JPH04156344A - Color thermal transfer recording method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a transparent color image not irregularly reflecting projection light when the lap printing of a plurality of thermal transfer color inks is applied to a transparent transfer material by transferring thermal transfer ink to the transfer material and subsequently heating and/or pressing the surface of the transfer image. CONSTITUTION:A thermal transfer recording material 1 is constituted of a plurality of thermal transfer color inks 11a, 11b and a base material 12. The thermal transfer ink 11b of the thermal transfer recording material 1 is selectively melted by the heat of a thermal head 2 to form a transfer image on a transfer material 3. The transfer image is moved in an F-direction by a drive means to be passed between heated pressure rolls 5a, 5b and the surface thereof is again melted to be smoothed. Next, the transfer material 3 is returned in an R-direction by the drive means and the thermal transfer ink 11b is transferred in the same way and the surface of the transfer image is smoothed by the pressure rolls 5a, 5b. This operation is repeated and the transfer image whose ink transfer surface is flat is obtained.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a color thermal transfer recording method for a color recording apparatus using a thermal transfer method, and particularly to a transfer method for forming a color image on a transparent transfer medium.

[Prior Art] A color thermal transfer recording method used in a conventional color thermal transfer printer obtains a color image by superimposing and transferring a plurality of colors of heat-melting inks. A conventional color thermal transfer recording method is shown in FIG. In this color thermal transfer recording method, the transfer target is not only general transfer paper but also OH for projection.
It can also be used for P sheets etc.

[Problem to be solved by the invention] However, in the color thermal transfer recording method of the prior art described above,
The ink transfer surface is sometimes not smooth, and when used for projection, light is diffusely reflected, resulting in an opaque color image. Therefore, the purpose of the present invention is to
An object of the present invention is to provide a color thermal transfer recording method capable of obtaining a transparent color image in which projection light is not diffusely reflected when printing a plurality of colors of thermal transfer ink on a transparent transfer material in a superimposed manner. .

[Means for Solving the Problems] The color thermal transfer recording method of the present invention is characterized in that after thermal transfer ink is transferred onto a transparent transfer target, the transferred image surface is heated and/or pressurized.

Further, by alternately repeating the steps of transferring the thermal transfer ink to a transparent transfer target and heating and/or pressurizing the transferred image surface, the thermal transfer inks of multiple colors are superimposed and transferred to obtain a color image. It is characterized by or
A color image is obtained by superimposing and transferring a plurality of color thermal transfer inks onto a transparent transfer material.Finally, the transfer image surface is heated and/or pressurized.

"Operation" According to the color thermal transfer recording method of the present invention having the above-mentioned characteristics, no matter how the thermal transfer color ink is superimposed and transferred onto a transparent transfer object by any transfer method and a color image is printed, the transferred image The surface is smooth and has the effect of producing transparent color images.

[Example 1] The present invention will be specifically explained below with reference to Examples and Comparative Examples, but the present invention is not limited thereto.

FIG. 1 shows a conceptual diagram of an embodiment of the color thermal transfer recording method of the present invention. In FIG. 1, thermal transfer recording material 1. teeth,
Multi-color thermal transfer ink 11. It is composed of (a), (b) and a base material 12. Further, 2 indicates a thermal head, 3 indicates a transparent transfer target, 4 indicates a platen, and 5 (a
L (b) is a pressure roll having a smooth surface whose surface temperature is higher than the melting temperature of the thermal transfer ink. As the base material 12 used here, a conventionally used film or paper can be used as is. In this example, the thickness is approximately 6
μ PET film was used. Thermal transfer ink] may be any heat-melting ink, and a color image can be obtained by overlapping inks of a plurality of colors. In this example, recording was performed using one thermal transfer ink of three colors: yellow, magenta, and cyan.

Examples of the transparent transfer object 3 include an OHP sheet, and in this example, an OHP sheet 1 for thermal transfer recording is particularly used.

Further, the pressure rolls 5(a) and 5(b) are controlled at a temperature that remelts the transferred ink 1.

Examples of rolls that can be used in the examples include rolls made of metal or other materials and equipped with heating means such as a heater. Alternatively, there are rolls made of metal or other materials coated with polymers such as PET, polycarbonate, polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, polyimide, aramid, silicone, Teflon, and polyester.

(Example 1) First, the heat of the thermal head 2 selectively melts the thermal transfer ink 11 (1:)) of the thermal transfer recording material 1, and
A transfer image was formed thereon. The transferred work is moved in the F direction by a driving means (not shown) and heated by a pressure roll 5 (a
) and (b) to remelt and smooth the surface. Next, the transferred object 3 is moved in the R direction by a driving means (not shown).
and heat transfer ink 1.1. After (b) was transferred, the surface was smoothed using pressure rolls 5 (a) and (b). This operation was repeated to obtain a transferred image with a flat ink transfer surface. The transfer conditions at this time are shown in Table 1.

For the printed pattern on Table 1, a full-color image obtained by overlapping three-color transfer with 64 gradations of each color was used.

(Example 2) Color transfer was performed under the same transfer conditions and print pattern as in Example 1. However, the transfer ink was not remelted and smoothed using the pressure rolls 5(a) and 5(b) for each color, but after the last ink was transferred, it was remelted to smooth the surface of the transferred image.

(Comparative Example) A printed pattern was transferred under the same transfer conditions as in Example 1 using a recording apparatus not provided with a heated pressure roll as shown in FIG. At this time, the re-melting and smoothing treatment of the transfer surface of Example was not performed.

The transmission state of the transfer samples obtained in [1-1-11 Examples 1.2 and Comparative Examples] was confirmed using an OHP projector.

The permeability results are shown in Table 2.

Table 2 As shown in Table 2, the transfer sample obtained in Example 1.2 has a smooth transfer ink surface, allowing light to pass through it. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 3, the transfer ink 11(a) is magenta, 1.1. When (b) is yellow, the incident light 6 passes through each ink and the transferred object 3, and the part 7(a) is yellow, the part 7(b) is red, and the part 7(c) is magenta. It becomes the light of On the other hand, in Comparative Example 1, since the transfer ink surfaces 11(a) and 11(b) are uneven as shown in FIG. 4, the incident light 6 is diffusely reflected on the ink surface. Therefore, the projected image was not a color image but a monochrome image.

From the above results, if the color thermal transfer recording method of the present invention is used, no matter what transfer method is used to superimpose thermal transfer color ink on a transparent transfer object and print a color image, a transparent color image can be printed. Obtainable.

Furthermore, as a means for remelting the thermal transfer ink, the bases 4', (
' It is also effective to use a heating roll or the like from the 12 side.

Furthermore, although this embodiment describes a three-color superimposed image using a line-type thermal head, the present invention is not limited to this, and the present invention is not limited to this, and the present invention is not limited to this. It is also possible to apply this method to other methods.

Furthermore, this embodiment uses three colors: yellow, magenta, and cyan.
Although a color image composed of colors has been described, the present invention is not limited to this, and the present invention is not limited to this.
It is also possible to apply the present invention to color printers, monochrome printers, and two-color printers.

1. Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the thermal transfer method of the present invention, when the thermal transfer ink is transferred to the transparent transfer object, the surface of the transferred image is heated and/or pressurized to make it smooth. This has the effect that a transparent color image can be obtained even if the thermal transfer color ink is overlaid and transferred using any transfer method to print a color image.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of a color thermal transfer recording method showing one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing a conventional color thermal transfer recording method. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a transfer ink obtained by the color thermal transfer recording method of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a transfer ink obtained by conventional color heat transferable recording. 1...Thermal transfer recording medium 11(a), (b)...Thermal transfer ink 12...
Base material 2... Thermal head 3... Transferred object 4... Platen 5(a), (1))... Pressure roll [5...
・Incoming light 7 (a), (b), (C)...transmitted light extraction'' 2nd applicant Seiko Epson Co., Ltd. representative patent attorney Kisanbe Meiki and 1 other person

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) After transferring the thermal transfer ink onto a transparent transfer target,
A color thermal transfer recording method characterized by heating and/or pressurizing the transferred image surface. (2) By alternately repeating the process of transferring thermal transfer ink to a transparent transfer target and heating and/or pressurizing the transferred image surface, thermal transfer inks of multiple colors are superimposed and transferred, and a color image is created. 2. The color thermal transfer recording method according to claim 1, characterized in that: (3) Color thermal transfer according to claim 1, characterized in that after a color image is obtained by superimposing and transferring a plurality of color thermal transfer inks onto a transparent transfer target, the transferred image surface is finally heated and/or pressurized. Recording method.