JPS5916796A - Card - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a credit card having an image formed on the surface of the card, in particular an image having density gradation such as a photograph of a face;
D. There are things related to cards such as cards↑.

In order to prevent unauthorized use of cards such as credit cards, ID cards, cards, etc., or for individual recognition, it is widely used to provide cards with an image unique to the owner, such as a photograph of the owner's face. .

At present, the following three types of cards with images such as facial photographs are generally known.

That is, ① Photographic paper, either embedded in the card as it is or in a pouch.

■It is formed by coating a card base with a photosensitive material (photopolymer) and printing an image onto this photosensitive material.

■An image is formed by an engraving method in which an ink film is formed on the card surface by screen printing, etc., and then physically scraped off with a needle.

is known as a publicly known technique.

However, in such conventional technology, the number of production steps in the above items (2) and (3) is large, so it takes a long time to produce, and since the image cannot be formed on the card itself, a large amount of material is required for forming the image. This increases the production cost accordingly, and the appearance of the card is significantly inferior. On the other hand, although some of the above drawbacks can be solved according to (2), the speed of image formation is slow;
For this reason, mass production is still insufficient.

The present invention was made in view of the current state of the art as described above, and its purpose is to provide an image that has excellent image reproducibility, is mass-producible, and can be produced at low cost. Our goal is to provide you with a card that has
In a card according to the present invention that achieves the above object, an image forming layer made of a substance that evaporates by irradiation with a laser beam is disposed in the area where an image is to be formed, and the color of the image forming layer is determined by the color of the image forming layer. This is a card that is based on the card itself.

The present invention will be explained in detail below.

FIG. 1 is a plan view of the card according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line X-X in FIG. 1, FIG. FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of an apparatus for manufacturing cards according to the present invention.

As is clear from FIGS. 1 to 3, the credit card according to the present invention or 1. D. A card such as a card (1) has prescribed information (2) such as the name of the company issuing the card, the name and address of the owner, and an identification number written on the front side by printing, embossing, or handwriting by the owner. If necessary, a magnetic stripe (not shown) may be provided.

A thin (for example, 20 μm) image forming layer (5) made of a substance that evaporates when irradiated with a laser beam is disposed on a part or the entire surface of such a card (1). As the substance that evaporates by laser beam irradiation, various known printing inks such as screen printing ink or gravure printing ink can be used.

Further, the image forming layer (5) needs to have a color different from the color of the underlying layer, that is, the color of the card body (4). For example, if the surface color of the card body (4) is white, the color of the image forming layer (5) is black or blue. is good.

As means for providing the image forming layer (5) in this way, various known means can be applied; for example, the above-mentioned substance may be formed into an ink and applied by a known printing method such as silk screen printing, or Polyethylene terephthalate 1
The material may be applied to a base sheet such as . . . by applying heat and pressure to transfer the material.

Furthermore, the color of the image forming layer (5) can be adjusted by changing the color of the image forming layer (5).
) In order to make the color different from the surface of the card body (4) below the image forming layer (5) and the card body (4), there is a material made of a material that does not easily evaporate even when irradiated with a laser beam. A colored layer may be interposed. As such a substance, for example, a known synthetic resin such as vinyl chloride can be used.

In this specification, the colored layer as described above will also be treated as a part of the card body (4).

Further, this image forming layer (5) is provided directly below the image forming layer (5).
It is also possible to provide an auxiliary layer made of the same material as the one with a different color. As a result, the image forming layer (5
) is absorbed by this auxiliary layer and does not reach the card body (4), preventing the vinyl chloride of the card body (4) from turning brown and forming a beautiful image. can.

By selectively irradiating the image forming layer (5) with the laser beam in this way, the portion (7) irradiated with the laser beam instantly evaporates, as shown in FIG. The portion (6) that is not affected remains as it is. Therefore, the surface of the card body (4) is exposed from the evaporated portion (7) of the image forming layer (5), and the color of the surface becomes visible, while the image formation layer (6) still remains. The color of the layer (5) is shown, and for this reason, the laser beam irradiation is controlled and the evaporated part (7)
) By changing the size of the image (3), it is possible to form an image (3), for example, a photograph of a face, having a density gradation.

Next, a specific method of forming an image as described above by irradiating with a laser beam will be described.

The first method, as schematically shown in FIG. Change the direction and use Mask 05) (The structure and creation method of Mask 0■ will be described in detail later)
A laser beam is selectively transmitted to irradiate the image forming layer (5) of the card (1). This allows the image forming layer (
The portion irradiated with the laser beam Y in step 5) evaporates, and the above-mentioned image is formed on the card.

The mask (15) is the image (3) to be formed on the card (11).
), which transmits a laser beam in proportion to the density gradation of the image.

That is, first, an image on photographic paper, which is the original of the image to be formed on the card (1), is photographed (monochrome) to obtain a positive film. This positive film and example 1331ine
/1 nch contact screen and exposed again (shading), and developing to obtain a screened positive film (halftone positive).

This screened positive film is exposed to a mask material such as a copper plate or brass plate with a thickness of 0.1 to 0.2 coated with a negative type resist, and the mask material is developed to expose it to light. Wash away the resist in the areas that were not hit by the light, etch the mask material where the resist remains in the areas that were hit by the light, make holes in the areas where there is no resist, and then wash away the remaining resist to create a mask (05). I hope you can get it in the evening.

As is clear from the above steps, the mask 05) formed in this way has large holes densely present in areas corresponding to high density areas (dark areas) of the image and low density areas (highlight areas). ) has a structure in which the holes become smaller and the presence rate of holes decreases in the portion corresponding to the image forming layer ( 5) The density of the laser beam irradiated to the card (1) can be controlled, so the image forming layer (5) of the card (1) can be made in a white color and the card body (4) can be made in a black color. For example, in the shadow areas, the evaporated areas (7) account for a large proportion, and conversely, in the highlight areas, the evaporated areas (7) become sparse, resulting in an image (3) with density gradation, in this case a face photo. can be formed. In this case, the laser beam irradiation is preferably performed by pulse exposure of 1 shot, and the laser (1) can be, for example, a carbon dioxide laser, and its output is about 3 g. It's good.

Another way to create an image is to use a laser (22) to create an image on the card through the lens, as shown in FIG.
Scan the document C2 (a) on which the image you want to form is scanned, and pass this reflected or transmitted light through the lens (30)'
& is received by a photoelectric conversion element (23), which converts the intensity of the laser beam into an electrical signal. It is best to use halftone positive for the original (24). For such halftone positive, first expose and develop photographic paper on which an image has been recorded to create a continuous tone positive film, and then combine this positive film with 1331ine/1nch. It can be obtained by contact exposure and development with a contact screen. Therefore, the photoelectric conversion element (23) outputs a density signal of the facial photograph for each halftone dot. The arithmetic processing unit (21) controls the irradiation of the laser beam onto the image forming layer (5) by the laser (251) based on this signal. An opening/closing signal is sent to each halftone dot, and in cooperation with the control of the laser beam irradiation position by the mirrors (27) and (28), the size of the halftone dot is used as a unit on the image forming layer (5). A laser beam is applied to the image forming layer +5+y @[(5'
p +″K ’88 @ 1 ii!j it Y M
gV7. )・Mutsumi Furthermore, when a contact tone image on ordinary photographic paper is used as the original (24), it is preferable to provide a dot generator immediately before the arithmetic processing unit (21) in order to perform shading.

In addition, the laser (25) has a laser capacity of 2.5~
Y around 3W, laser beam wavelength around 1.06 nozm
It is preferable to use an AG laser (solid-state laser), and the scanning speed is 300 to 500 m.
It is preferable to perform a continuous scan of /sec.

The image may be formed on the card according to the present invention by any of the methods described above, but is not limited to these methods and may be formed by any other method.

As described above, the present invention is capable of instantly forming an image by irradiating it with a laser beam, and has a faster image forming speed than systems that form images by mechanical engraving. , which is extremely suitable for mass production.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings show one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a plan view of a card according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is taken along line X-X in FIG.
3 is an enlarged sectional view of a main part, and FIGS. 4 and 5 are explanatory views of an apparatus for forming an image on a card according to the present invention. ■...Card 2...Prescribed matters 3...Image 4...Card body 5...Image forming layer 6...Remaining portion 7...Evaporation portion Patent applicant Toppan Printing Co., Ltd. ＼P Amended form of taste procedure (method) % formula % 1. Display of the case Patent Application No. 127074 of 1987 2. Name card of the invention 3. Person making the amendment Relationship with the case Patent applicant address Taito, Taito-ku, Tokyo 1-5-1 No. 5, Detailed description of the invention in the specification subject to amendment (pages 5 and 6 of the specification) 6. Contents of the amendment

Claims (1)

[Claims] (2) In a card on which an image with density gradation is formed, an image forming layer made of a substance that evaporates when irradiated with a laser beam is disposed on a part or the entire surface of the card body,
The color of the image forming layer is different from the color of the surface of the card body, and the image forming layer is partially evaporated by irradiating the image forming layer with a laser beam to form an image. A card.