Record receiver having plural interactive leaves or a colorless – Having plural interactive leaves
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-02
2001-05-08
Hess, Bruce H. (Department: 1774)
Record receiver having plural interactive leaves or a colorless
Having plural interactive leaves
C427S152000, C428S195100, C428S484100, C428S913000, C428S914000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06228805
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thermal transfer printing sheet useful for transferring images, letters, symbols or the like on both surfaces of an image-receiving material by a thermal transfer printing process, and to a process of double-side transfer printing using the same.
2. Related Art
Heretofore, a thermal transfer printing process has been used to form images with gradation, or monotone letters, symbols or the like on an image-receiving material. The heat-sensitive sublimation transfer printing process or the hot-melt transfer printing process is extensively employed as the thermal transfer printing process.
The heat-sensitive sublimation transfer printing process is as follows: a thermal transfer printing sheet comprising a substrate sheet, and a sublimable dye layer provided thereon, containing a binder resin, and, as a coloring material, a sublimable dye which is dissolved or dispersed in the binder resin is superposed on an image-receiving material, and energy is applied to the thermal transfer printing sheet by a heating device such as a thermal head according to image information so as to transfer the dye contained in the sublimable dye layer of the thermal transfer printing sheet to the image-receiving material, thereby producing an image on the image-receiving material.
The hot-melt transfer printing process is as follows: a thermal transfer printing sheet comprising a substrate sheet, and a hot-melt ink layer provided thereon, containing a coloring agent such as a pigment, and a vehicle such as a wax is superposed on an image-receiving material, and energy is applied to the thermal transfer printing sheet by a heating device such as a thermal head according to image information so as to transfer the softened hot-melt ink layer to the image-receiving material, thereby producing an image on the image-receiving S material.
The above-described heat-sensitive sublimation transfer printing process is advantageous in that it can produce an image excellent in gradation because the amount of the dye to be transferred to the image-receiving material can be controlled in each dot by changing the amount of energy applied to the thermal transfer printing sheet. However, monotone images such as letters or symbols produced by this process are poor in sharpness, so that this printing process is not suitable for the recording of is OCR letters, bar codes or the like which will be optically read. The hot-melt transfer printing process is advantageous in that it can readily produce monotone images such as letters or symbols. However, it is difficult to produce, by this printing process, an image with gradation such as a photograph of a person's face.
In order to solve the aforementioned problems in the thermal transfer printing processes, a complex-type thermal transfer printing sheet comprising a sublimable dye layer and a hot-melt ink layer which are alternately provided on one surface of a continuous substrate sheet is used for conducting transfer printing. The thermal transfer printing sheet
71
shown in
FIG. 12
is one example of such a thermal transfer printing sheet. This thermal transfer printing sheet comprises a sublimable dye layer
72
composed of sections (
72
Y,
72
M,
72
C) of three colors of yellow (Y), magenta (M) and cyan (C), and a hot-melt ink layer composed of a black ink layer
73
(BK) and a protective layer
74
(OP). In this thermal transfer printing sheet, the sublimable dye layer and the hot-melt ink layer are sequentially provided on one surface of the substrate sheet in the order of Y-M-C-BK-OP, and this unit Y-M-C-BK-OP is provided repeatedly.
The above thermal transfer printing sheet is used, for example, in the following manner: after an image with gradation is formed by using the sublimable dye layer
72
(
72
Y,
72
M,
72
C), and letters etc. are formed by using the black ink layer
73
(BK) on the surface of an image-receiving material, the protective layer
74
(OP) is transferred to the entire surface of the image and letters etc. formed (the first repeating unit Y-M-C-BK-OP is used for these steps); the image-receiving material is then turned over, and letters etc. are formed by using the black ink layer
73
(BK) on the back of the image-receiving material (the second repeating unit Y-M-C-BK-OP is used for this step). Therefore, among the second repeating unit Y-M-C-BK-OP, only the black ink layer
73
(BK) is used, and the sublimable dye layer
72
(
72
Y,
72
M,
72
C) and the protective layer
74
(OP) are not used at all. The second repeating unit in which only the black ink layer
73
(BK) is used cannot be used to form an image on a new image-receiving material any more, so that the third and fourth repeating units have to be used for this purpose. This means that the sublimable dye layer (
72
Y,
72
M,
72
C) and the protective layer
74
(OP) are left unused in every other repeating unit Y-M-C-BK-OP provided on this thermal transfer printing sheet. This thermal transfer printing sheet is thus poor in the efficiency of double-side transfer printing, and it is difficult to decrease the running cost.
The present invention has been accomplished in the light of the aforementioned circumstances. An object of the present invention is therefore to provide a thermal transfer printing sheet useful for efficiently transferring images, letters, symbols or the like on both surfaces of an image-receiving material by a thermal transfer printing process, and a process of double-side transfer printing using the same.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The above object of the invention can be attained by a thermal transfer printing sheet for thermally transferring images on both surfaces of an image-receiving material, comprising a substrate sheet; an area for surface transfer printing, comprising at least a sublimable dye layer composed of sections of one or more colors; and an area for reverse transfer printing, comprising at least a hot-melt ink layer composed of sections of one or more colors, the two areas being alternately provided on one surface of the substrate sheet.
Further, in the thermal transfer printing sheet of the present invention, the area for surface transfer printing comprises the above-described sublimable dye layer and a transferable protective laminate, and the area for reverse transfer printing comprises the above-described hot-melt ink layer and a transferable protective laminate.
Furthermore, in the thermal transfer printing sheet of the present invention, the area for surface transfer printing comprises the above-described sublimable dye layer, a hot-melt ink layer and a transferable protective laminate, and the area for reverse transfer printing comprises the above-described hot-melt ink layer and a transferable protective laminate.
Furthermore, in the thermal transfer printing sheet of the present invention, the above-described sublimable dye layer is composed of sections of three colors of yellow, magenta and cyan, the above-described hot-melt ink layer is a hot-melt ink layer of black color, and the above-described transferable protective laminate is provided by laminating a protective layer and an adhesive layer on the substrate sheet in this order, the protective layer comprising as a main component a mixture of an acrylic resin, a wax, a vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate copolymer and a polyester resin, or comprising as a main component an ionizing-radiation-hardened resin, or comprising as a main component a mixture of polymethyl methacrylate and a wax, or comprising as main components a resin soluble in water and particles insoluble in a solvent.
Furthermore, in the thermal transfer printing sheet of the present invention, the above-described transferable protective laminate is provided by laminating a protective layer, an ultraviolet-absorbing layer and an adhesive layer on the -substrate sheet in this order, the ultraviolet-absorbing layer comprising an ultraviolet-absorbing polymer; or the transferable protective laminate is provided by laminating a protective
Kudo Mikiko
Ohshima Katsuyuki
Onishi Jiro
Dai Nippon Printing Co. Ltd.
Hess Bruce H.
Parkhurst & Wendel LLP
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