JPH01244895A - Prepayment card with photograph - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To simply and efficiently form a prepayment card with a photograph, and to prevent an image such as a photograph from being superposed on various displays to be printed on both sides of the surface of the card by providing an image receiving layer on a part except at least at both sides of the surface, and transferring the image such as the photograph onto the image receiving layer. CONSTITUTION:A telephone card 1 is composed of a card member 3 formed with a magnetic recording layer 2 for magnetically recording information such as balance fee or the like on one side face, and an image receiving layer 5 on which an image 4 such as a photograph is thermally transferred to the face opposite to the layer 2. A card body 3 is formed of a white sheet such as sheet, plastic or the like. The image such as the photograph is printed on the layer 5, for example, by exposing a negative film 11 to photosensitive sheet 12, then thermally developing the exposed sheet 12, and thermally transferring the image to the layer 5.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to prepaid cards such as telephone cards and fare payment cards, and particularly to prepaid cards on which images such as photographs are transferred and recorded.

[Prior Art] Currently, various prepaid cards are used to pay for calls from public telephones and to purchase train tickets from automatic ticket vending machines.

Among these prepaid cards, cards with a plain white front surface have recently been provided, allowing the user to perform desired printing on the front surface.

(Problem to be solved by the invention) However, when printing photographs, etc. using this plain white card, it is difficult to make small quantities of cards due to the need to make plates for printing. In addition, by applying a light-sensitive emulsion such as silver halide to the surface of a plain white card and exposing it to light,
When recording an image on a white plain surface, a photographic processing device is used for development, which requires development, fixing, and drying processes, resulting in an increase in the size of the device. Furthermore, since the development process uses chemicals during printing, it is necessary to take into consideration the deterioration of the chemicals, so there is a problem that it is not possible to cope with the production of small quantities during the off-season.

In addition, on both sides of the plain white card, a display section is printed to display the number of charges used, for example, the fact that it is a telephone card, the total number of uses, and the direction in which the card is inserted when used. has been done. Therefore, when simply printing a photograph or the like on the front surface of the card, the image such as the photograph may overlap with these display sections, and a new problem may arise in that the display section becomes invisible.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and can be easily and efficiently produced, can also be produced in small quantities during off-season, and can be printed on both sides of the card surface. To provide a prepaid card with a photo, which can prevent images such as photos from overlapping on various display parts, and a method for creating the card.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an image-receiving layer on at least the surface excluding both sides, and an image such as a photograph is transferred to this image-receiving layer.

[Function] When making a telephone card, for example, using the photo prepaid card of the present invention, an image receiving layer is first provided on the surface opposite to the magnetic recording surface, and an image such as a photograph is transferred to this image receiving layer. do. This eliminates the need for conventional processes such as printing a portrait (face photo), applying photographic emulsion, exposing it to light and developing it, and automatically creates prepaid cards with photographs using an image transfer device. You will be able to create Therefore, a prepaid card with a photo can be created easily and efficiently.

Moreover, since the image is transferred to the image-receiving layer by a transfer method, dry processing can be performed without using any photographic processing chemicals. Therefore, compared to those that use chemicals, the developing equipment can be simplified, and since it is a dry process and there is no deterioration of chemicals, it can be used even when producing small quantities during off-season. become able to.

In addition, since the image-receiving layer is provided on the surface of the white prepaid card excluding at least both sides, when an image such as a photograph is transferred to the image-receiving layer, it prevents the transferred image from fogging on the display area. This can prevent display parts such as card insertion marks recorded on both sides of the front of the prepaid card from being hidden by the transferred image and becoming invisible.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

In this embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a prepaid card with a photograph according to the present invention is implemented as a telephone card l. That is, in this embodiment, a card member 3 is provided with a magnetic recording layer 2 on one side for magnetically recording information on charge balance, and a card member 3 with a magnetic recording layer 2 on one side, and a partially layered layer on the opposite side of the magnetic recording layer 2. 4 images such as photographs are displayed on this page.
The image receiving layer 5 is thermally transferred.

The card body 3 is made of, for example, paper with a thickness of 100 to 800 μm,
It is composed of a white sheet of plastic or the like, a composite support made by laminating paper and plastic together, or laminating one or both sides of paper with plastic. Plastics include, but are not limited to, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polycarbonate acetyl cellulose, cellulose ester, polyvinyl acecool, Bo II styrene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, nylon, polyethylene, and the like. Further, in these plastics, white pigments such as TiO2, Z, and 10 may be dispersed, or other colored pigments or dyes may be added.

As shown in FIG. 2, the image receiving layer 5 is provided on the surface of the card body 3 to a thickness of about 10 μm. Printing of images such as photographs on the image-receiving layer 5 can be carried out using, for example, a negative film 1 as described later. This is done by exposing the photosensitive paper 12 to light using the photosensitive paper 12, then thermally developing the exposed photosensitive paper 12, and thermally transferring this image to the image receiving layer 5. Furthermore, instead of exposing the photosensitive paper 12 using the negative film 11, an image may be displayed on a printing CRT and the photosensitive paper 12 may be exposed using, for example, a three-color sequential exposure method.

The image-receiving layer 5 is composed of a material capable of receiving and stopping the dye released from the heat-developable photosensitive material of the photosensitive paper 12 by a heating phenomenon, and contains, for example, a dye fixing agent such as a dye mordant. A useful dye fixing agent can be selected and used depending on the physical properties of the dye to be released, components other than dyes contained in the photothermographic material, transfer conditions, etc.
For example, a high molecular weight polymer mordant is used.

The heat-developable photosensitive material used in this example uses a method in which a mobile dye is released image-wise by heat development, and the mobile dye is transferred to a dye-fixing element having a mordant using a solvent such as water. A method in which the dye is transferred to the dye fixing element using a boiling point organic solvent, a method in which the dye is transferred to the dye fixing element using a hydrophilic heat solvent built into the dye fixing element, a method in which the mobile dye is heat diffusible or sublimable, and the dye is attached to a support, etc. It is a transfer-type heat-developable color photosensitive material, such as one that transfers to a receiving element. Such heat-developable color photosensitive materials are described in detail in U.S. Pat.
No. 49, No. 59-218443, No. 61-23805
No. 6, European Patent (EP) No. 220. It is described in publications such as T46A2. In these heat-developable photosensitive materials, a method of generating a base using a base precursor described in JP-A No. 60-269147 and a complex formation reaction described in European Patent No. 210゜660A2 is used. It is advantageous to incorporate a base generating means such as, for example, into the image forming reaction system.

Next, the layer structure of the heat-developable photosensitive material and how to make it will be explained. Table 1 shows an example of the layer structure of the photothermographic material.

Table 1 Table 1 (Continued 1) ＃蓼! Pull I″′su”-(1)*, cut JL=L-5(H
) Llyo 7,5 ms anti-fogging 1 to beat r21 * Denshi Yogi 1) 0 ■ Increased Buddha size l) Increased coloring 2) Same First, we will describe how to make the emulsion (1) for the first layer.

A well-stirred gelatin aqueous solution (containing 20 g of gelatin and 6 g of sodium chloride in 100,100 O of water at 75°C)
An aqueous solution containing sodium chloride and potassium bromide (600 d of water) and a silver nitrate aqueous solution (600 d of water)
(0.59 mol of silver nitrate dissolved in
Added at equal flow rates over a period of minutes. In this way, a monodisperse cubic silver chlorobromide emulsion (
bromine (80 mol%) was prepared.

After washing with water and desalting, 5 mg of sodium thiosulfate and 20 mg of 4-hydroxy-6-methyl-1,3,3a,7-titrazaindene were added to perform chemical sensitization at 60"C.

The yield of emulsion was 600 g.

Next, how to prepare the emulsion (Il) for the third layer will be described.

A well-stirred aqueous gelatin solution (20 g of gelatin and 6 g of sodium chloride in 1000 d of water kept at 75°C) is mixed with 600 rnl of an aqueous solution containing sodium chloride and potassium bromide and an aqueous solution of silver nitrate Wj, (water 6
00 d (0.59 mol of silver nitrate dissolved in 100 ml) and the following dye solution (1) were simultaneously added at equal flow rates over 40 minutes. Here, the dye solution (1) is a sensitizing dye (
4) 160mg was dissolved in methanol 400In1. In this way, the average particle size is 0.55 μm.
A monodispersed cubic silver chlorobromide emulsion (bromine 8
0 mol%) was prepared.

After washing with water and desalting, chemical sensitization was carried out at 60"C by adding 5 mg of sodium thiosulfate and 20 mg of 4-hydroxy-6-methyl-1,3,3a,7-titrazaindene. The yield of the emulsion was 600 g. there were.

Next, how to prepare emulsion (II[) for the fifth layer will be described.

A well-stirred aqueous gelatin solution (20 g of gelatin and ammonium dissolved in 1000 d of water and kept at 55°C) was mixed with 10,100 O of an aqueous solution containing potassium iodide and potassium bromide and an aqueous silver nitrate solution (1000 d of water).
1 mole of silver nitrate dissolved in the solution) was added at the same time while keeping the pAg constant. In this way, a monodisperse octahedral silver iodobromide emulsion (1 mol % of iodine) with an average grain size of 0.55 μm was prepared.

After washing with water and desalting, 5 mg of chloroauric acid (tetrahydrate) and 2 g of sodium thiosulfate were added to perform gold and sulfur sensitization at 60°C. The yield of emulsion was 1 kg.

Next, how to make a gelatin dispersion of a dye-donating substance will be described.

13g of yellow dye-donating substance, high-boiling organic solvent (1
), 3.9 g of electron donor (1) were added and dissolved in cyclohexanone 37Id, and 10% gelatin solution 10
After stirring and mixing 0g and 60d of a 2.5% aqueous solution of sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate,
Dispersion was performed at 110,000 rpm for 1 minute. This dispersion is called a yellow dye-providing substance dispersion.

Add and dissolve 16.8 g of magenta dye-donating substance, 4.5 g of high-boiling organic solvent (1), and 6.3 g of electron donor (1) in 37 ml of cyclohexanone, and add and dissolve 100 g of 10% gelatin solution and dodecylbenzenesulfone. 2.5 of acid soda
% aqueous solution of 60 d, and then dispersed with a homogenizer at 110,000 rpm for 10 minutes. This dispersion liquid is called a dispersion of a magenta dye-providing substance.

15.4 g of cyan dye-donating substance, high boiling point organic solvent (
1) Add and dissolve 7.7 g and 4.1 g of electron donor (1) in cyclohexanone 371d, and prepare 10% gelatin solution 1.
00g and 2.5% of sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate
After stirring and mixing 60 d of aqueous solution, use a homogenizer to
Dispersion was carried out for 0 minutes at 110,000 rpm. This dispersion is called a dispersion of a cyan dye-providing substance.

Next, how to make the dye-fixing material constituting the image-receiving layer 5 will be described.

The composition shown in Table 2 below was applied onto the card member 3 to prepare a dye fixing material.

Table 2 Surfactant*(2) Aerosol 01 Next, the process of creating the telephone card 1 in this example will be explained.

The process of making this telephone card 1 includes a pre-process of applying an image-receiving layer 5 in a layer to a card member 3 supplied as a plain white telephone card, and a card member 3 that has undergone this pre-process.
The printing process consists of a printing process of creating a transfer image to be printed on the image receiving layer 5 of the image receiving layer 5 and thermally transferring the image to the image receiving layer 5.

In the pre-process, a frequency display section 6 for displaying the charge usage frequency of the card member 3, and a predetermined information display section 7 for displaying the fact that it is a telephone card, the total usage frequency, and the card insertion direction at the time of use. In order to prevent the images after thermal transfer from overlapping, the image receiving layer 5 is formed in a predetermined size, avoiding the areas near both the upper and lower sides where the display areas 6 and 7 are recorded.
are layered. Although the image-receiving layer 5 in this embodiment is formed in a rectangular shape, the present invention is not limited to this, and may be formed in various shapes such as a circular triangle, a polygon, a heart shape, etc. good.

The printing process is performed by a thermal development type printer IO, as shown in FIG. This printer 10
The image exposure device 13 exposes the image on the negative film 11 to be transferred onto the photosensitive paper 12, and the exposed photosensitive paper 1
2, and a thermal development transfer device 14 for thermally developing the image on the image receiving layer 5 and transferring the image onto the image receiving layer 5.

The image exposure device 13 includes a photosensitive paper roll cassette 15 in which heat-developable photosensitive paper 12 is stored in a coil shape, and a frame feeder (not shown) that pulls out one frame of photosensitive paper 12 from the cassette 15. The photosensitive paper 12 pulled out by this
The exposure unit 16 is an optical system that exposes the image of the negative film 11 on the emulsion surface of the negative film 11. The exposure section 16 forms an image that has been inverted into a negative image on the photosensitive paper 12 and displays the image on the photosensitive paper 12.
A negative film holder 17 for holding the negative film 11 and a diffusion box 18 for projecting light onto the negative film 11 held by the holder 17 so as to expose the negative film 11 to light. A lamp 19, an imaging lens 20 for forming a negative image on the photosensitive emulsion surface of the photosensitive paper 12, and a blue filter 21 that is selectively inserted into the optical axis by a filter switching device. Green filter 22. It is composed of a red filter 23 and a shutter device 24.

The thermal development transfer device 14 includes a looper device 30 for storing the photosensitive paper 12 exposed by the image exposure device 13 in a loop shape and smoothly performing subsequent processing;
A cutter 31 is installed downstream of the cutter 31 to cut the exposed photosensitive paper 12 frame by frame, and a cutter 31 is installed downstream of the cutter 31 to cut the exposed photosensitive paper 12 frame by frame.
A water coating device 32 is installed on the downstream side of the water coating device 32 to uniformly apply water as a diffusion aid to the emulsion surface of the card member 3 before thermal transfer processing, and the card member 3 is placed on the card member 3 with the image receiving layer 5 facing upward. A storage case 33 that is stacked and stored, the image receiving layer 5 of the unprocessed card member 3 that is carried out one by one from the storage case 33, and the photosensitive paper 12 that has been exposed and cut into frames.
After matching the overlapping positions, a pair of squeezing rollers 34 is used to extract air, etc. between the photosensitive paper 12 and the image-receiving layer 5 of the card member 3, which are superimposed on each other. Image-receiving layer 5 and photosensitive paper 1 from which etc. have been removed
a thermal development transfer unit 35 that holds the cards 2 from above and below and heats them for thermal development and transfer; a processed card member storage case 36 that stores the heat-transferred card members 3 in a sequentially overlapping manner; A waste photosensitive paper receiver 38 is provided for collecting and storing waste photosensitive paper 37.

When the photosensitive paper 12 is exposed to light, the photosensitive paper 12 is intermittently transferred one sesame by one by a frame feeding section. The photosensitive paper 12 thus transported one frame at a time and exposed sequentially is cut by the cutter 31 every frame after passing through the loop device 3o. The cut photosensitive paper 12 is uniformly and thinly coated with water on the photosensitive emulsion coated side by a water coater 32. This water acts as a diffusion aid in the next thermal development transfer step. In the case of the meltable diffusion aid method, urea, water of crystallization, microcapsules, etc., which become water-like when heated, are applied in advance as a diffusion aid during the production of the image-receiving layer 5. It is no longer necessary to grant it.

After this water application, the photosensitive paper 12 is transported to a predetermined position by a transport device (not shown), and at this position, the cassette 1-
The image-receiving layer 5 of the unprocessed card member 3 conveyed from the card member 33 is overlapped with the image-receiving layer 5 of the card member 3 . Thereafter, a pair of squeezing rollers 34 uniformly spreads the water applied in the previous step onto the photosensitive emulsion surface.

Next, the unprocessed card member 3 in which one frame of photosensitive paper 12 is superimposed on the image receiving layer 5 is heated by a thermal development transfer section 35 consisting of an upper heat plate and a lower heat plate, and the photosensitive emulsion of the photosensitive paper 12 is heated. The dye therein is thermally transferred to the image receiving layer 5 of the card member 3. Note that this heat development transfer step requires a longer processing time than other steps, so it is desirable to configure the heat development transfer section 35 with a plurality of stages and perform parallel processing. By providing a plurality of stages in this manner, the processing capacity of the video printer can be improved. After the thermal development transfer, the waste photosensitive paper 37 after the thermal transfer is accumulated in the photosensitive paper receiver 38, and the card member 3 after the thermal transfer is accumulated in the card member storage case 36 after the processing.

In this embodiment, when creating a telephone card 1, the printer process is automated by using the printer 10, so most of the process of creating a telephone card with a photo etc. can be machine-processed, making it easy to create the telephone card 1. and can be produced in large quantities. Note that it is also possible to laminate a polymer sheet on top of the card thus created to protect the surface.

Further, in the above embodiment, the photosensitive paper 12 was exposed using the negative film 11, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the second embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG.
As in the embodiment, using the image synthesis device 40 and the video printer 41, a positive image such as a photograph 44 or an image directly captured is inputted by the image input unit 43 consisting of a television camera 42 or a color image scanner, and this input Based on the data, the photosensitive paper 12 may be exposed using the monochrome CRT 45 for printing. Note that a monochrome camera is used as the television camera 42 to improve the resolution, and a rotationally driven ROB filter 46 is disposed in front of the monochrome camera 42 to perform trichromatic sequential imaging.

The image synthesizing device 40 reads image data such as a photograph 44 taken by an image input section 43, and transmits the read data to a frame memory 5 via a control circuit 48.
0, lookup table (LU
T) ・Matrix circuit 51, synthesis/decimation circuit 52
It is configured to process the data and output it to the CRT 45 for printing via the CRT controller 53. In addition,
Reference numeral 55 in the figure indicates each video signal B of the television camera 42.

An A/D converter that converts G and R into digital signals is shown.

Further, reference numeral 56 indicates a D/A converter that converts the digital signal of the composite screen data obtained in the synthesis/thinning circuit 852 into an analog signal. Further, reference numerals 57 and 58 indicate a frame memory and an LUT, respectively, for synthesizing a character image, two graphic images, etc. with an image input from a photograph. This character image.

Inputting the graphic image can be done, for example, by using a floppy disk for character images in advance.
This is done by reading what is recorded on the disk 591 and the graphic image floppy disk 60 through the reading section 61.

The printing CRT 45 forms a composite image that has been inverted into a negative image on the photosensitive paper 12 during printing, and exposes the photosensitive paper 12 to light.

Specifically, the printing CRT 45 sequentially displays a black and white image in which a blue composite image is displayed in brightness, a black and white image corresponding to a green composite image, and a black and white image corresponding to a red composite image. , a lens 65 is applied to the photosensitive paper 12 while the shutter 64 is opened by the shutter drive device 63.
Exposure is carried out through In this three-color plane sequential exposure, a blue filter 66, a green filter 67, and a red filter 68 are selectively inserted by a filter switching device 69, and the black and white image displayed on the printing CRT 45 is converted into a monochrome image of blue, green, and red. It is done by converting.

Note that instead of exposing the photosensitive paper 12 using the CRT 45 for printing, it is also possible to perform the exposure using, for example, an LED, liquid crystal, laser, FOT, or the like.

After printing is completed, the thermal development transfer device 1 of the first embodiment is used.
4, the image on the photosensitive paper 12 is thermally transferred and recorded on the image receiving layer 5 of the card member 3.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, an image receiving layer is partially provided on the surface opposite to the magnetic recording surface of a prepaid card such as a telephone card, and an image such as a photograph is transferred to this image receiving layer. This allows you to easily create a prepaid card with a photo. Moreover, compared to the conventional case of pasting a photograph onto a plain white surface, since no photographic processing equipment is used, development, fixing, and drying processes are not required, and the apparatus can be made more compact. Furthermore, since there is no development process using chemicals during printing, there is no need to consider the deterioration of chemicals, etc., and it becomes possible to easily cope with the production of small quantities during the off-season.

In addition, since the image-receiving layer is provided on the surface of the white prepaid card excluding at least both sides, when an image such as a photograph is transferred to the image-receiving layer, card insertion marks recorded on both sides of the surface, etc. It is possible to prevent the image from being fogged and transferred. Therefore, it is possible to prevent display parts such as card insertion marks recorded on both sides of the front of the prepaid card from being hidden by the transferred image and becoming invisible.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a telephone card in which the present invention is implemented. FIG. 2 is a sectional view of essential parts showing the layered structure of the telephone card in the same embodiment. FIG. 3 is a side view showing a schematic configuration of a printer used in the same telephone card production process. FIG. 4 is a side view showing a schematic configuration of a printer in a second embodiment of the present invention. 1...Telephone card 3...Card member 5...Image receiving layer 10.41...Printer.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) In a case where a card insertion mark, etc. is recorded on both sides of a white front surface, and a magnetic recording layer is formed on the back surface for recording charge balance information, the portion excluding at least both sides of the front surface. A prepaid card with a photo, characterized in that an image-receiving layer is provided on the image-receiving layer, and an image such as a photograph is transferred to the image-receiving layer.