JPS5998898A - Ink film for thermal transfer recording - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent a recording information printing traces from being read by a third person even if the ink of an ink layer is missed due to transfer printing, by forming the titled ink film from an ink layer comprising ink which is a solid phase at a room temp. but reversibly converted to a liquid phase by heating and a base film layer having the same color as said ink layer and containing a transparent material or coated therewith. CONSTITUTION:An ink film 1 consists of an ink layer 7 and a base film layer 8 and the ink layer 7 is formed of ink which is a solid phase at a room temp. and reversibly converted to a liquid phase by heating. In addition, the base film layer 8 has the same color to that of said ink and contains a transparent material. By using thus formed ink film 1, even if the ink of the ink layer 7 is missed in a character shape and transferred in recording, the residual ink part and the base film layer 8 are not discriminated because they have the same color. Therefore, a white omission phenomenon is not generated and recording information is not read by a third person. As a result, a special erasing means is unnecessary.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Technical Field The present invention relates to an ink film for thermal transfer recording used for thermal recording in facsimile machines, non-impact printers, and the like.

Prior Art Conventionally, there has been a recording method developed in 1973, in which heat-sensitive ink, which is solid at room temperature and becomes reversibly liquid upon heating, is applied onto a polyester film or capacitor paper and transferred onto plain paper using a thermal head. This is known from Japanese Patent No. 26245. However, in the case of this method, since the ink applied is usually a solid phase, the shape of the printed characters may remain on the film due to the ink coming off, and information that you do not want a third party to know may be read from this film. There is a risk of

In this regard, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 55-42886 discloses a means for shaping printing marks formed on an ink film by heating. However, this heating-based shaping method requires the same amount of energy as the recording energy to erase the recorded information traces, which limits speed, increases the size of the device, and increases costs. In any case, it is not a good idea to add extra functions to the device in order to erase traces of recorded information.

Purpose The present invention was made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to obtain an ink film for thermal transfer recording that can prevent the recording information trace from being readable without adding any extra functions to the device.

composition An embodiment of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

First, Figure 1 shows an outline of the apparatus. The ink film (1) for thermal transfer recording and the recording paper (2) overlap at the thermal head (3), and are moved to the left by the platen roller (4). Sent. At this time, recording information is input to the thermal head (3) and the head heats up, melting the ink on the base film layer and transferring it to the recording paper (2). After recording, the ink film (1) is separated from the recording paper (2) at a separation roller (5) and wound onto a take-up roll (6).

Here, the ink film (1) is as shown in FIG.
an ink layer (7) and a base film layer (8);
The ink layer (as is well known) is formed of ink that is in the same phase at room temperature and reversibly becomes a liquid phase when heated. A material containing an opaque material is used.

Such wrinkles in the ink film (1) are caused by the fact that even if the ink in the ink layer (7) is transferred in the form of letters or the like during recording, the remaining ink portion and the base film layer (8) remain the same color. , the two cannot be distinguished, and therefore, no phenomenon occurs with white areas, and the recorded information cannot be read by a third party. As a result, in the apparatus shown in FIG. 1, there is no need to add special erasing means.

In this example, the base film layer (8) contained an opaque material (9) of the same color as the ink, as shown in FIG. 3, and inside the base film layer (8) as shown in FIG. It may be applied on the outside as shown in FIG. 5, or on both sides as shown in FIG. In any case, it is necessary that the melting point of such material (9) is higher than that of the ink of the ink layer (7).

Effects Since the present invention uses the base film layer as described above, even if the ink in the ink layer is removed during transfer, the recorded information traces will not be readable by a third party.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show one embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1 is a schematic side view, FIG. 2 is an enlarged vertical cross-sectional side view of an ink film, and FIGS. 3 to 5 are vertical cross-sectional side views showing modified examples. It is a diagram. 7... Ink layer, 8... Base film layer top
People Ricoh Co., Ltd.] J Figure A 2 Page 10 Figure 1 U Figure 5

Claims (1)

[Claims] For thermal transfer recording, comprising an ink layer made of an ink that is solid at room temperature and reversibly becomes liquid when heated, and a base film layer containing or coating an opaque material with the same color as the ink. ink film.