JPH10129161A - Information carrying card and its manufacture - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve designing characteristics and to allow falsification or forgery to be difficult by forming a transparent card identifiable by infrared or ultraviolet ray by a sublimation transferring method together with a design layer on a surface of the design layer or a card base material. SOLUTION: A bar code 4 formed of infrared absorbing ink is formed on a surface of a card base material 1, and information such as password is recorded therewith. Since the code 4 is transparent for visible light, a person cannot directly observe the code 4. Accordingly, design of the information carrying card is not impaired different from the case that a magnetic recording layer is provided on the card or the code is provided with black ink. And, it is not necessary to ensure a special purpose area for printing the code 4 in a limited printing area. Further, since the provision of the code 4 itself is not understood by a general person, its falsification or forgery can be prevented.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information carrying card such as an identification card (an employee card, a student card, a membership card, etc.), a credit card, a driver's license, and a method of manufacturing the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, characters and pictures such as the owner's name, personal identification number, and face photograph are generally displayed on the surface of the card base material of the information carrying card in order to identify the owner. On the other hand, to prevent tampering and forgery of the card,
For example, a band-shaped magnetic recording layer is provided at the edge of the card, and specific information such as a password is recorded on the magnetic recording layer. In some cases, a concealing layer is provided on the magnetic recording layer so that the magnetic recording layer cannot be seen from the surface.

[0003]

However, the magnetic recording layer is a factor that impairs the design of the information carrying card, and it is relatively easy to decode the information recorded on the magnetic recording layer. Therefore, there is a problem that the information carrying card is easily falsified or forged. Further, the conventional card having a magnetic recording layer has a problem that the magnetic recording layer must be formed in a process different from that for characters and pictures. In the case where the concealing layer is provided on the magnetic recording layer, the number of steps is increased and the cost is further increased.

[0004] Therefore, a technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide an information carrying card which is excellent in design and is difficult to falsify or forge, and a method of manufacturing the same. It is.

[0005]

The information carrying card according to the present invention is an information carrying card in which a picture layer is laminated on a card base, and the surface of the picture layer or the surface of the card base is provided. Further, a transparent barcode identifiable by infrared rays or ultraviolet rays is formed together with a picture layer by a sublimation transfer method. As the picture layer, for example, a photograph of the face of the card holder can be provided.

With this configuration, since the barcode is transparent to visible light, a human cannot directly see the barcode. Therefore, unlike the case where the magnetic recording layer is provided on the card or the barcode is provided with black ink, the design of the information carrying card is not impaired. Further, since it is not known that the barcode is provided, forgery and falsification can be prevented.

The picture layer and the barcode of this information carrying card are used for sublimation transfer in which at least four frames each composed of yellow, magenta, and cyan and an infrared-absorbing ink or an ultraviolet-absorbing ink are repeatedly arranged in one straight line. It can be formed by a sublimation transfer method using an ink ribbon. With this configuration, the pattern layer and the barcode can be formed in one process, so that the manufacturing cost can be reduced and the manufacturing time can be reduced by reducing the number of steps.

In the above construction, it is preferable to form an image receiving layer made of, for example, polyethylene terephthalate on the card substrate in order to improve the adhesion of the picture layer to the card substrate. When the card base material is formed of a material having excellent adhesion of the picture layer such as polyethylene terephthalate, the image receiving layer may not be provided.

In the above structure, a transparent protective layer is preferably formed to protect the picture layer and the bar code. In this case, the picture layer, barcode and protection layer
Sublimation transfer is performed using a sublimation transfer ink ribbon in which at least five frames of yellow, magenta, and cyan, an infrared-absorbing ink or an ultraviolet-absorbing ink, and an abrasion-resistant resin are repeatedly arranged on a straight line as one unit. Thereby, it can be formed in one step on the card base material.

[0010] Further, the pattern layer is covered with a transparent protective layer containing an infrared absorbing ink or an ultraviolet absorbing ink, and a bar code is formed on the protective layer in a negative pattern, or a transparent protective layer containing an infrared absorbing ink or an ultraviolet absorbing ink. It is also possible to cover the picture layer with a bar code and to form the bar code in a region other than the protective layer with a transparent resin layer containing infrared absorbing ink or ultraviolet absorbing ink. In this case, the picture layer and the protective layer are sublimation transfer in which at least four frames composed of at least yellow, magenta, and cyan and an abrasion-resistant resin containing an infrared-absorbing ink or an ultraviolet-absorbing ink are arranged as one unit on a straight line. It can be formed by performing sublimation transfer using an ink ribbon for printing.
Even in this case, it is possible to enhance the design of the card more than before, make it difficult to falsify or forge, and further improve the productivity.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to FIGS. First, the first embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 to 5 will be described.

FIG. 1 is a front view of an information carrying card according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an enlarged sectional view taken along line II-II of FIG. In the figure, 1 is a card base material, generally having a thickness of about 0.5 to
It is a square sheet of about 1.0mm, and the size is about 5
８8 cm, other side about 8-11 cm.

Reference numerals 2 and 3 denote picture layers formed on the surface of the card base material. Reference numeral 2 denotes a photograph of the face of the card owner, and reference numeral 3 denotes characters such as the code number and name of the owner. On the surface of the card substrate 1, a bar code 4 (actually invisible, but shown as a visible one for convenience) made of infrared-absorbing ink is formed. Information such as a number is recorded.

The bar code 4 is formed from a portion of the surface of the card substrate 1 where the picture layers 2 and 3 are not formed.
Is formed over the surface of the bar code 4
Can be formed entirely on the picture layers 2 and 3 or can be formed entirely on a portion where the picture layers 2 and 3 are not provided. Note that the barcode 4 may be formed of ultraviolet absorbing ink. Further, a transparent and wear-resistant protective layer 5 is formed on the picture layers 2 and 3 and the bar code 4.

If the information carrying card is configured in this way,
Since the barcode 4 is transparent to visible light, humans cannot directly see the barcode. Therefore,
Unlike the case where the magnetic recording layer is provided on the card or the barcode is provided with black ink, the design of the information carrying card is not impaired. Also, there is no need to secure a dedicated area for printing the barcode 4 in the limited printing area, and the barcode 4 can be placed anywhere,
Character information and image information other than the barcode can be printed more on the surface of the card. In addition, the fact that the barcode is provided is not known to the general public,
Forgery and tampering can be prevented.

Next, a method of manufacturing the information carrying card will be described with reference to FIG. Reference numeral 10 denotes a ribbon for a sublimation transfer printer used for manufacturing this card.
1, sublimation dye pieces of magenta 12, cyan 13 and black 14, and heat transferable infrared absorbing ink pieces 15
Similarly, a total of six heat-transferable wear-resistant resin pieces 16 as one unit are repeatedly arranged on a straight line.

When manufacturing a card, a face photograph 2 to be formed as a picture layer and characters and symbols 3 are image-processed by a computer, and the data of a barcode 4 are further processed and output to a printer (not shown). Then, printing is performed on the card base material 1 by the thermal head of the printer, and yellow 1
1, a color image is formed by superimposing three colors of magenta 12 and cyan 13; characters and the like are formed by black 14; a bar code 4 transparent to visible light; With infrared absorbing ink 15
And the abrasion-resistant resin 16 by sublimation transfer.

In the above configuration, the black 10 frame is not necessarily required on the ribbon 10. In this case, as shown in FIG. 4, the yellow 11, magenta 12, cyan 13, infrared absorbing ink 15, and abrasion resistant ink are used. What is necessary is just to use the ribbon 10 in which a total of five frames of the conductive resin 16 are arranged on one straight line as one unit. When the protective layer 5 is not required, the wear-resistant resin pieces 16 are also unnecessary. In this case, four units may be replaced by one unit.

On the other hand, in the above configuration, a material that cannot be dyed with a sublimable dye, such as paper or metal, is used as the card base material 1.
When used as a pattern layer, the pattern layers 2 and 3
It is preferable to form an image receiving layer made of, for example, polyethylene terephthalate on the card substrate 1 and then form the picture layers 2 and 3 on the card substrate 1 in order to improve the adhesiveness of the image. The image receiving layer is indicated by 1a in FIG.

As described above, the information carrying card having the above-described structure can be obtained by simply passing the card base 1 through the printer.
And the barcode 4 and the protective layer 5 can be formed in one step,
It is possible to reduce the manufacturing cost and the manufacturing time by reducing the number of steps.

FIG. 5 shows a modification of the information carrying card of FIG. In this card, the transparent barcode 4 is a two-dimensional barcode (two-dimensional code) and a band-shaped magnetic recording surface 6 is provided. The design of the surface is different from that of the above embodiment. The basic configuration of the barcode 4 is the same. According to this structure, in addition to the above-described effects, multiple checks of the personal information can be performed using the barcode data and the magnetic data, so that unauthorized use of the card can be prevented.

Note that a two-dimensional bar code (two-dimensional code)
Is an ordinary barcode in which lines with different thicknesses are arranged and has information only in the horizontal direction (one-dimensional), but has information in the vertical direction (vertical direction). It has the feature that large amounts of data can be encoded. The two-dimensional barcode refers to a barcode having different arrangements arranged in multiple stages, and the two-dimensional code refers to data represented by a dot matrix.

Next, a second embodiment shown in FIGS. 6 to 8 will be described. FIG. 6 is a front view of the card, and FIG. 7 is an enlarged sectional view taken along the line VII-VII of FIG. This card has a face photograph 2 and character notation 3 on the surface of a card base material 1 as in the card of the first embodiment. The transparent wear-resistant resin constituting the protective layer 5 contains an infrared absorbing ink, and the barcode 4 is formed in a part of the protective layer 5 in a negative pattern. Even with such a configuration, similar to the first embodiment,
The restrictions on the design of the card surface are reduced, and counterfeiting can be prevented.

This card is, as shown in FIG.
Yellow 11, Magenta 12, Cyan 13, Black 1
The first embodiment uses a ribbon 10 in which a total of 5 frames, each of the sublimable dye pieces 4 and the wear-resistant resin piece 17 containing the infrared absorbing ink, are repeatedly arranged in one straight line as one unit. In the same manner as described above, since it can be produced in one process by a sublimation transfer printer, it is possible to reduce the production time and the production cost.

Next, a third embodiment shown in FIGS. 9 and 10 will be described. FIG. 9 is a front view of the card, and FIG.
0 is a sectional view taken along line XX of FIG. A protective layer 5 is formed on the face photograph 2 of the picture layers 2 and 3 formed on the surface of the card base material 1 by a wear-resistant resin containing an infrared absorbing ink, and the bar code 4 is made of the same resin as the protective layer 5. Thus, it is formed apart from the protective layer 5. The barcode 4 is different from the second embodiment in that the barcode 4 is not separated from the protective layer 5 and is not a negative pattern.

In this case, as in the case of the card of the second embodiment, the card can be formed in one process by sublimation transfer using the ribbon 10 shown in FIG. In addition, the created card has few design restrictions and is useful for preventing forgery, as in the above embodiments.

[0027]

EXAMPLES Materials usable as examples will be described below. First, the card substrate 1 is made of, for example, a plastic sheet such as a polyvinyl chloride resin sheet, a polystyrene resin sheet, a polyolefin resin sheet (a polyethylene resin sheet, a polypropylene resin sheet, etc.), a polyethylene terephthalate resin sheet, or a synthetic paper (polyolefin, polystyrene). System) or natural paper, metal sheet, glass, or a sheet in which two or more of these materials are laminated.

The image receiving layer 1a provided for receiving a sublimable dye migrating from a ribbon for thermal transfer and maintaining an image formed by the reception may be made of, for example, one or two or more of the following synthetic resins. It can be mixed and used.

Polyester resin, polyacrylic ester resin, polycarbonate resin, polyvinyl acetate resin, styrene acrylate resin, vinyl toluene acrylate resin, etc. having an ester bond Polyurethane resin, etc. having a urethane bond Polyamide resin (nylon), etc. Those having an amide bond such as those having a urea bond such as urea resin Others having a highly polar bond such as polycaprolactone resin, polystyrene resin, polyvinyl chloride resin, polyacrylonitrile resin, etc.

The image receiving layer may be composed of a mixed resin of a saturated polyester and a vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate copolymer. Examples of the saturated polyester include Byron 200, Byron 290, Byron 600, etc. (all manufactured by Toyobo), KA-10380 (Arakawa Chemical), T
P220, TP235 (all made by Nippon Gosei) and the like are used. The vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate copolymer preferably has a vinyl chloride component content of 85 to 95 Wt% and a degree of polymerization of about 200 to 800. The vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate copolymer is not necessarily limited to a copolymer of only a vinyl chloride component and a vinyl acetate component, but may contain a vinyl alcohol component, a maleic acid component and the like.

Examples will be described in more detail. For example, an ink composition for forming an image receiving layer having the following composition is prepared, and this is coated with a 100 μm-thick polyethylene terephthalate film (manufactured by Toray, Lumirror # 100) or the same thickness. Dry coating amount of 4.0 g / m on soft vinyl chloride resin film
² , and then dried to form a film for an image receiving layer. By using the information carrying card provided with the image receiving layer formed in this way, high quality picture layers 2 and 3 can be formed by the sublimation transfer method.

Polyester resin: Vylon 200 (manufactured by Toyobo) 1 part by weight Amino-modified silicone: KF-393 (manufactured by Shin-Etsu Chemical) 0.03 part by weight Epoxy-modified silicone: X-22-343 (manufactured by Shin-Etsu Chemical) 0.03 part by weight Methyl ethyl ketone / Toluene / cyclohexanone (4: 4: 2) 9.0 parts by weight

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line II-II of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a ribbon for a sublimation transfer printer used to make the card of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a modification of the ribbon of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a front view showing a modification of the information carrying card of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a front view showing a second embodiment of the information carrying card according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken along the line VII-VII of FIG. 6;

8 is a perspective view of a ribbon for a sublimation transfer printer used for producing the card of FIG.

FIG. 9 is a front view showing a third embodiment of the information carrying card according to the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a sectional view taken along line XX of FIG. 9;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Card base material 2 Face photograph (pattern layer) 3 Character notation (pattern layer) 4 Transparent barcode 5 Protective layer 6 Magnetic recording surface 10 Ribbon for sublimation transfer printer 11 Yellow 12 Magenta 13 Cyan 14 Black 15 Infrared absorbing ink 16 Wear resistance Resin 17 Abrasion resistant resin containing infrared absorbing ink

Claims (9)

[Claims] An information carrying card comprising a card substrate (1) and a pattern layer (2, 3) laminated thereon, wherein the surface of the pattern layer (2, 3) or the surface of the card substrate (1). To
Transparent barcode identifiable by infrared or ultraviolet
(4) An information carrying card, wherein the information carrying card is formed by the sublimation transfer method together with the picture layers (2, 3). 2. An image receiving layer (1a) is formed on said card base material (1), and said picture layer (2, 3) is formed on said image receiving layer (1a). The information carrying card according to 1. 3. The information carrying card according to claim 1, wherein the picture layer is a photograph of a face of a card holder. 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein a transparent protective layer (5) for protecting the picture layer (2, 3) and the bar code (4) is formed. Information carrying card. 5. A transparent protective layer (5) containing an infrared-absorbing ink or an ultraviolet-absorbing ink is formed to cover the picture layer (2, 3), and the bar code (4) is formed on the protective layer (5). The information carrying card according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the information carrying card is formed in a negative pattern. 6. A transparent protective layer (5) containing an infrared-absorbing ink or an ultraviolet-absorbing ink is formed so as to cover the picture layer (2, 3), and the bar code (4) is formed with the protective layer (5). The information carrying card according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the other portion is formed of a transparent resin containing an infrared absorbing ink or an ultraviolet absorbing ink in another area. 7. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least yellow (11), magenta (12), and cyan (1) are provided.
3) and a sublimation transfer ink ribbon (10) in which four frames composed of an infrared absorbing ink (15) or an ultraviolet absorbing ink are repeatedly arranged in one straight line as one unit. , 3) and a bar code (4). 8. The method for manufacturing an information carrying card according to claim 4, wherein at least yellow (11), magenta (12), and cyan (1
Using a sublimation transfer ink ribbon (10) in which 5 units consisting of 3), an infrared absorbing ink (15) or an ultraviolet absorbing ink, and a transparent abrasion-resistant resin (16) are repeatedly arranged in one straight line as one unit. The above picture layer (2,3) by sublimation transfer method
And a bar code (4) and a protective layer (5). 9. The method for manufacturing an information carrying card according to claim 5, wherein at least yellow (11), magenta (12), and cyan (1) are provided.
Ink ribbon for sublimation transfer, in which four frames consisting of 3) and a transparent abrasion-resistant resin (17) containing an infrared-absorbing ink or an ultraviolet-absorbing ink are repeatedly arranged in one straight line as one unit.
(10) A method for manufacturing an information carrying card, comprising forming the picture layers (2, 3) and the protective layer (5) by a sublimation transfer method.