JPS61104888A - Thermal transfer recording sheet and manufacture thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To permit a continuous tonal recording to be performed easily and stably by using auxiliary particles having a higher melting point than a binder and a grain size larger than the thickness of an ink layer. CONSTITUTION:In a thermal transfer material 100, a layer consisting of a small thickness of an ink material 120 composed of a colorant 122 and a binder 121 is formed on the surface 110a of a base material 110. Auxiliary particles 123 for ink transfer are added to the material 120 to make up a thermal transfer layer 130. The particles 123 have a grain size greater than the thickness (t) of the layer 120 and a higher melting point (or fluidized point) than the binder 121. Since the ink material 120 of low viscosity, conditioned by temperature-rise recording control, is permeated through the particles 123, continuous tonal transfer recording with pigment coloants can be made possible.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application The present invention is useful for thermal transfer recording of monochromatic gradation images, color images, etc. on a recording medium in continuous gradation using a thermal recording head, a laser beam, etc. The present invention relates to a thermal transfer recording sheet and a method for manufacturing the same.

Conventional structure and problems Conventionally, thermal transfer recording sheets have been produced by applying pigment coloring materials to a binder material such as hot melt wax on one surface of a heat-resistant base sheet such as capacitor paper or polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film. A so-called melt transfer type thermal transfer recording sheet in which a thermal transferable ink layer is formed by a real melt coating method is known.

Thermal transfer using this thermal transfer recording sheet is performed by, for example, using a known thermal transfer method from the side of the base sheet on which the ink layer is not formed, that is, the back side of the base sheet, with the recording medium such as recording paper and the thermal transfer recording sheet in pressure contact. The ink is selectively heated (by a recording head, etc.) and recording is controlled, and the ink material is transferred and adhered to the recording medium by utilizing the substantial decrease in viscosity of the ink material as the binder material melts.

However, the so-called ink melting in this case starts from the back side of the ink layer in contact with the base sheet, and progresses in the thickness direction of the ink layer as the temperature rises and the writing thermal energy increases, and the recording that comes in contact with it only after the surface part of the ink layer is melted. It has a feature that almost all of the melted ink material in the thickness direction is transferred to the medium at once.

Therefore, thermal transfer recording requires a certain amount of thermal energy to completely melt the ink layer in the thickness direction. Although it is useful for binary density recording, it has the drawback that it is difficult to perform so-called continuous tone recording in which the recording density changes in response to heating energy for writing.◎Therefore -1 To improve this difficulty Digital pseudo-gradation methods such as the dither method and the density pattern method have been widely studied, but the actual resolution has decreased and the method has become complicated, so improvements have been desired.

From this point of view, the present inventors created a porous structure by arranging a large number of through holes in the ink layer, and developed a so-called heat penetration method in which the ink layer is made porous and the molten ink immediately penetrates the through holes and is transferred to the recording medium. Thermal transfer recording method (patent application 1982-
No. 110024) was presented.

Continuous tone recording is possible with the above recording method, but
In order to obtain the desired continuous gradation characteristics, careful consideration must be given to the hole diameter and arrangement density of the through holes, as well as the contact conditions between the ink layer surface and the recording medium surface. In order to improve the contact conditions, a thermal transfer sheet in which spacer particles are further mixed into the porous ink layer (Japanese Patent Application No. 59-110023) has been proposed.
When the particle size of the spacer particles is smaller than that of the ink layer, there are severe restrictions on the particle size and arrangement density of the through holes. Therefore, there is a need for an improved thermal transfer recording sheet that is not necessarily based on such a heat penetration method but is easy to manufacture and operate, and can perform stable continuous tone recording.

Purpose of the Invention The present invention has been developed as a result of studying improvements against the background of the above-mentioned technical difficulties. By limiting the particle size of the above-mentioned spacer particles to a certain level or more, it is possible to easily stabilize the spacer without necessarily relying on the above-mentioned heat penetration method. Based on the discovery that continuous gradation recording can be performed using a thermal transfer recording sheet, the present invention aims to provide an improved thermal transfer recording sheet that is easy to manufacture and capable of stably recording gradation of monochrome images, full color images, etc., and a method for manufacturing the same. Objective 0 Structure of the Invention The principle of the present invention is to have an ink material whose viscosity is controlled to be reduced by temperature increase recording control and to impart transferability to a recording medium, and this ink. An ink that has a higher melting point or pour point than a binder material, which is a component of the material and whose viscosity is controlled to be reduced by increasing temperature, and has a particle size greater than the thickness of the layer made of this ink material. The present invention is a thermal transfer recording sheet in which a thermal transfer layer in which transfer auxiliary particles are mixed in the ink material is provided on one side of a sheet-like heat-resistant substrate.

Ink material here means the intended recording material to be transferred to a recording medium, and it does not matter whether it is colored or non-colored.
Pigments and dyes are used in normal transfer recording.

Alternatively, it is configured to include a coloring material made of a mixture of these materials. Furthermore, the term binder material collectively refers to materials whose viscosity decreases when the temperature rises and imparts transferability to a recording medium, and these materials are not specified as a single material but can be composed of multiple types of materials. , a plasticizer, a softener, and a surfactant added as needed.

The binder material is intended to include chicktroping agents and other auxiliary agents.

Further, the particle shape of the ink transfer auxiliary particles is preferably spherical, but sometimes the particle shape does not matter, and in this case, the particle size can be expressed as an average particle size. For the ink transfer auxiliary particles, transparent or opaque materials can be used as required, and colored or non-colored materials can also be selected as appropriate. When the binder material is melted, it may be incompatible with the binder material, or may be partially compatible or compatible with the binder material, and multiple types may be mixed and used as appropriate.

Further, in accordance with manufacturing the thermal transfer recording sheet, a mixed material containing the ink material, the ink transfer auxiliary particles, and a solvent material for dissolving the binder material is applied to one surface of the heat-resistant substrate to a predetermined thickness. After coating and layering,
Evaporate the solvent material.

The method for producing a thermal transfer recording sheet is characterized in that the thickness of the layer made of the ink material is equal to or less than the particle size of the ink transfer auxiliary particles.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional structure of an embodiment of a thermal transfer recording sheet according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a surface plan view of a thermal transfer layer of a thermal transfer recording sheet, and FIGS. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of the principle of transfer using a thermal transfer recording sheet as an example.

100 is a thermal transfer recording sheet (abbreviated as a transfer body), 200 is a recording medium such as a recording paper, 300 is a temperature increasing recording signal such as heat or laser light, and 400 is a transfer body 100 and a recording medium 20.
In order to improve the adhesion and obtain good transfer recording with a suppressing force that is sufficient to press 0, the pressure is set to a high pressure of, for example, about 1 to 5 KP/ar1.

The transfer body 1o○ has a coloring material 122 containing at least one of pigments or dyes on the surface 110a side of a thin film or sheet-like substrate 110 that is heat resistant and translucent. Binder material 1 that has a relationship of decreasing viscosity
222 A thin layer of ink material 120 is formed, for example of a mixed material with a hot melt binder material.

The ink material layer 120 has temperature rising recording signals 301°302.
Within the plane corresponding to each recording pixel 310 corresponding to
A thermal transfer layer 130 is constructed by disposing a single ink transfer auxiliary particle or a plurality of ink transfer auxiliary particles (hereinafter abbreviated as auxiliary particles) 123 as illustrated in the figure.

In this example, the case where the auxiliary particles 123 are spherical is exemplified, and the particle diameter φ is the same as that of the ink material layer 123 located between the particles 123.
The thickness of the part is selected to be greater than or equal to t. Therefore, the auxiliary particles 123 cover the surface 12 of the ink material layer in areas where no particles 123 are present.
The a and lateral sides also partially protrude, and the surface of the thermal transfer layer 130 forms fine irregularities. In this example, the ink material 120' is also located thinly on the protruding surface 123b of the auxiliary particle 123, but this does not necessarily have to be present, and this portion of the auxiliary particle surface 123b may be exposed. can.

As a generation source of the temperature-raising recording signal 300, for example, a known thermal recording head having a resistance heating element whose heat generation amount is pulse-width-modulated, or a pulse-width-modulated electrical signal 500, or a known thermal recording head having a resistance heating element whose emitted light amount is pulse-width-modulated. Use a laser beam irradiation device etc. Below, when using a thermal recording head,
The recording head is brought into pressure contact with the substrate back surface 110b, and the substrate 11
The recording control is performed to raise the temperature of the ink material layer 120 by heat conduction through the ink material layer 120.

In the case of using a laser beam irradiation device, the ink material layer 120 is irradiated with a laser beam from the substrate 110b side through the substrate 110 without contact, and the temperature of the ink material layer 120 is controlled to increase and record with the thermal energy generated by the absorption of the light. Hereinafter, an example will be explained in which the temperature increasing recording control is performed using a thermal recording head.

By applying the temperature increase recording signal 300, the ink material layer 12
0 is heated from the back surface 12ob side, and when the melting point is reached and the required heat of fusion is supplied, under this constant melting point temperature, the temperature is increased (the inder material 121 melts and liquefies,
So-called molten ink material 140 with substantially reduced viscosity
Generate a.

Further, when the recording signal 300 is applied, the temperature of the molten ink material 140a starts to rise again from the back side of the layer (that is, the surface of the substrate 110a) beyond the melting point, and corresponds to the temperature rise. The viscosity of the material 140 is further reduced and fluidity is imparted to the material 140, and at the same time, this molten ink material 140a
The melting occurs due to heat conduction through the ink material layer surface 12.
Proceed to the 0a side.

On the other hand, if the melting point (or pour point) of the binder material 121 as well as the auxiliary particles 123 is selected to be high, the temperature increase due to heat conduction from the base surface 110a and furthermore from the molten ink material 140a will be around the melting point. Continuous.

Thus, in the auxiliary particles 123, the ink material layer 12
The surface 123a of the part buried in 0.

The unmelted ink materials 1201 and 120' in contact with the surface 123b of the portion protruding from the layer surface 120a are at their melting point temperature even at their maximum temperature. Therefore, the auxiliary particle surface 123a has a melting point temperature higher than this.

Heat of fusion is supplied by heating from 123b.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 3a, the surfaces 123a and 123b
Melted ink materials 140b and 1400 are generated along the lines, and the melted portion expands as the pulse width of the recording signal 300 increases, and the viscosity of the melted portion further decreases and fluidity increases.

Generally, when a substance changes from solid to liquid, its volumetric expansion coefficient increases discontinuously. This tendency is particularly remarkable for wax materials, whose volumetric expansion reaches about 20%.

In this way, the molten ink material 140a and further 140b penetrates and is pushed out along the auxiliary particle surface 123a as shown by the arrow 150 due to its thermal expansion, filling the narrow gap between the auxiliary particle surface 123b and the recording medium surface 200a. Due to a kind of capillary phenomenon, the particles are transferred to the surface 123b of the auxiliary particles and attached to and transferred to the surface 200a of the recording medium.

In this case, if the recording medium 200 has poor ink absorption properties such as porous paper, the above-mentioned adhesion and transfer will be promoted, and if the pressing force 400 is appropriately large, the auxiliary particles 123
and the molten ink material 140 interposed between the substrate surface 110a and the substrate surface 110a.
a is forced by this pressing force of 400 to the surfaces 123a, 12
Through 3b, more effective penetration, being pushed out
Become.

The molten ink material adhering to the recording medium surface 200a has heat removed by the recording medium 200, and its viscosity increases or even solidifies.

When the pulse width PW of the recording signal 300 is appropriately small, the amount of adhesion and transfer is also small corresponding to the pulse width Pw.
The molten ink material 140a has a suitably large size and low viscosity.
, 140b imparts mobility to the auxiliary particles 123, following the above-mentioned infiltration and extrusion 150, after the application of the signal 301 is completed, the molten ink material 140a
.

Before the 140b cools and returns to its original, for example, solid state, that is, it still maintains a fluid state, and the auxiliary particles 123
When the recording medium 200 and the recording sheet are peeled off without losing their mobility, the molten ink materials 140a and 140b are removed, as illustrated in FIG.

The remainder of 1400 adheres to the surface of the auxiliary particle and becomes the auxiliary particle 1.
23 and adheres to the recording medium surface 200a.

The transferred paper 161 containing the coloring material 122 is obtained.

When the pulse width PW of the recording signal 3oO becomes wider to PW" PW2, the melting finally reaches the surface 120a of the ink material layer, and the entire thickness of the ink material layer 120 becomes auxiliary particles 1.
23 and is attached to and transferred to the medium surface 200, and the transferred record 162 in this case becomes the maximum value of the transferred optical record density.

Thus, in response to the recording signal 300, the ink material layer 12
0 melts and becomes lower in viscosity, and in response to this lower viscosity, a transfer record 16 is formed on the recording medium surface 200a together with the auxiliary particles 123.
0, therefore, the auxiliary particle 1 corresponds to the Norse width Pw.
The optical density can be transferred and recorded in continuous gradation with density modulation and area modulation coexisting in units of 23. In this case, if the density of the auxiliary particles 123 is selected to be appropriately high, there is an advantage that the recorded pixels 310 themselves can be visually controlled by the density gradation.

The above describes an example in which the binder material 121 has a clear melting point and the viscosity decreases rapidly when it melts. Gradation can be recorded even when the material does not have a clear melting point and its viscosity decreases slowly with increasing temperature, or it has a large penetration and is solid or semi-solid at room temperature. Furthermore, the melting point is room temperature (e.g. 26°)
Even if the binder material 121 is adhesive at room temperature such as polybutane, fog transfer of the ink material 120 due to its adhesion (between the thermal transfer layer 12o and the recording medium 20) is possible.
Phenomenon where ink material 12o is transferred just by pressing 0)
In order to prevent
By selecting the pulse width Pvy higher than centipoise and selecting the arrangement density of the auxiliary particles 123 appropriately high, the pulse width Pvy
A transfer record 160 is obtained in continuous gradation corresponding to .

In these cases, when the viscosity of the ink materials 120 and 12σ decreases in response to the pulse width pw of the Kitami signal 300 and they become fluid as a whole, the gap between the recording medium surface 200a and the particle surface 123b corresponds to this viscosity decrease. By a kind of capillary action, the ink material 120' passes through the auxiliary particle surface 123b and further 123&.

120 is penetrated and adhered to and transferred to the recording medium surface 2oO&. Further, in a state where the fluidized ink material in the ink material layer 120 part does not lose its fluid state, the recording medium 2
When the transfer sheet 100 and the transfer sheet 100 are peeled off, the ink material with reduced viscosity is transferred to the surface 123a.

The auxiliary particles 123 attached to the pulse width 123b are transferred, and a continuous tone transfer record 160 corresponding to the pulse width Pvy is obtained on the recording medium surface 200a.

For melting and low viscosity ink material, auxiliary particle surface 1
23a, 123b and the recording medium surface 200a must have good wettability, and the wetting angle (contact angle) with respect to these surfaces is set to be at least within 90° and as small as possible.

In addition, in FIG. 1, when the particle diameter φ of the auxiliary particles 123 is smaller than the thickness t of the ink material layer 120, the ink material layer surface 120 is formed on the recording medium surface 200a in FIG.
a is brought into close contact. In this case, even if there is ink material whose viscosity has been reduced or melted on the base surface 110a side or on the surface of the auxiliary particles, the transfer recording 160 will not be performed unless the ink material layer surface 120 is melted or its viscosity is reduced. cannot occur.

On the other hand, when the layer surface 120a is melted or has a low viscosity, the melted or low viscosity ink material layer existing inside the layer 120 also adheres and is transferred to the medium surface 200a at once, resulting in high-density transfer. A record 160 results. This results in transfer recording characteristics with poor gradation.

The particle shape of the auxiliary particles 123 is not necessarily limited to a spherical shape, and may be polygonal or other.゛Also particle size φ
It is not necessary that all particles have a single diameter, but may have an appropriate particle size distribution. In this case, the thickness t of the ink layer surface 120a
The auxiliary particles 123 having a particle size φ greater than or equal to φ and protruding beyond the ink layer surface 120a contribute to continuous tone transfer recording, and the auxiliary particles 123 having a particle size smaller than that behave in a similar manner to the pigment as the coloring material 122. shows.

Therefore, in practical terms, it is convenient to express the particle size φ in terms of the average pore size.

The average particle diameter φ of the auxiliary particles 123 is practically selected within a preferable range based on both the continuous tone transfer characteristics and the maximum density of transfer recording, based on the correlation with the thickness t of the ink material layer 120.

When the average particle diameter φ is less than 1.5 μm, the ink material layer 12
The thickness t of zero becomes too small, making it difficult to obtain a high maximum density of the transfer record 160, making it difficult to manufacture a uniform thermal transfer layer 120, and making fog transfer more likely to occur. On the other hand, if the average particle diameter φ of the auxiliary particles 123 exceeds 16 μm, the heat capacity of the auxiliary particles 123 becomes excessive, making it difficult to achieve the desired heating temperature, and the path of penetration and extrusion 150 becomes excessively long, resulting in low sensitivity. , and the maximum recording density also decreases.

Therefore, the preferred average particle diameter range is 1.5 μm to 16 μm.
It is m. Sometimes the average particle size φTn'i 2μm ~ 10'μm
It is recommended that it be selected within the range of , since fog transfer can be easily prevented and continuous gradation and recording sensitivity can be improved. In this case, it is desirable that the maximum particle size value in the particle size distribution does not exceed 16 μm.

On the other hand, the arrangement density of the auxiliary particles 123 is selected in consideration of the density of the recording pixels 310 and the thermal transfer recording characteristics.

The lowest arrangement density of the auxiliary particles 123 is when the auxiliary particles 123 are located on the single side with respect to each recording pixel 310.

Normally, when recording gradation patterns using a known linear type thermal recording head, the recording density, that is, the density d of recording pixels 310, is selected to be 4 dots/wn or more from the viewpoint of image quality.

Therefore, the auxiliary particles 12 that are effective in the present invention and satisfy φ>t
The minimum value of the hiding rate (area ratio of the particles 123 occupying the unit area of the substrate surface 110a) S, which is limited to 3, is the preferable maximum lJS value of the particle size φ, φ = φ, y (= 1.5 μm
) is given by (π4m1nd2)/a, and when d=4 dots/=, it becomes 1.89X10-2 (1,89%).

On the other hand, the maximum value of S is given by π/4 = 0.785 (78.5%) when the auxiliary particles 123 of φ>t are most densely arranged on the substrate surface 110a without overlapping each other. . S can be appropriately selected within the above range.

In the above, if the arrangement density of the auxiliary particles 123 is too low, the density of the transfer record 160 via the particles 123 will be insufficient, and the recorded image will also appear coarse. To prevent these, the arrangement density of particles 123 is 16 particles/mm (,265 particles/mm).
−) or above is desirable. Figure 2 shows recording pixel 3.
A case is illustrated in which four auxiliary particles 123 are arranged in each of the particles 10.

The auxiliary particles 123 are preferably colorless and transparent or white in view of the color clarity of the transfer record 160, but they may be colored. In this case, selecting the same color as the color material 122 is effective in improving the density of the copy record 160. If different colors are selected, the color of the transfer record 160 will be a mixture of the ink material 120 and the particles 123, so the color of the transfer record 160 will change according to the pulse width Pw, which has the advantage of being able to perform multicolor recording.

The auxiliary particles 123 are not limited to non-porous particles, and porous particles can also be used.

Examples of the colorless transparent or white particles 123 include transparent glass powder, fused quartz powder, thermosetting resin particles such as epoxy resin, thermoplastic resin particles such as polyamide and polycarbonate resin, and aluminum oxide (Afl 203).
) to titanium oxide, silicon oxide (SiO2), tin oxide,
Inorganic powder particles such as barium sulfate are used.

The colored particles 123 include, for example, an inorganic pigment such as red red iron, an organic pigment with a large secondary particle diameter such as Disazo Yellow 10G (in this case, the same type of pigment as the coloring material 122 may be used), and acid dye lake.

Dyeing lake particles such as basic dye lake and acid azo lake, plastic particles colored with a coloring material, siliceous earth, and when the coloring material 122 is a black pigment such as a black dye or carbon black, the particles 123 may be artificial graphite, etc. black material can be used.

As the auxiliary particles 123, the ink material layer 12 at room temperature or
It is also possible to use a hot melt material that is not completely compatible with the binder material 121 or completely dissolved in the solvent during production, such as carnauba wax or Sasol wax particles. In this case, if the material is selected so as to be compatible with the binder material 121 during thermal transfer, the transfer sensitivity is improved and a strong transfer record 160 can be obtained.

These auxiliary particles 123 can also be used in combination of multiple types.

The binder material 121 constituting the ink material layer 120 does not necessarily need to be solid at room temperature (for example, 25° C.), provided that its viscosity is reduced by valve recording control and transfer adhesion is imparted. In view of the storage stability of the transfer record 160, it is preferable to use a hot melt material that is solid at room temperature.

Examples of hot melt materials include waxes such as carnauba wax, beeswax, paraffin, and microcrystalline wax, low molecular weight polyethylene, low molecular weight polystyrene, polyvinyl stearate, polyamide resins such as petroleum resins, alicyclic saturated hydrocarbon resins, and rosin. Examples include modified maleic acid resins, but the melting point or pour point is 50 to 17C, depending on the transfer sensitivity and fastness of the transferred recorded material.
C1 is preferably selected from 60 to 12oC. Similarly, softeners that are mixed into the binder to give it flexibility include polyvinyl acetate, cellulose esters, etc.
Acrylic resins, stearic acid, lanoli, etc. are used as appropriate based on their melting or softening temperatures. As a binder agent, it is highly flexible in itself.
For example, when petroleum resin, low molecular weight polystyrene, etc. are used, no softener may be added. Furthermore, by including it in the inder agent, it is possible to further reduce the viscosity against rising temperatures and increase the transfer efficiency. For example, by mixing adhesive materials such as polybutene, polyimbutylene, polybutadiene, and silicone oil into the true melt material, thermal properties can be improved. It can also be adjusted and used as a binder agent.

As the coloring material 122, organic or inorganic pigments and dyes used in ordinary printing inks, paints, etc., or mixtures of these coloring materials can be appropriately selected and used in colored recording.

For example, in black transfer recording, the pigment is carbon black, diamond black, and the dye is CI 5o.
lvent Black 3 or the like is used.

In addition to the above, for full color transfer recording, CI Pigment Blue 15 (pigment) is used for cyan color.

CI 5olvent Blue 25 (dye), CI Pigment Red 57 for magenta color
(pigment), Cl5oluent Red 49, Iz
CI Pi gment Yellow12 for o-color
(Pigment), CI Pigment Yellow
17 (pigment), CI 5olutnt Ysllo
A thermal transfer layer 130 is sequentially arranged in frame order on the same base sheet 110 using an ink material 120 of three primary colors such as W 16, pigment, dye, or a mixture thereof, or four primary colors including black. , by overlapping and transferring these in frame sequence, or by forming a separate transfer sheet 10o for each primary color with the primary color thermal transfer layer, and arranging a known glue-type thermal recording head for each primary color transfer sheet. Full-color recording is achieved by delaying primary color recording signals corresponding to the assigned positions of the respective recording heads and overlappingly transferring them line-sequentially.

The mixing weight ratio of the coloring material 122 and the binder material 121 is determined in consideration of transfer recording characteristics.

For example, when a dye is used as the coloring material 122, if the weight percentage in the ink material layer 120 is less than 2%, the transfer recording density will be insufficient.On the other hand, if the coloring material 122 is a pigment, the weight percentage exceeds 60%. As a result, the viscosity of the ink material 12o as a whole during melting is insufficient, making it difficult to transfer to the recording medium surface 200, resulting in insufficient transfer recording density. Therefore, color material 1
22 heavy binder material 121 corresponds to 98~
It is desirable to choose within the range of 40.

In particular, the coloring material 122 is 10 to 50%, the binder material 12 is
The ink material 120 in which 1 is in the range of 90 to 50% is:
It has excellent transfer recording density and continuous gradation, and is within the recommended range. This range is particularly effective when using a pigment as the coloring material 122.

The sheet-like substrate 2 has a thickness of 3.5 to 15 μm, for example.
Resin films such as polyethylene terephthalate, polyimide, cellophane, polycarbonate, triacetyl cellulose, nylon, etc., or high-quality paper, glassine paper, tracing paper.

Heat-resistant paper such as capacitor paper can be used.

The recording medium 200 is high quality paper or coated paper.

Art Paper 2 Papers such as synthetic paper, plastic films such as polyethylene terephthalate, polypropylene, cellophane, etc. can be used.

The thermal transfer sheet 1oO can be manufactured by applying and layering the thermal transfer layer 130 on the surface 110a of the base sheet by, for example, a hot melt coating method or a solvent coating method by appropriately combining the above-described configurations.

For example, in the case of a hot melt coating method, the first method is to apply a mixed material consisting of a binder material 121, a coloring material 122, and auxiliary particles 123 to a binder material 121, a color material 122, and auxiliary particles 123.
The auxiliary particles 123 are coated onto the surface 110a to a thickness equal to the particle size of the auxiliary particles 123. When this thermal transfer layer 130 is cooled to room temperature, the particles 123 shrink due to the solidification of the binder material 121.
The thickness t of the ink material layer 120 is smaller than the particle size φ, satisfying the relationship φ>t, and the particles 123 effectively contribute to the thermal transfer recording described above.

The second method is to apply an ink material layer 1 on the substrate surface 110a in advance.
20 is applied thinly by a hot melt coating method, etc., and after uniformly scattering high melting point auxiliary particles 123 on the surface, the surface is coated with a roller coated with tetrafluoroethylene, a tetrafluoroethylene film, etc. The non-adhesive body is heated while being in pressure contact with the molten binder material 121 to melt the binder material 121, and in the softened state of the material 121, the auxiliary particles 123 are partially introduced into the ink material layer 120. satisfy the relationship.

In the third method, composite particles whose surfaces are thinly coated with ink material 120 using high-melting-point auxiliary particles 123 as a core material are uniformly dispersed and arranged on the surface 120a, and then, similarly to the second method, non-containing particles are applied. The adhesive body is pressed and heated to melt the ink material 120 and satisfy the relationship φ>t.

In this kind of hot melt coating method, auxiliary particles 1
It is difficult to use a hot melt material as the material 23, and care must be taken to satisfy the relationship φ>7 in terms of manufacturing method. These improvements are achieved by the Nlupe/Tokote, Ing method.

That is, in a mixed material of binder material 1211, coloring material 122, and auxiliary particles 123, at room temperature, auxiliary particles 1
No. 23 is not dissolved, but is mixed and kneaded in addition to the binder material mixture to prepare a dissolved suspension material solution. In this case, in order to prevent excessive pulverization of the auxiliary particles 123, the ink material liquid may be mixed and kneaded in advance, and then the auxiliary particles 123 may be mixed and dispersed.

These material liquids are thinly coated and layered to a predetermined thickness on the base surface 110a using a bar eater, offset printing, gravure printing, or the like. Due to this stratification, the auxiliary particles 123 are
10 Deposited on the a-plane and arranged in a plane, evaporating the solvent,
By drying, the thickness of the solution of the ink material 120 in the coating layer is reduced. Therefore, by controlling the amount of solvent added, the ink material layer 120 that satisfies φ
Not only can the thickness t of the auxiliary particles 12 be controlled arbitrarily, but also the thickness t of the auxiliary particles 12
3. Hot melt materials can also be used, etc.
It has excellent effects.

In this case, it goes without saying that the particle size of the secondary particles of the pigment as the coloring material 122 is selected to be smaller than the thickness t of the ink material layer 120.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional structural diagram of another embodiment of the thermal transfer recording sheet according to the present invention.

The purpose of this example is to improve the fog transfer when the recording medium 200 is pressed against the recording medium 200 and to obtain even better gradation recording characteristics as compared to FIG.

In FIG. 1, the protrusion surface 123 of the auxiliary particle 123 is
Ink material 12σ containing coloring material 122 was adhered onto b. In such a case, if the binder material 121 is soft (high penetration), the ink material 120' containing the coloring material 122 is transferred during pressure contact with the recording medium surface 200, and this double transfer reduces the quality of the recorded image. may reduce the On the other hand, to facilitate the penetration 160 of the molten ink material through the particle surface 123b,
In order to attach and transfer the ink material 23 to the recording medium surface 200a, it is desirable that the surface 123b be wetted with the ink material 12σ in advance.

Thus, in order to satisfy the above conditions and improve the fog transfer, in FIG.
The ink is composed of a so-called binder material 121-rich ink containing little or no binder material. Furthermore, in order to improve the low transfer recording density region (that is, the region where the pulse width Pw is narrow), it is more effective to effectively reduce the viscosity of the molten ink material 14ob (see Fig. 3) located on the particle surface 123a. It is true.

Thus, for the above improvement, in this embodiment, the ink material 120c
As illustrated in FIG.
The ink material is composed of a so-called binder-rich ink material in which the content of the coloring material 122 in the ink material located in the middle part of the particles 123 is less than 120 parts of the material located in the center part between the particles 123. By doing so, the viscosity of the binder material 121 is effectively lowered by heating and writing based on the inherent thermoviscous properties of the binder material 121, and the viscosity of the binder material 120 is effectively reduced, and the viscosity of the binder material 120 is effectively started to penetrate into the recording medium surface 200a via the surfaces 123a and 123b. The particles 123 can be more effectively attached and transferred to the surface 200a, and there is an advantage that recording characteristics with high transfer density and excellent gradation can be obtained.

Such an ink material 120b with a high binder content
Further, 120c can be easily manufactured by using a pigment as one coloring material 122 and increasing the amount of solvent by the above-mentioned solvent coating method to form the thermal transfer layer 130.

That is, when the above-mentioned dissolved suspension material liquid is layered on the substrate surface 110a to a desired thickness and the solvent is evaporated and dried, the thickness of the suspended material liquid layer gradually decreases as the amount of evaporation increases. Decrease.

Now, the wetting angle (
If the contact angle (contact angle) is selected to be small (90° or less), the suspended material liquid layer always maintains the above-mentioned wetting angle when its thickness is less than the diameter φ of the particle 123, and the suspended material liquid surface and the particle surface 123b The contact edges dry and solidify.

That is, among the dissolved and turbid material liquid, the binder material solution selectively covers the particle surface 123b in response to this drying and solidification.
Furthermore, the ink material layer 120 is moved and drawn to the particles 123a, dried, and solidified, resulting in an ink material layer 120 located in the center between the particles 123. In this case, if the material composition is appropriately selected, there is an advantage that the pigment content of 120b and 120c can be reduced to a negligible level.

Thus, the solvent coating method has the excellent effect of producing a thermal transfer recording sheet with improved fog transfer and gradation characteristics. In this case, in the case where the coloring material 122 is composed of a dye mixed with a pigment, the dye is included in the binder solution and moves, so the busy materials 120b, 1200
However, by appropriately selecting a small amount of dye to be mixed, there is an advantage that the gradation and transfer density in the low pulse width region can be improved. In this case, if the colors of the dye and pigment are made to be i, corresponding to the pulse width PwK, the dye color is mixed in the low pulse width region and the pigment color is mixed with this in the high pulse width region, resulting in a multicolor transfer record 160. Advantageously, it can also be used for color adjustment of the transfer record 160.

In addition, as shown in 111 in the figure, a heat-resistant lubricant layer made of a heat-resistant resin such as polysulfone resin mixed with a high-melting-point inorganic powder such as fine Rica powder is provided on the back surface 1110b of the substrate to control the temperature rise of the thermal recording head. It is also possible to improve the stickiness and heat resistance of the base sheet 110.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of another embodiment of the thermal transfer recording sheet according to the present invention.

In this example, the thermal transfer layer 13 is similar to that explained in FIG.
0 is manufactured using a solvent coating method.

As illustrated in the figure, auxiliary particles 1230 that satisfy φ>t
The particle size φ has a suitable distribution. Base back side 11ob
The thermal energy received by each particle 123 due to temperature increase writing from the surface is proportional to its cross-sectional area, and therefore to φ2. However, the heat capacity of each particle 123 is proportional to its volume and therefore to φ5. Therefore, as the particle diameter φ becomes smaller, the required temperature rises, and in the region where the pulse width Pw of the recording signal is smaller, penetration of the molten ink, extrusion 150, and adhesion and transfer of the particles 123 to the recording medium surface 200a occur. On the other hand, in the dog particle 123 of φ, these occur in a large mound area of PW.

Therefore, if the particle diameters φ of the particles 1230 are appropriately distributed and varied, as the pulse width Pw increases, the transfer recording 160 will change from the particles 123 with smaller φ to the particles 123 with larger φ, corresponding to Pw. Therefore, there is an advantage that transfer recording characteristics with excellent continuous gradation properties can be obtained over a suitably wide Pw region, and by changing this particle size distribution, transfer recording characteristics such as gamma characteristics can be adjusted. You can also do that.

Note that, as illustrated in FIG. 5, the ink material layer 120 includes
If the ink material layer 120 is made porous by disposing fine through holes 124 that substantially penetrate from the back surface 120&' to the front surface 120a side, the ink material layer 120 can be melted.

The ink material 140a (see FIG. 3a) permeates through the through hole 124 as shown by the arrow 151 due to thermal expansion and capillary phenomenon during melting, corresponding to the decrease in melting amount and viscosity.
The ink material 120 on the inner wall 24 and the surface 120a is melted and attached to and transferred to the surface of the recording medium.
Auxiliary particle surface 123b.

This improvement is remarkable when the particle arrangement density of the auxiliary particles 123 is low and the recording medium surface 200a is directly pressed against the ink material layer surface 120a. be.

The diameter of the through hole 124 is selected to be 0.1 μm or more as long as at least the molten binder material 121 of the molten ink material 140a can penetrate therethrough.

For example, when a pigment used in ordinary printing ink is used as the coloring material 122, the average secondary particle size is at most 1.
Since the particle diameter is 2 μm or less, it is desirable that the through holes 161 have an average pore diameter larger than this particle size of 1.2 μm so that this pigment can also pass through.

Particularly in this case, considering that the maximum value of the particle size distribution of the pigment is usually 5 μm or less, if the average pore size of the through holes 151 is selected to be 5 μm or more, the penetration of the pigment coloring material 122 is further increased.
Make it easier.

The through holes 124 are formed in the thermal transfer layer 130 as described above in FIG.
When manufacturing by the t-solvent coating method, pinholes generated in the ink material layer 120 can be easily formed by controlling the solvent and speed of the binder material 121 and controlling the pinholes generated in the ink material layer 120.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional structural diagram of still another embodiment of the thermal transfer recording sheet according to the present invention.

In this embodiment, an intermediate layer 124 is provided between the substrate 110 and the ink material layer 120, and the auxiliary particles 123 are arranged floating from the substrate surface 110a by the intermediate layer 124.

The thickness of the intermediate layer 124 is typically the same as that of the ink material layer 120 (
D is thinner than the thickness t, for example, 1.5 μm or less.

The intermediate layer 124 can be composed of, for example, a layer of the same type of ink material as the ink material layer 120, or a layer of a hot melt material or an ink material having a lower melting point or pour point than the ink material layer 120. In this case, a coloring material of the same color as the layer 120 or a different color may be included.

With the above configuration, pressure is applied to the high temperature intermediate layer material 124 in which the particle size φ of the auxiliary particles 123 is set to t+t', and the pressure is applied through the auxiliary particles 123, and the particle surface 123a, 123b, and further through the through hole 150. It penetrates into the recording medium 200 side and is pushed out.

This penetrating intermediate layer material 124 also acts as a kind of heat transfer medium, and during this penetrating and extrusion process, the ink material layer 124
The heat of fusion can be supplied to the ink material layer 12o.
transfer onto the recording medium 200 and improve transfer recording characteristics.

In this case, if the intermediate layer 124 is colored with a dye or pigment coloring material of the same color as the coloring material 122, the recording density of the transfer recording 160 will be improved, while if a different color is selected, the pulse width of the recording signal will be improved. The color of the transfer record 160 can be changed in accordance with Pw.

Further, as the intermediate layer 124, a binder material 121 having a high melting point, such as polyvinyl butyrol, ethyl cellulose, polyester resin, etc., is applied to the surface of the substrate, and the ink material layer 120 and the intermediate layer 124 are formed using a hot melt method or the like. Made by solvent coating method, layer 124 is applied on top of this.
The thermal transfer recording sheet shown in FIG. 6 can be manufactured by selecting a solvent so as not to significantly dissolve the thermal transfer layer 130 and forming the thermal transfer layer 130 by a solvent coating method.

FIG. 7 is a system configuration diagram of a thermal transfer recording apparatus using a thermal transfer recording sheet according to an embodiment of the present invention.

510 is a linear type thermal recording head, and temperature rise recording 51
1, resistive heating elements are arranged at a density of, for example, 4 dots/=. A thermal transfer recording sheet (transfer body) 100 having a recording medium 200 and a thermal transfer layer 130 is inserted and pressed between the temperature rising recording section 511 and a metal or heat-resistant platen 610, and the platen 610 is rotated as indicated by an arrow 611. The paper is fed as shown by arrows 612 and 613. 621 and 6.22 are a recording medium roll and a winding roll, 631 and 6, respectively.
32 are a transfer roll and a winding roll, respectively.

Reference numeral 520 denotes a modulation power supply device that converts and supplies heat generation control electrical signals 6ooA to each of the resistive heat generating elements of the recording head 610 line-sequentially in synchronization with paper feed 612 and 613. The recording head 510 performs temperature raising recording control on the thermal transfer layer 130A corresponding to the recording section 511 in a line-sequential manner via the base 110. In this example, a large number of auxiliary particles 123 are located within each recording pixel, and the heat generation of the heating resistor element is controlled in accordance with the pulse width Pvy of the electric signal 600A, and by this temperature increase recording control, the melted ink material 140 permeates through a large number of fine auxiliary particles 123 and is transferred to the recording medium surface 200a together with the auxiliary particles 123, and is printed over the entire surface of the recording pixel at a continuous gradation recording density corresponding to the pulse width Pw of the signal 5ooA. A transfer record 160 is thus obtained.

In this case, in order to obtain the desired transfer recording density, it is necessary for the auxiliary particles 123 to which the molten ink material 140 is attached to be applied and transferred to the recording medium surface 200 for a pulse width Pw of a certain value or more. In particular, before the melted ink material 140 cools and returns to its original solid form, the melted ink material 140 on the surface of the particles 123 maintains fluidity to a certain degree, and the particles 123 have good transferability to the medium surface 200a. A means for quickly separating the recording medium 200 and the thermal transfer recording sheet 1Q○ while being held is provided. This peeling is performed after traveling a certain distance (a certain time) from the recording section 511 in order to prevent uneven peeling of the recorded image.

In this example, the tension of the paper feeds 612 and 613 is increased, and after passing the recording section 611, the sheet 1oo and the medium 200 are quickly separated by, for example, a stripper 700, so that the above conditions are satisfied.

Further, in the present invention, the ink material 120 whose viscosity has been reduced through the fine auxiliary particles 123 and further through the through holes 124.
Furthermore, the auxiliary particles 123 are attached to and transferred to the recording medium 200. Therefore, for the transfer of high-quality gradation images, it is desirable that the recording medium 200 be a recording paper or a plastic sheet that has a smoothness that guarantees the transfer.

Cyan and magenta for full color image recording.

Yellow and even black ink materials 120 are transferred in layers, but in the thermal transfer recording sheet 100 of the present invention, the auxiliary particles 123 are present on the sheet 100, and the particles 123 are also transferred to the recording medium surface 200aK, so that the ink materials 120 are transferred in advance. The surface 160a of the transferred recording 160 and the following sheet 1o
The above-mentioned auxiliary particles 123 act as spacers on the O ink material surface 120a, and the probability of further pressure bonding is reduced, and back transfer to the subsequent I/R material layer 120a due to advance transfer recording and excessive amount of the subsequent ink material 120 are prevented. This has the advantage of preventing transfer recording and enabling good full-color transfer recording.

Below, an example of an experimental configuration of a thermal transfer recording sheet according to the present invention will be described.

The recording head 510 has a recording power of 4 dots/dot, an applied power of 0.eW/dot, a main scanning recording speed of 16.6 milliseconds/line, and a sub-scanning line density of 4 lines/dot.

The recording signal 5ooA is 6-bit pulse width PW modulated.

The maximum modulation pulse width is 4 milliseconds.

The sheet-like base 110 is made of polyethylene terephthalate 1-(PET
) film was used.

As the recording medium 200, polypropylene synthetic paper with a thickness of 160 μm is used, and the surface 200& of the paper has a Bekk smoothness of 104 seconds or more. The contact pressure 400 between the thermal transfer sheet 100 and the recording medium 200 is 3.5 KII/m.

The binder material 121 is a hot melt material consisting of an alicyclic saturated hydrocarbon resin and a solid paraffin, and at least the former or both the former and the latter are used as the ink material 12.
By containing 0, extremely good continuous tone transfer recording can be performed.

[Configuration example 1] Solid paraffin with a melting point of 50 to 52°C 20 parts 1 coloring material 12
2, 30 parts of carbon black, 2.5 parts of dispersant, and auxiliary particles 123, 100 parts of aluminum oxide (A22Q3) powder particles having an average diameter of 3 μm.

A suspension solution prepared by adding 400 parts of xylene as a solvent and kneading is solvent-coated onto the substrate surface 110a using a commercially available bar coater of ≠3. Subsequently, the xylene solvent was dried to form a thermal transfer layer 130 with a thickness of about 3 μm.

In this case, the auxiliary particles 123 may be mixed and dispersed in the suspension solution before coating in order to prevent a decrease in particle size and an increase in opacity due to pulverization of the particles 123.

FIG. 8K shows experimental characteristics showing the relationship between the modulation pulse width Pw of the recording signal 500A and the optical density of the transfer recording 160. As is clear from the figure, the optical density of the recording medium surface 200a increases as Pw increases. It is clear that the transferred recording density rises smoothly and has extremely excellent continuous gradation characteristics [Configuration Example 2] In Configuration Example 1, color material 122 was used instead of Black Black.
As a cyan pigment (CI PigmentBlue)
15) Thermal transfer recording having a thermal transfer layer 130 with a thickness of about 3 μm, with 30 parts of A2□03 particles replaced with auxiliary particles 123, 30 parts of fused quartz powder particles with an average particle size of 3 μm added, and 1 part of a dispersant. For the sheet 1oO, good continuous tone transfer recording characteristics were obtained when Pw was between 0 and 4 milliseconds, as in FIG.

[Configuration Example 3] In Configuration Example 2, the coloring material 122 is used instead of the cyan pigment.
as a yellow pigment (CI PigmentYell
The thermal transfer recording sheet 1oo having a thermal transfer layer 130 with a thickness of about 3 prn in which 30 parts of ow 12) was added can obtain good continuous tone recording characteristics when Pw is between 0 and 4 milliseconds, as shown in FIG. Ta.

[Configuration Example 4] In Configuration Example 2, the thermal transfer recording sheet 100 having the color thermal transfer layer 130 instead of the cyan pigment has good continuous gradation when Pw is between 0 and 4 milliseconds, as in FIG. Recording characteristics were obtained.

[Configuration Example 5] In Configuration Example 2, the auxiliary particles 123 have an average particle diameter of approximately 6
It is made of a mixed material consisting of 26 parts of carnauba wax (melting point: about 83°C) particles with a diameter of about 5 μm and 12.6 parts of fused silica powder particles with an average diameter of about 5 μm, and is solvent coated with a bar coater of ≠6 to a thickness of about The thermal transfer recording sheet 1oo on which the thermal transfer layer 130 of 5 μm was formed had good continuous tone transfer recording characteristics when the pulse width PW was 0 to 4 milliseconds, as shown in FIG.

Carnauba wax as the auxiliary particles 123 is heated at room temperature (
For example, at 25°C), it is hardly dissolved in xylene solvent, and composition example 2. Therefore, it is hardly compatible with the binder material 121 of Configuration Example 1 at room temperature.

Therefore, when solvent coating is performed at room temperature, in the high Pw range, it is transferred to the recording medium surface 200a together with the ink material 120, melted or compatible with the binder material 121, which has the advantage that a highly sensitive thermal transfer recording sheet can be constructed. be.

In this example, the fused silica powder particles may be removed and the auxiliary particles 123 may be formed using carnauba wax alone.

In addition, in the above, the various materials mentioned above can also be utilized suitably.

FIG. 9 is a system configuration diagram of another embodiment of a thermal transfer recording apparatus using a thermal transfer recording sheet according to the present invention. Note that for convenience of explanation, the timing mechanism is not shown.

In this embodiment, cut paper is used as the recording medium 200, and cyan color 120C and magenta color 12C are used as the ink material layer.
This is an example in which thermal transfer recording of a full color image is performed using a transfer body 1oo in which 0M and yellow 120Y are arranged face-to-face sequentially on a substrate 110 in a dandashi pattern, 631 is a transfer body roll, and 632 is a finger-rolling take-up roll. It is.

The linear thermal recording head 610 is moved as indicated by the arrow 612B and is separated from the recording platen 610B.

Rotate the winding o-y-632 as shown by the arrow 632A,
The transfer body 100 is fed in the direction of an arrow 613, and the leading edge of the cyan recording material layer 120c is positioned in the recording section 611 of the head 500.

Rotate the planer/610B as shown by the arrow 611A, and with the paper lock mechanism 610b at the position corresponding to the paper feed tray 64'0, cut paper 20 is moved by the paper feed roller 641.
0 is fed, and its leading end is fixed by a locking mechanism 610b. Then, due to the rotation 611A of the platen 610B, the leading edge of the cut paper 200 is brought into contact with the recording section 611 of the head 610.
In a state slightly past , the head 610 is moved as shown by an arrow 612A, and the transfer member 100 having the cyan recording material layer 120c is pressed between the recording portion 511 and the cut m200.

In this state, the cyan signal of input image signal 5ooB is 600
As A, add to spatula and do 510 line sequentially.

The platen e1oB is set to 61 in synchronization with this line sequential cycle.
The cut paper 200 is fed by rotating as shown by 1A, and the transfer body 1oo is fed as shown by an arrow 613.

By doing so, the temperature of the cyan recording material layer 120c is controlled to increase the temperature in line-by-line manner via the base 110, and the melted ink material 120c is heated at each pixel in accordance with the pulse width.
Further, the auxiliary particles 123 permeate and transfer to the cut paper 200, and a continuous tone cyan transfer record 16oC is obtained line-sequentially, and a cyan image is tone transfer recorded.

In this way, when the locking mechanism 610b approaches the recording section 511 again, the head 510 is moved away as shown by the arrow 512 and the magenta recording material layer 120M is located. Mechanism 6
10b passes through the recording section 220, the arrow 512A
Press it like this.

Then, with the cyan transfer recording pixel 180C aligned in a predetermined position, a magenta signal 500A corresponding to the magenta formation stage of the signal 500B is applied to the head 610 (line sequentially,
Cyan transfer recording 1 eoc hemagenta transfer recording material layer 1
A magenta transfer image is obtained by overlapping recording of 20M in line sequence.

Thereafter, in the same manner, yellow transfer recording 1eoY is overlapping transfer recording, and when this is completed, the head 610 is released as shown by the arrow 612b, and the platen 610B is moved to the direction indicated by the arrow 612b.
When the cut paper 300 is rotated in the reverse direction as shown in 1B, the cut paper 300 is returned to the paper feed table 640 from the rear end and comes out.

In this way, the transfer records 160C, 160M, and 1soy are superimposed and transferred onto the recording medium 200 made of cut paper, and a full color image is recorded by so-called heat penetration transfer.

In the above, color recording was performed using the three primary colors of cyan, magenta, and yellow, but it is also possible to add black to this to perform color recording using the four primary colors, and the transfer order can be changed arbitrarily as necessary. .

In the thermal transfer recording apparatus using the thermal transfer recording sheet 10o according to the present invention, as explained in FIG.
The presence of No. 3 enables stable overlapping transfer recording and transfer recording of good full-color images.

For example, the recording density of the linear thermal recording head 510 is 4 dots/m (total number of 512 dots), and the pressing force is 3-5 K.
When a full-color still image is transferred and recorded in cyan, magenta, and yellow sequentially in the order of cyan, magenta, and yellow with an applied recording power of q/7 and a recording power of o and eW/dot, the maximum pulse width of the signal 500A is 4 m8, and its pulse width modulation is ebit main scanning image. Number of 480 dots, main scanning line recording speed 16 ms/I
! i! , sub-scanning line density 4 lines/ff1II! .

With a total of 620 sub-scanning lines, each primary color image can be transferred and recorded in 9.92 seconds, including the time for paper feeding, etc.
Full-color image recording with high speed, high recording density, and good gradation was possible in 40 seconds. In addition, in full-color recording, independent transfer bodies of 3 to 4 primary colors including cyan, magenta, yellow, and even black, and 3 to 4 linear thermal recording heads are used to independently overlap the original colors. Transfer recording is also possible.

As described above, the ink material has an ink material whose viscosity is controlled to decrease by controlling the temperature increase and imparts transferability to a recording medium, and has a melting point higher than that of the binder material that is a constituent component of this ink material. A thermal transfer layer in which the ink material is mixed with ink transfer auxiliary particles having a pour point and a particle size larger than the thickness of the layer made of the ink material is placed on one side of a sheet-shaped heat-resistant substrate. Using the installed thermal transfer ink sheet according to the present invention, the thermal transfer ink sheet and the recording medium are stacked and pressed between the recording section of the thermal recording head and the recording platen facing thereto, and The thermal transfer ink sheet and the recording medium are fed simultaneously in the same direction, the thermal recording head is pressed against the other surface of the heat-resistant substrate, and the recording medium is pressed against the thermal transfer surface. , the thermal transfer layer is subjected to temperature raising recording control with a thermal head via the substrate, and when the temperature raising recording control is completed, the thermal transfer layer subjected to the temperature raising recording control passes through the recording section, and the binder material Before the viscosity of the recording medium returns to its original state, the thermal transfer recording sheet and the recording medium are separated, and with the ink material attached to the surface of the ink transfer particles,
According to a thermal transfer recording method and a thermal transfer recording apparatus based on the principle of adhering and transferring the ink transfer particles to the recording medium, it is possible to realize continuous gradation and excellent thermal transfer recording.

In particular, in thermal transfer recording of halftone images, each part of the thermal transfer recording sheet and recording medium must be kept at a certain distance from the recording section (i.e., temperature-raising recording If it is configured so that it is peeled off after a certain elapsed time has elapsed from the control, there is an advantage that an extremely good halftone image without unevenness can be obtained even in low gradation areas.

Note that, for example, in a thermal transfer recording sheet 100 having a structure having an intermediate layer 124 having a certain thickness, as shown in the sixth example, φ) t
+ When stratifying the auxiliary with the grain size φ selected in the relationship of t',
The ink material 120 is mixed with the constituent material of the intermediate layer 124, layered so that a part of the particle size φ is embedded in the intermediate layer 124, and the ink material 120 is applied to the uneven surface of the intermediate layer 124 from which the particles 123 protrude.
It is also possible to form the layer 120 having a thickness of t by applying only a solvent coating method or the like.

In this case, both the intermediate layer 124 and the auxiliary particles 123 may be configured to have a high melting point and non-thermal transferability. In this case, the auxiliary particles 123 are on the recording medium surface 200a.
The ink material 120 is not adhered to or transferred to the recording medium surface 2, and only the ink material 120 is transmitted along the surface of the auxiliary particles in response to the decrease in viscosity and transferred to the recording medium surface 2.
It will penetrate into 00, adhere to it, and be transferred. Therefore,
Since the transfer recording 160 does not include the auxiliary particles 123, in the case of color transfer recording, etc., color transfer recording with good color purity can be performed.

In addition, in configuration example 1, A22o3 of the auxiliary particles 123
Even if the powder particles are replaced with fused quartz powder particles, and the fused silica powder of the auxiliary particles 123 in Configuration Examples 2 to 5 is replaced with Aμ203 powder particles, similarly good transfer recording can be achieved.

These auxiliary particles 123 can be replaced with other inorganic or organic powder particles as needed, as long as the above-mentioned conditions are satisfied.

In addition, although the case where the temperature increase recording control is mainly performed by the thermal recording head has been described, by making the intermediate layer 124, the auxiliary particles 123, etc. light-absorbing, and giving them a photothermal conversion effect, it is possible to It is clear from the above that transfer recording can be performed in the same manner even if temperature raising recording is controlled using light energy such as a laser beam.

Effects of the Invention As described above, the present invention is a thermal transfer recording sheet in which an ink material whose viscosity has been reduced by temperature elevation recording control is allowed to penetrate through ink transfer auxiliary particles and is transferred to a recording medium together with the ink auxiliary particles. , enables continuous tone transfer recording using pigment coloring materials, which was difficult with conventional melt transfer recording methods, and is widely used as monochrome to full color printers in the OA, HA, new media, 7Axis, Riri fields, etc. The above effect is quite a dog.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional structural view of one embodiment of the thermal transfer recording sheet according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a surface plan view of the thermal transfer layer of the thermal transfer recording sheet of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3a. b is an explanatory diagram of the transfer principle taking the thermal transfer recording sheet of FIG. 1 as an example, FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional structural diagram of another embodiment of the thermal transfer recording sheet according to the present invention, and FIG. FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional structural diagram of still another embodiment of the thermal transfer recording sheet according to the present invention, and FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional structural diagram of still another embodiment of the thermal transfer recording sheet according to the present invention. A system configuration diagram of an example of a thermal transfer recording device using a sheet, FIG. 8 is an experimental characteristic diagram of an example of a thermal transfer recording sheet according to the present invention,
FIG. 9 is a system configuration diagram of another example of a thermal transfer recording apparatus using a thermal transfer recording sheet according to the present invention. 100----Thermal transfer recording sheet, 110...
...Heat-resistant d-transfer, 120...Ink material, 12
1... Binder material, 122... Coloring material, 123... Ink transfer auxiliary particles, 130.
...Thermal i-thick layer, 200...Recording medium, 3
00...Temperature increase recording signal, 310...Recording pixel, 400---Press force, 500A, 600
B... Electric signal, 610... Thermal recording head. Name of agent: Patent attorney Toshio Nakao and one other person ■Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 4 Figure 6 Figure 7

Claims (4)

[Claims] (1) The viscosity is controlled to decrease by temperature increase recording control,
It has an ink material that imparts transferability to a recording medium, has a higher melting point or pour point than a binder material that is a component of this ink material, and has a thickness of a layer made of this ink material. 1. A thermal transfer recording sheet, characterized in that a thermal transfer layer in which ink transfer auxiliary particles having the above particle size are mixed into the ink material is disposed on one side of a sheet-like heat-resistant substrate. (2) A layer made of an ink material containing no ink transfer auxiliary particles is interposed between the sheet-like heat-resistant substrate surface and the thermal transfer layer. Thermal transfer recording sheet. (3) The ink material contains a coloring material and a binder material, and the ink transfer auxiliary particles are coated around the ink transfer auxiliary particles embedded in the ink material layer and on the surface of the ink transfer auxiliary particles on the opposite side to the heat-resistant substrate. The thermal transfer recording sheet according to claim 1, characterized in that the binder material has a small content of coloring material. (4) The viscosity is controlled to decrease by temperature increase recording control,
It has an ink material that imparts transferability to a recording medium, has a higher melting point or pour point than a binder material that is a component of this ink material, and has a thickness of a layer made of this ink material. When manufacturing a thermal transfer ink sheet in which a thermal transfer layer in which the ink material is mixed with ink transfer auxiliary particles having a particle size of the above particle size is installed on one side of a sheet-like heat-resistant substrate, the ink material and the ink After coating and layering a mixed material containing transfer auxiliary particles and a solvent material that dissolves the binder material to a predetermined thickness on one surface side of the heat-resistant substrate, the solvent material is evaporated and removed; A method for producing a thermal transfer recording sheet, characterized in that the thickness of the layer made of ink material is equal to or less than the particle size of the ink transfer auxiliary particles.