JPS6378793A - Transfer recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the lowering in image recording grade in image forming to a recording paper inferior in smoothness, by providing a distribution layer of image forming elements, each of which consists of a core part containing a dye coloring component and a pigment coloring component and having a heat-meltable property of which the heat-meltable characteristic changes by the application of energy and a wall material covering said core part, to a base material. CONSTITUTION:A transfer recording medium 1 is constituted by bonding image forming elements 1e each formed by coating a heat-meltable core material 1 containing a dye and pigment with a wall material 1b to a base material 1 being a polyethylene terephthalate in a single layer or in several layers by a binder 1d. The core material changes in its heat-meltable characteristic by applying at least one kind of energy among light, heat and electromagnetic waves to said core material. By applying energy to this transfer recording medium 1 corresponding to an image signal, a latent image because of different heat-meltable characteristics is formed on the transfer recording medium. When this medium is superposed to transfer paper and simultaneously pressed and heated, capsule walls are destructed and the core materials exude from the gaps of the wall materials being destructed corresponding to an image.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a transfer recording medium used in printers, copiers, facsimile machines, etc., and particularly relates to a transfer recording medium that can change the color of an image obtained using a simple device. Regarding recording media.

[Background Art] In recent years, with the rapid development of the information industry, various information processing systems have been developed, and recording media suitable for each information processing system have also been developed.

One of the recording media mentioned above is a thermal transfer recording medium. This is a method of recording on recording paper using an ink ribbon (thermal transfer recording medium), which is made by coating a ribbon-shaped support with heat-melting ink made by dispersing a colorant in a heat-melting binder. be.

That is, the thermal transfer recording medium is superimposed so that its thermal transfer ink layer is in contact with the recording paper, and the thermal transfer recording medium and the recording paper are conveyed between a thermal head and a platen, and the thermal transfer recording medium is A thermal head applies pulsed heat according to the image signal from the support side, and
By pressing the two together and transferring the melted ink onto the recording paper, an ink image corresponding to the application of heat is recorded on the recording paper.

By using the thermal transfer recording medium as described above, it is possible to perform recording on plain paper, and the apparatus for this purpose is small and lightweight, does not generate noise, and has been widely used in recent years.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, thermal transfer recording media such as L are not without problems.

This is because in transfer recording using conventional thermal transfer recording media, the transfer recording performance, that is, the image quality, is greatly affected by the surface smoothness of the recording paper, and although highly smooth recording paper can record good images, In the case of recording paper with low smoothness, the image recording quality may deteriorate.

In addition, with conventional transfer devices that use thermal transfer recording media, if you want to obtain images of different colors, you have to convert the thermal transfer recording medium to a different color, or you can apply two different colors separately from the beginning. Separate thermal transfer recording media must be used.

However, it is cumbersome to replace thermal transfer recording media, and with thermal transfer recording media that are coated in two separate colors, if only one is used, the other color will be sent without being used at all. There are problems such as a lot of waste.

The present invention has been made in view of the above conventional problems, and its purpose is to prevent low image recording quality on recording paper with low smoothness, and to print in two different colors on one thermal transfer recording medium. To provide a heat-sensitive transfer recording medium that can be easily manufactured without the wasteful process of applying two colors separately.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The above-mentioned object of the present invention is to provide a composition containing both a first coloring component which is a dye and a second coloring component which is a pigment, which is heat-fusible and which has at least one type of energy source. This is achieved by a transfer recording medium having a distribution layer of minute image-forming elements on the base material, which is made up of a core part whose thermal melting properties change by adding a material, and a wall material covering the core part. Ru.

A cross-sectional view of a typical example of the transfer recording medium of the present invention is shown in FIG.

In the transfer recording medium 1 shown in FIG. 1, an image forming element 1e is formed by covering a heat-melting core material +a containing dyes and pigments with a wall material 1b, and a PUT (polyethylene They are bonded in one layer or in several layers on a base IC which is a (terephthalate) film.

The thermal melting properties of the core material change by applying at least one type of energy such as light, heat, and electromagnetic waves. This means, for example, a change in which the material polymerizes with light or light and heat and becomes difficult to melt even when heated, or a change in which the material polymerizes or decomposes when heated. When transferring, thermal heads and irradiation means are used depending on the energy used.

By applying the above-mentioned energy to such a transfer recording medium in accordance with the image number, a latent image is formed on the transfer recording material due to the thermal melting properties. When this medium is sandwiched between transfer paper and subjected to pressure and heat at the same time, the capsule wall is destroyed, and the core material oozes out from the gaps in the destroyed wall material in accordance with the image.

At this time, if the core material is peeled off from the paper immediately after pressure heating or is peeled off without heating, the cohesive force of the core material is weak, so only the core material that has oozed out in accordance with the image will be transferred to the paper, leaving the wall material as the base material. remains on the wood. At this time, the wall material of the capsule is destroyed in the form of many small cracks, so the pigment particles are blocked by the wall material and cannot escape. Therefore, at this time, only the color of the dye is transferred to the transfer paper in accordance with the image.

On the other hand, if the core material is heated under pressure and then cooled and peeled off while stacked on the paper, the core material has a high cohesive force, so the entire capsule is transferred to the transfer paper. At this time, since the adhesive strength of the paper differs depending on the image area and non-image area, the transfer is performed according to the image.

In other words, with the transfer recording medium of the present invention, it is possible to select between a dye-only color or a dye+pigment color by simply changing the peeling method after heating and pressing. 7J recording process is simple.

The core material of the transfer recording medium of the present invention is composed of a dye, a pigment, a binder, etc., and has a diameter of 5 to 2011 nm (preferably about 100 nm).

Dyes in the core material include Dia Resinlet K, Orient Red RR, Orient Scarlet 1308,
Kayaset Blue 906, Orient Blue #603,
All known dyes such as Kayaset Yellow 963 can be used, and all known pigments such as carbon black, Lionol Green B-201, and phthalocyanine blue can be used as pigments. In addition, as a binder, Aronix M-315, Aroex M-205
or a mixture of monomers such as methyl acrylate and ethylene glycol diacrylate with non-reactive polymers such as polymethyl methacrylate.

Further, as the wall material of the transfer recording medium of the present invention, known capsule materials such as polystyrene resin, gelatin, urea-formalin, etc. are used, and the thickness thereof is preferably Q, about 1 to 1 μm.

Further, as the base material of the transfer recording medium of the present invention, known films such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), aramid, etc., which have been used as the base material of conventional thermal transfer ribbons, are used.

A capsule (image forming element) in which a core material is wrapped with a wall material is formed into a microcapsule shape by a conventionally known method.

〔Example〕

The present invention will be explained in more detail by giving specific examples below.

First, 100g of a mixture of the materials shown in Table 1 was mixed with water 21 in which 10g of gum arabic and a surfactant (cationic or nonionic) with an ILB value of at least 10 were dissolved, and heated to 70°C with a homomixer to 8,000 g. ~11
Stir at 0,000 rpm to emulsify and obtain oil droplets with an average particle size of 10 μm. A microcapsule slurry is obtained by adding water 2001 in which log gelatin is dissolved and slowly cooling it, and slowly adding IQml of a 20% glutaraldehyde aqueous solution to harden the capsule wall.

After that, solid-liquid separation is performed using a Nutsche filter and vacuum 97. 3 in dryer
It is dried at 5° C. for 10 hours to obtain a microcapsule-shaped image forming element.

PV microcapsules formed as described in hit
The transfer recording medium 1 is constructed by adhering it onto a base IC made of a PET film with a thickness of 6 scales using an adhesive prepared by adding a surfactant O, I* to an A3'* aqueous solution.

Next, using the transfer recording medium 1 obtained above, drawing was carried out in the following manner using the apparatus shown in FIG.

In FIG. 2, a transfer recording medium 1 is supplied from a supply roll 2 and reaches a transfer section 6 via a passively rotating recording roll 5. Here, the paper supplied from the paper cassette 7 is aligned with the image using the registration rolls 9a and 9b, and the side where the transfer recording medium 1 and the capsule exist are placed between the heating roll 6a and the pressure roll 6b. are superimposed and transferred. Peeling roll 1 that can then move and take two positions
1, a guide roll 10, and then wound onto a winding roll 3 by a drive means (not shown).

The image is an original i+4 placed on a document table +3, which is a transparent platen glass, and an illumination means +5a! 5b and reflector 16a
,! 6b, and its image is formed on the transfer recording medium on the recording roll 5 by the imaging lens 17.

In the portion where the portion corresponding to the white portion of the original is imaged, the core material of the capsule on the transfer recording medium 1 polymerizes and does not melt and flow when heated in the transfer portion, and is no longer transferred. On the other hand, in the part corresponding to the black part, polymerization does not occur and the original heat meltability is maintained.

In this manner, image formation was performed by transporting the transfer recording medium 1 in the direction shown in the figure in synchronization with the movement of the platen glass 13 in the direction a in the figure by a driving means (not shown).

In this embodiment, after the transfer recording medium 1 and the transfer paper pass through the transfer section 6 in an overlapping manner, when the peeling roll 11 is at the position 11a, the capsules are peeled off after cooling, so that the entire capsule is transferred and both of the core material 1a are separated. The color of the coloring agent transferred, resulting in a black image. On the other hand, when the peeling roll U was at the position lb, the pigment remained in the capsule and the capsule also remained on the substrate, resulting in a red image being transferred.

Table 1 [Effects of the Invention] - As explained above, the transfer recording medium of the present invention is capable of obtaining high-quality images even on recording paper with low smoothness because the capsules are transferred. . In addition, without using difficult methods such as separating the two colors, the fi! Since the configuration can be arbitrarily selected, the apparatus used for transfer recording is simple and economical in terms of process.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a transfer recording medium of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a recording apparatus that performs transfer recording using the transfer recording medium of the present invention. 1: Transfer recording medium 1a: Core material 1b: Wall material lc2 base material ld: Binder IC=image forming element 2: Supply roll 3: Winding roll 5: Recording roll 6: Transfer section 6a: Heating roll 6b = Pressure roll 7 : Recording paper cassette 8 : Recording paper feed roll 9a Ni registration roll 9b = Registration roll 10 ° Guide roll 11 : Peeling roll 11a Peeling roll position 11b : Peeling roll position 12, receiver is stand 13 ・Document Stand 14: Document 15a: Illumination means + 5b - Illumination means 16a': Reflector + 6b Reflector I7: Imaging lens

Claims (1)

[Claims] a core portion that contains both a first coloring component that is a dye and a second coloring component that is a pigment, is heat-meltable, and whose heat-melt properties change by applying at least one type of energy; 1. A transfer recording medium comprising, on a base material, a distributed layer of minute image forming elements consisting of a wall material covering a core portion.