JPS6335386A - Manufacture of individual information card - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To manufacture individual information cards in quantity production at low cost, by providing a thermal transfer sheet raw paper with a multiplicity of pieces of individual information, thereby producing a thermal transfer sheet. CONSTITUTION:A thermal transfer sheet 20 is prepared by providing a thermal transfer sheet raw paper 1 with a multiplicity of pieces of individual information 2 sized according to the size 3 of a card to be obtained. A releasable layer and/or transparent protective layer 5 and an adhesive layer 6 are provided on a base film 4. A card base 30 provided with a transparent surface layer 9 on each side of an opaque card core layer 8 is provided with an information- receiving layer 7 on the face side. The card base 30 and the thermal transfer sheet 20 are laid one upon the other, are adhered to each other by applying heat and pressure, and then the base film 4 is released to obtain an individual information card 100. As a result, the individual information 2 is wholly envelopped between the adhesive layer 6 and the information-receiving layer 7, whereby rubbing resistance or the like is markedly enhanced.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing cards, and more particularly to a method for manufacturing individual information cards in large quantities and at low cost.

(Conventional Technique vR) In recent years, cards have been used in large quantities in various fields, and the manufacturing method for these cards requires that the information input to the cards is common to many cards, that is, -number In the case of information, it is provided in large quantities and at low cost using various printing methods or hot stamping methods, but when the card needs to have individual information for each cardholder, this individual information is provided on the card. There is a problem that mass production is not possible as it requires manual labor for each process.

One way to solve this problem is to input a large amount of individual information onto a magnetic tape, etc., use a computer to combine the individual information appropriately, create the necessary individual information on the spot, and then print this information using a thermal transfer method. A method of thermal transfer to a card base material has been proposed.

(Problem to be solved by the invention) In the above method, each time an individual information card is created, information is output from the host computer, a thermal transfer sheet is created based on this output, and the thermal transfer sheet is thermally transferred to the card base material. A series of processes are required for each individual card, and it takes a considerable amount of time to create a thermal transfer sheet based on the output, so although the thermal transfer process is extremely short, it takes a considerable amount of time overall. I have a good knowledge of it.

Furthermore, since the above-mentioned card producing apparatus is extremely expensive, unless a very large number of cards are issued, the unit price of the card becomes extremely high and there is a problem in that it lacks versatility.

Further, in such a card production device, there is a problem that the area of the card base material to which individual information is thermally transferred is limited to a certain location, and the amount of information to be thermally transferred is limited.

Furthermore, since the above-mentioned card making machines handle carts one by one, fingerprints and grease are likely to adhere to the surface of the cards, resulting in non-uniform thermal transfer and a tendency to produce defective products.

Therefore, there is a need for a method of providing a large number of cards having individual information at high speed, with high quality, and at low cost using a simple device.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The present inventor completed the present invention as a result of intensive research to solve the problems of the prior art as described above.

That is, the present invention is a method for manufacturing a card in which information such as characters and symbols is thermally transferred to a card base material, in which a thermal transfer sheet to which a large number of individual information is given in advance is prepared, and these individual information are thermally transferred to the card base material. This is a method of manufacturing an individual information card characterized by the following.

The present invention will now be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings that schematically show one embodiment of the present invention.

The main feature of the present invention is that a thermal transfer sheet 20 is prepared by adding a large number of individual information 2 in a size corresponding to the card size 3 to a thermal transfer sheet base paper 1 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, and then The individual information card 100 is provided by thermally transferring the individual information 112 onto a large number of card base materials 30 using this thermal transfer sheet 20 as shown in FIG.

According to the present invention as described above, by forming a large number of pieces of individual information 2 on a thermal transfer sheet base paper 1 at once to create a thermal transfer sheet 20, a card base material 30 is then formed as shown in the fourth figure.
Since the individual information 2 can be heat-transferred continuously, the individual information card 100 can be printed without using an expensive card making machine.
The production speed can be significantly increased.

That is, in the conventional technology, a single piece of individual information 2 is added to a thermal transfer sheet base paper 1, and then this individual information 2 is thermally transferred to a single card base material 30, so although the thermal transfer speed is completed in a short time, Output of individual information and
It takes a relatively long time to form the thermal transfer sheet 20 based on this, and as a result, it is extremely uneconomical because it is necessary to repeat the above operation several times to create several cards. In contrast, in the present invention, a large number of pieces of individual information 2 are formed in advance on the thermal transfer sheet base paper 1, and as a result, thermal transfer to the card base material 30 can be made continuous.

The thermal transfer sheet base paper 1 used in the present invention is preferably in the form of a continuous sheet as shown in the first figure, but there are many individual circumstances.
A sheet-fed thermal transfer sheet base paper may be used as long as i2 can be formed at the same time. Further, such thermal transfer sheet base paper may be any conventionally known thermal transfer sheet base paper, but all of the individual information 2 to be added to the thermal transfer sheet base paper, such as characters, symbols, patterns, bar codes, facial photographs, etc. Because they are not the same, and at least one copy is different for each card, conventional gravure printing methods are inappropriate (with the exception of general common information), and individual information As a result, it is preferable to use various computer terminals, word processors, and various printers connected to other computers. Furthermore, since the information 2 to be thermally transferred onto the card base material 30 needs to be high-density characters and symbols, a printer that produces characters with thick ink, that is, an electrophotographic printer that uses wet or dry toner, is recommended. suitable.

Further, when using the above electrophotographic printer, the structure of the thermal transfer sheet base paper 1 preferably has a layered structure as shown in the second figure. The structure is such that a release layer and/or a protective layer is formed on the layer, a desired pattern (information) is provided thereon, and an adhesive layer is provided on the first layer. When using a thermotransfer sheet of type I, an adhesive layer is formed on the surface of the toner image, and the toner image may lose its shape, smear, be damaged, etc. due to solvent attack during the adhesive layer formation, rubbing by guide rolls, etc. This will cause spillage, etc.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. By forming the information 2 on the adhesive layer 6, there is no room for the above-mentioned problems to occur.

Further, the card base material 30 used in the present invention may be any conventionally known card base material, but a preferred card base material is one having an information receiving layer 7 on its surface as shown in the third figure. It is. For example, the information receiving layer 7 is made of a resin having good adhesion with the adhesive layer 6 on at least one side of the card base material 30, which has a transparent surface layer 9 on both sides of an opaque card core layer 8. or similar heat sensitive adhesives. By providing such an information receiving layer 7, the card base material 30 and the thermal transfer sheet 20 are overlapped and bonded by thermocompression, and then the base film 4 is peeled off to obtain the individual information cart 100 of the present invention as shown in FIG. As a result, the individual information 2 is completely wrapped between the adhesive layer 6 of the thermal transfer sheet and the information receiving layer 7 (thermal adhesive layer) of the card base material.
The adhesive strength between them is significantly increased, and as a result, the TTM resistance of characters, symbols 2, etc. is significantly improved.

The basic configuration of the method of the present invention has been described above, but among the information input to the card, general information other than individual information, such as company name, trademark, and other common information,
It may be formed in advance on the card base material by any method, or it may be formed on the thermal transfer sheet at the same time as or before the individual information, and is not particularly limited. Furthermore, it is a matter of course that a magnetic recording layer, an IC chip, an optical recording layer, embossed uneven characters, images, designs, and other recorded information may be formed on the card base material. Furthermore, when the method of the present invention is carried out using a continuous thermal transfer device, thermal transfer system information can be manually recorded in the magnetic recording layer, and individual information can be thermally transferred to a predetermined card base material in accordance with this information.

Furthermore, the heat transfer of individual information, which may include general information, may be performed on any part of the card, or may be performed on the entire surface of the card. For example, characters and symbols may be transferred to the card base material. If the release layer and/or protective layer is thermally transferred to one part and the rest of the entire surface, the entire surface of the card base material will be uniformly covered with the release layer and/or protective layer, making it possible to separate the individual products. The appearance of the information card is improved, and the occurrence of warping of the card is reduced.

The base film of the thermal transfer sheet base paper used in the method of the present invention as described above includes polyethylene terephthalate,
Synthetic resin films such as polypropylene, polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, polyvinylidene fluoride, etc., and various processed papers, which have been used as base films for thermal transfer sheets in the prior art, can all be used in the present invention. . Its thickness is generally lO
The thickness is about 100 μm, preferably about 20 to 50 μm. Particularly preferred in the present invention are sheets or films of polyethylene terephthalate.

On the base film as described above, a release layer (not shown) is provided between the base film 4 and the adhesive layer 6 in order to improve the peelability between the adhesive layer 6 and the J^ material film 4. can be provided. This release layer may not be necessary depending on the properties of the base film 4. That is, the base film 4
It is not necessary if it has excellent releasability from the adhesive layer 6, and it is also unnecessary if the base film 4 has been treated with a release agent or the like and has sufficient releasability. .

Furthermore, a transparent protective layer 5 can be provided between the base film 4 or the release layer and the adhesive layer 6.

This transparent protective layer 5 functions as a protective layer 5 for various information such as individual information after thermal transfer. Further, even when this transparent protective layer 5 has sufficient peelability with respect to the base film 4, the above-mentioned peeling layer is not necessary.

The material and formation method of the release layer formed as necessary in Section F can be performed using conventionally known materials and methods, such as acrylic fruit resin, vinyl chloride resin, cellulose resin, rubber-based resin, etc. Resin, urethane resin, polyester resin, vinyl acetate resin, ethylene-
An organic solvent solution or dispersion of a homopolymer such as vinyl acetate resin, a copolymer, or a mixture thereof is coated with a known coating method such as a gravure method,
By silk screen printing method, roll coater method, spray coating method, flow coating method, knife coating method, air knife coating method, etc., the dry film thickness is 0.1 to 2.
It is formed by coating to a thickness of μm and drying.

The transparent protective layer 5 is transferred to the card base material 30 together with the individual information 2 during thermal transfer of the individual information 2, and functions as a protective layer 5 for various information such as individual information. By providing this, various physical properties such as wear resistance of thermally transferred individual information etc. are improved. The material for forming such a transparent protective layer 5 is vinyl chloride.
Vinyl acetate copolymer, epoxy resin, alkyd resin, phenol-modified alkyd resin, amino alkyd resin, phenolic resin, urea resin, melamine resin, silicone resin, thermosetting acrylic resin, thermosetting Useful materials include thermally curable resins such as polyurethane resins, room temperature curable resins, external radiation curable resins thereof, active energy ray curable resins such as electron beam curable resins, and the like.

The transparent protective layer 5 made of these resins is prepared by dissolving these resins in an appropriate solvent to prepare a coating liquid or ink, and printing or printing this on the surface of the base film 4 or release layer. It is formed by coating, drying, and optionally heat-treating. The thickness of such transparent protective layer 5 is generally about 0.5 to 20 μm. Such a transparent protective layer 5 may be formed on the entire surface of the base film 4 or the release layer, or may be formed on a portion thereof.

When the transparent protective layer 5 formed in this manner is a layer that is sufficiently three-dimensionally crosslinked, it will not soften or melt even if the temperature during thermal transfer becomes high, and therefore it will not soften or melt when the base film 4 or peels off. It does not become integrated with the layer, and the base film 4 can be easily peeled off after thermal transfer.

Such a transparent protective layer 5 is formed so as to remain in close contact with the adhesive layer 6 even after thermal transfer. For this purpose, the adhesive strength between the base film 4 or the release layer and the transparent protective layer 5 is made smaller than the adhesive strength between the transparent protective layer 5 and the individual information 2 and the like.

In the preferred thermal transfer sheet base paper 1 used in the present invention, an adhesive layer 6 is formed on the above-mentioned release layer and/or protective layer 5''. Can be formed by various printing methods, preferably 5
The thickness is approximately 100 μm.

The adhesive layer 6 may be formed using any adhesive, but when printing individual information later with a printer, it will not melt due to heating etc. and cause problems such as adhesion of the head etc., irregularities in printing, bleeding, etc. Therefore, it is preferable to use a heat-sensitive adhesive that has a relatively high softening point and exhibits tackiness when heated.

As a preferable heat-sensitive adhesive layer forming the adhesive layer 6, any adhesive used in conventionally known thermal transfer sheet 20 types can be used. For example, polyisoprene rubber, polyisobutyl rubber, styrene-butadiene rubber, butane Rubber resins such as gen-acrylonitrile rubber, (meth)acrylic acid ester resins, polyvinyl ether resins, polyvinyl acetate resins, vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate copolymer resins, polystyrene resins, polyester resins, polyamide resins Any adhesive such as , polychlorinated olefin resin, polyvinyl butyral resin, etc. can be used, and if necessary, F4 additives such as tackifier, softener, filler, anti-aging agent, etc. can be added. be able to. In addition, unlike the adhesive layer of conventional thermal transfer sheets, individual information is printed on the surface of the sheet, so in order to improve printing performance, fillers such as microsilica, which do not interfere with transparency, are added to the adhesive layer.
It is preferable to control the ink receptivity, heat resistance, etc. of the adhesive layer 6 by adding about 30 to 40% by weight of a fine inorganic filler such as alumina, clay, calcium carbonate, barium sulfate, or the like. All of these adhesives and various additives are commercially available and can be easily used manually.

One of the features of the present invention is that the individual information 2 is printed on the surface of the adhesive layer 6 of the thermal transfer sheet base paper 1 as described above, which is largely different from the thermal transfer of the prior art. Any printing method may be used to print such individual information, but
A preferred method is to use any of a variety of printers connected to a computer, such as dot printers, impact printers, thermal transfer printers, electrophotographic printers, etc. Particularly preferred printing methods are electrophotographic printing methods using wet or dry toner. is a printer,
According to this method, it is possible to print with very thick ink, and it is possible to print individual information with high density and clarity.

The card base material 30 used in the present invention supports the individual information 2 and general common information, and other information is applied as necessary.

Information other than the individual information 2 that may be applied to the cart base material 30 includes holograms, imprints (emboss), etc.
, facial photographs, engravings, signatures, magnetic recording layers, IC chips, bar codes, general printing, etc. Two or more types of these may be combined.

In principle, the material of the cart base material 30 may be the same as that of a normal card. Therefore, it is preferable to use a hard polyvinyl chloride resin core 8 with transparent layers 9 on both sides, and it is preferable to use a white one for coloring or printing. The reason for choosing it is not special; other synthetic resins can also be used,
Other materials may be used as long as they are sheet-like or plate-like. Further, if resistance to bending is required, reinforcement may be performed using a metal plate, metal mesh, woven fabric, or non-woven fabric.

The card base material 30 used in the present invention is as described above (any conventionally known card base material can be used, but in a preferred embodiment, the individual information 2 of the thermal transfer sheet 20 is transferred to the surface to be thermally transferred). A receiving layer 7 is formed. As the material for forming this information receiving layer 7, any material that softens or melts at the temperature during thermal transfer, such as the above-mentioned adhesive, can be used. It is preferable to provide it on one side (or both sides) of the card base material 30 with a thickness of about 5 to 10 μm. Also,
Such a receiving layer 7 is similar to the adhesive layer 7 of the thermal transfer sheet 20.
It may be formed from any resin having good adhesive properties or an ink made by adding pigments and other additives to these resins.

By providing such an information receiving layer 7, when the individual information 2 on the thermal transfer sheet 200 is thermally transferred, the ink layer 2 forming the individual information 2, especially the toner image, will be embedded in this information receiving layer 7. The thickness of the toner image does not appear convexly on the surface of the card, and smooth and dense individual information 2 is formed, and the wear resistance and scratch resistance of the individual information 2 are significantly improved. In addition, when these card materials are handled with wool, fingerprints and hand oil stains are less likely to adhere, and even if they do, they will not have a negative effect on thermal transfer, so there will be no defective products due to poor transfer. No more outbreaks.

The thermal transfer method using the thermal transfer sheet 20 and the cart base material 30 as described below may be performed in any format. For example, if the thermal transfer sheet is in the form of a continuous sheet in the form of a business form, it can be carried out continuously as shown in the fourth figure. Alternatively, if it is a sheet-fed thermal transfer sheet that contains a large amount of individual information 2, it can be thermally transferred onto many card base materials at once using a large hot stamp, or it can be cut into card size. Alternatively, the thermal transfer sheet 20 may be thermally transferred onto a large card base material, and then the transferred material is cut into card size pieces. Alternatively, these heat transfer sheets 20 may be cut into approximately card size pieces, paired with the card base material, and individually hot stamped. Thermal transfer may also be performed.

Detailed thermal transfer conditions such as temperature conditions and time conditions for thermal transfer are not special, and are based on conventionally known thermal transfer conditions. After the thermal transfer is completed, the base film 4 of the thermal transfer sheet 2o is peeled off to create an individual information card lo by the method of the present invention.
o is obtained.

(Operations/Effects) According to the present invention as described above, when manufacturing an individual information card, a thermal transfer sheet having a large amount of individual information is created in advance, so unlike the conventional technology, individual information can be output for each card. Since it is not necessary to create a thermal transfer sheet containing this individual information and then thermally transfer it to the card base material, the thermal transfer sheet containing the individual information is mass-produced separately, and the process of thermal transfer from the thermal transfer sheet to the card base material is not necessary. As a result, individual information cards can be provided in large quantities at low cost without requiring an expensive card production machine.

In addition, in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, as a result of using a thermal transfer sheet base paper with a specific layer configuration and a card base material with a specific configuration, a desired toner image format can be produced by an electrophotographic method such as a laser printer, and a desired toner image format can be produced by an electrophotographic method such as a laser printer. Individual information cards that are thick and have excellent abrasion resistance can be supplied inexpensively and in large quantities.

Furthermore, when the card base material used in the present invention is provided with an information-receiving layer, there will be less fingerprints and hand oils attached when the card base material is handled by hand, and even if they do, they will not adversely affect thermal transfer. Therefore, the issue of defective products was resolved.

Next, the present invention will be explained in more detail with reference to Examples. In addition, unless otherwise specified, parts or percentages in the text refer to 1.
ffi standard.

Example 1 On one side of a polyethylene terephthalate film with a thickness of 50 μm, an ink for a release layer and protective layer (S-45-3, manufactured by Showa Ink, containing polymethyl methacrylate as the main component and small amounts of polyester and wax) and Heat-sensitive adhesive layer inks having the following compositions were sequentially coated using a gravure coating method to achieve dry film thicknesses of 1 to 2 μm and 4 to 5 μm, respectively.
A thermal transfer sheet base paper was prepared by coating and drying to a thickness of μm.

Ink Vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate (molar ratio 1:1) copolymer (degree of polymerization 500) 20 parts Vinyl chloride-
Vinyl acetate (molar ratio 1:2) copolymer (degree of polymerization 200)
5 parts Microsilica (average particle size o, ots μm) 15 parts Methyl ethyl ketone 30 parts Toluene 30 parts This was cut into a width of 12 inches cm, sprocketed on both ends, and wound up into a roll. While printing a large number of individual pieces of information in mirror letters on each card-sized area using a dry toner printer (8400, Toshi Co., Ltd.) on this rolled thermal transfer sheet base paper, the printed matter was wound onto another roll. Next, using a continuous hot stamper using this rolled thermal transfer sheet, individual information was printed on a white hard vinyl chloride card base material having an information receiving layer (5 to 100 μm) made of ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer resin on its surface. was thermally transferred. Thermal transfer conditions are 150℃ per card.
, 200 g/c rn" and 1 second. After the thermal transfer, the base film of the thermal transfer sheet was peeled off to obtain an individual information card having individual information. Although the toner image was thick and thick, the surface was very smooth with no raised characters and had very high scratch resistance and abrasion resistance.

Example 2 The thermal transfer sheet obtained in Example 1 was cut into sheets of 13 inches in length, and two of these sheets were temporarily pasted side by side on a hard transparent polyvinyl chloride sheet provided with an information receiving layer. did. Furthermore, a milky white rigid polyvinyl chloride sheet (
A hard transparent polyvinyl chloride sheet is layered on the core layer) and a hard transparent polyvinyl chloride sheet is sandwiched between two glazed plates and heat pressed at a temperature of 115°C, a pressure of 20 kg/crn', and a time of 20 minutes to form a card base. At the same time as the materials were laminated, thermal transfer was performed, the base film was peeled off, and each piece of individual information was broken into a card size to create a large number of individual information cards. These cards had the same excellent properties as Example 1.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 shows the appearance of a part of the thermal transfer sheet used in the present invention, Fig. 2 schematically shows a part of the cross section of the thermal transfer sheet of Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 shows the appearance of a part of the thermal transfer sheet used in the present invention. FIG. 4 schematically shows a part of a cross section, FIG. 4 schematically shows an example of the method of the present invention, and FIG. 5 schematically shows a part of a cross section of an individual information card obtained by the present invention. . 1; Thermal transfer sheet base paper 2: Individual information 4; Base film 5; Transparent protective layer 6: Adhesive layer 7
: Information receiving layer 8: Core layer 9: Transparent layer 20: Thermal transfer sheet 30: Card base material 100;
Individual information card applicant Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 5 Figure 4 Figure 5

Claims (4)

[Claims] (1) A card manufacturing method that thermally transfers information such as characters and symbols onto a card base material, which is characterized by preparing a thermal transfer sheet to which a large amount of individual information has been added in advance, and thermally transferring these individual information onto the card base material. A method for manufacturing an individual information card. (2) The method for manufacturing an individual information card according to claim (1), wherein the thermal transfer sheet is formed by laminating a protective layer, an adhesive layer, and individual information on a base film in the order described. (3) The method for manufacturing an individual information card according to claim (1), wherein the card base material has an information receiving layer on at least one surface thereof. (4) The method for manufacturing an individual information card according to claim (1), wherein the information receiving layer is made of adhesive resin.