JPS6354246A - Recording method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To record a bordered image, by setting the quantities of heat applied by dots corresponding to an outline part of an image to be smaller than the quantities of heat applied by the other heating dots, at the time of recording the image by heating an ink by a group of dots. CONSTITUTION:An ink layer 3 is provided in a two-layer construction on a base 2. A first ink layer 3a and a second ink layer 3b differ in color, and the melting point of the second ink layer 3b is set to be lower than that of the first ink layer 3a. When each dot of a recording head 6 is operated to generate heat, the ink layer 3 is melted by the heat in a heating pattern, and a melted ink is transferred to a recording medium 4. The quantities of heat generated by those of the heating dots which are located at outermost edge parts for heating an outline part of an image to be recorded are set to be smaller than the quantities of heat generated by the other heating dots. Accordingly, only the second ink layer 3b is transferred at the part where the heating temperature is low, namely, at the outline part 7 of the image, resulting in that a bordered image is recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION <Industrial Application Field> The present invention relates to a recording method capable of obtaining a recorded image with a border.

<Prior Art> In recent years, a thermal transfer recording method is one of the recording methods widely used in information processing systems and the like.

In this method, an image is recorded using an ink sheet made by coating a sheet-like support with a heat-melt ink made by dispersing a colorant in a heat-melt binder.

That is, the ink sheets are stacked so that the thermally transferable ink layer is in contact with the recording paper, and the ink sheets and the recording paper are conveyed between a heat source and a platen, and heat is applied from the support side of the ink sheet. By applying pulsed heat according to both No. 13 using a head, an ink image corresponding to the heat application is transferred and recorded on the recording paper.

The above-mentioned recording method has been widely used in recent years because the apparatus used is small and light, makes no noise, and can record on plain paper. In particular, although conventionally it has been mainly used for recording monochrome images, recently its use as a multicolor recording method is also being considered.

The technology for performing the above multicolor recording is to form a high melting point ink layer on the ink sheet support, which is made by dispersing a coloring agent in a high melting point wax, and a layer in which a coloring agent is dispersed in a low melting point wax. It consists of two layers of low melting point ink layer,
There is a device that made color recording possible (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 56-1485)
No. 91).

<Problems to be Solved by the Invention> However, the two-color recording technology described above uses the difference in melting point between high-melting point wax and low-melting point wax to separate the functions of thermal transfer ink. The amount of thermal energy applied in the form of an image pattern must be varied for each color.

Therefore, in addition to the conventionally necessary control of applied energy to cope with changes in the environmental temperature or changes in the temperature of the thermal head caused by heat storage, it is also necessary to control the applied energy for two-color recording as described above. However, there was a problem in that the control system for this purpose became extremely complicated.

Further, in order to maintain a certain degree of good thermal transferability using the above ink sheet, it is necessary to set the melting point of the low melting point wax to be relatively low. As a result, the storage stability of the ink sheet deteriorates, and furthermore, background stains on the recording paper are likely to occur (,
It was difficult to obtain a clear two-color recorded image.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned conventional problems, and aims to provide a recording method capable of obtaining a recorded image having different colors at the edges of the image and a clear border without blur. It is something.

<Means for Solving the Problems> The means of the present invention for solving the above-mentioned conventional problems uses a transfer medium formed by coating a thermal transfer ink on a support, and transfers the ink layer of the transfer medium to a recording medium. A recording method in which an ink image corresponding to a heating pattern is transferred onto a recording medium by selectively applying heat pulses from the support side according to an image signal using a recording head having a group of heated dots facing the recording medium. , the amount of heat applied to the outermost dot in contact with the non-heated dot group among the dots constituting the heating pattern of the recording head is made smaller than the amount of heat applied to the other dots. be.

Effect> According to the above means, the thermal transfer ink is heated in an image pattern by the recording head, and the ink image is transferred to the recording medium by this heating. At this time, since the amount of heat applied to the outline portion of the recorded image is smaller than that to other portions, it is possible to transfer ink having different thermal melting characteristics from the other portions. Therefore, it is possible to automatically add a border to the transferred image.

<Example> Next, an embodiment of the present invention to which the above means is applied will be described.

FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing an outline of a thermal transfer recording method according to an example. In the figure, l is a transfer medium,
A heat-melting (including heat softening and heat sublimation) ink 3 is applied to a thickness of 2 to 15 inches on a heat-resistant support 2 made of polyethylene terephthalate, polyester, etc. and having a thickness of 2 to 15 inches.

The ink layer 3 has a two-layer structure in which a first ink layer 3a is coated on the support 2, and a second ink layer 3b is laminated and coated on the second ink layer 3a. Furthermore, the first ink layer 3a and the second ink layer 3b are configured to have different colors, and the melting point of the ink is such that the melting point of the second ink layer 3b is the same as or lower than the melting point of the first ink N3a. .

When recording using the transfer medium 1, the second ink layer 3b of the transfer recording medium 1 is brought into close contact with the recording medium 4, and while the back surface of the recording medium 4 is supported by the platen 5,
A heat pulse corresponding to the image signal is applied from the support 2 side by a recording handle, and the first ink layer 3a and the second ink layer 3 are
b is heated and melted into a desired pattern and transferred onto the recording medium 4.

Next, the heating configuration of the recording head 6 will be explained.
The recording head 6 is made up of an array of dots made of heating resistors, each of which is connected to an electrode, and a voltage pulse corresponding to both signals is applied to the electrode. As a result, the dots in the image forming section individually generate heat and melt the ink layer 3 in an image pattern.

Further, the voltage pulse width for the dot to which the heat should be applied (that is, the voltage should be turned on) is controlled via the control section, but the control section individually controls whether surrounding dots adjacent to the dot are on or off. The voltage pulse width is increased only when all the dots surrounding the dot are on, and when any of the dots is off, the voltage pulse width is controlled to be small.

To explain the heating configuration in more detail, for example, when recording a * mark as shown in FIG. Heat to mark. In such cases, the width of the voltage nozzle applied to the dots is thicker (as shown in the middle of the figure) when voltage is applied to the dots above, below, left, or right of the dots. If there is, it is controlled so that it becomes smaller (inside the mouth in the figure).

That is, among the heating dots marked with ★, the amount of heat generated by the outermost dot that heats the outline portion is smaller than the amount of heat generated by the other heating dots.

In addition, when the heating dot generates heat, in the example of FIG. Heat generation is controlled to be higher than the melting point of the low second ink layer 3b and lower than the melting point of the first ink FJ3a.

Therefore, when each dot of the recording pad 6 generates heat as described above, the ink layer 3 is heated and melted in a heating pattern, and the molten ink is transferred to the recording medium 4.

At this time, as shown in FIG. 3, both the first ink layer 3a and the second ink layer 3b are transferred to the dot portion where the heating temperature is high, but the dot portion where the heating temperature is low, that is, the outline portion 7 of the image is transferred. Only the second ink layer 3b is transferred, and the first ink layer 3a is not transferred. As a result, the second ink layer 3b appears only in the outline portion 7 of the image, and an image with a border is recorded.

Here, as for the ink constituting the ink layer 3, any of heat-melting, heat-softening, or heat-sublimating inks can be used, but typically a heat-melting ink is used.

This hot-melt ink is made by dispersing or dissolving a coloring agent in a hot-melting binder, and by adding elastomers etc. to the hot-melting binder, the melting temperature, melt viscosity,
Adjust the adhesive strength, etc.

Heat-melting binders include various conventionally used binders such as natural or synthetic wax resins, etc.
Or a mixture of two or more types can be used.

As the coloring agent constituting the heat-melting ink together with the heat-melting binder, all dyes and pigments commonly used for printing carbon blanks or other recording methods are used, and these dyes and pigments may be used alone or in combination. A mixture of two or more types is used.

In addition to the above-mentioned method of controlling the voltage pulse width, for example, a method of controlling the applied voltage may be used to change the temperature of the heated dot by the recording head 6.

<Effects of the Invention> As described above, the present invention, when recording an image by heating ink using a group of dots, separates the heat stamp of a dot corresponding to the outline of the image, and separates the heat stamp of other heated dots. By making the size smaller than , it is possible to obtain a recorded image with a border. Furthermore, since the recording does not require complicated control unlike conventional multicolor recording, it is possible to record clear images with a simple configuration.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic explanatory diagram of a recording configuration according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a heating dot when recording a ★ mark.
FIG. 3 is an explanatory cross-sectional view showing the ink layer of the transferred image. 1 is a transfer medium, 2 is a support, 3 is an ink layer, 3a is a first ink layer, 3b is a second ink layer, 4 is a recording medium, 5 is a platen, 6 is a recording head, and 7 is an outline portion.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A transfer medium formed by coating a thermal transfer ink on a support is used, the ink layer of the transfer medium is opposed to a recording medium, and a recording head having a group of heated dots is used to selectively print from the support side according to image signals. A recording method in which an ink image is transferred onto a recording medium according to a heating pattern by applying a heat pulse to the recording head, the outermost edge of which is in contact with a non-heated dot group among the dot groups that constitute the heating pattern of the recording head. A recording method characterized by making the amount of heat applied to a dot smaller than the amount of heat applied to other dots.