JPH09161325A - Optical card and its production - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve the bendability of an optical card of a flush type. SOLUTION: This optical card is formed by embedding an optical recording member 1 laminated with an optical recording layer 5 covering the track patterns disposed on the rear side of a transparent protective layer 3 into a recessed part 7 formed on a card base material 2. The end faces (a) the optical recording member 1 and the recessed part flanks (b) of the card base material 2 are respectively provided with tapers expanding toward the outer side in correspondence thereto. The angle α thereof is set at >=3 deg. to the perpendicular direction from the card plane. At least the boundaries between the recessed part flanks and recessed part base in the longitudinal direction of the card are rounded. The taper angle α is increased and eventually, the strength to bending is obtd. The bendability is additionally improved by providing the boundaries between the recessed part flanks and recessed part base of the card base material with a roundness R.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical card used for credit cards, cash cards, medical cards and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a card-type recording medium, an optical card having a storage capacity larger than that of a magnetic card or an IC card has been developed. There are a ROM type, a write-once type, and an erasable type as the recording system of this optical card, and a recording medium and a structure of each are being studied. Among such optical cards, those in which an optical recording member is embedded in a card base material in an island shape are known (for example,
See Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 22222/1990). Further, in such an embedded type optical card, in order to make it easier to embed the optical recording member, a taper that spreads outward is provided on each of the end surface of the optical recording member and the side surface of the recess of the card base material to be embedded. It is known that the taper angle is set to 3 to 50 ° (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-
285284).

[0003]

As described above, the taper angle is limited because if the taper angle is less than 3 °, it becomes difficult to fit the optical recording member into the concave portion of the card substrate, and conversely, the taper angle becomes smaller. This is because if the angle exceeds 50 °, a deviation occurs and accurate positioning becomes difficult. That is, since the optical recording member has been conventionally embedded in a card-sized card base material having a recessed portion, if the taper angle exceeds 50 °, the skew of the optical card is within 0.2 °.
This is because the O standard could not be cleared. However, when the taper angle is around 50 °, the card does not bend due to bending, but there is a problem that a streak remains in the card base material portion in which the optical recording member is embedded in the central portion of the card in the longitudinal direction of the card. .

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an optical card having excellent bending suitability and a method for manufacturing the same. .

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, an optical card according to the present invention comprises an optical recording member in which an optical recording layer is laminated so as to cover a track pattern provided on the back side of a transparent protective layer. In an optical card embedded in a recess formed in a card base material, an end surface of the optical recording member and a side surface of the recess of the card base material are respectively provided with tapers that spread outward, and the angles thereof are The angle is 3 ° or more with respect to the vertical direction from the surface, and at least the boundary between the side surface of the recess and the bottom surface of the recess in the longitudinal direction of the card is rounded. Further, it is preferable that a corner portion of the optical recording member facing a boundary between the side surface of the concave portion and the bottom surface of the concave portion of the card substrate is provided with a roundness.

In the optical card having the above structure, a card base having a recess for embedding an optical recording member, which is larger than a card size, is prepared, and the optical recording member is embedded in the recess, and then the card base is formed. It is made by punching into a card size.

[0007]

1 and 2 show an example of an optical card according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 1 is a front view thereof, and FIG. 2 is a partially enlarged sectional view taken along line X--X of FIG. It is a figure.

As shown in FIG. 1, this optical card comprises an optical recording member 1 embedded in a card substrate 2 in an island shape. As shown in FIG. 2, the optical recording member 1 has a transparent protective layer 3 having a track pattern 4 on the lower surface, an optical recording layer 5 laminated to cover the track pattern 4, and a surface provided on the surface of the transparent protective layer 3. The hardened layer 6 is configured to be embedded in the concave portion 7 formed in the card base material 2 via the adhesive layer 8. Then, the end surface a of the optical recording member 1 and the recess side surface b of the card base material 2 are provided with corresponding tapers that spread outward, and the taper angle α is 3 ° with respect to the vertical direction from the card surface. It is set above.

That is, if the taper angle α is less than 3 °, it is difficult to fit the optical recording member 1 into the concave portion 7 of the card substrate 2, so that the angle is set to 3 ° or more as described above. Here, the card-sized card substrate 2 having the recess 7 formed therein
When the optical recording member 1 is embedded in the optical recording member 1, the upper limit of the taper angle α is 50 ° as described above. However, in the present invention, a card base material larger than the card size is prepared and the optical recording member 1 is formed in the recess 7. After the card is embedded, the card base material 2 is punched into a card size by a manufacturing method.
Since it is possible to perform the removal around the center, it is possible to manufacture a card with a good skew without setting the upper limit of the taper angle α. It should be noted that the larger the taper angle α, the better the bending suitability.

A card substrate 2 having an optical recording member 1 embedded in the central portion of the card in the longitudinal direction of the card when it is bent.
In order to prevent the streaks from remaining in the portion, as shown in FIG. 2, at least the boundary between the side surface of the concave portion and the bottom surface of the concave portion is rounded to relieve the bending stress. If the boundary between the side surface of the concave portion and the bottom surface of the concave portion on the other side is also rounded, the bendability of that portion is naturally improved. This roundness may not be a so-called part of a circle but may be a part of an ellipse.

The taper angle α and the size of the roundness R of the boundary are used as parameters, and the optimum one may be selected in consideration of bending suitability and appearance. If both are made large, the bending suitability is improved, but the appearance is deteriorated. Specifically, as a preferable example, a taper angle of 60 ° and R0.
A combination of 1 mm, a combination of a taper angle of 45 ° and R0.2 mm, a combination of a taper angle of 40 ° and R0.3 mm, and the like are possible. Considering the case where the adhesive layer 8 is not uniform and the edge portion of the optical recording member 1 abuts on the boundary between the concave side surface and the concave bottom surface of the card substrate 2, the edge portion is also rounded as shown in FIG. Is preferably provided.

It is also conceivable that the taper angle α is widened only in the portion of the card base material 2 in which the optical recording member 1 is embedded in the central portion of the card in the longitudinal direction of the card.
If this is done by cutting, at least 2 cutting edges
You need more than a book. Blade replacement is very time consuming,
In addition, equipment having two or more cutting axes has a high equipment cost. Therefore, it is possible to keep the manufacturing cost low by making the taper angles α the same.

There are roughly two methods for obtaining the optical recording member 1 having a taper on the end face as described above and the card base material 2 provided with the concave portion 7 having the corresponding tapered side surface. The first is a method of processing the end face a of the optical recording member 1 and the concave portion 7 of the card base material 2 by cutting, and the second is a method of manufacturing the optical recording member 1 and the card base material 2 by an injection method or a casting method. is there.

In the first method, first, the transparent protective layer 3
A surface-hardened layer 6 is formed on one surface and a layer having a track pattern 4 and an optical recording layer 5 are formed on the other surface to prepare a multi-sided optical recording member sheet. After this is cut into individual pieces, the end face is cut and processed to obtain the optical recording member 1.
Create At this time, the end face is cut so that the longitudinal direction of the optical recording member 1 is parallel to the track pattern 4, and the end face is provided with a taper angle of 3 ° or more. In order to prevent the optical recording layer 5 from being damaged during this cutting, a protective layer is usually provided on the surface of the optical recording layer 5. As the protective layer, an acrylic type, vinyl chloride-based type, polyester type or the like that does not affect the optical recording layer 5 is used. If a protective film is used, it is not necessary to provide this protective layer.

The material used for the transparent protective layer 3 must have low birefringence. Specifically, polycarbonate (PC), polymethylmethacrylate (PMM
A), acrylonitrile-styrene copolymer (AS),
Cellulose propionate (CP), cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB), polyvinyl chloride (PV
C), polyester and the like can be used, and among them, polycarbonate (PC) having a thickness of about 400 μm is suitable.

As the surface hardened layer 6 formed on one surface of the transparent protective layer 3, an acrylic UV curable hard coat agent is suitable. In addition, a melamine-based or silicon-based hard coating agent may be used, but one having excellent temperature and humidity suitability and having high hardness and not causing cracks even when bent is preferably used.

The layer having the track pattern 4 formed on the other surface of the transparent protective layer 3 is formed by a generally known 2P method, injection method, casting method or the like. At this time, when a pattern is formed by the 2P method, a UV-curable resin is used, and by the injection method or the casting method, the same transparent protective layer 3 is used. When the injection method or the casting method is used, the boundary between the track pattern 4 and the transparent protective layer 3 disappears. It should be noted that this pattern layer is prepared by filling it, except that it has a dove capable of cutting. This is because the optical recording material is effectively used.

The optical recording layer 5 includes tellurium and bismuth based metal-based optical recording materials that are generally used,
Phthalocyanine-based and naphthoquinone-based dye recording materials can be used. Further, not only the write-once type but also the ROM type may be used. The optical recording layer 5 is formed by sputtering this optical recording material through a mask. In this case, it may be formed over the entire surface of the transparent protective layer 3, but as shown in the example of FIG.
It is preferable to form the regions in a space spaced inward.

On the other hand, the card substrate 2 is formed with a recess 7 in which the optical recording member 1 is embedded by cutting (counterbore processing) so that its side surface is the same as the taper of the end face a of the optical recording member 1. Keep it. As the card base material 2,
Polyvinyl chloride, ABS resin, etc. are used. In the case of polyvinyl chloride, 0.10 / 0.28 / 0.28 / 0.1
0 mm, 0.05 / 0.37 / 0.37 / 0.05m
Four layers such as m and the like are suitable. In addition, 0.10m
m and 0.05 mm are transparent polyvinyl chloride,
Those having 0.28 mm and 0.37 mm are opal white polyvinyl chloride, and one side of the opalescent polyvinyl chloride is printed in order to improve abrasion resistance of printing.

Then, the optical recording member 1 is fixed to the concave portion 7 of the card substrate 2 by the adhesive layer 8. For this adhesive,
Conventionally known materials such as urethane-based, epoxy-based, acrylic-based, vinyl-based, and amide-based can be used, but the adhesive has good recording sensitivity and excellent temperature / humidity suitability because it is in direct contact with the optical recording layer 5. Is preferred. As a bonding method, U
After dripping the V-curable adhesive into the concave portion 7 of the card substrate 2,
The optical recording member 1 is fitted and pressed by a flat press corresponding to the size of the optical recording member 1 and then is irradiated with ultraviolet rays to be bonded, or a hot-melt adhesive is applied to the optical recording member 1 on a T-die. There is a method of applying the same by hot pressing with a flat press or a roll press and adhering. In any case, it is better to set the press conditions so that the adhesive agent spreads between the end surface a of the optical recording member 1 and the concave side surface b of the card substrate 2. When an adhesive is used to fix the optical recording member 1 in the concave portion 7 of the card substrate 2, a double-sided adhesive sheet may be used.

As the card base material 2, a base material larger than a predetermined card size is prepared. Then, after the optical recording member 1 is loaded in the concave portion 7 of the base material, a card-sized punching process may be performed with the optical recording track as the center. According to this manufacturing method, even if the taper angle α is set to be large, the specifications within the skew of 0.2 ° can be surely satisfied, and there is no problem in performing optical recording. Also with respect to the printed pattern, a deviation that can be visually judged does not occur when the taper angle α is increased.

To improve mass productivity, add 1 card.
The production efficiency will be higher if it is made in multiple planes than it is made in plane. In the case of multi-sided production, the imposition and the number of planes differ depending on the design of the production line, but it is suitable that the number of test lines is about 2 to 8 and the number of production lines is about 8 to 40. In any case, it may be determined in consideration of the effective use amount of the base material, the production operation rate, and the like.

According to another method of the first method, a surface hardened layer 6 is formed on one surface of the transparent protective layer 3 and a layer having a track pattern 4 and an optical recording layer 5 are formed on the other surface. The following optical recording member 1 is prepared, and a plastic hot melt adhesive is applied onto the optical recording layer 5,
The optical recording member 1 laminated up to the adhesive layer 8 is cut so that the end face forms a taper angle α of 3 ° or more, and the optical recording member 1 is fitted into the concave portion 7 of the card substrate 2 and flattened. Bond by hot pressing with a press or roll press. In this case, the adhesive melts and the end surface a of the optical recording member 1
When the pressing conditions are set so as to be distributed between the concave side surface b of the card base material 2 and the concave side surface b, a feeling of unity can be obtained and bending suitability can be improved.

In the second method, first, a transparent protective layer 3 with a track pattern 4 is prepared by using a resin such as polycarbonate or acrylic by a generally known injection method or casting method. At this time, the transparent protective layer 3 is shaped so that the end surface thereof has a taper angle α of 3 ° or more. Next, the surface hardened layer 6 is formed on the side opposite to the track pattern 4, and the optical recording layer 5 is formed on the surface of the track pattern 4. As the surface hardened layer 6 and the optical recording layer 5, the same ones as described above are used. On the other hand, ABS resin,
A card substrate 2 is prepared by using an injection method or a casting method using a resin such as polyvinyl chloride.
At this time, the concave portion 7 in which the optical recording member 1 is embedded is formed, but the side surface b is shaped to be the same as the taper of the end surface a of the optical recording member 1. In addition, painting is performed by in-mold molding. Then, the optical recording member 1 is fixed to the concave portion 7 of the card substrate 2 with an adhesive or a pressure-sensitive adhesive by the same method as described above.

The above-mentioned first method and second method can be freely combined, and there are the following four combinations. (1) Both the optical recording member and the card substrate are manufactured by cutting. (2) The optical recording member is cut and the card substrate is manufactured by the injection method or the casting method. (3) An optical recording member is manufactured by an injection method or a casting method, and a card base material is cut. (4) Both the optical recording member and the card substrate are manufactured by the injection method or the casting method.

The optical card of the present invention may be provided with various additional functions in order to diversify the use of the card. That is, a magnetic stripe may be provided on the same surface as the optical recording member or on the opposite surface or both surfaces, or an IC module may be provided on the same surface as the optical recording member or the opposite surface. Furthermore, depending on the application, card information such as personal name and registration number can be formed as embossed characters in areas other than the optical recording member, or image information, character information and bar code of sublimation transfer type or melt transfer type. May be printed or a hologram may be transferred. For example,
3 shows a magnetic stripe 9 provided on the same surface as the optical recording member 1, and FIG. 4 shows a magnetic stripe 9 and an IC module 10 provided on the same surface as the optical recording member 1 and further sublimation. The face photograph 11 is provided by a transfer method. Further, the one shown in FIG. 5 has two magnetic stripes 9 which are concealed by a solid silver pattern and a pattern on the front side, and two magnetic stripes I and I.
The C module 10 is provided and the optical recording member 1 is provided on the back side.
Is formed, and embossing is performed to form embossed characters protruding to the front side.

[0027]

【Example】

Example 1 First, a hard coat agent (manufactured by Toray, UH-00 manufactured by Toray Co., Ltd.) was spin-coated on one surface of a sheet-molded polycarbonate (transparent protective layer) having a thickness of 0.4 mm.
1) was applied to form a surface-hardened layer. Next, a guide track pattern was formed on the surface opposite to the surface hardened layer by the 2P method, and TeOx was sputtered on the guide track pattern to form an optical recording layer. Then, an adhesive (PPET-2101 manufactured by Toagosei) was applied on the optical recording layer with a T-die to a thickness of 50 μm. And the end faces are all 45
An optical recording member was prepared by cutting so as to have a taper of °. The edge of the end surface of the optical recording member was 0.2 mmR.

On the other hand, two core sheets of 0.28 mm opalescent vinyl chloride were printed on one side with silk offset, and the non-printed side of these two core sheets was overlaid with a 0.10 mm oversheet. It was sandwiched by two sheets and heat-fused to prepare a four-layer card base material. A magnetic tape of 650 Oersted was formed on one surface of one oversheet, and a magnetic tape of 290 Oersted was formed on one surface of the other oversheet. Then, a planar rectangular recess in which the optical recording member is embedded is formed in the card base material by cutting. In this case, the counterbore processing was performed so that the side surface of the concave portion was tapered at 45 ° and a size slightly larger than that of the above optical recording member. Further, a roundness of 0.2 mmR was provided on the boundary between the side surface of the recess and the bottom surface of the recess.

[0029] fit the optical recording member into the recess of the card substrate created above, using a flat press that matches the size of the optical recording member, 120 ° C., 2 under the conditions of 6 kg / cm ^2.
Heat pressing was performed for 5 seconds. This melts the adhesive,
The optical recording member could be bonded while covering the bottom surface and the end surface. Further, since vinyl chloride hitting the bottom surface of the optical recording member conducts heat from the top surface of the transparent protective layer (polycarbonate), there is no sagging due to the heat. Then, a punching process was performed to a card size centering on the optical recording track. Although the taper angle was large, there was almost no deviation in the design.

Optical card R / W for the above sample
When data of 100 tracks was written with (3B3H-DJ-01 made by OMRON), the error rate was 1 × 1.
It was within 0 ^-4 . Furthermore, even if the card base material of the above sample was embossed, data could be written and read by the optical card R / W. Further, the above sample was subjected to a bending test in accordance with the ISO bending test standard, but there was no problem.

(Example 2) A polymethylmethacrylate (surface protective layer) with a thickness of 0.4 mm was formed by a casting method. At this time, all the end faces were designed to have a taper of 60 °. Next, a hard coating agent (UH-001, manufactured by Toray) is applied to the side opposite to the pattern surface by a spin coating method to form a surface hardened layer, and then TeOx is sputtered on the pattern surface to form an optical recording layer. Thus, an optical recording member was created. Also,
The edge of the end face of the optical recording member was provided with a rounded part of an ellipse.

On the other hand, a card size of 0.78 mm thick was obtained by injection method using ABS resin.
At a depth of 0.45 mm, a side surface was tapered to 60 °, and a card base material having a concave portion having an outer dimension of 16 mm × 84 mm was formed. In this case, the pattern was formed by in-mold molding. Further, a part of the ellipse is rounded at the boundary between the side surface of the recess and the bottom surface of the recess.

A UV curable adhesive (863 made by Kyoritsu Kagaku Sangyo Co., Ltd.) was dropped into the concave portion of the card base material, an optical recording member was fitted into the concave portion, and the whole was pressed by a flat press, and then ultraviolet rays were applied. The adhesive was cured by irradiation. At this time, the press conditions were set so that the adhesive was spread even on the end surface of the optical recording member.

Optical card R / W for the above sample
When data of 100 tracks was written with (3B3H-DJ-01 made by OMRON), the error rate was 1 × 1.
It was within 0 ^-4 . Further, the above sample was subjected to a bending test in accordance with the ISO bending test standard, but there was no problem.

[0035]

As described above, the present invention has the following advantages.

Since the optical recording member is loaded in the concave portion of the card base material, and is punched into a card size, it is 50 ° until now.
It is possible to further widen the taper angle that could not be expanded further, as a result, it is possible to improve the bending aptitude, and by providing a roundness at the boundary between the concave side surface and the concave bottom surface of the card substrate, The bendability can be further improved. Further, when the card base material is manufactured by cutting, even if the taper angle is 50 ° or less, the cutting edge is changed by making all sides the same taper without providing a side for positioning. Because there is no need
Manufacturing costs can be reduced.

Since the optical recording member is embedded in a part of the card base material, by utilizing the remaining area of the card base material, an optical card of a form that could not be manufactured up to now, for example, a magnetic stripe is formed on both sides. Optical card,
It is possible to manufacture an optical card with embossing, an optical card in which the optical recording unit and the IC module are not on the same surface, an optical card capable of CP processing on both sides, and an optical card capable of transferring holograms on both sides.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing an optical card according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partially enlarged sectional view taken along line XX of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an example of an optical card provided with an additional function.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing an example of an optical card provided with an additional function.

5A and 5B show an example of an optical card provided with an additional function, and FIGS. 5A and 5B are perspective views seen from the front side and the back side, respectively.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Optical Recording Member 2 Card Base Material 3 Transparent Protective Layer 4 Track Pattern 5 Optical Recording Layer 6 Surface Hardening Layer 7 Recesses 8 Adhesive Layer 9 Magnetic Stripe 10 IC Module 11 Face Photo

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. An optical recording member in which an optical recording layer is laminated so as to cover a track pattern provided on the back side of a transparent protective layer,
In an optical card embedded in a recess formed in a card base material, an end surface of the optical recording member and a side surface of the recess of the card base material are respectively provided with tapers that spread outward, and the angles thereof are An optical card which is 3 ° or more with respect to the vertical direction from the surface, and is rounded at least at the boundary between the side surface of the recess and the bottom surface of the recess in the longitudinal direction of the card. 2. The optical card according to claim 1, wherein an edge portion of the optical recording member facing a boundary between a concave side surface and a concave bottom surface of the card base material is provided with a roundness. 3. The optical card according to claim 1 or 2, wherein an optical recording member obtained by processing the end faces of a multi-sided optical recording member sheet by cutting is used. 4. The optical card according to claim 1 or 2, wherein an optical recording member is provided, which is prepared by an injection method or a casting method, and has an optical recording layer provided on a transparent protective layer with a track pattern. 5. The optical card according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein a card base material having a recess formed by cutting and an edge formed by cutting is used. 6. The optical card according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein a card base material having a concave portion produced by an injection method or a casting method is used. 7. The optical card according to claim 1, wherein a magnetic stripe is provided on the same surface, the opposite surface, or both surfaces of the optical recording member. 8. I on the same surface as the optical recording member or on the opposite surface.
The optical card according to claim 1, wherein a C module is embedded. 9. The optical card according to claim 1, wherein an area other than the optical recording member is embossed. 10. The method for manufacturing an optical card according to claim 1, wherein a card base material having a recess for embedding an optical recording member and having a size larger than a card size is prepared, and the optical material is provided in the recess. After the recording member is embedded, the card base material is punched into a card size.