JPH08230365A - Information recording card having biodegradability - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide an information recording card having biodegradability wherein a printed layer constituting information of a character, a pattern, etc., together with a card base material does not remain as refuse since only the printed layer constituting information of the character, the pattern, etc., remains semipermanently without being decomposed though the base material is decomposed. CONSTITUTION: In an information recording card having biodegradability wherein an information recording layer 12 of a character, a pattern, etc., is formed on a card base material in which a plastic having biodegradability as a skin layer is laminated on one side of a card base material 10 consisting of a plastic having at least biodegradability or a paper base material, the information recording layer 12 prints directly on the card base material by using a transfer ribbon consisting of sublimate or heat melt transferrable dye without providing an image receiving layer for adsorbing the dye.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a biodegradable information recording card. More specifically, a biodegradable plastic is used as a card substrate to sublimate an information recording layer such as characters and pictures. The present invention relates to a biodegradable information recording card which is directly printed on a card base material by using a transfer ribbon such as the above.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, cards such as information recording cards include ID cards for proof of identity, membership cards, cash cards having a monetary value, credit cards, prepaid cards, commuter passes, pass tickets, etc. Is being used in the field of, and the number of issued cards is increasing steadily.
Among these cards, there is a so-called prepaid card in which a certain unit amount of money is paid in advance and the value information of the amount is recorded, as a particularly high rate of increase in quantity.
Value information and identification information are recorded on these cards as picture / character information by printing or print indication on the cards, and the magnetic recording section or optical recording section provided on the card base material is mechanically readable. Various information such as information is recorded depending on the purpose.

On the other hand, as the information record, ID information peculiar to the card such as a face photograph is recorded, and the number of issued cards with a face photograph to prove the owner is increasing. Furthermore, the same applies to a card on which an optical reading type barcode or the like is printed.

Usually, these cards are mainly composed of a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin, a plastic substrate such as polyvinyl chloride, or a paper coated with a polyethylene resin and the like, and are sold or provided to users. After that, when the user has finished using the value of the amount, it is supposed to be discarded. Thus, the waste treatment after use is currently incinerated or disposed of by landfill as waste, but the combustion temperature of plastic waste increases due to incineration, which causes problems of durability of the incinerator and combustion. There is a problem of pollution such as harmful gas, and the fact that it remains in its original form semi-permanently as garbage in the landfill, thus affecting the natural environment.

In recent years, in consideration of the effects of these cards on the environment, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 5-85088 and 6-
Japanese Patent No. 115242 has proposed cards in which a plastic base material itself has biodegradability or photodegradability.

However, in the case of providing a machine / readable information record such as characters / pictures or bar codes on these cards, characters / patterns are usually printed by a general printing method such as offset printing, screen printing or gravure printing. Under the present circumstances, a printing layer such as a pattern is formed, and the binder of the ink layer forming the pattern is not given degradability.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and the problem is to use a degradable plastic substrate or a paper substrate laminated with a degradable plastic. When an information recording card that does not burn after use is landfilled without being incinerated or scattered in the natural environment, only the printing layer that constitutes the information such as letters and patterns does not decompose, even if the base material decomposes. Therefore, it is to provide an information recording card having biodegradability in which a printing layer that constitutes information such as characters and pictures is not left as "dust" together with the card base material because it remains semi-permanently.

[0008]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention laminates a biodegradable plastic as a surface layer on one side of a card base or paper base made of at least a biodegradable plastic. In a biodegradable information recording card having an information recording layer of characters, patterns, etc. formed on a paper card substrate made of, a transfer ribbon composed of a sublimable or heat-melting transferable dye. Is directly printed on the card base material without providing an image receiving layer for adsorbing a dye.

Here, the term "biodegradable" means a property that a polymer is decomposed into an oligomer, a monomer, or a low molecular weight substance by the action of an enzyme produced by a microorganism existing in the environment such as mold, bacteria, yeast and the like. Finally, it is preferable that it is finally decomposed into water, carbon dioxide gas, methane and the like.

According to the biodegradable information recording card of the present invention, even if the information recording card is not incinerated after use but is landfilled or scattered in the natural environment, characters and characters can be written simultaneously with the card base material.
(EN) Provided is an information recording card having a decomposability which does not semi-permanently leave as a dust by decomposing a layer constituting an information recording such as a picture.

The present invention will be described in detail below.

The biodegradable plastic used in the present invention may be any thermoplastic polyester biodegradable plastic, for example, 3
-Hydroxybutyric acid / 3-hydroxyvaleric acid copolymer (hereinafter referred to as P (3HB-3HV)), etc. produced by microorganisms,
Aliphatic polyesters such as polyglycolic acid, polylactic acid, and polycaprolactone can be used, and a mixture of these biodegradable plastics or a laminate with paper may be used.

Further, to these plastics having biodegradability, various additives and non-degradable substances such as polymers may be added as long as the weight ratio is 50% or less. However, it is not preferable to add a non-degradable substance in an amount of 50% or more because the biodegradability is remarkably reduced and a processing problem occurs.

In the case of a laminated body of biodegradable plastic and paper, the method of laminating may be a method used in the production of ordinary plastic laminated paper, such as lamination of a plastic film onto paper, or Although it can be laminated by a method such as melt extrusion coating of plastic on paper, it is co-extruded with biodegradable plastic and polyolefin and laminated by laminating them so that the biodegradable plastic layer side faces the substrate side. The laminating method for peeling off the polyolefin layer (the laminating method shown in Japanese Patent Application No. 3-249106 by the present applicant) is particularly suitable.

In addition, in the case of lamination, an adhesive is often required, but in the case of the present invention, since the coating amount is small, the adhesive used is not particularly limited. However, it is preferable to use an aqueous adhesive such as polyvinyl alcohol or starch that does not significantly affect the biodegradability of the plastic laminated paper.

Then, by the above method, a biodegradable plastic is laminated on one side or both sides of the paper according to the application. When laminated on both sides, the types of biodegradable plastics used on both sides may be different.

The sublimable or hot melt transferable dye used in the present invention is specifically expressed by a color index.
As for yellow, Disperse Yellow54, Disperse Yello
w8, Disperse Yellow3, Disperse Yellow7, Disperse Yell
ow51, Disperse Yellow64, Disperse Yellow71 etc.,
As red, Disperse Red59, Disperse Red4, Dispe
rse Red15, Disperse Red60, Disperse Red11, Disperse R
ed3, Disperse Red9, Solvent Red19, Disperse Red22, Dis
There are perse Violet26 etc., as Blue, Solvent Bl
ue105, Solvent Blue36, Solvent Blue63, DisperseBlue1
4, Disperse Blue19, Disperse Blue24, SolventBlue14, So
lvent Blue13, Disperse Blue5, Solvent Blue12, Dispers
e Blue1, Solvent Blue11, etc., with a molecular weight of 150-
An oil-soluble or dispersible dye at the 700th position is used.

A transfer foil in which these dyes are dissolved or dispersed in a suitable polymer binder such as a cellulose resin, a polyester resin, a urethane resin, a polyamide resin, a polyvinyl acetal resin is used for a thermal head. Thus, information records such as characters and pictures can be directly printed on the above-mentioned biodegradable plastic substrate or the surface layer of biodegradable plastic laminated paper.

[0019]

In the information recording card of the present invention, since the plastic used conventionally is non-degradable, it retains its shape almost permanently after use unless it is incinerated. By using plastic and further recording information such as letters and pictures with sublimable transfer dyes, the printing of the letters and pictures layer, which was left as a layer that is not decomposed in the past, becomes unnecessary, and the entire card becomes biodegradable. , Can be decomposed in landfills or in the natural environment.

[0020]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

<First Embodiment> A first embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. As biodegradable plastic, P (3HB-3HV) Biopol (Zeneca: "Biopole") Hydroxyvaleric acid content 5
%) Into a sheet having a thickness of about 200 μm by a T-die melt extrusion method, and then punched into a card shape to obtain a card base material (10). Using a sublimable transfer ribbon on this substrate, a thermal head was used to record information and a face photograph (12)
To form an information recording card. As a base material of the sublimable transfer ribbon, a heat-resistant back coat layer / easy-slip layer ink layer / stainless layer ink layer / having a composition shown below was formed on a stretched PET film (Lumirror, manufactured by Toray Industries, Inc.) having a thickness of 5.7 μm. It is a laminate of indigo dye ink layers in order. "Composition" Indigo dye ink layer dye (Solvent Blue36) 15 parts by weight Polyvinyl ethyl (BX-1: Sekisui Chemical Co., Ltd.) 8 parts by weight Isocyanate (D70: Dainichiseika Chemicals Co., Ltd.) 2 parts by weight Ethyl cellulose ( N-7: Hercules) 2 parts by weight Toluene 30 parts by weight MEK 30 parts by weight IPA 18 parts by weight (kneading in a ball mill for 20 hours to prepare ink) Easy-slip layer ink layer surfactant (TRL-20: Matsumoto Yushi ( 3 parts by weight Ethyl alcohol 47 parts by weight Water 50 parts by weight Heat resistant back coat layer Toluene 65 parts by weight MEK 34 parts by weight Silicone (KS770A: manufactured by Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.) 1 part by weight Curing agent (PL-8: Shin-Etsu) Chemical Co., Ltd.) 0.08 parts by weight (prepared by stirring and mixing for 30 minutes with a homomixer)

The information recording card obtained above was embedded in field soil, and the state of decomposition was observed regularly. After 6 months, the card shape was not retained and only about half of the regular shape remained.

<Second Embodiment> A second embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. About 20 polylactic acid (Shimadzu: “Lacty”) as a biodegradable plastic by T-die melt extrusion method
After forming a sheet with a thickness of 0 μm, it was punched out into a card shape to obtain a card base material (10a). Using a sublimable transfer ribbon made according to the formulation of Example 1 on this base material, a stamper having a bar code etched thereon was used to transfer at a temperature of 300 ° C.
When the transfer was carried out at a transfer time of 10 ^-2 seconds and a transfer pressure of 4 kg / cm ² , a bar code (13) was clearly formed as an information record.

The information recording card thus obtained was embedded in field soil and the state of decomposition was observed periodically. After 6 months in the field soil, the shape of the curd was retained but whitened, and after 12 months, the shape was not retained and the card could not be recovered.

<Third Embodiment> A third embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. As biodegradable plastic (14), P (3HB-3H
V) Biopol (Zeneca, "Biopole" hydroxyvaleric acid content 5%) is about 20μ by T-die melt extrusion method
A card substrate (10b) having a thickness of m and having a thickness of 200 μm is extruded onto a paper substrate (11) (prepared card (1) paper manufactured by Tomoegawa Paper Co., Ltd.) by lamination and then punched into a card shape. And Using the sublimable transfer ribbon prepared according to the formulation of Example 1 on this substrate, a facial photograph (12) was formed with a thermal head as an information record, and a paper card as shown in FIG. 3 was prepared.

The paper card was embedded in field soil to confirm the degradability. This paper card retained the shape of the card after 3 months in the field soil, but the biodegradable plastic layer (14) of the surface layer disappeared, and the shape was not retained after 6 months. .

<Comparative Example 1> Comparative Example 1 will be described with reference to FIG. Milk white polyethylene terephthalate (Lumirror E22, manufactured by Toray Industries, Inc.) was used as the card base material (20), and the sublimation transfer ribbon made by the prescription of Example 1 was used as the base material with a thermal head to obtain information. Recording was performed, but a good pattern layer was not obtained.

Comparative Example 2 Comparative example 2 will be described with reference to FIG. Milk white polyethylene terephthalate (Lumirror E22 manufactured by Toray Industries, Inc.) was used as the substrate (20).
As a thermoplastic polyester on this substrate, vinyl chloride-
A vinyl acetate copolymer resin (S-REC A, manufactured by Sekisui Chemical Co., Ltd.) was coated and dried in an oven to form an image receiving layer (15) for sublimation transfer. A face photograph (12) was formed as an information record on the card substrate (20a) by using the sublimable transfer ribbon prepared by the formulation of Example 1 with a thermal head. The obtained curd was buried in field soil and the decomposition state was observed regularly. Even after 6 months, it remained almost in its original form.

Comparative Example 3 A comparative example 3 will be described with reference to FIG. Instead of the P (3HB-3HV) biopol used in Example 3, polyethylene terephthalate (18) having a thickness of 15 μm and a thickness of 200 μm was formed by a T-die melt extrusion molding method.
After being laminated on a paper base material (11) having a thickness of 11 μm to form a sheet, a vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate copolymer resin (S-REC A, Sekisui Chemical Co., Ltd.) is used as a thermoplastic polyester.
The image-receiving layer (15) for sublimation transfer was formed by coating the product (3) and drying in an oven, and then punched into a card shape to obtain a paper card substrate (30). A sublimable transfer ribbon made according to the formulation of Example 1 was formed on this paper card base material with a thermal head to form a facial photograph (12) as an information record, and embedded in field soil to confirm the decomposability.

As a result, this paper card retains its shape even after 6 months, there is no change in the surface image-receiving layer (15) and polyethylene terephthalate layer (18), and no plastic is laminated. Only the reproduction of mold was observed on the back surface of the paper substrate (11).

[0031]

EFFECTS OF THE INVENTION Conventionally, printing ink has been used to form information records such as characters, pictures and bar codes, but when it is discarded after use, the printing layer does not decompose and remains in the environment. However, the information recording card of the present invention uses a biodegradable plastic base material or a paper card base material on which a biodegradable plastic is laminated, on which a character or sublimation transfer ribbon is used to directly print characters. Since information recording such as pictures and barcodes is formed, even if it is landfilled without being incinerated or scattered in the natural environment after use,
All of the information recording cards are decomposed by the action of microorganisms in the environment. Therefore, the information recording card of the present invention,
It is an excellent information recording card that has far less adverse effects on the environment than conventional cards.

The biodegradable plastic that can be used in the card of the present invention is inferior in physical properties and workability to various plastics that have been used before, but a composite of a plurality of biodegradable plastics is used. It is also possible to mix additives and non-degradable plastics to the extent that biodegradability is not reduced, and it is possible to obtain a card with biodegradability that is not inferior in performance to conventional cards. it can.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view in cross section showing an embodiment of an information recording card having biodegradability of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional explanatory view showing another embodiment of the biodegradable information recording card of the present invention.

FIG. 3 shows another embodiment of the information recording card having biodegradability of the present invention, and is an explanatory view showing a section of an information recording card in which a biodegradable plastic is laminated on a paper card base material.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a cross section of an information recording card in a comparative example.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view in cross section showing another embodiment of the information recording card in the comparative example.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory view in cross section showing an information recording card using a paper card base material in another comparative example.

[Explanation of symbols]

10, 10a, 10b, ... Card substrate made of biodegradable plastic 11 ... Paper substrate 12 ... Face photograph as information record 13 ... Bar code as information record 14 ... Biodegradable plastic 15 ... Sublimation transfer image receiving layer 18 ... Polyethylene terephthalate layer 20 ... Base material, card base material (milk white PET) 30 ... Card base material (paper and PET)

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification number Office reference number FI Technical indication location B42D 15/00 341 7416-2H B41M 5/26 101H (72) Inventor Kiyoshi Horie Taito-ku, Taito-ku, Tokyo 1-5-1 Toppan Printing Co., Ltd.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A card base or paper base made of at least a biodegradable plastic, on one side of which a biodegradable plastic is laminated on the surface layer, a character, a pattern, etc. In a biodegradable information recording card having an information recording layer formed thereon, the dye is adsorbed on the card substrate by using a transfer ribbon in which the information recording layer is composed of a sublimable or heat-melt transfer dye. An information recording card having biodegradability, which is characterized by being directly printed without providing an image receiving layer. 2. The biodegradable plastic is a microorganism-produced polyester.
Information recording card having biodegradability as described. 3. The biodegradable information recording card according to claim 1, wherein the biodegradable plastic is a chemically synthesized polyester. 4. The biodegradable plastic according to claim 1, wherein the biodegradable plastic is a thermoplastic degradable polymer containing polylactic acid or a copolymer of lactic acid and oxycarboxylic acid as a main component. Information recording card to have.