JPS59101398A - Dye-transferring body - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a dye-transferring body for high-speed recording capable of reducing drop-out and noise in an intermediate tone region and providing a recorded image with faborable image quality, wherein a part of each of non- sublimable particles is protruded from a reference plane constituted of a sublimable dye. CONSTITUTION:Non-sublimable particles [e.g., a metal (oxide), mineral] 3 having a particle diameter of preferably 1-100mum are mixed with sublimable dye particles 2, for example, by stirring them in the presence of dichloromethane or the like by a ball mill or the like to obtain a dispersed liquid. The dispersed liquid is applied onto a base paper 1 such as condenser paper coated with a poly carbonate, by a wire bar or the like, to obtain the objective dye-transferring body in which a part of each of the non-sublimable particles 3 is protruded from the reference plane (l) formed by the sublimable dye layer, preferably to a height (h) (1<=h<=100mum). USE:High-speed recording by an electronic device such as a thermal head or a laser beam.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a dye transfer member used for recording by thermal transfer, and more particularly to a dye transfer member used for high-speed recording using an electronic device such as a thermal head or a laser beam.

Conventional Structure and Problems Conventionally, full-color thermal transfer materials containing color dyes that can be applied to high-speed recording have been widely used.

However, the images recorded by these methods suffer from disturbances in image quality, especially in the intermediate tone area, and the main causes of this are dropouts in the recording in areas where energy is applied and dye sublimation or scattering in areas where energy is not applied. It is known that this is due to (noise).

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a dye transfer member that reduces dropouts and noise, particularly in the halftone region, and provides a recorded three-page image with good image quality.

Structure of the Invention The dye transfer material of the present invention is comprised of a substrate, a sublimable dye, and non-sublimable particles, and is characterized in that a portion of the non-sublimable particles protrudes from a reference plane formed by the sublimable dye.

To explain with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, 1 is a substrate, 2 is a sublimable dye layer, and 3 is a non-sublimable particle. A part of the non-sublimable particle 3 protrudes from the reference plane l formed by the sublimable dye. It is configured as follows.

In particular, when any point in the range 2a surrounded by a circle with radius r = 200 μm from each point of the cross section 3a of the non-sublimable particles 3 on the reference plane l formed by the sublimable dye is occupied by other non-sublimable particles. has a large effect. Among these, particularly when other non-sublimable particles are present somewhere in the four-fold area of a circle with a radius of 20 μm, it has a remarkable effect.

The reference plane l formed by the sublimable dye layer 2 of the non-sublimable particles 3
Good results were obtained when the height h from 0.1 μm to 1000 μm, especially when the height h
In the case of 0 μm, an experimental example that supports the superiority of the above-mentioned configuration will be explained with reference to FIG. A dye having a sublimable dye layer 5 is obtained by casting a solution prepared by dissolving 0.1 g of a dye having the structural formula shown in Formula 1 below in 10 g of dichloromethane onto a substrate 4 made of 20 μm thick capacitor paper using a wire bar. Transcript 6 and Toshida.

CH5CH3 The dye transfer body 6 and the clay paper 8 pasted on the glass substrate 7 have a thickness of 1o, 100° and 1000μ, respectively.
A magenta recorded image was obtained on clay paper 8 by sandwiching an aluminum foil 1o with a hole 9 of 5 mm in diameter between the aluminum foil 1o and heating the dye transfer member 6 for 10 seconds on a hot bench 11 heated to 130°C. is.

In this model example, the combination of the dye transfer body 6 and the aluminum foil 10 can be considered as one dye transfer body. This is mechanically equivalent to the dye transfer body shown in FIG. 1, which has a sublimable dye layer 2 and non-sublimable particles 3 on a substrate 1.

The non-sublimable particles 3 correspond to the aluminum foil 1o, and the holes 9 correspond to the spaces between the protruding non-sublimable particles 3.

, Figures 4, 5, and 6 show the distance measured from the edge of the hole 9 to the center of the aluminum foil 1o with a thickness of 10, 100, and 1000 μm, respectively, and the recorded density measured in a 6 μm square area using a microdensitometer. Show relationships. As a comparative example, FIG. 7 shows the results of a similar measurement without using an aluminum foil. The differences between the model example of the present invention and the comparative example are shown below.

1) When the thickness of the aluminum foil is 100 μm or less, the average recording density between the model example and the comparative example is almost the same.

11) The variation in recording density depending on location is smaller in the model example than in the comparative example.

62. -111) The recording density of the portion corresponding to within a distance of 100 μm from the edge of the hole is particularly high compared to the rest.

1v) Sufficient recording density is obtained even when aluminum foil with a thickness of 1000 μm is used.

The above results can be explained as follows. That is, 1) In the model example, since the sublimable dye layer 6 and the clay paper 8 do not come into direct contact with each other, the dye does not transfer due to suppression or melting, and the dye transfers only by sublimation or vaporization.

11) Heat applied through the substrate 4 is smoothly conducted to the dye near the holes 9 through the aluminum foil 1o, promoting uniform sublimation of the dye.

The practical dye transfer material shown in FIG. 1 also exhibits the same effects as in the above experiment and provides recorded images with good image quality.

In the above example, only the case where the non-sublimable particles are present on the substrate has been described, but the effects of the present invention do not change even if some of the non-sublimable particles penetrate into the substrate.

Note that if there are no other non-sublimable particles within the shaded area 2a outside of Figure 2, or if h in Figure 1 is smaller than 0.1 μm, the effect of the non-sublimable particles is is not enough. Furthermore, when h exceeds 1000 μm, sublimation of the sublimable dye is hindered, and an image with sufficient recording density cannot be obtained.

The material constituting the non-sublimable particles is selected from metals, metal oxides, metal sulfides, graphite, carbon blank, silicon carbide, minerals, inorganic salts, organic pigments, or polymeric compositions. Examples of highly effective methods are listed below.

Metal Nialuminum, Silicon, Ke/l/7 = Ram.

Soot, copper, zinc, silver, iron, cobalt, 2 Kel.

Chromium and alloys based on chromium.

Metal oxides: alumina, aluminum oxide, magnesium oxide, cuprous oxide, zinc oxide, indium oxide, tin oxide, titanium oxide, silicon oxide, iron oxide, cobalt oxide, nickel oxide, manganese oxide.

Mental oxide, vanadium oxide, tungsten oxide, molybdenum oxide and these compounds doped with impurities.

Metal sulfides: copper sulfide, quick lead sulfide, tin sulfide, molybdenum sulfide.

Minerals: Sod minerals 1 lime minerals, strontium minerals, barium minerals, zirconium minerals, titanium minerals, tin minerals, phosphorus minerals, aluminum minerals (waxite, kaolin,
clay), silicon minerals (quartz, @mother, talc, zeolite, diatomaceous earth).

Inorganic salts: Carbonates and sulfates of alkaline earth metal elements (magnesium carbonate, calcium carbonate, strontium carbonate, barium carbonate, magnesium sulfate, calcium sulfate,
strontium sulfate, barium sulfate).

Polymer composition: phenolic resin, melamine resin.

Urethane resin, epoxy resin, silicone resin.

Urea resin, diallyl phthalate resin, alkyd resin, acetal resin, acrylic resin, methacrylic resin, polyester resin, cellulose resin.

Starch and its derivatives, polyvinyl chloride, polyvinylidene chloride, chlorinated polyethylene, fluororesin, polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, polyvinyl acetal, polyamide, poly9/, -vinyl alcohol, polycarbonate, polysulfone,
polyether sulfone, polyphenylene oxide, polyphenylene sulfide, polyether ether ketone,
Polyamino bismaleimide.

Polyarylate, polyethylene terephthalate.

Polybutylene terephthalate, polyethylene naphthalate, polyimide, polyamideimide, polyacrylonitrile, Mu-S resin, Mu-BS resin, SBR, and compositions based on these.

All of these materials have high mechanical strength and will not be destroyed by the pressure of bringing the dye transfer member and receiver into intimate contact, for example, and are suitable for achieving the objectives of the present invention. In addition to the above-mentioned polymer compositions, there are also polymer compositions with a melting point or softening point of 10
The effect is particularly great when the temperature is 0°C or higher. This is because many of the sublimable dyes used have sufficient sublimation ability even below 100°C, and polymer compositions that meet this condition will not be transferred to the image receptor, so high-quality transparent images can be obtained using dyes alone. This is so that you can be saved.

Furthermore, the thermal conductivity of non-sublimable particles is 1O-3cal/1
02, - dicmasmK or more, the heat conducted from the substrate to the non-sublimable particles is smoothly conducted to the dye near the non-sublimable particles, thereby helping the dye to sublimate uniformly and improving the image quality. Further, a similar effect can be obtained when the thermal conductivity of the base is 1O-3 cal/cm·5·K or more.

Specific examples will be described below.

Example 1 2 parts by volume of various non-sublimable particles having an average particle size of 3 μm, 1 part by volume of a sublimable dye having the structure of formula 1, and 100 parts by volume of dichloromethane were each stirred separately in a ball mill,
A dye transfer body was prepared by coating the dispersion with a wire bar onto a substrate of 1 μm polycarbonate on 12 μm thick capacitor paper.

Non-sublimable particles: copper, iron, alumina, zinc oxide.

Tin oxide, titanium oxide, zinc sulfide, clay, zeolite, calcium carbonate, barium sulfate, polyhynyritene, polyphenylene sulfide.

Using these dye transfer bodies, images were drawn on activated clay paper using a thermal head. The recording conditions are as follows 11/.

That's right.

Linear density of main scanning and sub-scanning: 4 dos) 7mm recording power
: 0.7W/dot head heating time : 4m8eC Table 1 lists the number of dots and noise generated per 1000 dots. As a comparative example, the results of a sample prepared in the same manner as in Example 1 without incorporating non-sublimable particles are also shown.

Chapter 1 Table Example 2 The average particle size is 0, 1.0, 5.1.2.3, respectively.

137°-1 20 parts by volume of alumina particles of 10, 15, 20, 50 and 100 μm, 4 parts by volume of the sublimable dye of Example 1 and 100 parts by volume of dichloromethane were stirred separately in a ball mill, and the same as Example 1 was prepared. A substrate was coated in the same manner to obtain a dye transfer body.

Using these, records were made in the same manner as in Example 1, and i
ooo The number of dropouts and noise generated per dot and the length of the maximum of the minimum distances dpi between the projected figures between any alumina particles pi existing in the dye transfer material ICIIf and the particles closest to it maw
(dpi) and h defined in FIG. FIG. 8 shows the relationship between particle arrangement and dpi. The dpi was determined from the same 81M image as in Example 1. Still h was determined from an 81M image of the cross section of the dye transfer body.

14/H-:,' Table 2 Example 3 2 parts by volume of the sublimable dye of Example 1, 100 parts of dichloromethane
Alumina particles having different volume parts and average particle diameters of 6 μm were stirred separately in a ball mill with varying amounts, and coated on the same substrate as in Example 1 to obtain a dye transfer material.

157, -7 These were recorded in the same manner as in Example 1, and Table 3 shows the number of dropouts, noise occurrences, and max (dpi).
indicates the value of

Table 3 From the above examples, it can be seen that the images obtained using the dye transfer member of the present invention have good image quality with both dropout and noise being much lower than those of the comparative example. In particular, from Examples 2 and 3, may (dpi) is 20 μm or less and h is 1.
Particularly excellent results were obtained when the thickness was 100 μm or more. 1. Dye transfer bodies with other non-sublimable particles according to the present invention other than these examples also have max (dpi)
(200pm, Oj pm<.

Excellent results were obtained when the condition of h (1000 μm) was satisfied.

Effects of the Invention As described above, the dye transfer member of the present invention provides recorded images with reduced dropouts and noise and good image quality. Furthermore, full-color images can be obtained using three types of dye transfer bodies that develop cyan, magenta, and yellow colors.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 3 is a cross-sectional diagram showing the effect of perforated aluminum foil, and Figures 4 to 7 are diagrams showing the cross-section of r-shaped particles and the range in which other non-sublimable particles exist. A graph showing the relationship between distances and FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the definition of dpi. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Base body, 2... Color dye layer, 3
...Non-sublimable particles, l...Reference plane of sublimable dye layer, h...Height of non-sublimable particles from reference plane. Name of agent: Patent attorney Toshio Nakao and 1 other person-5
[q) □ Figure 4: y distance from the edge of JL Figure 5 of GM/10 102/II) 3. Distance from the edge of 7L (, A, idiom) Fig. 6 Edge of hole θ\Rari y huge confirmation stop (, ttm) Fig. 7 A Lifting direction 1; and lid distance 0 wet

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] (1) A dye transfer body comprising a substrate, a sublimable dye, and non-sublimable particles, and a part of the non-sublimable particles protrudes from a reference surface formed by the sublimable dye. . (2) Any point within the range surrounded by a circle with a radius of 200 μm from each point on the outer periphery of the cross section between the reference plane of the sublimable dye and any non-sublimable particle is occupied by other non-sublimable particles. A dye transfer member according to claim 1. (3) The dye transfer body according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the height of any non-sublimable particles from the reference plane of the sublimable dye is within the range of 0.1 to 1000 μm. (4) Thermal conductivity of non-sublimable particles is 10-5 cal 7c
m, msaK or more Claim 1~
The dye transfer material according to any one of Item 3. (6) Thermal conductivity of the base is 10' cal/cmms
- The dye transfer material according to any one of claims 1 to 4, which has two pages in total.