JPS61125892A - Thermal transfer recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a thermal transfer recorder by which a desired transfer- recorded density can be constantly obtained, by providing an ink material the viscosity of which is controlledly reduced and which has a melting point or pour point higher than that of a binder material. CONSTITUTION:With a temperature rise recording signal 300 impressed, the temperature of an ink material layer 120 is raised starting from the back side thereof, and the so-called molten ink material 140a with viscosity substantially reduced is formed. When the melting point of a particulate adjuvant 123 is selected to be higher than that of the binder material 121, temperature rise effected through transmission of heat from the molten ink material 140a takes place continuously up to the melting point of the adjuvant 123. The molten ink material 140a under the thermal expansion thereof permeates and extrudes along a surface 123a of the particle of the adjuvant 123 as indicated by arrows 150, flows through a narrow gap between a surface 123b of the particle 123 and the surface 200a of a recording medium 200 by a kind of capillarity, and is adhered and transferred onto the surface 200a along the surface of the surface 123b.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a thermal transfer recording apparatus that thermally transfers and records monochromatic gradation images, color images, etc. on a recording medium in continuous gradation using a thermal head.

Conventional technology A conventional thermal transfer recording device mixes a pigment coloring material with 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 is used that has a thermally transferable ink layer formed using a coating method. ◇ Thermal transfer using this thermal transfer recording sheet involves pressing the thermal transfer recording sheet against a recording medium such as recording paper. , the temperature is selectively controlled by the thermal recording head from the side of the base sheet on which the ink layer is not formed, that is, from the back surface of the base sheet, and the viscosity of the ink material is substantially reduced as the binder material melts. It was used to transfer and adhere to a recording medium (for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 49-26245).

Problems to be Solved by the Invention In the case of such a melt transfer type thermal transfer recording sheet, the so-called ink melting starts from the back side of the ink layer in contact with the base sheet, and as the temperature rises and the writing thermal energy increases, the ink layer melts. It has the characteristic that almost all of the ink material melted in the thickness direction is transferred at once to the recording medium that comes into contact with the ink layer only after the surface portion of the ink layer is melted.

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 disadvantage that it is difficult to perform so-called continuous gradation recording in which the recording density changes in response to heating energy for writing.

Therefore, digital pseudo gradation methods such as the dither method and the density pattern method are being widely considered in order to improve this difficulty, but the actual resolution decreases and the method becomes complicated, so improvements are desired. It was rare.

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. To improve this contact condition, a thermal transfer sheet in which spacer particles are further mixed into the porous ink layer (Japanese Patent Application No. 110023/1982) has been proposed, but 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, it is desirable to have 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.

It's a place where you can be.

In addition, in the case of melt transfer, in order to obtain the desired transfer recording density,
After heating and melting, before the molten ink cools down and returns to its original solid form, it is necessary to quickly separate the recording medium from the thermal transfer recording sheet while the molten ink retains its fluidity to some extent. Conventionally, since the time from heating and melting to peeling was not constant, it was difficult to consistently obtain the desired transfer recording density. The purpose of this invention is to provide a thermal transfer recording device that can consistently obtain the desired transfer recording density by using a thermal transfer recording sheet that can easily and stably perform continuous tone recording. Means for Solving In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention has an ink material whose viscosity is controlled to be reduced by temperature-raising recording control and imparts transferability to a recording medium, and this ink material An ink having a melting point or pour point higher than that of the binder material whose viscosity is controlled to decrease as the temperature increases, and a particle size greater than the thickness of the layer made of this ink material. After heating and fusing a thermal transfer recording sheet in which a thermal transfer layer in which transfer auxiliary particles are mixed with the ink material is placed on one side of a sheet-like heat-resistant substrate,
Before the molten ink cools down and returns to its original solid state, the recording medium and the thermal transfer recording sheet are pressed against the platen at a position where the recording medium and the thermal transfer recording sheet can be separated while the molten ink retains its fluidity to some extent. By providing a clamping pressure roller, stable gradation recording of monochrome images, full color images, etc. can be performed.

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.
In normal transfer recording, pigment and dye N are used.

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. , plasticizers, softeners, and surfactants 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.

Effect The present invention has the above-mentioned configuration, that is, the melting point (or pour point) of the auxiliary particles is selected to be higher than that of the binder material. The temperature is continuous up to its melting point. Thus, in the auxiliary particles, the unmelted ink material in contact with the surface of the portion embedded in the ink material layer and the surface of the portion protruding from the layer surface are each at the melting point temperature even at the highest temperature. Therefore, the heat of fusion is supplied by heating from the surface of the auxiliary particle having a higher melting point temperature. Therefore, the ink material melts along the surface of the auxiliary particles, and as the amount of heat is applied, the melted part expands, and the viscosity of the melted part further decreases and fluidity increases. The molten ink material is transmitted through the surface of the auxiliary particle due to its thermal expansion, permeated and pushed out, and because the particle size of the auxiliary particle is larger than the thickness of the ink material layer, the molten ink material is transferred through the narrow gap between the surface of the auxiliary particle and the recording medium surface. Due to a type of capillary phenomenon, the particles are transferred to the surface of the auxiliary particles, attached to and transferred to the surface of the recording medium. . 4, ;lyo, t6Mtlo, fJ c h K
! □1,1 The molten ink material to be transferred can be easily changed, and continuous tone recording can therefore be easily performed.

Also, at this time, before the molten ink cools down and returns to its original solid state, a suppressing member is installed at a position where the recording medium and the thermal transfer recording sheet can be separated while the molten ink retains some fluidity. Since the recording medium and the thermal transfer recording sheet are overlapped and pressed and held between the platens, the recording medium and the thermal transfer recording sheet are separated at the pressing part of the pressing member, so the distance at which the recording medium and the thermal transfer recording sheet are in close contact is kept constant. Therefore, since the peeling conditions are constant, stable continuous tone recording can be performed.

Embodiment FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the thermal transfer recording device of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional structure of a thermal transfer recording sheet used in this thermal transfer recording device, and FIG. 3 is a diagram of the thermal transfer layer of the thermal transfer sheet. The surface plan views of FIGS. 4a and 4b are explanatory views of the transfer principle, taking the thermal transfer recording sheet of FIG. 2 as an example.

100 is a thermal transfer recording sheet (abbreviated as a transfer body), 200 is a recording medium, and in the case of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the leading end is held in a holder 600 and rotated around a platen/61°. Reference numeral 510 denotes an end-face type thermal head (shown as a schematic cross-sectional view in FIG. 1), which has a plurality of heating elements 520 linearly arranged on the end face.

The recording medium 200 is stacked so as to face the thermal transfer layer 130 provided on the transfer body 100, and the edge-type thermal head 510 is pressed against the platen 610, and the platen 610 is rotated in the direction of arrow 111620 (driving means is not shown). ),
The transfer body 100 is wound up in the direction of the arrow 630 (driving means not shown) and heated by the heating element 620, and 11! , fused and transferred.

650 is a pressing member that presses the end surface type thermal head 510 at a position at a distance from the pressing position of the end surface type thermal head 510.
The transfer member 100 and the recording medium 200 are clamped and held between the platen 610 from the same side. The distance is set to a distance that allows the ink material 120 melted by the heating element 520 to maintain a certain degree of fluidity before being cooled and returning to its original solid state. In this state, the transfer body 100 is wound in a direction such that it is wound around the pressing member 660. Therefore, immediately after the ink material 120 melted by the heating element 620 travels a certain distance and passes through the pressing part of the pressing member 650, the transfer body 100 is transferred to the recording unit 2 while still maintaining its fluidity to some extent.
It can be stably peeled off from 00. 300 indicates a temperature increase recording signal due to the heat of the heating element 620, and 400 indicates the pressing force of the end face type thermal head 510 for pressing the transfer body 10o and the recording medium 200 into contact.

The transfer body 100 has a heat-resistant and translucent thin film or sheet-like substrate 11o, and a coloring material 122 containing at least one of pigments and dyes on the surface 110a side of the substrate 11o, which is heat resistant and translucent. Binder material 1 that has a relationship where
212 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 partially protrude from the ink material layer surface 120a in the area where the particles 123 are not present, and the thermal transfer layer 12
0 surface forms fine irregularities.

In this example, the ink material 12σ 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 can be exposed. O By applying the temperature rising recording signal 300, the ink material layer 12
0 was heated from the back surface 120b side, and when the melting point was reached and the required heat of fusion was still supplied, the hot melt binder material 121 melted and liquefied under this constant melting point temperature, and the viscosity substantially decreased. So-called molten ink material 140a
generate.

Furthermore, the temperature of the ink material 140a exceeds the melting point from the back side of the layer (i.e., the surface of the substrate 1'1 oa) and starts to be buried again, and its In response to the temperature increase, the viscosity of the material 140 further decreases and fluidity is imparted to the material 140, and at the same time, due to heat conduction through the melted ink material 140a, melting progresses toward the ink material layer surface 120 & side.

On the other hand, if the melting point (or pour point) of the auxiliary particles 123 is selected to be higher than that of the binder material 121, the temperature increase due to heat conduction from the base surface 110a and further from the molten ink material 140a will continue until the melting point. It is true.

Thus, in the auxiliary particles 123, the ink material layer 12
The surface 123a of the part buried in o, and the layer surface 1
The unmelted ink materials 12o and 120' that are in contact with the surface 123b of the portion 4 protruding from the ink material 20a are at their melting points even at their highest temperatures. Therefore, the auxiliary particle surface 123a has a melting point temperature higher than this.

It is melted and supplied by heating from 123b.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 4a, the surfaces 123a, 12
3b along with melt ink material 140b, 140c+
occurs, 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.

In this way, the molten ink material 140a and further 140b are transmitted through the auxiliary particle surface 123a and pushed out as shown by the arrow 150 due to their thermal expansion, and the molten ink material 140a and further 140b are penetrated and extruded from the auxiliary particle surface 1 and 2sb and the recording medium surface 200a. Through the narrow gap of the auxiliary particle surface 123 due to its kind of capillary phenomenon
b, and is attached and transferred to the recording medium surface 200a. □In this case, the recording medium 200 is made of porous paper, etc.
.

When the ink absorption property is large, the above-mentioned adhesion and transfer are promoted, and when the pressing force 400 is appropriately large, the molten ink material 140a interposed between the auxiliary particles 123 and the base surface 110a is Force the surface 123& with a pressing force of 400
, 123b, more jealous penetration and extrusion will occur.

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.

For example, if the pulse width Pw of the recording signal 300 generated from the pulse width modulated electrical signal SOO is appropriately small,
It adheres in accordance with the pulse width Pw.

Although the amount of transfer is not small, the pulse width Pw corresponding to the electric signal 501 in FIG.
When the auxiliary particles 123 are given mobility due to the presence of 0b', the melted ink materials 140a, 1
Before 40b cools and returns to its original, for example, solid state,
That is, when the recording medium 200 and the recording sheet are peeled off while they are still in a fluid state and the auxiliary particles 123 do not lose their mobility, the remaining portions of the molten ink materials 14oa, 14ob, and 140C are removed, as illustrated in FIG. 4bK. is attached to the surface of the auxiliary particles and is deposited on the recording medium surface 200 together with the auxiliary particles 123.
Transfer record 16 that is attached to and transferred to a and contains coloring material 122
1 is obtained.

When the pulse width Pw corresponding to the recording signal 300, that is, the electric signal 502 becomes wider to PW''PW2, the melting finally reaches the surface 120JIK of the ink material layer, and the entire thickness of the ink material layer 120, together with the auxiliary particles 123, melts onto the medium surface 2.
00, and the transfer record 162 in this case becomes the maximum value of the transferred optical record density.

In the case of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, as described above, the recording medium 200
The position of the suppressing member 650 for peeling off the transfer body 100 from the molten ink material 140a, 140b is set before the molten ink material 140a, 140b cools down and returns to its original state, that is, before the molten ink material 140a, 140b is still in a fluid state and the auxiliary particles 123 have lost their mobility. Since the distance is selected so that no peeling occurs, a stable peeling condition can always be obtained.

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, K together with the auxiliary particles 123 are transferred and recorded 16 on the recording medium surface 200a.
0, the auxiliary particle 12 corresponds to the pulse width Pw.
3 as a unit, and its optical density is a form in which density modulation and area modulation coexist 7.1! ! ``DI-'C'lii'''4E*
T*7:z·tojs@-, Mu If the density of the Mu 1 particles 123 is selected to be suitably high, there is an advantage that the recording pixel 310 itself can be visually controlled by the density gradation.

In the above, an example has been described in which the binder material 121 has a clear melting point and the viscosity decreases rapidly when it melts. It is possible to record gradations 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 (
For example, even if the binder material 121 is 250) or less and is sticky at room temperature such as polybutane, fog transfer of the ink material 120 due to the adhesion (thermal transfer layer 120
In order to prevent the phenomenon in which the ink material 120 is transferred simply by pressing the recording medium 200 into contact with the recording medium 200, the
By selecting a high viscosity of, for example, 2 x 10' centipoise or more, preferably 5 x 10' centipoise or more, and selecting an appropriately high arrangement density of the auxiliary particles 123, transfer recording can be performed in continuous gradations corresponding to the pulse width Pw. 160 is obtained.

In these cases, when the viscosity of the ink materials 120 and 12σ decreases in response to the pulse width pw of the temperature-raising recording signal 300 and they become fluid as a whole, the recording medium surface 200a and the particle surface 123b correspond to this decrease in viscosity. Due to a kind of capillary phenomenon between the particles, the ink material 12σ, 120 is transferred to the recording medium surface 200 via the auxiliary particle surface 123b and further through the auxiliary particle surface 123a.
It penetrates and adheres to and is transferred to a. In addition, the ink material layer 12
When the recording medium 200 and the transfer sheet 1oo are separated from the recording medium 200 while the fluidized ink material in Part 0 does not lose its fluid state, the ink material with reduced viscosity is transferred to the surface 123a,
The auxiliary particles 123 attached to the auxiliary particles 123b are transferred, and a continuous tone transfer record 160 corresponding to the pulse width PW is obtained on the recording medium surface 200a.

In the recording method using the thermal transfer recording sheet 100 according to the present invention, as is clear from the above explanation of the operation, the auxiliary particle surfaces 123a, 12
3b 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.

The particle shape of the auxiliary particles 123 is not necessarily limited to a spherical shape, and may be polygonal or other.

Further, the particle size φ may be all uniform, or may have an appropriate particle size distribution. In this case, the ink layer surface 120
The auxiliary particles 123 having a particle size φ greater than the thickness t of a and protruding beyond the ink layer surface 120a contribute to continuous gradation transfer recording, and the auxiliary particles 123 with a smaller particle size are the coloring material 12.
2. Therefore, in practice, 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 1.6 μm, the ink material layer 12
If the thickness t of 0 is too small, the maximum density of the transfer record 160 cannot be obtained, and it is difficult to produce a uniform thermal transfer layer 120, making overlapping transfer 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. It is sometimes recommended to select the average grain size φ within the range of 2 μm to 10 μm because 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 15 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 a gradation image using a known linear thermal recording head, the recording density, that is, the density d of recording pixels 310, is 4 dots/m1 from the viewpoint of image quality.
More selected.

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 to the unit area of the base surface 110a) S, which is limited to 3, is the preferable minimum value of the particle size φ, ←I−i (=1.s μm) is (
Given by πφ2w1nd2)/4, d=4 dots/■
So 2. JBXlo (2,8X10-').

On the other hand, the maximum value of S is such that the auxiliary particles 123 of φ>t do not overlap each other and the substrate surface 110al? : In the case of the densest arrangement, it is given by π/4=0.7B6 (78,5chi). 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 the particles 123 is 16 pieces/simplified (266 pieces/- S = 4.5 x 1 o-2% at a radius of 1 nm and 1.5 μm)
It is desirable to select one of the above. In Figure 2, there are 310 recording pixels.
A case is illustrated in which four auxiliary particles 123 are arranged in each case.

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.

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 (A1203).
+ Inorganic powder particles such as titanium oxide, silicon oxide (8102), tin oxide, barium sulfate, etc. are used.
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, 26° 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, polyamic acid phases such as petroleum resins, alicyclic saturated hydrocarbon resins, Examples include rosin-modified maleic acid resin, but the melting point or pour point is 60 to 170°C depending on the transfer sensitivity and fastness of the transferred recorded material.
, preferably 60 to 120°C. In addition, the softening agent to be mixed in order to impart flexibility to the binder agent may be selected from polyvinyl acetate, cellulose esters, acrylic resins, stearic acid, lanolin, etc., depending on their melting or softening temperature. used. In particular, when a binder agent that is itself highly flexible, such as a resin or low molecular weight polystyrene, is used, a softener may not be added. Furthermore, by including an adhesive material in the binder agent, which has a relationship in which the viscosity decreases and the adhesiveness increases as the temperature rises, and is fluid at room temperature, the viscosity can be further reduced and the transfer efficiency can be further increased with respect to temperature increases. For example, adhesive materials such as polybutene, polyisobutylene, polybutadiene, and silicone oil can be mixed with the hot melt material to adjust the thermal properties 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.
1 In addition to the above, for full color transfer recording, CI Pigment Blue 15 is used as the 7 colors of shift.
(pigment).

CI 5olvent Blue 25 (dye), CI Pigment Red 57 (for magenta color)
pigment), Cl5oluent Red 49, CI Pi gm+mtYellow 12 for yellow color
(Pigment), CI Pigment Yellow
17 (pigment), CI 5olutnt Yellow
With an ink material 120 of three primary colors such as w 16, pigments, dyes, or mixtures thereof, or four primary colors including black,
Full-color recording is achieved by sequentially disposing the thermal transfer layer 130 on the same base sheet 11o in frame sequence, rotating the platen 610 three or four times, and sequentially overlapping and transferring the layers onto the recording medium 200.

A mixture of these coloring materials 122 and binder material 121,
The combined weight % 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 2% or less, the transfer recording density will be insufficient.On the other hand, if the coloring material 122 is a pigment, if the weight percentage is less than 60% If it exceeds this, the reduction in viscosity of the ink material 120 as a whole during melting will be insufficient, making transfer to the recording medium surface 200 difficult, resulting in insufficient transfer recording density. Therefore, the weight percentage of the coloring material 122 is suitably selected within the range of 2 to 60%, and therefore the binder material 121 is correspondingly 98 to 40%.
It is desirable to choose within the range of %.

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 60% is:
It has excellent transfer recording density and continuous gradation, and is within the recommended range. This range is particularly effective when a pigment is used as the coloring material 122.

For example, the sheet-like substrate 2 has a thickness of 3.5 to 16 μm.
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. As the recording medium 200, high-quality paper or coated paper can be used.

Art Paper 1 Papers such as synthetic paper, plastic films such as polyethylene terephthalate, polypropylene, cellophane, etc. can be used.

The thermal transfer sheet 100 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 configurations.

Note that the ink material layer 120 can be made porous to further improve the gradation characteristics. In the solvent coating method, such a porous ink material layer 120 is
This can be easily achieved by adjusting the solvent evaporation rate and generating pinholes.Also, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the pressing member 650 is not rotated, but it is possible to It goes without saying that even if a rotary roller is used as the pressing member 850, the initial objective can be easily achieved.

Effects of the Invention As described above, the present invention has an ink material whose viscosity is controlled to be reduced by temperature-raising recording control and imparts transferability to a recording medium, and the constituent components of this ink material The ink transfer auxiliary particles have a higher melting point or pour point than the binder material, whose viscosity is controlled to decrease as the temperature is increased, and have a particle size greater than the thickness of the layer made of the ink material. Using a thermal transfer recording sheet in which a thermal transfer layer mixed with the ink material is placed on one side of a sheet-like heat-resistant substrate, the recording medium and the thermal transfer recording sheet are pressed against a platen by a suppressing member,
The thermal transfer recording sheet is wound around the pressing member to peel the thermal transfer recording sheet from the recording medium, and the pressing member is positioned at a position where the molten ink material is still in a fluid state. It has become possible to record continuous gradations of monochrome images, full color images, etc., and its industrial effects will be extremely large.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a thermal transfer recording device according to an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the thermal transfer recording device used in this thermal transfer recording device, and Fig. 3 is a thermal transfer sheet of the same thermal transfer sheet. Surface plan view of the layer, Figures 4a and b are the second
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the principle of transfer using the thermal transfer recording sheet shown in the figure as an example. 100... Thermal transfer memory sheet, 110...
...Heat-resistant substrate, 120...Ink material, 12
1... Binder material, 122... Coloring material, 123... Ink transfer auxiliary particles, 130.
...Thermal transfer layer, 2oo...Recording medium, 3
00... Temperature increase recording signal, 310... Recording pixel, 400... Pressing force, 5501.502
...Electric signal, 610... End face type thermal head, 520... Heat generating element, 61o...
...Platen, 66o...Press member ◇ Name of agent Patent attorney Toshi Nakao and 1 other person No. 1
Figure J & Surface Type - Marhet. Procedural amendment September 1985/, J day 2 Name of the invention Thermal transfer recording device 3 Relationship to the case of the person making the amendment Patent application Colonel Address 1006 Kadoma, Kadoma City, Osaka Prefecture Name Name
(582) Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Representative: Toshihiko Yamashita 4 Agent Address: 6, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., 1006 Oaza Kadoma, Kadoma-shi, Osaka 571 Contents of amendment (1) Scope of patent claims in the specification Correct as shown in the attached sheet. (2) Correct "suppressing roller" on page 6, line 13 of the specification to "pressing member". 2. Scope of Claims A recording medium and an ink material whose viscosity is controlled to be reduced by temperature increase recording control to impart transferability to the recording medium, and which is a constituent component of the ink material. Ink transfer auxiliary particles having a melting point or pouring point higher than that of the binder material and at least a part of which has a particle size larger than the thickness of the layer made of the ink material are mixed into the ink material. A thermal transfer recording sheet in which a thermal transfer layer is provided on one side of a sheet-like heat-resistant substrate;
A platen, a thermal head having a plurality of linear heating elements, the recording medium and the thermal transfer recording sheet are overlapped and held in pressure contact with the platen, and the ink material is melted by the heat generated by the thermal head. It is comprised of a suppressing member disposed at a position where the recording medium and the thermal transfer recording sheet are separated from each other before being cooled and returning to their original state, and the recording medium is opposed to the thermal transfer layer of the thermal transfer recording sheet, and the recording medium is and a thermal transfer recording apparatus that performs recording by sandwiching and pressing the thermal transfer recording sheet between the platen and the thermal head.

Claims (1)

[Claims] It has a recording medium and an ink material whose viscosity is controlled to be reduced by temperature increase recording control and imparts transferability to the recording medium, and has a melting point higher than that of a binder material that is a constituent of the ink material. A thermal transfer layer in which the ink material is mixed with ink transfer auxiliary particles having a pour point and at least a part of which has a particle size larger than the thickness of the layer made of the ink material is formed into a sheet. A thermal transfer recording sheet placed on one side of the heat-resistant substrate;
A platen, a thermal head having a plurality of linear heating elements, the recording medium and the thermal transfer recording sheet are overlapped and held in pressure contact with the platen, and the ink material is melted by the heat generated by the thermal head. A pressure roller is arranged at a position to separate the recording medium and the thermal transfer recording sheet before the recording medium is cooled and returned to its original state, and the recording medium is opposed to the thermal transfer layer of the thermal transfer recording sheet, and the recording medium is A thermal transfer recording apparatus that performs recording by sandwiching and pressing the thermal transfer recording sheet between the platen and the thermal head.