JPH082121A - Roll-shaped thermal transfer image receiving sheet - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a thermal transfer image receiving sheet capable of being easily altered in its printing area, made easy in the mounting to a printer and generating no wastefulness. CONSTITUTION:In a thermal transfer image receiving sheet consisting of at least a colorant receiving layer and a base material and formed into a roll shape, the leading end part of the thermal transfer image receiving sheet is partially cut and the width 1 of the foremost end part thereof is 0-90% of the width 3 thereof.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a thermal transfer image-receiving sheet which is superposed on a thermal transfer sheet to obtain an image by thermally transferring a coloring material using a thermal head as a device. More specifically, the present invention relates to a thermal transfer using a sublimation dye as a coloring material. The present invention relates to a thermal transfer image-receiving sheet for forming a full-color, high-density recorded image used in the method, in the form of a roll.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Among various thermal transfer recording systems, a sublimation dye is used as a coloring material and is transferred to an image-receiving sheet by using a thermal head which generates heat according to a recording signal to obtain an image. A transfer recording method is known. This recording method uses dye as a coloring material, and since density gradation is possible,
Since the image is extremely clear and excellent in halftone color reproducibility and gradation reproducibility, it is possible to form an image having an image quality comparable to that of a silver halide photograph. Due to the development of various hardware and software related to multimedia in addition to the above-mentioned excellent performance, the sublimation transfer recording method is used for computer graphics, still image by sanitary communication and digital image represented by CDROM and others. The market is rapidly expanding as a full-color hard copy system for analog images such as video.

The sublimation transfer recording type image receiving paper has various specific applications. Typical examples include printing proofs, image output, CAD / CAM design and design output, various medical analyzers such as CT scan, measuring instrument output applications, and alternatives to instant photography. Name cards, ID cards, credit cards, output of facial photographs to other cards, composite photographs at amusement facilities such as amusement parks, museums, aquariums, and use as commemorative photographs. be able to.

As a thermal transfer image-receiving sheet for sublimation transfer (hereinafter also referred to as an image-receiving sheet) which is used for various purposes as described above, a color material-receiving layer formed on a substrate is generally used. Has been. Further, with the diversification of applications as described above, a roll-shaped image receiving sheet is used as an image receiving sheet whose printing area can be freely adjusted.

[0005]

However, in a printer using a roll-shaped image-receiving sheet, when the image-receiving sheet is mounted on the printer, it is necessary to pass it between a platen roll and a plurality of transport rolls. However, in general, the inside of the printer is designed very precisely, so there is practically no internal space, and passing the image receiving sheet into the printer is a work that requires a load to operate the printer. there were. Further, during the work of passing the image receiving sheet through the printer, the front end portion of the image receiving sheet is often folded or wrinkled, and the image receiving sheet at that portion cannot be used, resulting in a lot of waste.

The present invention has been devised in view of the above circumstances, and is a thermal transfer image-receiving sheet capable of arbitrarily changing a printing area, facilitating mounting on a printer and eliminating waste. An object is to provide a thermal transfer image-receiving sheet.

[0007]

In order to achieve such an object, in the present invention, a thermal transfer image-receiving sheet formed of at least a coloring material-receiving layer and a base material and formed into a roll is It was formed such that the tip portion was partially cut and the width of the leading edge portion was 0 to 90% of the width of the thermal transfer image receiving sheet.

[0008]

In the present invention, the leading end of the roll-shaped image receiving sheet is formed narrower than the width of the image receiving sheet. By doing so, the possibility of hitting an obstacle when the sheet is inserted into a narrow space in the printer is reduced, and the image receiving sheet can be easily attached.

The thermal transfer image-receiving sheet of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 to 4 are examples showing the leading end of the roll-shaped thermal transfer image-receiving sheet of the present invention.
1 shows an example in which the tip portion is cut obliquely, FIG. 2 shows an example in which the tip portion is cut obliquely around the center, and FIG.
Shows an example in which the tip is cut into a rectangular shape, and FIG. 4 shows an example in which the tip is cut into a trapezoid. 1 in FIG.
Shows the width of the leading edge, 2 is the length in the longitudinal direction of the tip,
3 indicates the width of the thermal transfer image-receiving sheet. In the present invention,
As shown in the figure, the front end of the thermal transfer image receiving sheet is partially cut, and the leading edge width 1 is 0 to 90% of the thermal transfer image receiving sheet width 3. In the example of FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the width of the leading edge is 0%, and in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, it is 50%. By doing so, the possibility of hitting various obstacles such as rolls and wall surfaces in the printer when the sheets are inserted into the narrow gaps is reduced, and mounting of the image receiving sheet becomes extremely easy.

If the width of the leading edge portion is larger than 90% of the width of the thermal transfer image receiving sheet, the effect is not sufficient. Also,
The length 2 in the longitudinal direction of the cut front end portion is preferably 5 to 300% of the width of the thermal transfer image receiving sheet, and when it is less than 5%, there is almost no effect of narrowing the width. Also,
If it exceeds 300%, the waste of the image receiving sheet increases, which is not preferable. Further, the shape of the tip portion is most preferably cut obliquely as shown in FIG.

The thermal transfer image-receiving sheet of the present invention is formed in a roll shape. Since the length is not limited in the longitudinal direction by forming it in the roll shape, the printing area can be arbitrarily changed according to the purpose of use. For example, a panoramic type image can be formed.

The thermal transfer image-receiving sheet of the present invention is used in a sublimation transfer system in which a sublimable dye is used as a coloring material or in a thermal fusion transfer system in which an ink melted by heat is used. It is composed of and. Here, the materials used will be described. Coloring Material Receiving Layer The coloring material receiving layer is formed by adding various additives such as a release agent to the varnish containing a resin that easily dyes the coloring material as a main component, if necessary. Resins that are easily dyed include polyolefin resins such as polypropylene, halogenated resins such as polyvinyl chloride and polyvinylidene chloride, vinyl resins such as polyvinyl acetate and polyacrylate, and copolymers thereof, polyethylene terephthalate. Polyester resins such as polyester and polystyrene terephthalate, polystyrene resins, polyamide resins, copolymers of olefins such as ethylene and propylene with other vinyl monomers, ionomers and celluloses.
A simple substance such as a s-derivative or a mixture thereof can be used, and among these, a polyester resin and a vinyl resin are preferable.

The color material receiving layer may contain a releasing agent in order to prevent heat fusion with the heat transfer sheet during image formation. Silicone oil and phosphoric acid ester-based plasticizer fluorine-based compounds can be used as the release agent, and among these, silicone oil is preferably used. The amount of the release agent added is preferably 0.2 to 30 parts by weight with respect to the resin for forming the receiving layer. If necessary, a fluorescent brightening agent and other additives may be added to the color material receiving layer. The coating of the color material receiving layer is carried out by a general method such as roll coating, bar coating, gravure coating and gravure revers coating. The coating amount is preferably 0.5 to 10 g / m ² (solid content conversion; hereinafter, the coating amount of the present invention is a solid content conversion value unless otherwise specified). Further, an intermediate layer having a desired function may be provided between the color material receiving layer and the base material.

Substrate As the substrate, various papers or plastic films may be used in a single layer, and a plastic film having a cushioning property or a synthetic paper is preferable. However, in the case of a single layer, a printing curl occurs due to heat of the thermal head during printing.
Therefore, the base material is preferably a laminate of at least a plastic layer having microvoids and a support. Printing curl can be prevented by laminating the support and the above-mentioned layer having microvoids. Plastic layer having micro voids As the plastic layer having micro voids, (a)
A plastic film or synthetic paper having microvoids inside may be used, or (b) on various supports.
The plastic layer having microvoids may be formed by various coating methods.

(A) Plastic Film or Synthetic Paper Having Microvoids Inside The plastic film or synthetic paper having microvoids inside is mainly composed of polyolefin, particularly polypropylene, and is incompatible with inorganic pigments or polypropylene as a foaming initiator. A plastic film or synthetic paper obtained by blending soluble polymers, stretching and film-forming these is preferable. When the main resin is polyester etc., its cushioning property and heat insulating property are inferior to those mainly composed of polypropylene due to its viscoelastic or thermal properties, resulting in poor printing sensitivity and uneven density. Is also likely to occur. The above-mentioned plastic film or synthetic paper may itself be a single layer containing microvoids, or may be composed of a plurality of layers. In case of multiple layers,
All the constituent layers may contain microvoids, or a layer without microvoids may exist. If necessary, a white pigment may be mixed into the plastic film or the synthetic paper as a hiding agent. Moreover, in order to increase the whiteness, an additive such as a fluorescent whitening agent can be added. Furthermore, a skin layer may be provided on the surface in order to provide gloss and smoothness. The plastic film or synthetic paper preferably has a thickness of 30 to 80 μm.

(B) Plastic layer having microvoids by various coating methods As a method of containing microvoids by various coating methods, a layer containing microvoids is formed on a support by a coating method. . For example, it is possible to blend a plastic resin with a foaming agent such as microcapsules, apply the mixture, and heat it to form microvoids. As the plastic resin to be used, known resins such as polyester resin, urethane resin, polycarbonate resin, acrylic resin, polyvinyl chloride and polyvinyl acetate can be used alone or in combination of two or more.

Support As the support, coated paper, art paper, glassine paper, high-quality paper, cast coated paper or other paper mainly composed of cellulose fiber, PET film, expanded PET film, A white PET film, an acrylic film or the like can be used. The support is laminated on the surface of the plastic layer containing microvoids described above opposite to the side on which the colorant receiving layer is formed. As a method of laminating, dry lamination,
Well-known methods such as wet lamination, EC lamination, and heat sealing can be used.

In order to further improve the printing curl performance, the support may be provided with a curl prevention layer on the side opposite to the side on which the color material receiving layer is formed. As the curl prevention layer, a polyolefin resin layer is preferable. Further, the same plastic film as that laminated on the color material receiving layer side or synthetic paper may be laminated. The thickness of the support is most preferably about 50 to 120 μm in consideration of the rigidity of the image receiving sheet and the transportability of the printer. Further, the curl prevention layer is preferably about 25 to 60 μm. The total thickness of the image receiving sheet is 100 to
It is preferably about 250 μm.

In the roll-shaped image-receiving sheet as in the present invention, the winding direction is extremely important. Generally, a film, a sheet, a paper and a laminated body thereof are wound in a roll shape, left for a long time, and then unwound, and the viscoelastic property of the material and the curvature of the roll cause a roll. -The curled shape when the reel is wound remains, causing curling. Further, the material constituting the image receiving sheet is a material having a large temperature dependence of elastic modulus, and as described above, the coloring material receiving layer has the lowest elastic modulus, and the base material is preferably closer to the receiving layer. Its elastic modulus is small. Therefore, when the coloring material receiving layer is in the form of the inner surface of the roll, the curling tendencies are more likely to occur. Further, the image receiving sheet also curls due to heating during printing, but this curling occurs due to contraction of the thermal head side. Therefore, when the coloring material receiving layer becomes the inner surface of the roll, the curling state during printing also occurs. Getting worse. Therefore, when the coloring material receiving layer is formed into a roll with the outer surface, curling and printing curl are improved, and therefore it is preferable to wind the coloring material receiving layer of the image receiving sheet so as to be outside the roll.

[0020]

【Example】

Example 1 A biaxially oriented polypropylene film (Toyopearl SS P4255 35 μm manufactured by Toyobo Co., Ltd.) was used as a plastic layer having microvoids inside the “base material”. As the support, coated paper (Newtop 127.9 g / m ² manufactured by Shin Oji Paper Co., Ltd.) was used. The biaxially oriented polypropylene film was laminated on both sides of the support as a central material by a dry lamination method. Next, as a color material receiving layer, the following receiving layer coating solution was applied by gravure reverse coating to a dry weight of 4.0 g / m ^{2 on} one surface of the above-mentioned base material to obtain an image receiving sheet. The unit indicating the composition is parts by weight unless otherwise specified. "Receptor layer coating liquid" Ethylene / vinyl acetate copolymer (# 1000A, Denki Kagaku Co., Ltd.) 7.2 parts Styrene / acrylic copolymer (# 400A, same as above) 1.6 parts Polyester (Vylon 600, Toyobo) Product Co., Ltd. 11.2 parts Vinyl modified silicone (X-62-1212, Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.) 2 parts Methyl ethyl ketone 39 parts Toluene 39 parts The image-receiving sheet thus prepared is slit into 110 mm width, Wrap a length of 15m with a color material receiving layer outside on a hollow pipe with an inner diameter of 1 inch and a thickness of 3mm.
The image receiving sheet roll was used. Then, the unrolled portion is shown in FIG.
The shape is as shown in. The length of the tip in the longitudinal direction is
It was 110 mm.

Example 2 In Example 1, the tip portion was formed in a shape as shown in FIG. The width of the tip portion was 50 mm, and the length of the tip portion in the longitudinal direction was 100 mm. A thermal transfer image-receiving sheet of Example 2 was prepared in the same manner as in Example 1 except for the above.

Comparative Example 1 In Example 1, the unwinding tip portion was not formed at all.

The following performance evaluations were performed on the thermal transfer image-receiving sheets obtained in the above Examples and Comparative Examples. The evaluation results are shown in Table 1. (1) Ease of mounting The mounting property on the DNP evaluation printer was examined. ○: Easy to attach ×: Difficult to attach (2) Occurrence of wrinkles and folds during mounting ○: No occurrence, △: Occurred in a narrowed area ×: Occurred (3) Loss of image receiving sheet (unit: mm) ○: Image receiving sheet Loss was within the length of the leading edge x: Loss of the image receiving sheet was longer than the length of the leading edge

[0024]

[Table 1]

[0025]

As described above, by narrowing the width of the unrolled leading end portion of the roll-shaped image receiving sheet, it is possible to easily mount the image receiving sheet on the printer and reduce the waste of the image receiving sheet that occurs during mounting. I was able to.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an embodiment showing a front end portion of a roll-shaped thermal transfer image-receiving sheet of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an embodiment showing a front end portion of a roll-shaped thermal transfer image-receiving sheet of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an embodiment showing a front end portion of a roll-shaped thermal transfer image-receiving sheet of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an embodiment showing the leading end of the roll-shaped thermal transfer image-receiving sheet of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... Leading edge width 2 ... Longitudinal length of tip 3 ... Width of thermal transfer image receiving sheet

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Yoshinori Kamikubo 1-1-1 Ichigaya-Kagacho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A thermal transfer image-receiving sheet formed in a roll, which comprises at least a colorant-receiving layer and a base material,
The front end of the thermal transfer image receiving sheet is partially cut, and the width of the leading edge is 0 relative to the width of the thermal transfer image receiving sheet.
A roll-shaped thermal transfer image-receiving sheet, characterized in that it is ˜90%. 2. The roll-shaped thermal transfer image-receiving sheet according to claim 1, wherein the length of the cut tip portion in the longitudinal direction is 5 to 300% of the width of the thermal transfer image-receiving sheet. 3. The roll-shaped thermal transfer image-receiving sheet according to claim 1, wherein the leading end portion is obliquely cut. 4. The roll-shaped thermal transfer image-receiving sheet according to claim 1, wherein the substrate comprises at least a layer having microvoids and a support.