JPS59101399A - Dye-transferring body - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a dye-transferring body reduced in drop-out and noise in an intermediate tone region, wherein a part of each of non-sublimable particles is protruded from a reference plane formed by a binder and a sublimable dye, and one of points included in a specified region surrounding each of the non-sublimable particles is occupied by other non-sublimable particle. CONSTITUTION:The objective dye-transferring body has such a construction that each of the non-sublimable particles (e.g., silicon, alumina, copper sulfide, magnesian mineral) 3 is protruded from the reference plane l of a layer 2 constituted of the sublimable dye and the binder, wherein one of the points included in the region 2a surrounded by a loop spaced by a radius r=200mum preferably r= 20mum from each point of the outside periphery of the cross section 3a of arbitrary one of the non-sublimable particles in the reference plane l is occupied by other one of the non-sublimable particles 3. The height h of the particles 3 form the reference plane l of the layer 2 is preferably 1<h<100mum and the particle diameter of the particulates 3 is preferably 1-100mum. 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 electronic devices such as a thermal helix or a laser beam.

Conventional Structure and Problems Conventionally, full-color thermal transfer bodies containing sublimable 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 An object of the present invention is to provide a dye transfer member that reduces dropouts and noise, particularly in the halftone region, and provides recorded images with good image quality.

Structure of the Invention The dye transfer material of the present invention has a substrate, a sublimable dye, non-sublimable particles, and a binder that binds them together, and some of the non-sublimable particles are separated from the reference plane formed by the binder or the sublimable dye. It is characterized in that any point within a range surrounded by a circle with a radius of 200 μm from each point on the outer periphery of the cross section of an arbitrary non-sublimable particle on this reference surface is occupied by other non-sublimable particles.

To explain this with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, 1 represents a substrate, 2 represents a layer consisting of a sublimable dye and a binder, 3 represents non-sublimable particles, and the particles 3 protrude from the reference plane e of layer 2, and A range 21 surrounded by a circle with radius r=200 μm from each point on the outer periphery of the cross section 3a of any non-sublimable particle 3 in the plane β!
The structure is such that any point of L is occupied by other non-sublimable particles.

In particular, if other non-sublimable particles exist somewhere within the circle of r = 20 μm, it will have a very large effect. In the present invention, non-sublimable particles are not necessarily sublimable dyes.
There is no need for the binder to be exposed beyond the first layer (the layer consisting of the sublimable dye and the binder is hereinafter abbreviated as this), and as shown by the broken line in Figure 3, the non-sublimable particles 3 are exposed to the sublimable dye. - More binder! In this case, the reference plane l may be covered by the figure. Even in this case, the effect of the non-sublimable particles described later is not impaired at all.

Further, non-sublimable particles as shown in FIG. 4 are distinguished by broken lines in the figure and are regarded as two particles. The same applies to those having three or more protrusions.

Further, as shown in FIG. 1, the height h of the sublimable dye-binder layer 2 of the non-sublimable particles 3 from the reference plane e is 0.1.
Good results are shown when it is within the range of ~1000 μm, and the effect of the non-sublimable particles 3 will be explained using an example of 1 μm≦h≦100 μm.

1) Non-contact action Sublimable dye - Since the binder layer 2 and the clay paper 5 do not come into direct contact, there is no transfer of the dye due to suppression or melting, and the dye transfers only by sublimation or vaporization, giving a good transparent image. .

2) Heat conduction effect The heat applied from the thermal head 4 is smoothly conducted through the substrate 1 to the dye near the non-sublimable particles themselves, helping to uniformly sublimate the dye.

The binder has the following effects. That is,
Hold a sufficient amount of sublimable dye and place the reference surface l and clay paper 5.
Since the distance between the recording medium and the recording medium is made close to each other, sufficient recording density can be given to the image. The dye transfer body can still withstand repeated use.

The effect of non-sublimable particles is not limited only when they are present on the substrate, but also when they partially penetrate into the substrate.

Note that the effect of the non-sublimable particles is not sufficient if there are no other non-sublimable particles within the outside shaded area in FIG. 2 or if h in FIG. 1 is smaller than 01 μm. Further, when h exceeds 1000 μm611, 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 black, phosphoric acid, minerals, inorganic salts, organic pigments, or polymeric compositions. Examples of highly effective methods are listed below.

Metals Nialuminum, Silicon, Germanium.

Soot, copper, zinc, silver, iron, cobalt, nickel.

Chromium, alloys and metal oxides based on chromium:
Alumina, beryllium oxide, magnesium oxide,
Suboxide steel, zinc oxide, indium oxide, tin oxide, titanium oxide, silicon oxide, iron oxide, cobalt oxide, nickel oxide, manganese oxide.

Tantalum oxide, vanadium oxide, tungsten oxide, molybdenum oxide, and compounds doped with impurities.

Metal sulfides: copper sulfide, zinc sulfide, tin sulfide, molybdenum sulfide.

Minerals: Magnesium minerals 2 lime minerals, strontium minerals, barium minerals, zirconium minerals, titanium minerals, tin minerals, phosphorus minerals, aluminum minerals (waxite p, kaolin, clay), silicon minerals (stone dry, unshun, talc, zeolite) , Keisouji).

Inorganic salts: Carbonates or sulfates of supra-alkali metal elements (magnesium carbonate, carunium carbonate, strontium carbonate, barium carbonate, magnesylanosulfate, 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 2, polyvinyl acetal, polyamide, polyvinyl alcohol, polycarbonate, polysulfone, polyether sulfone,
polyphenylene ocquindo, polyphenylene sulfide,
Polyetheretherketone, polyamino bismaleimide.

Polyarylate, polyethylene terephthalate.

Polybutylene terephthalate, polyethylene naphthalate, polyimide, polyamideimide, polyacrylonitrile, AS resin, ABS resin, SBR, and compositions based on these.

All of these materials have high mechanical strength and are not affected by, for example, the pressure of bringing the dye transfer member and receiver into close contact, and are suitable for achieving [1] of the present invention. In addition to the above-mentioned polymer compositions, those having a melting point or softening point of 100°C or higher are particularly effective. this is,
Some of the sublimable dyes used have sufficient sublimation J even below 100℃.
(This is because many polymer compositions meet this condition and will not be transferred to the image receptor, resulting in a high-quality transparent image using only the dye.

Furthermore, the thermal conductivity of non-sublimable particles is 1oCa1/m-5
- When the temperature is above -, 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. However, a similar effect can be obtained even when the thermal conductivity of the base is 10 ca ray·S·k or more.

Description of Examples Example 1 5 parts by volume of a sublimable dye represented by the structural formula of formula 1, 6 parts by volume of polycarbonate, 100 parts by volume of dichloromethane, and alumina particles with an average particle size of 3 μm were mixed separately in different amounts. The dispersion was stirred in a ball mill, and the dispersion was coated on a 12 μm thick capacitor paper using a wire bar to obtain a dye transfer material.

Using these, images were drawn on activated clay paper using a thermal head. The recording conditions were as follows.

Linear density of main scanning and sub-scanning = 4 dots/ho recording power
:0.7W/dot head heating time :
4ms+e.

Table 1 shows the dropout o72 per 1000 dots, the number of noise occurrences, and the maximum distance dpi between the projected figure between any alumina particle Pi existing on the dye transfer material and particles existing in its vicinity. Length max
(dpi). FIG. 6 shows the relationship between particle arrangement and dpi. dpl was determined from a scanning electron micrograph taken perpendicularly to a capacitor paper.

Further, h as defined in FIG. 1 was determined from scanning electron micrographs of cross sections of dye transfer bodies, and was 7 μm or less in all cases where the amount of alumina particles was varied. In addition, as a comparative example, the results when no alumina is mixed are also shown.

(Margins below) Table 1 Example 2 The average particle diameter is 0°1. Q. 5,1,2,3゜5.
20 parts by volume of alumina particles of 10, 15, 20, 50 and 100 μm, 5 parts by volume of the sublimable dye of Example 1, 5 parts by volume of polyester resin (trade name: Vylon 200) and 100 parts by volume of chloroform were added to each alumina. Each particle was stirred separately in a ball mill and coated on the same substrate as in Example 1 in the same manner as in Example 1 to obtain a dye transfer material.

Using these, records were made in the same manner as in Example 1, and 10
Number of dropouts and noise generated per 00 dots,
max (dpi) and h are shown.

From the above examples, it can be seen that the recorded images obtained using the dye transfer material of the present invention had dropouts and noise of 13.

It can be seen that the image quality is much lower than that of the comparative example. In particular, may (dpi)≦20 μm, 1 μm
Particularly excellent results were obtained when ≦h≦100 μm.

This is clear from the low noise and dropouts in Table 2. In addition, dye transfer materials having other non-sublimable particles or binders according to the present invention other than these examples also have a max (dpi) of 5200 μm.

Excellent effects were obtained when the condition of 0.1 μm≦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. In addition, full-color images can be obtained using three types of dye transfer material that develop colors in cyan, magenta, and yellow7.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of a dye transfer body according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a cross section of non-sublimable particles in a reference plane of one sublimable dye-binder layer and the range where other non-sublimable particles are present. 3 and 4 are vertical sectional views showing other configuration examples of the dye 147, -7 and the dye transfer body, FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the recording state with the thermal head, and FIG. 6 is the definition of dpi. It is a diagram. 1...Substrate, 2...Row-■ Sex dye'81
- binder layer, 3... non-sublimable particles, e...
...Reference plane, h...Protrusion height of non-sublimable particles. Name of agent: Patent attorney Toshio Nakao and 1 other person No. 1
Figure 2a Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 6 515-

Claims (4)

[Claims] (1) It has a substrate, a sublimable dye, non-sublimable particles, and a binder that binds them together, and a part of the non-sublimable particles protrudes from a reference plane formed by the binder or sublimable dye, and any part of this reference plane A dye transfer material characterized in that any point within a range surrounded by a circle with a radius of 200 μm from each point on the outer periphery of the cross section of the non-sublimable particles is occupied by other non-sublimable particles. (2) The height of any non-sublimable particle from the reference plane is 0
．． Claim 1 within the range of 1 to 1000 μm
Dye transfer material described in Section 1. (3) Thermal conductivity of non-sublimable particles is 1o cal/cI
Claim 1 or 2 which is equal to or more than n-s-
Dye transfer material described in Section 1. (4) Thermal conductivity of the base is 10 calA-nl・S・k
The dye transfer material according to claim 1 or 2, which is as described above.