JPH10138651A - Image forming method and indirect transfer medium to be used for the method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable recording only a recording image on various image receiving bodies having different surfacial smoothnesses and avoid the deterioration of the texture of the image receiving bodies by putting the adhesive force between a base and a deformable layer and the adhesive force between the deformable layer and an image receiving layer into a particular relationship when an indirect transfer medium and an image are peeled off. SOLUTION: An image forming method is characterized in that assuming that the adhesive force between a base and a deformable layer is P1 , the adhesive force between the deformable layer and an image receiving layer P2 , the adhesive force between the image receiving layer and an image P3 , the adhesive force between the image receiving layer and a non-image portion that has not been image-heated P4 , the adhesive force between a transferable image and a base of the image P5 , and the adhesive force between the non-image portion that has not been image-heated and a base of the non-image portion P6 , the following are satisfied: P1 , P2 , P3 >P4 , P5 , and P6 >P4 . Further, the method is characterized in that when the image is retransferred to the image receiving body, and the indirect transfer medium and the image receiving body are peeled off, assuming that the adhesive force between the image receiving body and a transferable image is P7 , and the adhesive force between the image receiving body and the image receiving layer P8 , the following is met: P7 , P1 , P3 >P2 >P8 .

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for forming a multicolor image by a thermal transfer recording system used for color proofing and color printing for color proofing, display bodies and signboard decorations, and an indirect transfer medium used therefor. The present invention relates to an image forming method capable of forming a multicolor image on a receiver having no image receiving layer by fusion-type thermal transfer recording, and an indirect transfer medium used for the method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, methods such as thermal transfer (fusible thermal transfer, sublimation thermal transfer), electrophotography, and ink jet have been put into practical use as full-color image recording systems. In the field of color proofing (color proofing) in the field of printing and plate making, the above-mentioned method, which is superior in workability and can easily record a large number of sheets, is different from the conventional sprint method called chemical proof using photosensitive resin. It is being used.

However, the sublimation type thermal transfer has a feature that the gradation of an image can be reproduced by density modulation because the amount of the dye to be sublimated and transferred can be changed by changing the thermal energy of a heat source such as a thermal head. However, in order to form an image, an image receptor having a dedicated image receiving layer for receiving a sublimation dye is required as a recording image receptor, and recording cannot be performed on an image receptor having no image receiving layer such as plain paper or a plastic film. Further, since the color tone of the ink layer is different from the color tone of the printing ink, the reproduced color tone is not exactly similar to that of the printed matter. Also,
The same applies to the ink jet system, which has the advantage that large-size (A0 size or larger) recording is possible, and has the advantage of being suitable for recording such as outdoor display bodies, but still requires a dedicated recording receiver. Strictly speaking, the reproduction color tone is also different from printing.

[0004] In the fusion type thermal transfer system, the ink layer is formed by mixing a coloring material with a heat-fusible binder. For example, it is possible to use the same coloring material as printing ink. There is a possibility that it can be used as a color proof for color proofing, for example, it can be recorded on a recording receiver. However, this method has a feature that a special image receiving layer is not required as an image receiving body, but on the other hand, if the recording image receiving surface (image layer receiving surface) is not excellent in smoothness, high quality printing is possible. He had the drawback that he couldn't. For example, when printing on paper having poor smoothness, the image layer is transferred only to the convex portions of the paper surface, and the image layer is not transferred to the concave portions. I will.

Therefore, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 4-220380 discloses
As disclosed in JP-A-7-137470, etc., by devising the structure of the thermal transfer recording medium and the material used for the ink layer, high quality recording free of transfer loss on paper having poor surface smoothness can be achieved. Method for obtaining the same, and JP-A-58-16
As disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2355, etc., an intermediate transfer medium is provided in a thermal transfer recording apparatus, a recorded image is primarily transferred onto the intermediate transfer medium, and then re-transferred to an image receiving body, whereby surface smoothness is improved. A method for obtaining high-quality recording without transfer loss even on inferior paper, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-290731, etc., can be peeled off from a donor sheet having a peelable thin film (fused thermal transfer recording material). An image receiving material (indirect transfer medium according to the present invention) having an image receiving layer (the image receiving layer according to the present invention) is uniformly laminated, and then heat energy is applied imagewise to lower the adhesive strength of the thin film of the donor sheet. Is formed image-wise and an image is formed on the image receiving layer (peeling development), and then the image formed on the image receiving layer is transferred from the image receiving material to a permanent support (image receiving body in the present invention). Proposed to To have.

[0006]

One of the quality requirements for a color proof for color proofing in the field of printing is that a color proof should be produced on the same paper as the printing paper actually printed by the machine. Therefore, in the case of producing a color proof by a fusion-type thermal transfer recording method, similarly, it corresponds to a wide variety of printing papers,
In addition, there has been a demand for a material having such a quality that only an image can be recorded on an image receiving body in the same manner as a printed matter.

However, JP-A-4-220380, JP-A-7-137470, and JP-A-58-1
The method disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 62355/1992 has the advantage that only an image can be recorded on an image receiving body, as well as the conventional fusion-type thermal transfer recording method, while recording on an image receiving body having inferior smoothness as compared with the conventional method. Although the quality has improved, printing paper with a wide range of smoothness (coated paper, fine paper, lower grade paper,
Newspapers, etc.) have not yet achieved satisfactory recording quality, and the image recorded on the image receiving body is also formed from a heat-melt ink layer, and the image itself has poor heat resistance. Had a problem in storage stability (particularly, occurrence of blocking development in the case of overlapping).

In the method disclosed in JP-A-7-290731, etc., since the image receiving layer of the image receiving material is configured to be releasable, the image recorded on the image receiving layer is removed together with the image receiving layer. Transferred to permanent support. Therefore, this method can perform recording without transfer loss even on printing paper having a wide range of smoothness, but since the image alone cannot be recorded on the permanent support, the finish differs from that of printed matter. (Because the image receiving layer is also transferred to the non-image area of the permanent support, the texture differs from that of the printed matter).

In view of the foregoing, the present invention does not require a dedicated image receptor in a fusion-type thermal transfer recording system, has no transfer defects to various image receptors having different surface smoothness, and has only an image similar to a printed matter. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming method and a material capable of recording an image on an image receiving body, and obtaining a recorded image with storage stability in a high-temperature environment.

[0010]

An object of the present invention is to provide a deformable layer which is deformed under heat and / or pressure on a support, and which has an adhesive property with respect to an image formed by melt-type thermal transfer recording. An indirect transfer medium provided with an image receiving layer having in this order an image receiving layer having a re-transfer property to a transfer image of a transferred image, and a heat transferable ink layer containing a binder containing a thermoplastic resin as a main component on a support Face the ink layer of the fusion-type thermal transfer recording material provided with, and imagewise heat from the back of the fusion-type thermal transfer recording material or the back of the indirect transfer medium, and before the ink cools and solidifies, transfers the fusion-type thermal transfer recording material to the indirect transfer medium. After forming the image on the image receiving layer of the indirect transfer medium, and then transferring the image on the image receiving body, (a) the image by heating the indirect transfer medium by imagewise heating form Then, when the image is peeled off from the indirect transfer medium, the adhesive force between the support and the deformable layer is obtained.
... P ₁ , the adhesive strength between the deformable layer and the image receiving layer ... P ₂ ,
Adhesive force between the image receiving layer and the image: P ₃ , Adhesive force between the image receiving layer and the non-image portion not imagewise heated: P ₄ , between the transferable image and the support of the image Adhesive strength of ...
P ₅ , the adhesive force between the non-image portion not imagewise heated and the support of the non-image portion... P ₆ , P _{1 to} P ₆ are each independently represented by the following (1) and (2) Formulas P ₁ , P ₂ , P ₃ > P ₄ , P ₅ ... (1) P ₆ > P ₄ ... (2) are satisfied, and (b) the image is re-transferred onto a receiver, and upon the release of the image receiving member and the transfer medium, before when adhesion ...... P ₇ with said image receiving member and the transfer can be imagewise, the adhesive strength ...... P ₈ between said image receiving body and the image receiving layer to The above P _{1 to} P ₃ and P _{7 to} P ₈ independently satisfy the following equation (3): P ₇ , P ₁ , P ₃ > P ₂ > P ₈ (3) The problem is solved by an image forming method and an indirect transfer medium having specific characteristics used in the image forming method.

Conventionally, there are two types of image recording methods of a thermal transfer recording material of a melting type: a cold peeling method of peeling a thermal transfer recording material (such as an ink ribbon) from a recording medium after the ink is solidified; There is a hot peeling method for peeling a thermal transfer recording material from a recording medium.

However, in the case of the cold peeling method, the ink layer surface of the fusion type thermal transfer recording material and the image receiving layer surface of the retransferable indirect transfer medium are overlapped, and the ink is applied to the image receiving layer using a thermal head or a laser. When transferring, the ink layer is selectively transferred corresponding to the non-imagewise heating section, and in order to obtain high image quality, both the shear breaking force and the elongation of the ink layer coating film are small and the affinity with the image receiving layer is low. It is necessary to select a material having high wettability and wettability. Therefore, the material constituting the ink layer and the material constituting the image receiving layer have solubility parameters S
It is selected from those having similar physical properties such as P value. For this reason, the affinity between the image transferred and formed on the image receiving layer and the image receiving layer becomes strong, and when the image is finally re-transferred to the image receiving body (such as printing paper), it is difficult to transfer only the image. It will be difficult.

For this reason, in this case, the indirect transfer medium has a structure in which a peelable image receiving layer is provided, and an image (including a non-image portion) is transferred to an image receiving member for each image receiving layer. As a constitution of the present invention, a peelable image receiving layer is provided, and the image formed on the image receiving layer by imagewise heating is defined by defining the adhesive relation of each layer as described in claim 1 of the present invention. A method of transferring the image to the image receiving layer together with the image receiving layer (in this case, the image receiving layer in the non-image portion is not transferred) is considered.

However, in the former method, since the image receiving layer is transferred to the non-image portion in the final finish, the texture differs from that of the printed matter. The latter method is preferable in that the final finish is close to the printed matter and the texture is good. However, actually, when using a melt-type thermal transfer recording material of a cold peeling type, the adhesion of each layer is performed as described in claim 1 of the present invention. It was difficult to reproduce the force relationship stably.

On the other hand, in the present invention, the binder of the ink layer uses a material containing a thermoplastic resin as a main component, and the melt-type transfer recording material has a specific feature after the imagewise heating and before the ink is cooled and solidified. The image is transferred onto the image receiving layer of the indirect transfer medium by peeling off from the indirect transfer medium (hot peeling method), and then the image on the image receiving layer is transferred to the image receiving layer ( Printing paper)
The problem was solved by re-transferring the image.

That is, the adhesive force relationship between the respective constituent layers of the fusion type thermal transfer recording material, the respective constituent layers of the indirect transfer medium, and the image receiving member is maintained as described in claim 1, and
Using an indirect transfer medium having the characteristics described in 4, 5 and selecting a thermoplastic resin binder for the ink layer of the melt-type thermal transfer recording material, before the ink is cooled and solidified (when the ink is in a molten state). By peeling off the thermal transfer recording material from the indirect transfer medium (hot peeling method), a high quality image can be obtained without using a material having high affinity and wettability with the ink layer, and then the image on the image receiving layer is obtained. Is re-transferred to an image receiving member (such as printing paper) together with the image receiving layer of the image formed portion, so that the image receiving member on which the image has been formed is free of transfer defects in various image receiving members having different surface smoothness. It has been found that the same texture as that of the printed matter is maintained, and the recorded image is excellent in heat-resistant storage stability.

[0017]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail. First, the fusion type thermal transfer recording material will be described.
The recording material used in the present invention basically has a structure in which an ink layer mainly composed of a thermoplastic resin of a hot-release type is laminated on a support, and if necessary, between the support and the ink layer. An intermediate layer (release layer, deformable layer, light-to-heat conversion layer) may be provided.

The binder used in the ink layer of the melt-type thermal transfer recording material is mainly composed of a thermoplastic resin suitable for a hot peeling method, and a small amount of a wax-like substance or the like may be blended if necessary. . Examples of the resin include an ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer, an ethylene- (meth) acrylic acid copolymer, and an ethylene- (meth) acrylic acid alkyl ester copolymer (where the alkyl group is methyl, ethyl, propyl, or butyl). , Hexyl, heptyl,
Ethyl copolymers such as octyl, 2-ethylhexyl, nonyl, dodecyl, hexadecyl and the like having about 1 to 16 carbon atoms), ethylene-acrylonitrile copolymer, ethylene-styrene copolymer and other ethylene-based copolymers; ) Acrylates; polyvinyl chloride,
Examples thereof include vinyl chloride (co) polymers such as a vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate copolymer and a vinyl chloride-vinyl alcohol copolymer. Among them, an ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer is particularly preferable because it has a high viscosity at the time of melting and has excellent temporary adhesion.

Examples of the waxy substance include natural waxes such as wood wax, beeswax, carbana wax, candelilla wax, montan wax, and ceresin wax; petroleum waxes such as paraffin wax and microcrystalline wax; , Synthetic waxes such as ester wax, polyethylene wax, Fischer-Tropsch wax, α-olein-maleic anhydride copolymer wax; higher fatty acids such as myristic acid, palmitic acid, stearic acid and behenic acid; higher fatty acids such as stearyl alcohol and docosanol Aliphatic alcohols; esters such as higher fatty acid monoglycerides, fatty acid esters of sucrose, fatty acid esters of sorbitan; amides such as stearamide, oleylamide and bisamides And the like.

As the colorant used in the ink layer, any of those conventionally used as colorants for this type of hot-melt ink can be used, and various inorganic and organic pigments and dyes can be used as appropriate. .

As the method for imagewise heating the ink layer, a method of imagewise heating the ink layer with a thermal head or the like, a method of imparting a photothermal conversion function to a fusion-type thermal transfer recording material, and imagewise heating the image layer with light can be used. .

An apparatus that enables the hot peeling method is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-81113, for example, in which the distance from the heat-generating portion of the thermal head to the ink ribbon peeling edge is shortened. Are available.

Next, the indirect transfer medium used in the present invention will be described. The indirect transfer medium of the present invention has a deformable layer and an image receiving layer on a support in this order, and in some cases, between the support and the deformable layer, or between the deformable layer and the image receiving layer. Each interface between (support / deformable layer,
An adhesive layer may be provided for the purpose of adhering the deformable layer / image receiving layer).

As the support of the indirect transfer medium, a sheet material such as a conventionally known plastic film can be used.
For example, a plastic film such as polyethylene terephthalate, polypropylene, polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, polystyrene, polycarbonate, and triacetate, or a metal plate such as an aluminum plate and a zinc plate can be used. In addition, because the ink layer melted by heat is transferred,
Moderate heat resistance, a material excellent in dimensional stability is preferable, from the viewpoint of handling polyethylene terephthalate film,
A polycarbonate film or the like is suitable, but is not particularly limited thereto. Further, the transparency of the support is not limited. The thickness of the support is not particularly limited, but is preferably 25 μm to 200 μm, and more preferably 50 to 150 μm, from the viewpoint of workability and the like.
m.

The organic polymer substance used for the deformable layer of the indirect transfer medium has a softening temperature of 90 ° C. or less under the standard test conditions of JIS K 6730 and an elongation at break under the standard test conditions of JIS K 6760. It is a preferred embodiment that the effect of the present invention can be realized by using an organic polymer substance of 400% or more and 1000% or less.

The reason for this is that when an organic polymer substance having a low softening temperature is used, a retransferable image is formed on an indirect transfer medium, and then, when the image is pressure-transferred to an image receiving body such as paper, indirect transfer is performed. This is because the deformable layer of the medium is softened, so that the deformable layer is deformed according to the unevenness of the surface of the image receiving body such as paper, and the image adheres to the image receiving body without unevenness. When using an organic polymer material having a high softening temperature, it is necessary to transfer at a high temperature, and when using an organic polymer material having a low elongation at break, it is necessary to transfer at a high pressure. In the case of (1), the dimensional stability of the image is greatly adversely affected. For this reason, the softening temperature of the organic polymer substance used for the deformable layer is 90 ° C or lower, preferably 60 ° C or lower, or -100 ° C.
The elongation at break is preferably 400% or more, more preferably 500% or more and 1000% or less.

The organic high molecular substance which can be used for the deformable layer cannot be specified by the type of the material, but specific examples of preferable ones include polyolefins such as polyethylene and polypropylene, ethylene-vinyl acetate, ethylene-acryl. Acid, ethylene-acrylate,
Or ethylene copolymer such as copolymer of ethylene and α, β-unsaturated carboxylic acid, polyvinyl chloride, vinyl chloride copolymer such as vinyl chloride and vinyl acetate, polystyrene, styrene and (meth) acrylate And (meth) acrylic acid ester copolymers such as poly (meth) acrylic acid ester, butyl (meth) acrylate-butyl acetate-vinyl acetate, and the like.

The thickness of the deformable layer is 5 μm or more, more preferably 10 μm or more, and 80 μm or less. The reason for this is that the image can be transferred along the unevenness of the image receiving body at the time of retransfer by making the thickness of the image receiving body (coated paper, high quality paper, newsprint paper) thicker than the surface of the image receiving body to be transferred and recorded. In the case of proof, for example, 4
When a color image is transferred to a receiver, the image portion of each color and the non-image portion have irregularities, so that a portion corresponding to the image layer thickness is required in a portion where four colors are transferred to the same portion. It is.

The thermoplastic resin, waxy substance,
An ink layer is formed by appropriately mixing a coloring agent and the like, and an image is formed on an indirect transfer medium by a hot peeling method using a fusion type thermal transfer recording material using the ink layer, and the image is retransferred to an image receiving body. As a result, the image receiving layer of the indirect transfer medium is an acrylic resin whose main component is methyl methacrylate and / or hydroxyethyl methacrylate, and is a substance obtained by graft copolymerization of hydroxyethyl methacrylate and / or N-methylolacrylamide. ,
Alternatively, a material containing a substance composed of a cellulose derivative was effective as a material having excellent image receiving ability as an image receiving layer and excellent heat resistance storage stability.

Examples of the cellulose derivative include general cellulose esters (cellulose acetate, cellulose nitrate, cellulose acetate phthalate, cellulose acetate butyrate), cellulose ethers (methyl cellulose, ethyl cellulose, hydroxyethyl cellulose,
Hydroxypropyl cellulose, carboxymethyl cellulose) and the like.

If necessary, other resin or plasticizer,
Additives such as matting agents (inorganic particles such as silicon dioxide, calcium carbonate, and aluminum powder, and organic particles such as polyethylene, polypropylene, and polystyrene), and additives such as a wettability improver may be mixed to the extent that required performance is not impaired. I do not care.

The thickness of the image receiving layer is preferably from 0.1 to 5 μm, more preferably from 0.1 to 3 μm. The reason is that if the image receiving layer is thicker than the above range, the performance of the deformable layer below the image receiving layer will be impaired, and high quality image recording without transfer loss will be performed according to the unevenness of the image receiving surface such as paper. This is because they cannot do it.

A method for retransferring the image formed on the image receiving layer of the indirect transfer medium to the image receiving member will be described. As a device, a device having a mechanism such as a laminator is suitable,
Heated uniformly to a temperature of 80 ° C to 150 ° C and at the same time a linear pressure of 1kg / c
It is preferable to pressurize at a pressure of 2 kg / cm or more when transferring by pressurization alone.

As the material of the image receiving body, paper, plastic sheet, woven cloth, metal plate and the like are used. Also, paper having poor smoothness is suitable. Be eligible.

[0035]

EXAMPLES Hereinafter, the present invention will be described more specifically with reference to examples, but the present invention is not limited to the following examples. The parts in the present embodiment mean parts by weight.

Example 1 (Method for producing indirect transfer medium) The following resin A for forming a deformable layer was extruded on a biaxially stretched polyethylene terephthalate film having a thickness of 100 μm and extruded to a thickness of 50 μm by a coating method. , Image receiving layer forming liquid A
Was applied by a wire bar coating method and then dried to provide an image receiving layer having a thickness of 2 μm.

<Deformable Layer Forming Resin A> Ethylene-ethyl acrylate copolymer resin (EVAFLEX-EE
A A-701: Dupont Mitsui Polychemicals) <Image receiving layer forming liquid A> Backbone composition Polymethyl methacrylate Branch composition 40 parts of poly (2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (comb type polymer L-20 (25% solution) ): Soken Chemical) Toluene 30 parts Methyl ethyl ketone 30 parts

Example 2 (Method for Producing Indirect Transfer Medium) The following deformable layer-forming resin B was extruded onto a biaxially stretched polyethylene terephthalate film having a thickness of 100 μm and extruded to a thickness of 30 μm by a coating method. , Image receiving layer forming liquid B
Was applied by a wire bar coating method and then dried, and was sequentially provided so that the thickness of the image receiving layer was 1 μm.

<Deformable layer forming resin B> Ethylene methacrylic acid copolymer resin (Nucrel 1108C:
<Mitsui DuPont Polychemical Co., Ltd.><Image receiving layer forming liquid B> Backbone composition Polymethyl methacrylate Branch composition Poly (N-methylolacrylamide / _{40 parts} 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (Cushion polymer L-40M (25% liquid) ): Soken Chemical) Toluene 30 parts Methyl ethyl ketone 30 parts

Example 3 (Method for Producing Indirect Transfer Medium) The following deformable layer forming resin C was extruded onto a biaxially stretched polyethylene terephthalate film having a thickness of 100 μm and extruded to a thickness of 20 μm by a coating method. , Image receiving layer forming liquid C
Was applied by a wire bar coating method, and then dried, and was sequentially provided so that the thickness of the image receiving layer was 3 μm.

<Deformable layer forming resin C> Ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer resin (EVAFLEX 250: manufactured by DuPont-Mitsui Polychemicals) <Image receiving layer forming solution C> Backbone composition Poly (methyl methacrylate / hydroxyethyl methacrylate) Branch Chain composition Poly N-methylol acrylamide 40 parts (Kushi-type polymer LH-448 (25% solution: manufactured by Soken Chemical)) Toluene 30 parts Methyl ethyl ketone 30 parts

Example 4 (Method of producing indirect transfer medium) The following deformable layer forming resin A was extruded on a biaxially stretched polyethylene terephthalate film having a thickness of 100 μm, and was extruded to a thickness of 50 μm by a coating method. , Image receiving layer forming liquid D
Was applied by a wire bar coating method and then dried to provide an image receiving layer having a thickness of 2 μm.

<Deformable Layer Forming Resin A> Ethylene-ethyl acrylate copolymer resin (EVAFLEX-EE
A A-701: Dupont Mitsui Polychemicals) <Image receiving layer forming liquid D> Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose phthalate 5 parts (HP-50: Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.) Ethylene glycol monoethyl ether 45 parts Toluene 25 parts Ethyl acetate 25 parts

[0044]Example 5  (Method of manufacturing indirect transfer medium) Biaxially stretched with a thickness of 100 μm
On a polyethylene terephthalate film
Extrusion of deformable layer forming resin B by coating method
30 μm thick, on the deformable layer, an image receiving layer forming solution E
Is coated by wire bar coating method and then dried
The image receiving layer was sequentially provided with a thickness of 1 μm.

<Deformable Layer-Forming Resin B> Ethylene methacrylic acid copolymer resin (Nucrel 1108C:
<Image-receiving layer forming liquid E> 10 parts of cellulose acetate phthalate (CAP: manufactured by Wako Pure Chemical Industries) 45 parts of ethyl acetate 45 parts of methanol

Example 6 (Method for Producing Indirect Transfer Medium) The following deformable layer forming resin C was extruded onto a biaxially stretched polyethylene terephthalate film having a thickness of 100 μm and extruded to a thickness of 20 μm by a coating method. , Image receiving layer forming liquid F
Was applied by a wire bar coating method, and then dried, and was sequentially provided so that the thickness of the image receiving layer was 3 μm.

<Deformable Layer Forming Resin C> Ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer resin (EVAFLEX 250: manufactured by Mitsui / Dupont Polychemicals) <Image receiving layer forming liquid F> Cellulose acetate butyrate 10 parts (CAB-381-0.5: Eastman Chemical) 45 parts of ethyl acetate 45 parts of methanol

Comparative Example 1 (Method for Producing Indirect Transfer Medium) The following deformable layer forming resin D was extruded onto a biaxially stretched polyethylene terephthalate film having a thickness of 100 μm and extruded to a thickness of 30 μm by a coating method. , Image receiving layer forming liquid G
Was applied by a wire bar coating method and then dried, and was sequentially provided so that the thickness of the image receiving layer was 1 μm.

<Deformable layer forming resin D> Ionomer resin (Himilan AM-7902: manufactured by DuPont Mitsui Polychemicals) <Image receiving layer forming liquid G> 10 parts of polyester resin (Vylonal MD-1400: manufactured by Toyobo) Isopropyl alcohol 45 45 parts of water

Comparative Example 2 (Method for Producing Indirect Transfer Medium) A resin D for forming a deformable layer was extruded onto a biaxially stretched polyethylene terephthalate film having a thickness of 100 μm by extrusion coating.
Only a μm deformable layer was provided.

<Deformable Layer Forming Resin D> Ionomer resin (Himilan AM-7208: manufactured by DuPont-Mitsui Polychemicals)

Using the above-mentioned indirect transfer media (Examples 1 to 6 and Comparative Examples 1 and 2), a hot-melt type thermal transfer recording material and a thermal transfer recording device of the following hot peeling type, and a laminator as a retransfer device were used. Printing test.

Melt-type thermal transfer recording material: Alps Electric Ink Cassette / Paper / Black (MDC-FLCK) Ink Cassette / Paper / Yellow (MDC-FLCY) Ink Cassette / Paper / Magenta (MDC-FLCM) Ink Cassette・ For paper ・ Cyan (MDC-FLCC) Thermal transfer recording device: Alps Electric, micro dry process printer MD-2000S Laminator: Nippon Paper, Star Proof Flaminator SPL-005 Roll temperature: 110 ° C Transport speed: 400mm / min Receiver : Three types of evaluation results: coated paper (Oken type smoothness 5000 seconds), newsprint paper (Oken type smoothness 20 seconds), and polycarbonate film (thickness 200 μm) are shown in Table 1.

[0054]

[Table 1]

[0055]

As is apparent from Table 1, when the thermal transfer recording method and the indirect transfer medium of the present invention are used, only a recorded image can be recorded on various image receiving members having different surface smoothness, and the texture of the image receiving member can be improved. High-quality recording with excellent heat-resistant storage stability that does not impair can be performed.

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Masahide Takano 1551 Higashihira, Higashimatsuyama-shi, Saitama Prefecture Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd.

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A deformable layer which is deformed under heat and / or pressure on a support, has adhesiveness to an image formed by fusion type thermal transfer recording, and has retransferability of a transferred image to a receiver. An indirect transfer medium provided with an image receiving layer having in this order, and an ink layer of a melt-type thermal transfer recording material provided with a melt heat transferable ink layer containing a binder containing a thermoplastic resin as a main component on a support. , Imagewise heating from the back side of the fusion type thermal transfer recording material or the back side of the indirect transfer medium,
An image forming method comprising peeling off a fusion type thermal transfer recording material from an indirect transfer medium before the ink is cooled and solidified, forming an image on an image receiving layer of the indirect transfer medium, and then transferring the image onto an image receiving body. (A) forming an image on the indirect transfer medium by imagewise heating and then peeling off the image from the indirect transfer medium, the adhesive force between the support and the deformable layer ... P ₁ , deformable Between layer and image receiving layer ... P
_2, the adhesive force between the image-receiving layer and the adhesive strength ...... P _3, the unheated image receiving layer and imagewise non-image area with the image ......
P ₄ , the adhesive force between the transferable image and the support of the image... P ₅ , the adhesive force between the non-image portion not imagewise heated and the support of the non-image portion... P ₆ Where P _{1 to} P
₆ independently satisfy the following expressions (1) and (2): P ₁ , P ₂ , P ₃ > P ₄ , P ₅ (1) P ₆ > P ₄ (2) further re-transferring the image on the image receiving member, upon the release of the indirect transfer medium and the image receiving member, adhesion ...... P ₇ with said image receiving member and the transfer can be imagewise, and said image receiving body and the image receiving layer below P ₁ to P ₃ and P ₇ to P ₈ supra when the adhesive strength ...... P ₈ between each independently (3) _{P 7, P 1, P 3} > P 2> P 8 .... An image forming method characterized by satisfying (3). 2. The indirect transfer medium used in the image forming method according to claim 1, wherein the expressions (1), (2), and (3) are simultaneously satisfied. 3. The softening temperature of the material used for the deformable layer is -100 ° C. or more under the standard test conditions of JIS K 6730.
3. The indirect transfer medium according to claim 2, wherein the indirect transfer medium is made of an organic polymer substance having a temperature of not more than 0. 4. The material used for the deformable layer has an elongation at break of 400% or more under standard test conditions of JIS K 6760.
4. The indirect transfer medium according to claim 2, wherein the medium is composed of 1000% or less of an organic polymer substance. 5. An organic polymer material component constituting an image receiving layer, wherein an acrylic resin whose main component is methyl methacrylate and / or hydroxyethyl methacrylate and hydroxyethyl methacrylate or / and N-methylol acrylamide are graft-copolymerized. 5. The indirect transfer medium according to claim 2, further comprising a polymerized substance or a substance composed of a cellulose derivative.