JPH08252967A - Image retransfer sheet - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To facilitate the retransfer to a secondary transfer material and to obtain excellent fixing properties by incorporating aromatic hydrocarbon having a group including a hydroxyl group in a thermoplastic resin layer formed on a base having a high mold releasable surface. CONSTITUTION: An image retransfer sheet has a release layer 3 and a cover layer 4 sequentially laminated on a base 2. The layer 3 is a layer for forming a high mold releasable surface in which the layer 4 can be retained at a secondary transfer material side at the time of retransferring, and the layer 4 is a thermoplastic resin layer containing aromatic hydrocarbon having a group including a hydroxyl group. For example, when the layer 4 is formed of polyurethane and a full color toner image 5 is retransferred to cloth, the hydrocarbon is previously included in the layer 4, and hence when the cloth is retransferred, its solvent is impregnated into the cloth so that the hydrophilic group on the surface of the cloth is brought into contact with the hydroxyl group in the solvent to be coupled so that the surface of the cloth fiber becomes hydrophobic due to the presence of a benzene ring, thereby enhancing the impregnation into the cloth of the polyurethane.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image retransfer sheet for retransferring an image once formed to a secondary transfer member by heating and pressing, and more particularly to a full color toner formed by an electrophotographic device, an electrostatic recording device or the like. It relates to an image retransfer sheet for retransferring an image.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An image formed by an electrophotographic apparatus or the like is
A conventional technique relating to so-called Utsushi-e, which is retransferred to the next transfer member, is described in, for example, JP-A-52-82509. The image retransfer sheet used for this decoupling picture is, for example, methyl methacrylate-n- on a paper or plastic film on which a release layer having a high mold release property made of silicone resin or fluorine resin is formed.
It can be obtained by forming an undercoat layer made of a butyl copolymer, a polyvinyl acetate homopolymer emulsion, a vinyl chloride homopolymer latex, a vinyl chloride acrylate latex alone or a combination thereof.

A toner image is formed on the image retransfer sheet by an electrophotographic apparatus or the like, and fixing operation is performed at least to such an extent that the toner does not fall off.
The toner image and the undercoat layer are secondarily transferred by heating and pressurizing the toner and the undercoat layer of the retransfer sheet so that the undercoat layer is softened in a state where the toner image is directly aligned with the next transfer material (cloth etc.). Peel off the paper with a release layer while leaving it on the material side,
The retransfer is finished.

The undercoat layer used in this system is made of a thermoplastic resin, and a resin having a softening point characteristic which is the same as or close to that of the toner resin is selected. Since adhesion to a cloth or the like is performed by softening this resin, the adhesive strength is practically weak and the flexibility is poor. In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 52-82509,
In order to improve this point, a plasticizer is mixed in the thermoplastic resin,
The flexibility of the film is improved and the re-fixability of the toner resin to the cloth is secured.

However, in the method relying on a plasticizer, the toner resin is liable to soften even after the retransfer is completed, and the retransferred image is attached when it comes into contact with another object, or the secondary transfer material is bent. And the retransferred surfaces may stick to each other. Further, in order to sufficiently fix the toner image on the secondary transfer material such as cloth or wood, it is necessary to permeate the toner image with a considerably high pressure at the time of heating and pressing, and a large dedicated press machine is required.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art.

That is, the object of the present invention is that the retransfer to the secondary transfer material can be carried out easily and satisfactorily, and that adhesion to other things or sticking of the retransfer surfaces to each other after the retransfer is unlikely to occur. An object of the present invention is to provide an image retransfer sheet capable of forming a retransfer image having a fixing property.

Still another object of the present invention is an image retransfer sheet that can be retransferred with a relatively low pressure even when the secondary transfer material is cloth or wood, and can be easily retransferred even with a handy iron for home use. To provide.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is an image retransfer sheet comprising a thermoplastic resin layer formed on a substrate having a highly releasable surface, wherein the thermoplastic resin layer contains a hydroxyl group. It is characterized by containing an aromatic hydrocarbon having a group containing.

[0010]

In the present invention, the aromatic hydrocarbon having a group containing a hydroxyl group at the time of retransfer penetrates into the surface of the secondary transfer material (cloth or the like), and the hydrophilic group on the surface of the secondary transfer material and this aromatic carbon atom are absorbed. The hydroxyl groups of hydrogen are contact-bonded to each other, and the aromatic ring portion of the aromatic hydrocarbon is present on the surface of the secondary transfer material, thereby increasing the hydrophobicity of the surface of the secondary transfer material, and thus the secondary transfer of the thermoplastic resin. It has the effect of increasing the permeability into the material, and as a result, the adhesive force of the transferred image to the secondary transfer material is increased without using a plasticizer, and the transfer to the cloth by light pressure is also possible.

[0011]

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

FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing an embodiment of the image retransfer sheet (toner image transfer member) of the present invention.
The image retransfer sheet 1 is formed by laminating a release layer 3 and a cover layer 4 on a substrate 2 in this order.

The substrate 2 is a heat-resistant substrate made of paper or a film material, and specifically, general high-quality paper, medium-quality paper, single coated paper and the like can be preferably used. This base 2
It is desirable that the volume resistivity of itself is adjusted to about 10 ⁸ to 10 ¹¹ Ωcm, which is a range that can be used for an ordinary electrophotographic apparatus. Further, a heat resistant film such as a polyethylene terephthalate film other than paper can be used.

The peeling layer 3 formed on the substrate 2 is a layer for forming a highly releasable surface capable of leaving the cover layer 4 on the secondary transfer material 7 side at the time of retransfer. That is, the term "highly releasable surface" as used in the present invention means that the thermoplastic resin layer (the cover layer 4 in this embodiment) is 2 in the retransfer step described later.
A surface exhibiting a low adhesive strength that allows transfer to the next transfer material side. For example, silicone resins, fluorine resins, and other resins exhibiting low surface energy can be preferably used. In the example shown in this figure, the substrate 2 and the release layer 3 constitute the "substrate having a highly releasable surface" according to the present invention. Specifically, commercially available silicone-coated paper or the like is suitable. Can be used for However, the present invention is not limited to this,
Various known configurations are possible as long as the configurations have the above-described functions.

A cover layer 4 formed so as to overlap the peeling layer 3.
Is a thermoplastic resin layer containing an aromatic hydrocarbon having a group containing a hydroxyl group. Details of the cover layer 4 will be described later.

The image retransfer sheet 1 shown in FIG. 1 is for retransferring the toner image 5 formed by an electrophotographic apparatus or the like, and has a sheet shape that allows the sheet to pass through the electrophotographic apparatus or the like. Hereinafter, a method for retransferring a toner image using the image retransfer sheet of the present invention will be described as an example.

First, as shown in FIG. 1, the image retransfer sheet 1
A toner image 5 is formed on the cover layer 4 (side A) by a conventional electrophotographic method. Next, as shown in FIG. 2, the toner image 5 is made to face the secondary transfer material (final transfer material) 7 such as cloth and brought into contact therewith. In this contacted state, the retransfer sheet 1 is heated and pressed from the base 2 side (B side) with a household iron such as a handy iron, and then cooled. Next, by peeling off the substrate 2, the substrate 2 having the peeling layer 3 can be removed while leaving the toner image 5 and the cover layer 4 on the side of the secondary transfer material 7, as shown in FIG. Transfer and fixation of the toner image 5 to the next transfer material 7 is achieved.

Next, the cover layer 4 will be described in detail. As described above, the cover layer 4 is a transfer layer that is transferred to the secondary transfer material 7 side together with the toner image 5 in the retransfer step, and maintains the fixation of the toner image 5 to the secondary transfer material 7. It is a layer. Therefore, as the thermoplastic resin forming the cover layer 4, it is desirable to select a resin that is easily softened by a heating device at a relatively low temperature such as an iron and is in a sufficiently fluidized state. For example, polyamide, polyurethane, polyester and the like can be preferably used. As a specific standard, heating with a normal household iron (for example, 18
The temperature at which the transfer paper itself rises depending on the setting (0 ° C) is 50 ° C ~
A resin having an apparent melt viscosity in the range of 120 ° C. of 5 × 10 ⁵ poise in a high load type flow tester measurement with a load of 10 kg / cm ³ and an orifice of 1 ml × 1 mmφ is preferable. Further, a resin having a point that the apparent melt viscosity becomes a value of 5 × 10 ⁵ poise in the range of 50 ° C. to 100 ° C. is more preferable. As commercially available products, isocyanate-modified polyurethane polyol polymers such as Crisbon 4407 and Crisbon AH-420 (manufactured by Dainippon Ink and Chemicals) can be preferably used.

When the secondary transfer material is a plant-based natural fiber such as cotton, polyurethane is preferable as the thermoplastic resin forming the cover layer 4 in consideration of the texture and adhesion. That is, when polyurethane is used, flexibility can be imparted without using a plasticizer. Further, it is more preferable that the elongation property of the resin exceeds 600%.

To reduce the pressure applied during retransfer,
It is desirable to use a resin whose viscosity decreases remarkably quickly before reaching the molten state. As a concrete standard, the rate of change of the viscosity is 1 × 10 ^{5 at} a temperature before and after showing 5 × 10 ⁵ poise.
A resin having a poise of 5 ° C or higher is desirable.

Considering the above points, as the thermoplastic resin for the cover layer 4, a flexible retransfer film can be formed without using a plasticizer, and a polyurethane having a sharp melt property and high heat permeability is used. Best to use.

In the present invention, the thermoplastic resin forming the cover layer 4 further contains an aromatic hydrocarbon having a group containing a hydroxyl group as a permeation adhesive material. This aromatic hydrocarbon is typically represented by the following general formula (1)

[0023]

Embedded image [In the formula (1), R represents an aliphatic hydrocarbon residue which may have an unsaturated bond or an ether bond, and n is the number of —R—OH groups bonded to the aromatic ring and is 1 to 6 Indicates an integer. ]
Is a compound represented by.

For example, when the cover layer 4 is made of polyurethane and the full-color toner image is retransferred to the cloth, the aromatic hydrocarbon is contained in the cover layer 4 in advance. When retransferring to a cloth, this solvent first penetrates into the cloth and the hydrophilic groups on the cloth surface and the hydroxyl groups in this solvent are contact-bonded to each other, and the cloth fiber surface is made hydrophobic by the presence of the benzene ring portion, This will increase the penetration of polyurethane into the cloth.

Among the compounds of the above formula (1), it is desirable to use benzyl alcohol, 2-phenoxyethanol, 2-benzyloxyethanol and the like, and among these, benzyl alcohol is particularly preferable.

The amount of the aromatic hydrocarbon used may be appropriately determined depending on the type of the secondary transfer material and the like so as to sufficiently exert the above-mentioned action and effect as the permeation adhesive. Usually, it is desirable that the cover layer 4 contains 5% by weight or more, especially 1
The range of 0 to 60% by weight is preferable.

The thickness of the cover layer 4 is preferably 0.5 μm or more from the viewpoint of ensuring adhesiveness to the cloth, and further 1
μm or more is preferred. In addition, a thickness of less than 10 μm is desirable from the viewpoint of not impairing the material feel such as the texture of the cloth to be retransferred and preventing the resin film from imparting hardness or cracking. The optimum thickness is 1 μm or more and less than 7 μm.

The cover layer 4 is, for example, a coating prepared by mixing a thermoplastic resin optionally containing a solvent with the aromatic hydrocarbon (which itself is liquid and can be a solvent of the thermoplastic resin). The liquid can be formed by a method such as coating and drying on a highly releasable surface on the substrate.

In addition to the above materials, the cover layer 4 is preferably subjected to a low resistance treatment, if necessary, and is adjusted so that the surface resistivity is 1 × 10 ⁸ to 1 × 10 ¹¹ Ω / □. Is desirable. As this low resistance treatment method, for example, a known nonionic or cationic antistatic agent is used, and an antistatic film is formed by internally adding into the cover layer 4 or by coating the surface of the cover layer 4 again. There is a method such as.

As a material for forming the toner image 5, for example, a black toner made of a magnetic material or a resin such as styrene-acrylic resin containing carbon black, polyester resin, styrene-butadiene copolymer, or epoxy resin is used. In particular, a full-color toner using a process toner obtained by mixing the above-mentioned resin with coloring and dyeing pigments and coloring yellow, magenta, and cyan in order to take advantage of the characteristic of coloring by retransfer is preferable. Further, among these color toners, it is most preferable that the binder resin has a thermal softening property close to that of the resin forming the cover layer 4.

Next, more specific examples will be described in detail.

<Example 1> Crisbon 4470 (trade name, manufactured by Dainippon Ink and Chemicals; 35% by weight of ethyl acetate, 30% by weight of toluene, 35% by weight of urethane resin; 5 x 10)
^A coating solution was prepared by mixing 100 parts by weight of a temperature of 5 ° poise and a viscosity change rate of 2 × 10 ⁵ poise / 5 ° C.) with 30 parts by weight of benzyl alcohol.

This coating solution was wet coated on a commercially available silicone-coated paper (basis weight: 80 g / m ² ) with a bar coat coater to a dry film thickness of 2 μm, dried at 100 ° C. Was removed. On the surface of the obtained coating film, a modified aliphatic dimethylethylammonium ethosulfate (trade name Elegan 2) was used as a cationic antistatic agent so that the surface resistivity after drying was 10 ¹⁰ Ω / □ (23 ° C., 60%).
64-WAX, manufactured by NOF CORPORATION), re-dried,
An image retransfer sheet of the present invention was obtained.

A full-color toner image was formed on this image retransfer sheet with an electrophotographic apparatus (manufactured by Canon Inc., trade name CLC700). The image retransfer sheet after the toner image formation was brought into contact with a cloth made of 100% cotton as shown in FIG. 2, and a household iron was set at 180 ° C. and heated. After this heating was completed, the silicone-coated paper was slowly peeled off from the cloth, and the toner image transferred to the cloth together with the coating film, and 100% was transferred.

Further, in case that unevenness of luster or gloss is visually confirmed, if necessary, the above-mentioned silicone-coated paper is further overlaid on a cloth having a toner image so that the silicone-coated surface matches the toner transfer image. Then, heating was again applied at the set temperature of 180 ° C. Also in this case, the silicone coated paper was peeled off after sufficient cooling, and the transfer of the toner image was completed.

When the cloth on which the toner image was retransferred was washed in an ordinary washing machine, the toner image did not fall off, and good adhesion could be confirmed. In addition, adhesion to other members did not occur.

<Example 2> Crisbon AH420 (trade name, manufactured by Dainippon Ink and Chemicals, Inc .; temperature of 5 × 10 ⁵ poise, 95 ° C., viscosity change rate: 3 × 10 ⁵ poise / 5 ° C.) 100
The image retransfer sheet of the present invention in the same manner as in Example 1 except that a coating liquid obtained by mixing 40 parts by weight of benzyl alcohol with a coating liquid was used, and the dry film thickness of the coating film was 5 μm. Was produced.

When retransferring was performed on the cloth in the same manner as in Example 1 except that the ironing temperature was set at 170 ° C., the same good transfer characteristics were exhibited.

<Example 3> Crisbon 7209 (trade name, manufactured by Dainippon Ink and Chemicals, Inc .; temperature of 56 ° C. at 5 × 10 ⁵ poise, viscosity change rate of 2.5 × 10 ⁵ poise / 5 ° C.) 1
Using a coating liquid in which 00 parts by weight and 20 parts by weight of benzyl alcohol were mixed, and the dry film thickness of the coating film was 1 μm.
An image retransfer sheet of the present invention was produced in the same manner as in Example 1 except that the above was adopted.

When retransfer was performed on the cloth in the same manner as in Example 1 except that the ironing temperature was set to 160 ° C., the same good transfer characteristics were obtained.

Comparative Example 1 Example 1 is the same as Example 1 except that benzyl alcohol is not used in the coating liquid.
An image retransfer sheet was prepared in the same manner. An image was formed using this and retransferred in the same manner as in Example 1. As a result, peeling of the coating film from the cloth occurred after washing.

<Reference Example 1> The dry film thickness of the coating solution is 12 μm.
An image retransfer sheet was prepared and retransferred in the same manner as in Example 1 except for the above. The retransfer portion of the cloth did not have the texture of the cloth and became like a simple resin-laminated cloth, and when it was folded, the film floated and returned to the original shape and was whitened.

Reference Example 2 Crisbon 4216H (5 ×
An image retransfer sheet was prepared in the same manner as in Example 1 except that a temperature of 10 ⁵ poise was 125 ° C., and a viscosity change rate near 5 × 10 ⁵ poise was 0.7 × 10 ⁵ poise / 5 ° C.). When the retransfer was performed, the cover layer was not transferred even if a normal pressure was applied with a household iron, and the toner image was scribbled.

Reference Example 3 The same as Example 1 except that a polyester toner binder (150% elongation) for an electrophotographic apparatus (Canon, trade name CLC700) was used in place of Crisbon 4470 in Example 1. When an image retransfer sheet was prepared by using
Retransfer was possible, but when stretched on the finished cloth, the transfer layer was cracked and whitening occurred,
It became a dull image.

[0045]

As described above, according to the present invention, the aromatic hydrocarbon having a group containing a hydroxyl group contained in the thermoplastic resin works well as a penetrating adhesive material.
The adhesion of the transferred image to the secondary transfer material is increased without using a plasticizer, which can prevent the adhesion of the image after retransfer.

Furthermore, by increasing the adhesion of the transferred image to the secondary transfer material, retransfer can be performed with a relatively low pressure even when the secondary transfer material is cloth or wood. For example, a handy iron for home use. But it can be easily retransferred.

The image retransfer sheet of the present invention is very useful especially for retransfer of full color toner images because it has the above-mentioned excellent properties.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing an example of an image retransfer sheet of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a state in which a toner image is retransferred using the image retransfer sheet of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a secondary transfer material on which a toner image is retransferred.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Image Retransfer Sheet 2 Substrate 3 Release Layer 4 Cover Layer 5 Toner Image 7 Secondary Transfer Material

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. An image retransfer sheet comprising a thermoplastic resin layer formed on a substrate having a highly releasable surface, wherein the thermoplastic resin layer has an aromatic carbon group having a group containing a hydroxyl group. An image retransfer sheet containing hydrogen. 2. An aromatic hydrocarbon having a group containing a hydroxyl group is represented by the following general formula (1): [In the formula (1), R represents an aliphatic hydrocarbon residue which may have an unsaturated bond or an ether bond, and n is the number of —R—OH groups bonded to the aromatic ring and is 1 to 6 Indicates an integer. ]
The image retransfer sheet according to claim 1, which is a compound represented by: 3. The image retransfer sheet according to claim 2, wherein the aromatic hydrocarbon having a group containing a hydroxyl group is benzyl alcohol. 4. The apparent melt viscosity of the thermoplastic resin is a load of 1.
0kg / cm ³ , orifice 1ml × 1mmφ high load type flow tester measurement shows a temperature of 5 × 10 ⁵ poise, the temperature is 50 ° C. to 120 ° C., and the apparent melting is about 5 × 10 ⁵ poise. Viscosity change rate is 1 × 10 ⁵
The image retransfer sheet according to any one of claims 1 to 3, which has a poise / 5 ° C or higher. 5. The image retransfer sheet according to claim 1, wherein the thermoplastic resin is polyurethane. 6. The image retransfer sheet according to claim 1, wherein the thermoplastic resin has an elongation of 600% or more. 7. The surface resistivity of the thermoplastic resin layer is 10 ⁸
The image retransfer sheet according to claim 1, wherein the image retransfer sheet has a resistance of -10 ¹¹ Ω / □. 8. A thermoplastic resin layer having a thickness of 1 μm or more and 10 or more.
The image retransfer sheet according to claim 1, wherein the image retransfer sheet has a thickness of not more than μm. 9. The image retransfer sheet according to claim 1, which is for retransfer of a full color toner image.