JPS58188693A - Printing medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a printing medium capable of printing on an ordinary paper with a figure or an image converted to an electric signal, high in resolving power, necessitating no maintenance and enabling inexpensive printing, constituted from an ink layer formed on a substrate and a discharge-breakable conductive coating film formed thereon. CONSTITUTION:A transferrable ink layer 3 is provided on a thin sheet like substrate 1 such as a plastic sheet and a conductive coating film 2 easily broken by discharge such as an aluminum foil or a vapor deposition film is formed on said ink layer to constitute an objective printing medium 4. For example, an electrode 5 is brought close to the conductive coating film of the printing medium 4 and voltage is applied between the coating film 2 and the electrode 5 by a power source 6. The coating film 2 is broken by a current flowed therethrough to form a hole 7. The surface of the coating film 2 of the printing medium 4 is brought into contact with an object 8 to be printed while pressed thereto by a pair of press rollers 9a, 9b to transfer the ink of the ink layer 3 to the object 8 to be printed through the hole 7 to obtain the printed object with the ink 3'.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a printing medium, and particularly to a medium for printing figures or images converted into electrical signals on paper.

Conventionally, many methods have been considered for printing figures or images converted into electrical signals on paper. For example, there has been a method of converting electrical signals into optical signals and then printing figures or images on paper using a so-called xerographic procedure. Also, it is called wired.
There was a method in which a ribbon dipped in ink was struck with a thin wire to strike it onto paper. There was also a method called inkjet, in which figures or images were printed by jetting ink droplets from a nozzle. Another method was to print on thermal paper using a thermal head. There was also a method of printing electrode pins on discharge destruction paper.

However, each method of υ had its drawbacks. For example, xerography requires complex imaging methods and requires large and well-maintained equipment. In the wire dot method, one dot is mechanically created, so the resolution is not high and the quality of the printed figure or image is not very good. In addition, the inkjet method uses a very thin nozzle, which causes problems such as the nozzle hole becoming clogged. Furthermore, methods using thermal paper or discharge-destroyed paper have problems such as the need to use special paper instead of plain paper.

The present invention is to provide a print medium that does not have the above-mentioned problems, that is, can be printed on a sheet of paper, and can be printed with high resolution, without maintenance, and at low cost. Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of an embodiment of the printing medium of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a thin sheet-like substrate, 2 is a conductive film, and 3 is an ink layer, which are laminated as shown to constitute a print medium 4. Here, the base 1
is made, for example, from a thin film-like member of plastic. The conductive coating 2 is made of aluminum foil, for example. What is important here is that this conductive coating 2 is easily destroyed by electrical discharge. The ink layer 3 is made of transferable ink. This ink may be liquid or solid. However, in the case of a liquid, it needs to be held between the substrate 1 and the conductive coating 2, and a liquid with very low viscosity is not preferred.

However, the gap between the base 1 and the conductive coating 2 is usually made to be several microns to several tens of microns, and even a liquid with low viscosity can be maintained in the gap.

Next, a method of printing using the print medium 4 as described above will be described. Figure 2 (a), (b),
(C) shows the printing process. The electrode 5 is brought close to the conductive coating 2 of the printing medium 4 which is composed of the substrate 1 , the conductive coating 2 and the ink layer 3 , and the conductive coating 2 and the electrode 6 are placed close to each other.
A voltage is applied by the power supply 6 between the two. Conductive film 2
is destroyed by the current flowing at this time, and a hole 7 is created [see FIG. 2(a)].

The size of this hole 7 is determined by the sharpness of the tip of the electrode 6, the amount of current flowing, etc. It is easy to make holes with a diameter of 10 or 20 microns.

Therefore, there is sufficient performance for drawing high-resolution figures or images on the conductive film 2 with 10 lines per line, 20 lines per line, or more. Typically, the power supply 6 generates a drowsiness signal corresponding to the graphic or image to be printed. The printing medium 4 having the holes 7 formed in the conductive coating 2 made in this way is brought into contact with the conductive coating 2 on the printing medium 8 as shown in FIG. The ink in the ink layer 3 is transferred to the printing material 8 through the hole 7 by applying pressure with the rollers 9a and 9b. After the ink has been transferred, the print medium 4 is peeled off to complete the printed matter with the ink 31 attached.

The ink for the ink layer 3 may be either liquid or solid as described above, but it is usually best to use an ink made by adding a dye to a highly viscous resin (resin that does not drip even when placed vertically). However, good results are obtained with both solid inks and inks made by adding dyes or pigments to resins that melt under heat. When using a print medium using the latter, it is necessary to heat it during the addition fF as shown in FIG.

Although the conductive film 2 is made of aluminum, '71, for example, it is not limited thereto. For example, it may be copper foil, gold foil, or the like. Further, it does not need to be a foil, and may be a vapor-deposited film, for example.

As explained above, if the printing medium of the present invention is used, printing is possible through a simple process, maintenance is simple, and high-resolution printing is possible.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is an enlarged sectional view of an embodiment of the printing medium of the present invention, and Fig. 2 (a), (b), ((1+) illustrates an example of the printing process using the printing medium of the present invention. 1. Base, 2. Conductive film, 3.
...Ink layer, 4...Printing medium.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A transferable ink layer formed on a substrate and a conductive film that can be destroyed by electrical discharge and formed on the ink layer so as to cover the ink layer. Print media characterized by: (2) The printing medium according to claim 1, wherein the ink layer is a liquid. (3) The mark 160 medium according to claim 1, wherein the ink layer is made of heat-melting ink. (4) The printing medium according to claim 1, wherein the conductive film is aluminum foil. (6) The printing medium according to claim 1, wherein the conductive film is a vapor-deposited film.