of static friction can be increased, so that the sheet can be easily fixed at the time of retransfer. In addition, since the surface treatment agent is also retransferred together, it is easy to confirm whether or not retransfer has been performed, and the retransfer quality is extremely excellent. Further, since the surface treatment agent contains a colorant, coloring having a weak hiding power is performed. Thus, sufficient hiding power can be obtained even with the use of an agent. In addition, since the retransferred surface treatment agent covers the ink image and forms a protective layer, the scratch resistance of the retransferred image is significantly improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

The drawing is a sectional configuration view showing an example of the retransfer sheet according to the present invention. In the figure, 10 is a retransfer sheet, 11 is a sheet substrate, 12 is a surface treatment agent, and 13 is an ink image.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) B41M 5/38-5/40

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] An ink image thermally transferred on a sheet substrate by a thermal transfer system is retransferred to an arbitrary receptor by receiving pressure from a surface of the sheet substrate opposite to an ink image transfer side. A retransfer sheet for producing a dry transfer material for producing a dry transfer material, wherein the surface treatment agent layer formed on the surface of the sheet substrate on the ink image transfer side comprises polyethylene, ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer. Copolymer, vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate copolymer, polyvinyl butyral, celluloses, ethylene-ethyl acrylate copolymer, ethylene-acrylic acid copolymer, ionomer, ethylene-methacrylic acid copolymer, polyvinyl alcohol, polyvinyl pyrrolidone, silicone And one or more of these, and a colorant, and formed using a fine dispersion such as an emulsion. By setting the tensile strength to 1 kg / cm ² or more and 100 kg / cm ² or less, at the time of the re-transfer, a part or the whole is transferred to a receptor together with the ink image. Characteristic transfer sheet for dry transfer material production. 2. The retransfer sheet for producing a dry transfer material according to claim 1, wherein the surface treatment agent layer has a melting point or softening point of 100 ° C. or higher, or a melt viscosity at 100 ° C. of 1000 poise or higher. Retransfer sheet for dry transfer material production.