JPH09175005A - Ink-jet recording material - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain an image that has a very little feathering even in the case of full-color or high-speed printing outputs, by laminating an ink-proof film, having a number of pores, on an ink-receptive layer. SOLUTION: A carrier 1 can be a flexible material such as paper, plastic film, etc., and a plate material such as a glass or metal plate can be also used if it can be set on an ink-jet plotter. A film 3 to be provided on an ink-receptive layer 2 has no ink-absorbing property and a number of openings that are almost vertical to the surface. A resin to be used for the film 3 can be polyester, polycarbonate, polyethylene, cellulose acetate, acrylic resin, cellulose resin, polyvinyl acetal, etc. Thereby, ink is prevented from feathering on non-opening parts of the film and the image resolving power can be improved.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ink jet recording material which eliminates "bleeding" of ink.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an ink jet recording material has been used in which an ink receiving layer made of a water-soluble polymer or a water-absorbing polymer is provided on a support made of paper or a plastic film.

Various techniques have been applied to such an ink receiving layer so that the ink can be quickly absorbed and dried even if a large amount of ink is printed. Many of these technologies are related to improvement of resin formulation for forming the ink receiving layer, and such improvement of resin formulation is not applicable to full-color printing which requires absorption of a large amount of ink. .

However, even by improving the resin formulation as described above, full-color ink jet plotters have been developed in recent years.
It is difficult to cope with the increase in speed, and the problem of "bleeding" of ink is becoming very large. The ink jet recording method is a method of generating and flying a small droplet of ink and causing the small droplet of ink to be absorbed by the ink receiving layer. Therefore, when the small droplet of ink spreads in the surface direction of the ink receiving layer, the amount of spread Only that will reduce the resolution of the image. The spread of the ink in the surface direction becomes larger due to the second and subsequent inks adhering to the vicinity of the once absorbed ink. Therefore, in order to improve the resolution of the ink jet recorded image, it is necessary to eliminate such spreading of the ink in the surface direction, that is, "bleeding".

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet recording material capable of obtaining an image in which "bleeding" of ink is significantly reduced even when full color output and high speed output are performed. To do.

[0006]

An ink jet recording material of the present invention which can achieve the above object has a structure in which a film having a large number of openings and having no ink absorbability is laminated on an ink receiving layer. Have.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below in detail.

As the ink receiving layer of the present invention, a conventionally known ink receiving layer can be used. Such an ink receiving layer is mainly composed of a hydrophilic polymer or a water-soluble polymer. Also, if necessary, mix water-resistant polymer such as water-resistant polymer and water-insoluble polymer, and extender pigments, ultraviolet absorbers, antioxidants, leveling agents and other additives to the extent that performance is not impaired. You can also use it.

Examples of the hydrophilic polymer or water-soluble polymer include polyvinyl alcohol, polyvinylpyrrolidone, water-soluble cellulose resin, water-soluble polyester resin, polyvinyl acetal, acrylic acid, acrylamide copolymer, melamine resin, polyether polyol and the like. Synthetic resins such as cross-linked products, gelatin, casein, starch,
Examples include natural resins such as chitin and chitosan.

Examples of the water-resistant polymer which has been made water resistant include those which are insolubilized by reacting with the water-soluble polymer through an ionic bond, a coordinate bond, a covalent bond, a hydrogen bond or the like.

As the water-insoluble polymer, styrene-maleic acid copolymer, vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate copolymer, acrylic resin, cellulose resin, polyester resin, (meth)
Examples thereof include acrylic acid ester and polyvinyl butyral.

Such an ink receiving layer can be constructed so that the layer itself functions as a support, and ink absorbing paper or cloth can be used as the construction, as shown in FIG. It may be laminated on the support 1.

Next, when a support is used, a flexible support such as paper or a plastic film is preferably used as the support 1. However, if it can be set in an ink jet plotter, a glass plate or metal. It may be a plate-shaped body such as a plate. Generally, the support is required to be transparent when it is used for the purpose of viewing the recorded image of the ink receiving layer through the support, which is generally called "back print". As the transparent support, polyester, polycarbonate, cellulose acetate, polyethylene,
A plastic film made of polystyrene or polypropylene, a glass plate or the like can be used.

On such a support 1, an ink receiving layer 2 is provided.
It is also possible to provide an anchor coat layer between the ink receiving layer and the ink receiving layer in order to control the adhesion with the ink receiving layer. Further, a back coat layer may be provided on the back surface of the support in order to prevent curling. Further, when a support is used, it is possible to provide an ink receiving layer on both sides of the support.

Next, the film 3 provided on the ink receiving layer 2 has no ink absorbing property and has a large number of openings substantially perpendicular to the surface. Here, although it does not have ink absorbability, it does not mean that it cannot absorb ink at all, and it is generally inferior in ink absorbability as compared with the ink receiving layer 2. It is meant. Since the film 3 has a large number of openings, it is used in the sense of including a screen mesh, cloth, etc., which are not generally included in the “film”.

The film 3 is generally made of a hydrophobic resin, but a water-soluble polymer or a water-absorbing polymer may be used as long as it is inferior in water absorption to the ink receiving layer 2. It is possible.

Further, even if the film 3 has the same ink absorbency as the ink receiving layer 2 at the time of lamination, the ink absorbency of only the film 3 may decrease due to light, heat, pressure, etc. during recording. . Examples of the resin used for the film 3 include polyester, polycarbonate, polyethylene, polypropylene, vinyl chloride, polystyrene, acrylic, cellulose acetate,
Known thermoplastic, thermosetting and photocurable resins such as styrene-maleic acid copolymer, vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate copolymer, acrylic resin, cellulose resin, polyvinyl acetal and water-soluble resins such as polyvinyl alcohol and polyvinylpyrrolidone One or two or more compounds such as a compound cured by the above method, a water-soluble resin having a cinnamoyl group, a stilbazolium group, a stilquinolium group, and a diazo group can be used.

Such a film 3 has a physical punching method, a laser light punching method, a method of etching a resist ink having etching resistance on a film with a negative pattern of halftone dots, and an etching resistance. The opening can be formed by a method such as applying the photoresist to the film, printing the halftone dot original, developing the halftone original, and then etching the halftone original. It is also possible to use a commercially available screen mesh.

The shape of the opening is not particularly limited, and various shapes such as a square as shown in FIG. 2A and a circle as shown in FIG. 2B can be adopted. Desirably, the openings are not continuous with each other. The area ratio of the opening is not particularly limited, but the area ratio of the opening is 15% to 65%.
% Is preferably adopted. Here, the opening area ratio is the ratio of the area occupied by the openings in the unit area, with 1 cm ² of the film as the unit area, and the opening area ratio = (opening area / unit area) × It is represented by 100. The reason why the content is set to 15% or more is that, depending on the intended use of the recording material, if it is less than this value, the image density may be poor and it may be difficult to use. Even if it is, it can be used.
The reason for setting it to 65% or less is to facilitate the laminating work, and within this range, the laminating work can be performed without using a transfer base material and the like, and the productivity is further improved.

The fineness of the opening cannot be generally determined depending on the resolution of the image to be obtained, but a finer size is preferable from the viewpoint of image resolution, and in reality, it is about 65 to 720 dots per inch. If it is good. From the viewpoint of workability, the film thickness is preferably 3 μm or more,
Further, in order to reduce the manufacturing cost, 100 μm or less is desirable.

Further, by using a film having high transparency, it can be used as an OHP (overhead projector) application, and by using a film whitened by an extender pigment or pores, it can be used as the back print described above. Can be used.

The film 3 as described above is laminated on the ink receiving layer, and the lamination can be carried out by a known method. For example, when the ink receiving layer is provided by coating, it is possible to laminate the film before drying the ink receiving layer, and to improve the ink receiving property of the adhesive having ink absorbability or the ink receiving property of the ink receiving layer. It is also possible to laminate using an adhesive that does not interfere.

Since the ink jet recording material of the present invention does not absorb ink into the film by laminating the film provided with the opening, the ink is absorbed only in the opening of the film, and the film is not opened. Since "bleeding" of the ink to the part can be prevented, the resolution of the image is improved.

[0024]

EXAMPLES The present invention will be described below based on examples.
In the present invention, unless otherwise indicated, “%”, “part”
Are all by weight.

Example 1 An ink receiving layer was formed by coating the following coating liquid for an ink receiving layer on one surface of a 75 μm thick polyester film by a bar coater method so that the film thickness after drying would be 8 μm. Laminated.

(Coating liquid for ink receiving layer) -Polyvinyl alcohol (saponification degree 71-75%) 6 parts (Gothenol KP-06: Nippon Synthetic Chemical Industry Co., Ltd.)-Polyvinyl alcohol (saponification degree 98-99%) 4 parts (Gothenol NH-18: Nippon Synthetic Chemical Industry Co., Ltd.) ・ Water 90 parts ・ Silica 10 parts (Sylysia 435: Fuji Silysia Chemical Co., Ltd.)

Before the ink receiving layer dries, a 6 μm thick polyester film having openings (aperture area ratio:
40%, opening shape: circle, diameter of opening circle is 100 μm)
Was laminated on the ink receiving layer to prepare an inkjet recording material.

This ink jet recording material was used as MJ800.
When fine lines were printed with C (Seiko Epson Corporation) and the presence or absence of "bleeding" was confirmed by visual evaluation, the fine lines were reproduced very cleanly, and "bleeding" was almost absent.

Example 2 Instead of the polyester film having openings in Example 1, a screen mesh (material: polyester, opening area ratio: 21%, opening shape: square, side length of opening square: 27 μm) An ink jet recording material was produced in the same manner as in Example 1 except that (1) was used.

This ink jet recording material was used as MJ800.
When fine lines were printed with C (Seiko Epson Corporation) and the presence or absence of "bleeding" was confirmed by visual evaluation, the fine lines were reproduced very cleanly, and "bleeding" was almost absent.

[Comparative Example 1] An ink jet recording material was prepared by providing the ink receiving layer used in Example 1 on one surface of a polyester film having a thickness of 75 µm in the same manner as in Example 1.

When this ink jet recording material was evaluated for "bleeding" in the same manner as in Example 1, the thin lines as a whole were thickened by "bleeding".

[0033]

According to the ink jet recording material of the present invention, it is possible to obtain an image in which "bleeding" of ink is extremely reduced even when full color output and high speed output are performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partial cross-sectional view showing an embodiment of an inkjet recording material of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the shape of an opening of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Support 2 ... Ink-receiving layer 3 ... Film having many openings

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An ink jet recording material comprising a film having a large number of openings and having no ink absorbability laminated on the ink receiving layer.