JPS6248595A - Production of ink ribbon for thermal transfer recording - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain an ink ribbon capable of giving a transferred image of high quality, by providing on an insulating base a thin metallic film provided with through-holes in a high density by using a photoresist film as a mask, and filling the through-holes with a heat-fusible ink. CONSTITUTION:Cylindrical photoresist films 12 are provided in a staggered pattern on an insulating base 11 formed of a glass or the like. A metallic film 15 is provided on the base 11 by electroless plating while using the photoresist films 12 as a mask. The entire body is immersed in a photoresist film removing liquid to remove the film 12, and the metallic film 15 thereon is also removed, whereby the thin metallic film 15 is obtained which is provided with a cylindrical through-holes 17. The film 15 is released from the glass base 11 to obtain the base 16 for the ink ribbon. The base 16 having the through-holes 17 is immersed in a heat-fusible ink contained in a container to fill the holes 17 with an ink 18. Since the through-holes 17 are provided in a high density, print dots formed by ink droplets can be obtained in the state of a high resolution, and a transferred image of high quality can be obtained.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Summary] Through-holes are formed in a thin metal plate in a predetermined pattern at a predetermined pitch, the through-holes are filled with hot-melt ink, and a thermal head is pressed against the hot-melt ink. , a method for manufacturing an ink ribbon for transferring molten ink to recording paper, the method comprising:
After forming a photoresist film in a predetermined pattern on an insulating substrate, a conductive film is formed by electrolytic or electroless method using this photoresist film as a mask, and after removing this photoresist film, the conductive film is removed from the insulating substrate. A method for manufacturing an ink ribbon having through holes filled with ink at a high density by peeling off the photoresist film and filling the openings formed in the removed area of the photoresist film with hot melt ink.

[Industrial application field]

The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing an ink ribbon for thermal transfer recording, and in particular to a method of filling a through hole in a thin metal plate with heat-melting ink, pressing a thermal head against the ink, and transferring the melted ink onto recording paper. In the ink ribbon used,
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing an ink ribbon in which the above-mentioned ink through-holes can be formed at a high density.

An ink layer is placed on a base material such as capacitor paper or polyester resin, and a thermal head selectively heated based on the printed information is pressed from the base material side to melt the ink onto the recording paper provided on the ink layer side. Thermal transfer recording method, in which ink is transferred and recorded, has a small and simple device structure and does not generate noise during printing, so it is used as a small printer in a quiet environment such as an office.

However, since the ink ribbon used for such thermal transfer recording presses the thermal head through the base material, it is difficult for the heat of the thermal head to be transferred to the ink, resulting in poor transfer efficiency.

Therefore, attempts were made to reduce the thickness of the base material and ink layer to make it easier for the heat from the thermal head to transfer to the ink layer, but it was technically difficult to apply a thin ink layer on the base material, and When the thickness of the material is reduced, there is a problem in that the mechanical strength decreases.

Therefore, a through hole is formed in a heat-resistant thin metal plate such as a stainless steel plate, heat-melting ink is filled into the through hole, and the ink is directly irradiated with a laser beam, etc., and the melted ink is transferred to recording paper. A thermal transfer recording medium for recording is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 59-36879.

[Conventional technology]

The structure of such an ink ribbon will be explained using the plan view of FIG. 10 and the cross-sectional view of FIG. 11, which is obtained by cutting FIG. 10 along the line xx'.

As shown in the figure, a thin metal plate 1 made of stainless steel with a thickness of about 20 μm has a diameter of about 35 μm and a pitch of 65 μm.
A large number of through-holes 2 of about 100 to 100 mm are arranged in a staggered manner, and the through-holes 2 are filled with heat-melting ink 3 made of a heat-melting wax such as paraffin wax and a dye.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

The thin metal plate 1 used in such an ink ribbon has through-holes formed as densely as possible, and a printing plate formed using a plurality of ink particles by melting the ink filled in the through-holes. There is a need to increase the resolution of prints and improve the quality of transferred and recorded prints.

[Means for solving problems]

An object of the present invention is to provide a method for manufacturing an ink ribbon in which through-holes filled with the ink described above are arranged at a high density.

As shown in FIGS. 1 to 7, the method for manufacturing an ink ribbon of the present invention includes a photoresist 15 on an insulating substrate 11.
112 into a predetermined pattern, a metal film 15 is formed on the substrate 11 by electrolytic or electroless plating using the photoresist film 12 as a mask, and then the photoresist film 12 is removed. The metal film 15 having the through holes 17 formed by the removal is peeled off from the insulating substrate 11, and the through holes F of the metal film 15 are filled with heat-fusible ink 18.

[Effect]

The ink ribbon manufacturing method of the present invention involves forming a metal thin film 15 having through holes 17 formed at high density on an insulating substrate 11 such as glass by electrolytic or electroless plating using a photoresist film 12 as a mask. By filling this through hole 17 with heat-melting ink 18, printed dots with high resolution can be obtained, and an ink ribbon capable of obtaining a high-quality transferred image can be obtained.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, the ink ribbon manufacturing method of the present invention involves forming cylindrical photoresists 111112 with a diameter of about 30 μm in a staggered pattern on an insulating substrate 11 such as glass using a photolithography method. do.

Next, as shown in FIG. 2, this substrate 11 was immersed in a container 14 containing an electroless nickel plating solution 13 containing nickel sulfate as a main component and a reducing agent such as sodium hypophosphite. As shown, by electroless plating on the substrate 11,
A metal film 15 of nickel (Ni) having a thickness of about 20 μm is deposited using the photoresist film 12 as a mask.

Next, as shown in FIG. 4, the substrate 11 covered with the metal film 15 is immersed in a photoresist film removing solution to remove the photoresist film 12 used as the mask and the metal film 15 thereon.

By removing the photoresist film 12 and the metal film 15 thereon in this way, a cylindrical through hole 17 with a diameter of about 30 μm is formed, and a metal thin film 15 with a thickness of about 20 μm is obtained. It will be done.

Furthermore, as shown in FIG.
From Step 1, while looking at a microscope etc., use a tool with a thin end like a razor blade to peel it off and make the through hole 17.
An ink ribbon base material 16 made of a Ni metal thin film 15 is formed.

Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 6, the through holes 17 of the base material 16 are filled with heat-melting ink 18 to form an ink ribbon 19.

A method of filling the heat-melting ink 18 is, for example, by filling the base material 16 having the through holes 17 with paraffin wax,
It is immersed in a container containing a liquid thermofusible ink consisting of a thermofusible wax such as carnauba wax and a dye such as Kayasent Blank KR (manufactured by Nippon Tohoku Co., Ltd.), and this penetration is caused by capillary action. The inside of the hole 17 is filled with ink 18 .

As another example, as shown in FIG. 7, a Ni film 15 is deposited on the entire surface of the substrate 11 on which the photoresist film 12 described above is formed by vapor deposition or sputtering in advance, and this Nt film 15 The substrate 11 coated with platinum and the electrode 21 made of platinum are immersed in an electrolytic solution 22 such as nickel sulfate, and a DC voltage is applied between the electrode 21 and the substrate 11 to form the base material 16 described above by electrolytic plating. It may also be formed.

In this way, the base material 16 in which the through holes 17 are formed with high density can be obtained, so that the printed dots formed by the ink particles formed by melting the ink 18 filled in the through holes 17 can be obtained. can be obtained with high resolution, and a high-quality transferred image can be obtained.

The ink ribbon 19 thus formed was placed in contact with the recording paper 32 placed on a platen 31 as shown in FIG. The thermal head 33 is moved along the direction of the arrow A, and the ink in the through hole 17 of the ink ribbon 19 is melted and transferred to the recording paper 32 using the thermal head 33 .

In this way, as shown in FIG. 9, the ink in the ink ribbon 19A in the area indicated by the dotted line of the ink ribbon 19 is melted, and the melted ink particles are combined to form a printed dot, and this printed dot is A plurality of images are collected to form a transferred image of characters, figures, etc.

In addition, the thickness of the metal thin plate is in the range of 10-100 μm,
If the diameter of the through hole is in the range of 10 to 100 μm, it is sufficient for practical use, and the material for forming the ink to be filled in the through hole is as follows:
In addition to a hot-melt wax such as paraffin wax, a thermoplastic resin such as an ethylene/vinyl acetate copolymer may be used, or a hot-melt wax and a thermoplastic resin may be mixed. In addition to dyes, pigments may also be used as color formers.

〔Effect of the invention〕

In this way, the base material 1 forming the ink ribbon 19
Since the through holes 17 of 6 can be formed with high density, using such an ink ribbon has the effect of obtaining a transferred image with high resolution and good printing quality.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1 to 6 are cross-sectional views showing the steps of the ink ribbon manufacturing method of the present invention; FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of an apparatus used in another embodiment of the ink ribbon manufacturing method of the present invention; The figure is a schematic diagram when an ink ribbon formed by the method of the present invention is used in a transfer device. Figure 9 is a plan view showing the transfer state of the ink ribbon formed by the method of the present invention. Figure 1θ is a diagram of the ink ribbon formed by the method of the present invention. A plan view showing the structure, and FIG. 11 is a sectional view taken along the line xx' in FIG. 10. In the figure, 11 is a substrate, 12 is a photoresist film, 13 is an electroless plating solution, 14 is a container, 15 is a metal film, 16 is a base material, 17 is a through hole, 18 is an ink, 19 is an ink ribbon, 2 ] is an electrode, 22 is an electrolytic solution, 31 is a platen, 32 is a recording paper, 3
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Claims (1)

[Claims] After forming a photoresist film (12) in a predetermined pattern on an insulating substrate (11), a metal film (15) is electrolytically or electrolessly plated on the substrate (11) using the photoresist film (12) as a mask. After the formation by the method, the photoresist film (12) is removed, and a metal film (
15) is peeled off from the insulating substrate (11), and the metal film (
15) A method for producing an ink ribbon for thermal transfer recording, comprising filling the through holes (17) with a heat-melting ink (18).