US3706593A

US3706593A - Image-receiving material for transfer images

Info

Publication number: US3706593A
Authority: US
Inventors: Shizuo Miyano; Keishiro Kido; Asaji Kondo; Eiichi Mizuki
Original assignee: Fuji Photo Film Co Ltd
Current assignee: Fujifilm Holdings Corp
Priority date: 1968-12-10
Filing date: 1969-12-09
Publication date: 1972-12-19
Anticipated expiration: 1989-12-19

Abstract

IMAGE-RECEIVING MATERIAL FOR TRANSFER IMAGES, MORE PARTICULARLY, IMAGE-RECEIVING MATERIAL FOR PRINTING OR PHOTOGRAPHIC TRANSFER IMAGES, WHICH IS PRODUCED BY APPLYING MICROCAPSULES HAVING WALLS OF HYDROPHILIC POLYMER FILM AND CONTAINING TRANSPARENT OR SEMI-TRANSPARENT PARTICLES TO A SUPPORT HAVING A METALLIC GLOSS WHICH REFLECTS THE LIGHT WELL.

Description

ec- 19, 1972 SHIZUO MIYANO ETAL 3,706,593

IMAGE-RECEIVING MATERIAL FOR TRANSFER IMAGES Filed Dec. 9, 1969 INVENTORS SHIZUO MIYANO KEISHIRO KIDO ASAJI KONDO EHCHI, MIZUKI S MM, W BY 4- Wk ATTORNEYS United States Patent Office 3,706,593 Patented Dec. 19, 1972 3,706,593 IMAGE-RECEIVING MATERIAL FOR TRANSFER IMAGES Shizuo Miyano, Keishiro Kido, Asaji Kondo, and Eiiehi Mizuki, Asaka-shi, Japan, assignors to Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd., Kanagawa, Japan Filed Dec. 9, 1969, Ser. No. 883,496 Claims priority, application Japan, Dec. 10, 1968, 43/ 90,349 Int. Cl. 1344:] /00 U.S. Cl. 117-127 11 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Image-receiving material for transfer images, more particularly, image-receiving material for printing or photographic transfer images, which is produced by applying microcapsules having walls of hydrophilic polymer film and containing transparent or semi-transparent particles to a support having a metallic gloss which reflects the light well.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION (1) Field of the invention The present invention relates to novel materials for receiving transfer images in printing or photographic pI'OCfiSSCS.

(2) Background of the prior art In the following description, transfer image means that image transferred either from a printing plate or a photographic matrix. Image-receiving material is defined as material for obtaining prints or photographic images from said transfer images. Hitherto, as the imagereceiving material, paper, synthetic resin films and metal films have been used in the field of printing, and receiving paper produced by applying a hydrophilic polymer, such as gelatin or polyvinyl alcohol, to baryta paper has been used in dye transfer or diffusion transfer processes in the photographic field.

These image-receiving materials are used as the medium for expressing concretely images having shape and colors, and image quality is largely influenced by the material employed. Particularly in color printing or photography, the quality of the receiving material has a great influence upon image quality. In general, prior imagereceiving material is insuflicient in lightness and gloss, which are the most important factors in evaluating image quality.

An object of this invention is accordingly to provide an image-receiving material which exhibits good brightness and metal gloss.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This object is accomplished by the provision of a new combination of microcapsules and a support possessing a metallic gloss, which reflects light. The image-receiving material of this invention is particularly useful in the fields of multicolor printing and trichromatic dye transfer photography, but is applicable as well to other fields of printing and photography.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a receiving material of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a microcapsule in the receiving layer of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, the image-receiving material of this invention will be explained. A support 1 has a surface 2 having metallic gloss which reflects light well, and an image-receiving layer 3 coated thereon.

The image-receiving layer consists of microcapsules 4 including transparent or semi-transparent fine particles therein and a binder 5. Surface 6 of the layer is matted, since unevenness partially results in accordance with the microcapsules shapes. However, the unevenness is so fine that it is hardly visible. This image-receiving layer 3 is a layer on which color images of inks or dyes are formed by printing or photographic treatment as well as being a light diffusion layer, which is a characteristic of this invention.

That is, microcapsules 4 operate as elements which diffuse light reflected by the reflecting surface 2 of the support, because the refractive index of the microcapsules is slightly different from that of the binder. Consequently, homogeneous bright images can be obtained without glare or hot spots. Furthermore, the images formed can be comfortably observed, since there is no direct reflection of light from the matt surface 6.

Referring to FIG. 2, the microcapsules will be explained. The microcapsule has a structure which consists of film 12, consisting of a hydrophilic polymer and one or a plurality of particles 11 of 0.1-5 microns in size and enclosed by said film. The size of the microcapsule itself may be from 2 to 50 microns, preferably 5 to 10 microns. The microcapsules should be transparent or semi-transparent when dry. Further, it is preferable to select the particles included in the microcapsule, the wall film, and the binder for dispersing the microcapsules such that the refractive indexes thereof are somewhat different from each other.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION As supports having metallic gloss and which reflect light well, there may be mentioned foils, plated films, deposited film or plates of aluminum, zinc, tin, nickel, chromium, stainles steel, gold, silver and the like. Especially preferred are aluminum films and mirror aluminum deposited on synthetic resin film, in view of their low price and large reflectivity, i.e., brightness. Further, a characteristic image-receiving material can be obtained by utilizing an aluminum plate having fine lines in the direction in which it was formed by pressing the aluminum plate in a roll and which imparts directivity to reflected light. Thus, if light parallel to the surface is applied to a surface having such fine lines in one direction, diffusion of the light is large in the phase at right angles to the lines and is small in the phase parallel to the lines.

As the particles included in the microcapsule, fine transparent particles of inorganic materials, such as glass or silica, synthetic polymers, such as polystyrene, polyamide, polyester or vinyl resin, solvents having a high boiling point such as tricresyl phosphate, dibutyl phthalate, silicone, aliphatic alcohol, and solutions of polymers in such solvents may be employed.

As the materials forming the wall film of the microcapsules, it is preferable to use a combination of a watersoluble protein having an isoelectric point such as gelatin, albumin, gum arabic, carboxy-mcthyl cellulose, sodium alginate, agar-agar or dextran sulphate and a water soluble material having acid groups in the molecule such as a copolymer of malic anhydride and vinyl monomer or polyvinylbenzene sulfonic acid.

These microcapsules possess a uniform particle size and can be produced easily by the method described in US. patent specification 2,800,457, by which the wall films, composed of hydrophilic material, are subjected to a water-insolubilization by the use of a hardening agent.

The image-receiving layer of this invention is prepared by applying microcapsules dispersed in a binder. As the binder, water-soluble swellable material such as gelatin, polyvinyl alcohol or sodium alginate can be used. Although the thickness of the image-receiving layer can be selected from a range of 2 to 50 microns, a thickness of about 10 microns is preferable since brightness is lowered and transfer images easily fade when the layer is unduly thick. The amount of the binder employed is preferably equal to the amount of the microcapsules. But it may be employed in any amount from V2 to 5 times that of the microcapsules. It has been found that good image-receiving layers can be produced when the amount of particles is equal to or slightly less than that of wall films.

In the following, an example of the production of an image-receiving material of this invention and an example of the use thereof will be illustrated.

EXAMPLE 1 In 180 g. of a aqueous solution of gelatin, 18 g. of tricresyl phosphate was emulsified by means of a supersonic emulsifier to form an emulsion having a particle size of less than 1 This emulsion was mixed with 1.8 liter of a 1% aqueous solution of gum arabic. 33 ml. of 25% acetic acid was added thereto at 40 C. while stirring to lower the pH, whereby coacervation was caused and a complex coacervate of gelatin-gum arabic was precipitated around the oil drops, which gather and become original oil-containing microcapsules having a particle size of about 7 After gelling the coacervate by cooling, 1 ml. of 37% formalin was added, followed by 10% aqueous sodium hydroxide, with stirring to increase the pH of the system in order to accelerate the hardening of microcapsules. After one day, 400 g. of a microcapsule slurry was obtained.

200 g. of this capsule slurry was mixed with 770 g. of a 3.6% aqueous solution of gelatin as the binder. The mixture was warmed at 40 C. and applied to an aluminum surface of Metalmee (trade name), produced by Toyo Rayon Co., Ltd.) aluminum deposited under vacuum as a mirror surface on a polyester film.

An image-receiving layer of about 10 microns in thickness was produced by applying the above slurry in the amount of 4 ml. per 100 emi EXAMPLE 2 Three 10 x 13 inch matrixes were prepared from a 4 x 5 inch color negative film by the tricolor separation method. Images of each matrix were dyed with yellow, magenta or cyan dye, and then the dyed images were transferred in this order onto the image-receiving material of Example 1 to provide a color print.

The highlight portions of the images thus formed on the color print were excellent in lightness and all parts thereof were clear and bright. In particular, the image portion corresponding to a metal part of a photographed original was a bright image having metal gloss due to the support. Further, since the surface layer of the color print was matted, light reflection therefrom did not occur and the images thereon had more brightness and more strongly emphasized cubic effects than those of conventional images transferred to a gelatin-coated baryta paper.

What is claimed is:

1. An image-receiving material adapted to receive images comprising a support with a surface having a metallic gloss capable of reflecting light and a microcapsule-containing layer coated onto said surface, said microcapsule-containing layer consisting essentially of a plurality of at least semi-transparent microcapsules dispersed in a binder for said microcapsules, said binder being selected from the group consisting of gelatin, polyvinyl alcohol and sodium alginate, said microcapsules consisting essentially of a hydrophilic polymer film enclosing at least one particle, said particle having a refractive index different from that of said binder, said particle being composed of a material which is at least semi-transparent selected from the group consisting of inorganic materials, synthetic polymers, high-boiling point solvents and solutions of said synthetic polymers in said high-boiling point solvents whereby images can be formed on the surface of said mierocapsule-containing layer which functions as a light diffusing layer to diffuse light reflected from the surface of the support having the metallic gloss due to said refractive index difference, thereby providing a homogeneous bright image.

2. The image-receiving material as claimed in claim 1 wherein said support is composed of a material selected from the group consisting of aluminum, zinc, tin, nickel, chromium, stainless'steel, gold and silver.

3. The image-receiving material as claimed in claim 1 wherein said particles are transparent and selected from the group consisting of tricresyl phosphate, dibutyl phthalate, silicone and an aliphatic alcohol.

4. The image-receiving material as claimed in claim 1 wherein said particles are transparent and selected from the group consisting of glass, silica, polystyrene, polyamide, polyester and vinyl resin.

5. The image-receiving material as claimed in claim 1 wherein said particles are transparent and comprise a high boiling point solvent solution of a polymer selected from the group consisting of polystyrene, polyamide, polyester and vinyl resins.

6. The image-receiving material as claimed in claim 1 wherein said particles have a size ranging from about 0.1 to 5 microns.

7. The image-receiving material as claimed in claim 1 wherein said microcapsules have a size ranging from about 2 to 50 microns.

8. The image-receiving material as claimed in claim 1 wherein said support comprises an aluminum plate having fine lines formed on the surface thereof.

9. The image-receiving material as claimed in claim 1 wherein said hydrophilic polymer film comprises a combination of a water-soluble protein having an isoelectric point and a water-soluble material having acid groups in the molecule thereof.

10. The image-receiving material as claimed in claim 9 wherein said water-soluble protein having an isoelectric point is selected from the group consisting of gelatin, albumin, gum arabic, carboxy-methyl cellulose, sodium alginate, agar-agar and dextran sulphate,-and wherein said water-soluble material having acid groups in the molecule thereof is selected from the group consisting of a copolymer of malic anhydride and a vinyl monomer and polyvinylbenzene sulfonic acid.

11. The image-receiving material as claimed in claim 1 wherein the binder is employed in an amount of from about one half to about five times the amount of the microcapsules.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,357,354 12/1967 Brynko l01-472 2,969,330 1/ 1961 Brynko 252-316 3,317,433 5/1967 Eichel 252316 2,002,733 5/1935 Earle 117-159 X 2,043,906 6/1936 Sheppard et al. 117159 X 2,706,262 4/l955 Barnes ll7-159 X 2,800,077 7/ 1957 Marron l0l149.2 3,388,027 6/1968 Altman 11737 R X 2,574,971 11/1951 Heltzer.

3,582,495 6/1971 Emrick 117-100 S X ALFRED L. LEAVI'IT, Primary Examiner I. R. BATTEN, JR., Assistant Examiner U.S. Cl. C.X.