JPS6266997A - Thermal transfer recording method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make it possible to print a good image on a wide range of a material to be printed such as rough surface paper, a document or various printed matters, by thermally transferring on image to a transparent or translucent thermal transfer image receiving material and laminating said image receiving material to the material to be printed. CONSTITUTION:Thermal transfer paper formed by providing a coloring material layer 2 containing a sublimable due on a base material 1 and a thermal transfer image receiving material formed by providing a dyeable resin layer 3 on a transparent or translucent base film 4 are superpose and heated by a thermal head 7 while being contacted between the thermal head 7 and a platen roller 8 under pressure to sublime and transfer the sublimable dye in the coloring material layer 2 to the dyeable resin layer to form an image and, thereafter, said thermal transfer image receiving material is laminated to a material 6 to be printed by a proper adhesive 5 to perform thermal transfer recording on a desired material to be printed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention (Industrial Field of Application) The present invention relates to a thermal transfer recording method, and more specifically, a thermal transfer paper having a heat-fusible or sublimable coloring material layer provided on a base material can be used with a thermal head, etc. The present invention relates to a thermal transfer recording method that performs color recording by heating.

[Conventional technology]

In recent years, with the spread of personal computers, televisions, VTRs, video disks, etc. as information terminals and the use of color displays, the demand for color printers that output these still images as color images has been increasing year by year. Recording methods for this color printer include an electrophotographic method, an inkjet method, a thermal transfer method, etc., and among these, the thermal transfer method is often used because it is noiseless and easy to maintain.

This thermal transfer method consists of a thermal transfer paper, which has a coloring material layer that is solid or semi-solid at room temperature, and an image receiving paper. It is a recording method that forms images by thermal melt transfer or sublimation transfer, and is divided into hot melt transfer type and sublimation transfer type based on the difference in the transfer method of the coloring material layer. The heat-melt transfer type uses a heat-sensitive transfer type in which pigments or dyes are bonded with hot-melt wax, and the pigments or dyes are transferred to image-receiving paper together with the wax melted by the thermal energy of a thermal head. The sublimation transfer type used is an application of conventional sublimation transfer printing technology, and generally uses thermal transfer paper with a binder binding disperse dyes, which are relatively easy to sublimate, and transfers the dyes to the receiver paper using the thermal energy of a thermal head. Both sublimation and transfer produce good color images.

However, in this thermal transfer method, when ordinary plain paper is used as the image receiving paper, it is heated by the thermal head and
When printing, due to the irregularities on the surface of plain paper, the adhesion between the thermal transfer paper and the image receiving paper cannot be achieved evenly, resulting in chipping and white spots in each dot, resulting in a grainy feel and a decrease in color saturation, which deteriorates the image quality. In addition, there was a problem in that the image itself could not be obtained especially on rough paper, and furthermore, it was difficult to freely print on printing materials such as official postcards, stationery, documents, printed matter, and aluminum foil.

These problems are particularly noticeable in the sublimation transfer type among the two heat-sensitive transfer methods mentioned above. Despite the advantages of being able to obtain a key and control the tone at will, these problems make it difficult to put it into practical use.

Uchi, as an image receiving paper in the sublimation transfer type thermal transfer method,
As described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 51-15446,
Basically, it is possible to use commonly used plain paper, but plain paper has low color density and has poor fixation properties for sublimation dyes, which causes significant discoloration over time, making it undesirable. Therefore, as described in JP-A No. 57-107885, a dyeing resin layer made of a thermoplastic resin that can be effectively dyed with a sublimable dye such as a saturated polyester resin is placed on a printing base paper. The one provided is generally used, but the i! i If the base paper is a commonly used rough plain paper or embossed paper, it is difficult to eliminate unevenness on the surface even if a dyed resin layer is applied, and each dot may have chips or white spots. This results in a decrease in image quality, and it is not possible to freely select the printing material as the printing base paper.

Next, a major advantage of the heat-fusion transfer type compared to the sublimation transfer type is that it can print on plain paper, but the plain paper that can be used must be highly smooth or the image quality will deteriorate. This makes it difficult to freely choose the printing material.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

The problem to be solved by the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned difficulties in the conventional thermal transfer recording method.In other words, in the thermal transfer recording method, rough paper, type 1, various printed matter It is an object of the present invention to provide a thermal transfer recording method that enables printing of good images on a wide range of printing materials such as.

[Means to solve the problem]

The above-mentioned problem is solved by selectively transferring the coloring material layer to a heat-sensitive transfer paper, which has a heat-melting or sublimation coloring layer provided on a substrate, by heating with a thermal spatula, etc., to record a predetermined color development. In the thermal transfer method, this is accomplished by thermally transferring an image to a transparent or translucent thermal transfer receiver and laminating this onto a printing medium.

[Structure and operation of the invention]

The method of the present invention is basically a method in which an image is thermally transferred to a transparent or semi-transparent thermal transfer receiver and this is bonded onto a printing medium in the above-mentioned thermal transfer recording method.

The present invention will be explained below with reference to the drawings. In the method of the present invention, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, thermal transfer paper,
A thermal transfer image receptor and a printing medium are used. Although the following description will be made regarding the rising flower transfer type for convenience, it can be similarly applied to the hot melt transfer type.

The thermal transfer recording method in the present invention refers to a coloring material layer containing a sublimable dye on a substrate (1) as shown in FIG.
2) and a thermal transfer image receptor comprising a transparent or translucent base film (4) and a dyeing resin layer (3) are superimposed, and a thermal head ( 7
) and the platen roller (8) while heating with a thermal head to sublimate and transfer the sublimable dye in the color material layer (2) to the dyeing resin layer (3) to form an image, and then This is a method in which the image receptor is bonded to a printing material (6) to be printed with an appropriate adhesive layer (5) as shown in FIG. 1 (b), and thermal transfer recording is performed on the desired printing material. .

The thermal transfer image receptor used in the method of the present invention has a dyed resin layer provided on a transparent or translucent base material. Here, "semi-transparent" does not mean complete transparency, but rather has transparency to the extent that when the image-receiving paper of the present invention is laminated to a printing material, the print on the printing material can be read through the image-receiving paper. means.

Various resin films can be used as the base material for these plastic films, including polyethylene film, polypropylene film, polyvinyl chloride film, polyvinylidene chloride film, polystyrene film, polyester film, and polyvinyl alcohol film. Examples include acetate film, polycarbonate film, nylon film, polyimide film, etc., but not only these plastic films, but also elastic sheets, impregnated paper, etc. can be used. The thickness of these base films is 1 to 200μ
, preferably from 3 to 50μ; if it is less than 1μ, wrinkles tend to occur during printing, and if it is more than 200μ, it is disadvantageous in terms of cost although it does not reduce the effect of the present invention. In addition, as the dyeing resin layer, any material that can be effectively dyed by sublimation dyes can be used, such as thermoplastic resins such as polyester resins, polyaryl resins, polyamide resins, epoxy resins, and polyacrylic resins. These can be listed, but are not limited to these, and it is not necessarily necessary to provide them when a heat-melting transfer type thermal transfer paper is used.

In the present invention, transparent or translucent resin layers are also preferable as the dyeing oil layer.

The adhesive layer (5) can then be formed using commonly known adhesives, such as liquid-curing adhesives, two-component reactive adhesives, pressure-sensitive adhesives, thermoplastic resins or thermoplastic films. For example, thermal adhesion by. The adhesive layer may be provided on a part or the entire surface of the print,
Further, it may be provided either on the printing material or on the thermal transfer image receptor, and furthermore, the printing material or the thermal transfer image receptor itself may have an adhesive function.

Furthermore, thermal transfer paper, polyester film, and capacitor! ″′: Sublimation transfer type, in which a sublimable dye is dispersed, dissolved, and coated on a base material with a suitable binder, or a pigment or dye is coated with a heat-melting binder such as wax. It is possible to use any of the heat-melting transfer type recording materials provided, and good prints can be obtained by the thermal transfer recording method of the present invention.

(Effects of the Invention) In the method of the present invention, a transparent or translucent film, particularly preferably a transparent or translucent plastic film, is used as the base film of the thermal transfer image receptor.
Plain paper, which has been used as a printing pattern for conventional image-receiving paper,
It has a much superior surface smoothness compared to synthetic paper, and has almost no irregularities, so uniform adhesion can be obtained at the interface between the coloring material layer (2) and the dyeing resin layer (3). A good image with almost no white spots or chips can be printed on the thermal transfer image receptor in almost each dot. The printing material (6) is not directly printed on it, but is pasted with an adhesive layer (5), so it can be widely used as a printing material regardless of the surface condition, and plain paper Of course, good images can be obtained even with embossed paper, etc., as well as official postcards, letter paper, documents, printed matter, thick paper that is difficult to transport between the thermal head (7) and the platen roller (8), etc. It is now possible to print on materials such as aluminum foil, which releases easily and is difficult to obtain color density, and polyethylene film, which has poor heat resistance.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in more detail with reference to Examples.
The present invention is not limited to these examples.

Note that the parts in the examples are parts by weight.

Example 1 Disperse dye with sublimation property (Lurafix Blue)
660; manufactured by BASF) 10 parts, polyamide resin (Persalon 1140, manufactured by Henkel Hakusuisha) 10 parts, toluene 4
An ink solution consisting of 0 parts and 40 parts of isopropyl alcohol was dispersed in a ball mill for 24 hours, and a dry coating amount of 3 was applied to a 6μ polyester film using a gravure coater.
A thermal transfer paper was prepared by coating and drying to give g/rd.

On the other hand, saturated linear polyester resin (Vylon #200;
Toyobo Co., Ltd.) 20 parts, polyfunctional polyurethane resin (Coronate; Nippon Polyurethane Co., Ltd.) 5 parts, melamine resin (Super Beckamine J-820 Dainippon Ink Co., Ltd.) 3 parts
6 parts of dyeing resin liquid consisting of 72 parts of methyl ethyl ketone.
Dry coating weight 3 g/n on μ polyester film
(It was coated on birch using a bar coater, dried at 130° C. for 3 minutes, and cured to form a thermal transfer image receptor.

Using the thus obtained thermal transfer paper and thermal transfer image receptor, the thermal head recording conditions were 6 dots)/+u.

When printing was performed with an applied power of 0.4 W/dot, a good image was obtained with no chipping or white spots in each dot.

Then, after applying 2μ of epoxy adhesive on the back side of the base film of the thermal transfer receiver on which this image was printed, synthetic paper (YUBO FP #150; Oji Yuka Paper Co., Ltd.! IJ) and embossed paper (KS Embossed grain: 157 g/rrr; manufactured by Kanzaki Paper Co., Ltd.), high-quality paper (smoothness: 100 seconds), official postcard, and aluminum foil were laminated with a lamination roll, and good prints were obtained in all cases.

Example 2 The back side of the base film of the thermal transfer image receptor on which the mirror image was printed in Example 1 was coated with saturated polyester resin (Vylon #
500; manufactured by Toyobo Co., Ltd.) coated with 2 μm of synthetic paper, embossed paper, high-quality paper, official postcard, and aluminum foil (mentioned above) and pressed with a roll heated to 120°C. A good print was obtained.

As explained in detail above, the thermal transfer recording method of the present invention, which is characterized by thermally transferring an image to a transparent or semi-transparent thermal transfer image receptor and bonding the back side of the image to a printing medium, has a large difference compared to the conventional method. There is almost no need to take into account the limitations caused by the surface condition of the printing material, which was a disadvantage, and it is possible to produce clear images with no white spots or chips on each dot even on plain paper, embossed paper, etc. with large surface irregularities. It is an extremely useful thermal transfer recording method that can print images on TF14, printed materials, etc., which were previously difficult to use.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1(a) is a sectional view of each object when printing is performed by the method of the present invention, and FIG. 1(b) is a sectional view of the printed object. (1)...Base (2)...Color layer (3)...Dyeing oil layer (4)...Base film (5) ...Adhesive layer (6) ...Printed material (7) ...Thermal head (8) ...Platen roller (A) ...・Thermal transfer paper (B)... Image receiving paper for thermal transfer (and above) Patent applicant: Nitto Electric Industry Co., Ltd. Figure 1 (Figure 1 (B))

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A thermal transfer method in which the coloring material layer is selectively transferred to a thermal transfer paper having a heat-melting or sublimable coloring material layer provided on a substrate by heating with a thermal head or the like to record a predetermined color development. A thermal transfer recording method characterized by thermally transferring an image to a transparent or translucent thermal transfer image receptor and pasting this onto a printing medium. (2) Claim 1, characterized in that the base film of the thermal transfer image receptor is a plastic film.
Thermal transfer recording method described in section.