JPH0416384A - Color thermal transfer recording method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the glossy feeling by increasing surface strength of a color image by a method wherein after transferring thermal transfer ink onto a material to be transferred, this transfer image surface is pressurized with a smooth surface of which the surface temperature is not lower than a melting point of thermal transfer ink. CONSTITUTION:A thermal transfer recording medium 1 to which thermal transfer ink of a plurality of colors is applied, is used, and the thermal transfer ink is transferred onto a material 4 to be transferred with a thermal head 6. Then, a transferred image is pressurized with a pressure roll 7 having a smooth surface of which the surface temperature is a melting point of the thermal transfer ink or higher, and a color image is obtained by further repeating alternately abovementioned process. When this color thermal transfer recording system is adopted, though thermal transfer color ink is transferred by superimposing by any transfer method to print the color image photographically, the color image is strong in surface intensity, excellent in rubbing resistance, and sufficient gloss feeling is obtained.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Field of Application] The present invention relates to a color thermal transfer recording method used in a color recording apparatus using a thermal transfer method.

[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.

[The problem that the invention tries to solve! ] However, in the conventional color thermal transfer recording method described above, there are problems such as poor abrasion resistance of the ink because the ink is overlaid in many layers, and if the transfer surface is not smooth, the color image lacks gloss. It had Therefore, the purpose of the present invention is to provide a color thermal transfer that has strong surface strength and can provide sufficient gloss no matter what color image is printed when a color image is printed by overlapping thermal transfer inks of multiple colors. The purpose is to provide a recording method.

[Means for Solving Problems] The color thermal transfer recording method of the present invention, after transferring thermal transfer ink onto a transfer target, transfers the transferred image surface to a smooth surface whose surface temperature is higher than the melting temperature of the thermal transfer ink. Further, by alternately repeating the steps of transferring the thermal transfer ink to the object to be transferred and pressing the transferred image surface with the heated smooth surface, thermal transfer ink of multiple colors can be applied. It is characterized by superimposing and transferring a plurality of colors of thermal transfer ink to obtain a color image, and then superimposing and transferring a plurality of colors of thermal transfer ink to a transfer object to obtain a color image, and finally pressing the transferred image surface with the heated smooth surface. Further, after pressing the transferred image surface on which the thermal transfer ink has been superimposed and transferred with a smooth surface whose surface temperature is higher than the melting temperature of the thermal transfer ink, the transferred image surface becomes lower than the melting temperature of the thermal transfer ink. 2. The thermal transfer recording method according to claim 1, wherein the smooth surface is peeled off after cooling.

[Function] According to the color thermal transfer recording method of the present invention having the above-mentioned characteristics, even if the thermal transfer color ink is overlaid and transferred using any transfer method to print a color image, the surface strength is strong and the abrasion resistance is excellent. It also has the effect of providing sufficient gloss.

[Example 1 The present invention will be specifically explained below using Examples and Comparative Examples.

Embodiment 1 of the color thermal transfer method of the present invention is shown in FIGS. 1 to 4.
~A conceptual diagram of Example 4 is shown.

In Example 1, a thermal transfer recording medium 1 having a structure coated with thermal transfer inks of multiple colors is used, and after the thermal transfer ink 2 is transferred onto a transfer target 3 by a thermal head 5, the transferred image is printed on the surface. In this method, a color image is obtained by applying pressure with a pressure roll 7 having a smooth surface whose temperature is higher than the melting temperature of the thermal transfer ink, and further repeating the above steps alternately.

Example 2 is! Using a thermal transfer recording medium 1 having a structure in which a surface 3 coated with thermal transfer ink of several colors 3 and a smooth film surface 2 not coated with thermal transfer ink are arranged alternately, the ink is transferred by a thermal head 6, and then The surface of the smooth film on which no thermal transfer ink is applied is placed on the transfer image, and then pressure is applied from the back side with a pressure roll 7 having a smooth surface whose surface temperature is higher than the melting temperature of the thermal transfer ink, and the peeling roll 8 is transferred to a heating roll. It is installed at a distance from position 7 where the heated ink is sufficiently cooled, and has a mechanism that peels off the smooth film and the transfer image surface at that position.The ink transfer and the heating and peeling of the smooth film surface are alternately repeated, and the color image is formed. This is the way to obtain.

In Embodiment 3, a plurality of color single-color thermal transfer recording media 1 on which thermal transfer inks are applied on the entire surface and thermal-\rad are arranged as a set, and furthermore, by overlapping and transferring the plurality of thermal transfer inks, A smooth film surface is placed on the obtained color image surface, and pressure is applied from the back side with a pressure roll 7 having a smooth surface whose surface temperature is higher than the melting temperature of the thermal transfer ink, and a peeling roll 8 is heated from the position of the heating roll 7. It has a mechanism that separates the smooth film and the transferred image surface at a distance where the ink is sufficiently cooled.
In this method, a color image is obtained by subjecting the transfer object 3 to a series of steps.

In Example 4, a color thermal transfer recording medium 1 coated with thermal transfer inks of a plurality of colors and a smooth film 10 that can be recycled after transferring the thermal transfer ink on the color thermal transfer recording medium onto a transfer target 4 are described. The transferred image is superimposed on the transfer image, and the transfer surface is pressed from the back side of the smooth film with a pressure roll 7 whose surface temperature is higher than the melting temperature of the thermal transfer ink, and then the peeling roll 8
is installed at a distance from the position of the heating roll 7 where the heated ink is sufficiently cooled, and has a mechanism that peels off the smooth film and the transfer image surface at that position, and superimposes the thermal transfer ink of multiple colors on the transfer target. This is a method of obtaining a color image by heating and peeling with a smooth film after transfer, or by heating and peeling pressure with a smooth film after each print, and superimposing inks of multiple colors.

Examples of the smooth surface that can be used in the embodiments of the present invention include rolls made of metal or other materials that have built-in heating means such as heaters. Alternatively, there are rolls made of metal or other materials coated with a bottom such as PET, polycarbonate, polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, polyimide, aramid, silicone, Teflon, or polyester.

FIG. 4 shows a conceptual diagram of a comparative example of the color thermal transfer method of the present invention.

The comparative example is a color thermal transfer recording method that has a surface coated with thermal transfer ink of a plurality of colors and does not include a pressurizing step using a smooth surface.

Next, printing experiments were actually conducted under the following transfer conditions using the color thermal transfer methods of the above examples and comparative examples.

Table 1 shows the transfer conditions for the printing experiment.

Table 1 Table 2 The print pattern used was a full-color image obtained by overlapping three-color transfer with 64 gradations for each color.

Next, the transferred images obtained by the four methods of Examples 1 to 3 and Comparative Example were investigated for three items: glossiness, color clarity, and abrasion resistance.

The evaluation results are shown in Table 2.

The glossiness evaluation and color tone evaluation in the table above were performed visually, and the abrasion resistance was evaluated based on the level of decrease in density caused by rubbing the surface of the transferred image with a constant pressure.

As per the results in the table above, the transferred images of Examples 1 to 4 had glossiness,
Good results were obtained in terms of color clarity and abrasion resistance. On the other hand, the transferred image of the comparative example lacked gloss, had a dull tone, and had poor abrasion resistance.

From the above results, if the color thermal transfer recording method of the present invention is used, when a color image is printed by overlapping multiple color thermal transfer inks, the surface strength will be strong and any color image will have sufficient gloss. Obtainable.

The thermal transfer ink that can be used in the color thermal transfer recording method of the present invention may be either a heat-melting type or a heat-softening type, and an ink film that can be printed multiple times can also be used.

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. 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.

I Effects of the Invention 1 As explained above, according to the thermal transfer method of the present invention, even if thermal transfer color inks are superimposed and transferred using any transfer method to print a color image, the surface strength is strong and the scratch resistance is excellent. It also has the effect of providing sufficient gloss and high image quality with a wide brown reproduction range.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the concept of a color thermal transfer recording method according to Example 1 of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the concept of a color thermal transfer recording method according to Example 2 of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing the concept of a color thermal transfer recording method according to Example 3 of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing the concept of a color thermal transfer recording method according to Example 4 of the present invention. The fifth section is a schematic diagram showing the concept of a color thermal transfer recording method of a comparative example. 1 ・ 2 ・ 3 ・ 4 ・ 5 ・ 6 ・ 7 ・ 8 ・ 9 ・ 10 Smooth film that can be rolled or recycled Figure 1 Applicant: Seiko Epson Co., Ltd. Attorney Kizobu Tsuzuki (and others) Figure 4 Figure 5

Claims (4)

[Claims] (1) A color thermal transfer recording method, which comprises transferring thermal transfer ink onto a transfer target and then pressing the transferred image surface with a smooth surface whose surface temperature is higher than the melting temperature of the thermal transfer ink. (2) By alternately repeating the process of transferring the thermal transfer ink to the transfer target and pressing the transferred image surface with a smooth surface whose surface temperature is higher than the melting temperature of the thermal transfer ink, the thermal transfer ink of multiple colors can be transferred. 2. The color thermal transfer recording method according to claim 1, wherein a color image is obtained by overlapping transfer. (3) After obtaining a color image by superimposing and transferring a plurality of colors of thermal transfer inks to a transfer object, the transferred image surface is finally pressed with a smooth surface whose surface temperature is higher than the melting temperature of the thermal transfer ink. Color thermal transfer recording method. (4) After pressing the transfer image surface on which the thermal transfer ink has been superimposed and transferred with a smooth surface whose surface temperature is above the melting temperature of the thermal transfer ink, the transfer image surface is cooled to below the melting temperature of the thermal transfer ink. 2. The color thermal transfer recording method according to claim 1, further comprising peeling off said smooth surface.