JPH0197687A - Thermal transfer ink ribbon for dry transfer material production - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve ribbon running feature, shelf life at normal temp. and pressure sensitive transfer feature, by providing, together with an ink layer, a transfer feature regulating layer as a top coat using polyamide and rosin ester on a ribbon base of an ink ribbon. CONSTITUTION:A thermal transfer ink ribbon 10 consists of an ink layer 12 formed on one surface of a film-like ribbon base 11, and a transfer feature regulating layer 13 formed in a given thickness on the layer 12. A sticking prevention layer 14 consisting of a heat-resisting resin (e.g., silicone resin) is formed on the other surface of the ribbon base 11. The transfer feature regulating layer 13 uses polyamide as a resin having large film forming feature and thermal adhesion feature and also rosin ester as a resin having large cohesion power and tackiness.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention (Technical Field) The present invention relates to a thermal transfer ink ribbon used in the production of a dry transfer material, and particularly to a thermal transfer printer,
Using a typewriter, word processor, etc., it is possible to transfer and print on the base sheet surface such as a film with poor wettability and strong releasability, and the transferred image obtained by thermal transfer to the base sheet surface can be The present invention relates to a heat-sensitive transfer ink ribbon for producing a dry transfer material that can be effectively pressure-sensitively retransferred onto a target object.

(Prior art and its problems) In recent years, printing devices such as printers, typewriters, and word processors using a thermal transfer method have been developed, and are now being used widely from small personal use to business use. Printing using this thermal transfer method is
A thermal transfer ink ribbon is brought into close contact with a predetermined printing paper by a thermal head, and a desired heating element among the many heating elements of the thermal head is made to generate heat, thereby making contact with the heating element through the support of the thermal transfer ribbon. This is done by melting the hot-melt ink portion of the paper and transferring it to the printing paper.

This type of thermal transfer ribbon has conventionally been made by simply coating a predetermined support with a heat-melting ink consisting of a colorant and a binder agent, and the binder agent is mainly composed of wax. It was something. Furthermore, this type of thermal transfer ribbon was only intended for use with ordinary paper as the transfer material.

By the way, the present inventors have previously reported on a thermal transfer ink ribbon that has poor wettability and is intended to enable transfer and printing onto basic sheet surfaces such as films with good release and peelability. , Patent Application No. 1983-275538, Patent Application No. 1983
-275539 and Japanese Patent Application No. 62-85350, and those aimed at improving thermal sensitivity are reported in Japanese Patent Application No. 62-80126.

In conventional thermal transfer devices, when winding the ribbon, the ribbon is pulled out as the head moves due to the frictional force between the ink surface of the ribbon and the paper being transferred, and the ribbon is pulled out as the head moves. This is done by winding up a ribbon. However, the wettability is poor,
Surfaces such as films with good release and peelability have a small coefficient of friction, so the force to pull out the ribbon is weak.
Therefore, if the force required to pull out the ribbon from the cassette is large, the ribbon will not be completely fed and the head will print on the same spot on the ribbon (slip), making printing impossible. It's put away. On the other hand, if the force required to pull out the ribbon from the cassette is reduced in order to prevent this phenomenon, the ribbon will now run unstable and ribbon meandering will occur. In addition, the ribbon pull-out force differs greatly between immediately after ink application and after several days have passed, and it also changes when the environmental temperature changes, such as when the ribbon is stored at 55°C. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to achieve ribbon running without meandering or slipping, taking into consideration storage stability and changes over time.

Under such circumstances, to date, no reports have been made regarding an ink ribbon that simultaneously solves the problems of storage stability and ribbon runnability as described above.

(Object of the Invention) The present invention has been made against the background of the above, and its first purpose is to perform thermal transfer onto the surface of a basic sheet such as a film with poor wettability. A second object of the present invention is to provide an ink ribbon for producing dry transfer materials with improved properties, and a second object of the present invention is to provide an ink ribbon for producing dry transfer materials with improved properties.
To provide a heat-sensitive transfer ribbon capable of easily and completely pressure-sensitively transferring onto a target object by applying pressure from behind a basic sheet.

Furthermore, a third object of the present invention is to provide an ink ribbon for producing a dry transfer material with good storage stability, and a fourth object of the present invention is to provide an ink ribbon for producing a dry transfer material with good ribbon running properties. An object of the present invention is to provide an ink ribbon for manufacturing materials.

(Solution Means) In order to achieve the above object, the present invention configures an ink ribbon for dry transfer material production so as to have the following features. In other words, in a thermal transfer ink ribbon used to produce a dry transfer material in which a transfer image such as a required character or figure is formed on a predetermined base material by a thermal transfer method, a film-like ribbon base material is A transferability adjusting layer made of polyamide and rosin ester was further formed on the provided ink layer.

(Specific structure and operation) By the way, the thermal transfer ink ribbon according to the present invention, such as KA (1), for example, as shown in FIG. An ink layer 12 is formed on the ribbon base material 1, and a transferability adjustment layer 13 is further formed thereon to a predetermined thickness.
An anti-sticking layer 14 made of a heat-resistant resin such as a silicone resin is provided on the surface opposite to the surface coated with the ink it2 of No. 1.

In such a thermal transfer ink ribbon 10 for producing a dry transfer material, the film-like glue/bong base material 11 that supports the ink rli 12 may be any of various materials conventionally used as a base material for thermal transfer ink ribbons. Any of these can be used, but in particular, since the ink ribbon is brought into contact with the thermal head of the printing device for thermal transfer, ink ribbons with a heat resistance temperature of 150°C or higher,
Resin films made of polyester, polyimide, polycarbonate, polysulfone, polyethersulfone, polyphenylene sulfide, etc., or papers such as capacitor paper and glassine paper are used as suitable materials, and the thickness can be determined as appropriate depending on the type of material. However, it is generally desirable to use a thickness in the range of 3 to 20 μm.

Further, the ink Jli12 mainly includes a colorant, a binder agent, and a pressure-sensitive adhesive.

As the coloring agent, a pigment such as carbon black is mainly used, but an appropriate dye may be added as necessary to adjust the color tone.

The binders constituting this ink layer 12 are mainly vegetable waxes such as candelilla wax, carnauba wax, rice wax, and Japanese wax; animal waxes such as beeswax, lanolin, and spermaceti; montan wax; Mineral waxes such as ceresin; waxes consisting of one or more petroleum waxes such as paraffin wax and microcrystalline wax, and adhesives such as petroleum resins, rosin resins, ketone resins, polyamide resins, and phenol resins. A compound consisting of an agent is used. Note that resin-based waxes such as α-olefin-maleic anhydride copolymer can also be used as the above-mentioned waxes, and the adhesion promoter is used to improve the adhesion of the ink,
It works to improve hardness, add cohesive force, add adhesive force, and add adhesive force to pressure-sensitive adhesives. Further, the wax and adhesive boosting agent constituting the binder agent are generally mixed in a ratio of 15:1 to 3:2 on a weight basis.

Furthermore, the pressure-sensitive adhesives constituting the ink 1i12 include polyvinyl chloride, polyacrylic ester, ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer, ethylene-ethyl acrylate copolymer, polyvinyl acetate, polyvinyl ether, polyvinyl acecool, Vinyl polymers such as polyisobutylene; fiber polymers such as ethyl cellulose, nitrocellulose, and cellulose acetate; and rubber polymers such as chlorinated rubber and natural rubber. One or more of these may be used in combination.

The colorant, binder agent, and pressure sensitive adhesive that constitute the ink layer 12 have a ratio of -i of 5 to 30:40 to 93:2.
~30 centipoise, preferably at a temperature of 95°C,
In particular, the ink composition provides a viscosity of about 200 to 1000 centivoise. Further, such an ink composition may be dissolved or dispersed in an appropriate solvent to form an ink liquid, or heated and mixed to form an ink, and then applied onto the desired film-like ribbon substrate 11 using a known method. Coating or hot-melt coating will be applied according to the requirements.

On the other hand, the transferability adjustment JII 13 as a top coat layer formed on the ink layer 12 is made of a uniform composition of polyamide and rosin esters, and has a higher viscosity than the ink layer 12. (under thermal transfer conditions) and is advantageously configured as a layer with high heat-sensitive adhesion, hardness and cohesive strength. Therefore, during thermal transfer, the transferability-adjusted IW13 has a strong adhesive force, which improves thermal transferability to surfaces with poor wettability, and increases cohesive force, viscosity, and hardness. Therefore, transfer defects such as crushing and spreading can be effectively improved, and the ink can also be effectively prevented from being scraped together by the head of a printing device.

There is. In addition, pressure is applied from behind the basic sheet of dry transfer material to create an ink image (
During pressure-sensitive transfer to transfer a transferred image (transfer image) to a transfer object, the transferability adjustment layer 13 has high cohesive force and hardness, so that it can be transferred from the basic sheet to a predetermined amount without residual ink. This makes it possible to transfer the ink image, and the transferred ink also spreads, making it possible to obtain a beautiful image without smearing.At the same time, it protects the transferred image and makes it strong.

By the way, such a transferability adjusting layer 13 is constructed by using polyamide as a resin with high film-forming properties and high heat-sensitive adhesive properties, and using rosin esters as a resin with a large cohesive force and imparting adhesion. However, polyamide, which is a resin with a high film-forming property, is used for hot melt adhesives or inks such as gravure, and has a melting point of about 90 to 130°C. Although a film with a large heat-sensitive transfer property is formed on top of the film 12, it alone is not sufficient for printing through and printing during heat-sensitive transfer.
Since good printing quality cannot be obtained, in the present invention,
By adding rosin esters, which are tackifying resins, the adhesion between the polyamide and the ink layer 12 is improved, increasing cohesive force, hardness, and tackiness. This makes it possible to obtain good thermal transfer properties. Such rosin esters are preferably selected from those having a softening point of 80°C or higher and low tackiness at 55°C or lower. Thus, the ribbon can run smoothly, and has good storage stability without locking on the back side of the ribbon even when stored at 55°C. Rosin esters are those made by bonding an organic acid, alkaline earth metal ion, etc. to the functional group -0H1-COOH of a rosin resin, and are more resistant than hydrogenated rosin, which is simply hydrogenated. Since it has a high melting point and high softening point, such properties can be easily obtained. Incidentally, such polyamide resin and rosin ester are blended in a ratio of 20 to 70% by weight of the former and 80 to 30% by weight of the latter to form the intended transferability adjusting layer 13. This is what happens.

The composition comprising the heat-sensitive adhesive polyamide with high film-forming property and the tackifying rosin ester can be prepared using a solution or dispersion of a suitable general-purpose organic solvent that does not attack the ink layer 12. In the form of ink l! according to conventional coating techniques. The transferability adjusting layer 13 thus formed has a higher viscosity than the ink layer 12 under thermal transfer conditions, and is generally coated at a temperature of 95° C. The layer has a viscosity of 3,000 centipoise or more, preferably 10,000 centipoise or more at a temperature of .

The transferability adjusting layer 13 formed in this way also contains kaolin and talc in order to adjust the film strength and obtain a sharp printed image, and to prevent stains and blocking. , fillers such as bentonite and titanium oxide, and organic or inorganic powders such as metal soaps such as zinc stearate and aluminum stearate.
It is suitably carried out that it is blended in a proportion not exceeding % by weight and is present in the transferability adjusting layer 13.

Then, using the ink ribbon 10 obtained in this way, the shape of the head heating element, the position of the head heating element,
The head is installed in a printing device such as a thermal transfer printer, which adjusts the angle, head pressing pressure, winding torque, head applied energy, printing speed, etc., and prints and thermally transfers the desired dry transfer material. Therefore, it can be manufactured advantageously.

That is, by using such an ink ribbon 10, even if a transfer image such as a desired character or figure is thermally printed on a film (base sheet) having a surface with poor wettability, it will not spread, collapse, shading, or It does not cause any problems such as scraping by the head, stringiness, yuzu skin, or insufficient transfer.
This makes it possible to realize a good printed image. Also,
Even when printing on paper, sufficiently good quality can be obtained.

In addition, even if the image printed in this way is pressure-sensitively transferred onto the target material such as paper, plastic, or metal by applying pressure from the back side of the film (base sheet), the film There is no residual ink on the surface, and the transferred image can be a good, firmly adhered image that does not collapse, spread, or become brittle.

Furthermore, when the ribbon runs, there are no problems such as ribbon meandering, slippage, etc., and printing and thermal transfer can be performed to the end of the ribbon.In terms of storage stability, such ink ribbons can be stored at 55℃. Even when held under these conditions for 24 hours, problems such as blocking and disordered winding do not occur at all.

(Examples) Below, some examples of the present invention will be shown to clarify the present invention more specifically, but the present invention is not limited in any way by such descriptions. That goes without saying.

In addition to the following examples and the above-mentioned specific description, the present invention includes various changes, modifications, and changes based on the knowledge of those skilled in the art, as long as they do not depart from the spirit of the present invention. It should be understood that improvements and the like may be made.

Example 1 In order to form an ink layer (12) and a transferability adjustment layer (13), an ink and a coating liquid for forming a transferability adjustment layer having the following compositions were respectively prepared. The viscosity of the ink layer (12) formed with this ink is 270 centipoise (95°C), and the viscosity of the transferability adjustment layer (13) formed with this coating liquid is 40,000 to 60,000. centiboise (95°C).

L Nibun (1, MA-7J methyl isobutyl ketone (solvent) manufactured by Seikokuri ■ 100 and using a 3.5 μm polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film as the ribbon base material (11), on the film, Ink 1i (1
After forming 2), a coating liquid for forming a transferability adjusting layer having the above composition is applied thereon to a dry film thickness of 0.2 to 2 μm, and dried. An ink ribbon (10) was obtained.

Next, using the thus obtained ink ribbon, it was set in a controlled heat-sensitive transfer type typewriter (BP-43 manufactured by Brother Industries, Ltd.), and a polyethylene film coated with silicone resin (thickness: 100μ
m) When printing was performed on the printed image, a sufficiently beautiful and good quality printed image could be obtained. Furthermore, by rubbing the printed polyethylene film from the back side and applying pressure, the printed image was pressure-sensitive transferred onto the desired surface of paper, plastic, or metal, and the quality was sufficiently good. I was able to complete the statue.

Further, using this ink ribbon, ribbon storage stability and runnability tests were conducted under the following conditions. That is, 3
One held at 5°C for 72 hours, one held at 55°C for 24 hours, one held at 35°C for 72 hours and further held at 55°C for 24 hours, one held at 55°C for 24 hours and further held at 35°C.
After holding the sample for 72 hours, we observed its shelf life, and then added the sample immediately after coating to conduct a ribbon running test.

I did it. As a result, good results were obtained regarding storage stability, with no blocking or disordered winding, and good results were obtained regarding ribbon runnability, with no meandering or slipping.

Example 2 The same composition as in Example 1 was used as the ink for forming the ink layer (12), while the coating liquid for forming the transferability adjustment layer had the following composition. An ink ribbon (10) was prepared in the same manner as in Example 1, and the same heat-sensitive transfer test, pressure-sensitive transfer test, ribbon running test, and storage test were conducted, and as a result, similar to Example 1, good results were obtained.

The viscosity of the transferability adjusting layer (13) formed with a coating liquid having the following composition is 50,000 to 70,000 centipoise (95°C).
)Met.

1 Isopropyl Alcohol (Solvent) 3800 manufactured by Saguri Ishihara 3800 (Effects of the Invention) As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, ink is coated on the ribbon substrate (support) of an ink ribbon. Along with the top coat layer, the heat-sensitive adhesiveness, hardness, viscosity,
By providing a transferability adjustment layer with a large cohesive force and using polyamide and rosin ester in the transferability adjustment layer, ribbon runnability and storage stability at room temperature (below 55°C) were achieved. In addition, it is a dry transfer material with excellent properties, as it can advantageously improve the pressure-sensitive transferability of printed images formed on the surface of a basic sheet such as a film by thermal transfer to other materials using pressure. The great industrial significance of the present invention lies in the fact that it can be advantageously produced.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory cross-sectional view showing an example of a thermal transfer ink ribbon for producing a dry transfer material according to the present invention. 10: Thermal transfer ink ribbon 11 = Ribbon base material 12: Ink layer 13: Transferability adjustment layer 14: Sticking prevention layer Applicant: Brother Industries, Ltd. Figure 1

Claims (1)

[Claims] A heat-sensitive transfer ink ribbon is used to produce a dry transfer material in which a transfer image such as a required character or figure is formed on a specified base material using a heat-sensitive transfer method, and is placed on a film-like ribbon base material. A heat-sensitive transfer ink ribbon for producing a dry transfer material, characterized in that a transferability adjusting layer made of polyamide and rosin ester is further formed on the ink layer.