JPH02270593A - Constitution product of material to be printed - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a constitution product of a material to be printed capable of simply developing originality by a general purpose thermal transfer printer by forming a transfer layer from a thermoplastic resin having specific melting temp. or the thermoplastic resin and an adhesiveness enhancer specific to said resin. CONSTITUTION:A constitution product of a material to be printed ponsists of a transfer layer, the printing layer provided thereon and the transparent protective layer further provided on the printing layer. The transfer layer is composed of a thermoplastic resin having melting temp. of 60 - 250 deg.C or said resin and an adhesive enhancer contained in a amount up to 100pts.wt. to 100pts. wt. of the resin. When the melting temp. is below 60 deg.C, a re-transfer layer is melted when printing is performed by a usual thermal transfer printer and it becomes impossible to receive transferred ink to result in a disturbed printed article. When the melting temp. exceeds 250 deg.C, the capacity of a heat source becomes insufficient at the time of the transfer of the printed article to a final transfer material and it is not practical because a problem is generated in the heat resistance of a support.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a printing medium provided with a layer that can be retransferred to another printing medium by heating and a transparent protective layer that protects the print on the layer. Concerning composition. In particular, the transferred image obtained by first thermally transferring onto the transferable layer using a thermal transfer printer, typewriter, word processor, etc., is further heated together with a transparent protective layer onto the final transfer object. The present invention relates to a composition of a printed body such as a hot-melt type "label" that can be transferred.

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, printing and printing devices such as printers, typewriters, and word processors using thermal transfer methods have been developed, and are now widely available on the market, ranging from small personal use devices to business use devices. To perform printing by thermal transfer, a thermal transfer ink ribbon is brought into close contact with a specified printing paper, a specified heating element of a thermal head having a large number of heating elements is heated, and thermal transfer is performed via the support of the thermal transfer ink ribbon. transfer the ink elements to the printing paper. This method is widely used in word processors, and is the most familiar output method for consumers because it is easy to maintain and color. In addition, an electric heat-sensitive transfer method has also been put into practical use as a similar method.

In addition, computers and their output devices, printers,
They are being used not only as information equipment but also for other purposes, such as color hard copy for outputting computer graphics or home video images onto paper, in addition to use in CADSCAM. Such copies select arbitrary input images and are used for record preservation like photographs, and are also being used in the field of design and in the field of expressing so-called originality for individuals by outputting favorite images and designs. .

Furthermore, the prints output at this time are pasted with glue, or the prints are printed onto pre-glued prints and reattached to desired areas to create a fashionable effect. . Conventionally, so-called hot-melt materials have been used as materials to be pasted onto parts with rough surfaces such as fabrics, and images and designs have mostly been pre-printed ready-made ones. It is hard to say that originality is being demonstrated. Therefore, there has been a long-awaited material that can easily express originality using a general-purpose thermal transfer printer, and one example of the use of printers in industrial applications is the development of bar codes. Barcodes have made great progress in recent years as a means of so-called POS5FA, and barcode labels are now being affixed to various parts.

Means for Solving the Problems The present invention consists of a transfer layer, a printing layer provided on the transfer layer, and a transparent protective layer provided further above the printing layer, and the transfer layer has a melting temperature of 60 to 60. The object of the present invention is to provide an image-receiving body composition comprising a thermoplastic resin at 250°C, or the thermoplastic resin and an adhesion improver in an amount of up to 100 parts by weight per 100 parts by weight of the resin.

Layer that can be transferred by heating (hereinafter referred to as transfer layer)
As the material, a material having a melting temperature of 60 to 250°C is used. If the melting temperature is less than 60° C., the retransfer layer will melt when printed using a normal thermal transfer printer, and will no longer be able to accept the transferred ink, resulting in a disordered print. Furthermore, the storage stability (blocking) of the printing object is also reduced when it is wound into a roll or bobbin, or when it is stacked after being made into sheets. On the other hand, if the melting temperature exceeds 250.degree. C., it is not practical because the ability of the heat source may be insufficient during transfer of the printed matter to the final transfer member, or there may be problems with the heat resistance of the support. Further, disturbances in printing ink may occur. A more preferable melting temperature of the transfer layer is 65 to 180°C.

The thickness of the transfer layer is 3 to 250 μm.

The thickness of the transferable layer on which images and designs are printed is 3 μm or more, preferably 5 μm, in order to maintain the print during retransfer, especially since rough fibrous surfaces such as fabrics are the main transfer target.
That's all. On the other hand, if the layer thickness exceeds 250 μm, the appearance after transfer will be poor. Furthermore, if the layer thickness is too large, it will cause trouble when printing with a printer, so the layer thickness is 150 μm.
The following are more desirable.

Specific materials used for such a transfer layer include thermoplastic resins with high film-forming properties and high heat-sensitive adhesive properties, such as polyalkylenes such as polyethylene and polypropylene, ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymers, and polyacetic acid. Vinyl, ionomer resin, acrylic polymer, ethylene-
Ethyl acrylate copolymer, ethylene-acrylic acid copolymer, polyvinyl chloride, vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate copolymer, polyvinyl ether, polyvinyl acetal, polyvinyl butyral, polyvinyl alcohol, polyvinylpyrrolidone, polyester, polyurethane, polyamide, ethyl cellulose, One type or a combination of two or more of fibrous polymers such as nitrocellulose and cellulose acetate, and rubber polymers such as chlorinated rubber and natural rubber are used.

Here, in order to impart greater adhesiveness during transfer to the final transfer object or to adjust the cohesive force of the binder, other resins, such as Use one or more of petroleum resins, rosins, hydrogenated rosins, rosin esters, ketone resins, phenol resins, etc. as tackifying resins with large cohesive force, or adjust the melting point and melt viscosity to improve thermal sensitivity. As heat sensitivity improvers, waxes consisting of one or more types of vegetable, animal, mineral, petroleum, synthetic, and resin waxes, or plasticizers such as phosphate esters and phthalate esters are used. oils, fats and/or
Alternatively, one or more selected from oil agents, surfactants, etc. can be used in combination.

In addition, kaolin is added to the transfer layer formed in this way to the extent that it does not impair the practical sharpness of the print, in order to adjust the film strength and prevent stains and blocking.
Inorganic or organic powders such as fillers such as talc and titanium oxide and metal soaps such as zinc stearate may be blended. Furthermore, colored pigments, dyes, metal foils, etc. may be added in order to further enhance the user's creativity.

Such a transfer layer can be formed by known means. For example, it is formed into a film by an extrusion film method, or by coating on a releasable base material or by a method similar to extrusion lamination. When a releasable base material is used, the base material may be used as a supporting base material during printing, and may be removed immediately before transfer to an object.

The layer thickness may be appropriately selected depending on the type of printer used. That is, when using a general-purpose printer, the total thickness of the retransfer layer and the base material thickness is limited due to running restrictions, and as a result, the base material thickness is preferably 2 to 200 μm. On the other hand, there is no such restriction for types such as handy printers.

Further, the transparent protective layer provided on the surface of the object to be printed according to the present invention prevents deterioration of the printed object and maintains long-term fastness. The material used for such a protective layer may be any material as long as it is transparent and has good adhesive properties. Typical materials for the protective layer include polyester film, polyethylene film, polypropylene film, and other heat-resistant resin films.

The film used as the protective layer may be used as is, but in order to ensure even greater reliability, it is desirable to use a film that has been pretreated to improve its adhesion.

As such pretreatment, it is preferable to more firmly integrate the protective layer and the transfer layer with an anchor layer. The anchor layer may be a known primer layer, and a layer of urethane adhesive, epoxy adhesive, rubber adhesive, etc. may be provided by a known method.

Further, high-temperature lamination treatment of polymers or the like may be performed. Furthermore, instead of the primer layer, the protective layer itself may be subjected to corona treatment, or may be used in combination with the primer layer.

Further, the protective layer may be made of a material similar to the composition of the transfer layer of the object to be printed, or a protective film having the same structure as the object to be printed may be used.

When such a protective layer is used, the ink element is completely encapsulated, which is preferable.

In the printing object composition of the present invention, printing can be performed on the transfer layer by a known thermal transfer method. The protective layer can be formed by, for example, placing the film on the transfer layer and heat-transferring the film and the transfer layer onto the object to be transferred.

In this way, the printed object composition such as the "label" of the present invention has a form in which a printed image is included between the transfer layer and the protective layer,
Highly durable.

Kanromasu Next, the present invention will be explained in more detail with reference to Examples.

Note that the present invention is not limited to these examples, and may be modified as appropriate without departing from the spirit of the present invention. For example, the present invention mainly targets rough surfaces as transfer objects in order to further express originality, but it may also be applied to smooth surfaces.

Examples 1 to 4 Various ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymers (EVA) having different melting temperatures shown in Table 1 were extruded into a film with a thickness of 50 μm using a die, and processed into sheets of A4 size to be printed. I got a body.

These include a commercially available printer (manufactured by Toshiba Corporation, RupoJW9).
0Fm) to print characters, etc., the first
Obtained the results in the table.

Other thermoplastic resins include polyethylene, polyester,
Various materials such as polyamide and general-purpose printers commercially available from various companies were tried, but as shown in Table 1, printing was unstable unless the material of the retransfer layer had a melting temperature of 60° C. or higher.

Next, a polyester film (12 .mu.! thick), which had been corona treated as a protective layer and provided with a urethane adhesive as an anchor layer, was placed on the print surface, and the film was transferred onto a cloth together with the transfer material. As shown in Table 1, the retransferability is good;
The protective layer was integrated with the transfer layer, and the sharpness of the pattern was sufficiently ensured.

Example 5 Polyester film (melting temperature: 250°C, thickness 38
μR) was used as the object to be printed, and characters were printed thereon in the same manner as in Examples 1 to 4. Although the printing was good, when the epoxy adhesive was thermally transferred onto paper using a hot press (260° C.) through a polyimide film that had been primed, the printing was severely disturbed.

Examples 6 to 8 EVA of Example 3 (vinyl acetate content (hereinafter abbreviated as VA): 14% by weight, Ml: 3.5) was used for the retransfer layer, and each image receiving paper was prepared by changing the layer thickness. Printing was carried out in the same manner as in Examples 1 to 5.The obtained image was transferred onto a cotton cloth at 160°C through the same polyester film (12 mm thick) as in Examples 1 to 4. The results shown in the table were obtained.

Examples 9 to 11 As shown in Table 3, the EVA of Example 3 (
(VA 14%, Ml 3.5), and aliphatic saturated hydrocarbon resins were blended in various proportions as a viscosity or cohesive force adjusting agent for the transfer layer during melt transfer to prepare image receiving papers. Printing was carried out in the same manner as in the example. Using this transfer object, a 16 μm thick layer was applied to a cotton fabric along with a protective layer made of a 12 μm thick polyester film in the same manner as in Examples 1 to 4.
When the image was transferred at 0° C., the results shown in Table 3 were obtained.

Effects of the Invention With the printing object of the present invention, a desired print can be obtained using a commercially available thermal transfer printer, and this can be easily retransferred onto rough fibrous surfaces such as cloth by heating with a protective layer. However, it is possible to express even more originality. Further, since the print is contained between the print layer and the protective layer, it is highly reliable in industrial use.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) Consisting of a transfer layer, a printing layer provided on the transfer layer, and a transparent protective layer provided further above the printing layer,
An image receiving body composition characterized in that the transfer layer is made of a thermoplastic resin having a melting temperature of 60 to 250°C, or the thermoplastic resin and an adhesion improver in an amount of up to 100 parts by weight per 100 parts by weight of the resin. . (2) The printing object composition according to claim 1, wherein the transfer layer has a thickness of 3 to 250 μm.