Radiation imagery chemistry: process – composition – or product th – Imaged product – Structurally defined
Reexamination Certificate
2001-12-21
2003-02-04
Schilling, Richard L. (Department: 1752)
Radiation imagery chemistry: process, composition, or product th
Imaged product
Structurally defined
C430S496000, C430S531000, C430S536000, C430S539000, C430S252000, C430S262000, C430S263000, C430S930000, C430S014000, C347S105000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06514646
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to controlling the curl of imaging elements containing both gelatin and a pressure sensitive adhesive at low relative humidities and high temperatures through the use of a balanced architecture. In a preferred form it relates to the use of silver halide pressure sensitive label for the printing of text, graphics and images applied to packaging material having good curl resistance at low relative humidities and high temperatures.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
It has been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,507,166 to apply an adhesive coated release sheet to the backside of exposed, developed photographic paper prior to the cutting of the photographic paper into strips or sheets. While this method of creating adhesive backed photographs does produce an acceptable adhesive backed image it is inefficient and costly. The photofinisher must purchase additional special equipment and an adhesive coated release sheet to apply the adhesive to the backside of the photographic paper. It would be desirable if a photographic paper contained a repositionable adhesive that did not require the photofinisher to purchase extra materials or equipment to provide an adhesive backed photograph. Further, adhesive systems post process applied to photographic paper provides stiffness greater than 130 millinewtons to the imaging layers which resist the curling forces of the gelatin binder used in photographic imaging layers.
Present digital repositionable images that are typically used for stickers and dry mounting of digital images are constructed using a repositioning adhesive with an adhesive liner applied to the backside of the imaging layer. The adhesive system is typically applied in the manufacturing process for digital image support and the adhesive is exposed by the consumer after the image has been formed in the digital imaging layer. The most widely used technology for the formation of the images is inkjet printing. While ink jet imaging does provide acceptable image quality for some repositionable imaging applications, it suffers from a long dry time and at present cannot match the image quality of silver halide imaging systems. There remains a need for a high quality silver halide reflective receiver with a peelable and repositionable adhesive layer.
In the formation of color paper it is known that the base paper has applied thereto a layer of polymer, typically polyethylene. This layer serves to provide waterproofing to the paper, as well as providing a smooth surface on which the photosensitive layers are formed. While the polyethylene does provide a waterproof layer to the base paper, the melt extruded polyethylene layer used in color paper has very little dimensional strength and as a result can not be used alone as a carrier of an image. It has been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,244,861 to utilize biaxially oriented polypropylene in receiver sheets for thermal dye transfer. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,244,861 high strength biaxially oriented sheets are laminated to cellulose paper with low density polyethylene. While the biaxially oriented sheet in U.S. Pat. No. 5,244,861 is an efficient thermal dye transfer support, the biaxially oriented layer cannot be stripped from the paper and reapplied to a different surface.
Adhesive layers are also utilized for adhering labels to consumer products. Pressure sensitive labels are applied to packages to build brand awareness, describe the contents of the package, convey a quality message regarding the contents of a package and supply consumer information such as directions on product use, or an ingredient listing of the contents. Printing on the pressure sensitive label is typically printed by using gravure printing or flexography is applied to the package. The three types of information applied to a pressure sensitive label are text, graphic and images. Some packages only require one type of information while other packages require more than one type of information.
Prior art labels that are applied to packages consist of a face stock material, a pressure sensitive adhesive and a liner. The label substrate consisting of the face stock, pressure sensitive adhesive and liner are typically laminated and then printed utilizing a variety of non-photographic printing methods. After printing, the labels are generally protected by an over laminate material or a protective coating. The completed label consisting of a protection layer, printed information, base and pressure sensitive adhesive is applied to packages utilizing high speed labeling equipment.
Flexography is an offset letterpress technique where the printing plates are made from rubber or photopolymers. The printing on pressure sensitive label is accomplished by the transfer of ink from the raised surface of the printing plate to the surface of the material being printed. The rotogravure method of printing uses a print cylinder with thousands of tiny cells which are below the surface of the printing cylinder. The ink is transferred from the cells when the print cylinder is brought into contact with the pressure sensitive label at the impression roll. Printing inks for flexography or rotogravure include solvent based inks, water based inks and radiation cured inks. While rotogravure and flexography printing do provide acceptable image quality, these two printing methods require expensive and time consuming preparation of print cylinders or printing plates which make printing jobs of less than 100,000 units expensive as the set up cost and the cost of the cylinders or printing plates is typically depreciated over the size of the print job.
Recently, digital printing has become a viable method for the printing of information on packages. The term digital printing refers to the electronic digital characters or electronic digital images that can be printed by an electronic output device capable of translating digital information. The two main digital printing technologies are ink jet and electrophotography.
The introduction of piezo impulse drop-on-demand (DOD) and thermal DOD inkjet printers in the early 1980's provided ink jet printing systems. These early printers were very slow, and the inkjet nozzles often clogged. In the 1990's Hewlett Packard introduced the first monochrome ink jet printer, and, shortly thereafter, the introduction of color, wide format ink jet printers enabled businesses to enter the graphic arts market. Today, a number of different ink jet technologies are being used for packaging, desktop, industrial, commercial, photographic, and textile applications.
In piezo technology, a piezo crystal is electrically stimulated to create pressure waves, which eject ink from the ink chamber. The ink can be electrically charged and deflected in a potential field, allowing the different characters to be created. More recent developments have introduced DOD multiple jets that utilize conductive piezo ceramic material, which, when charged, increases the pressure in the channel and forces a drop of ink from the end of the nozzle. This allows for very-small droplets of ink to form and be delivered at high speed at very high resolution, approximately 1,000 dpi printing.
Until recently, the use of color pigments in jet inks was uncommon. However, this is changing rapidly. Submicron pigments were developed in Japan for ink jet applications. Use of pigments allows for more temperature resistant inks required for thermal ink jet printers and laminations. Pigmented water-based jet inks are commercially available, and UV-curable jet inks are in development. Pigmented inks have greater lightfastness and water-resistance.
Digital ink jet printing has the potential to revolutionize the printing industry by making short-run, color print jobs more economical. However, the next commercial stage will require significant improvements in ink jet technology, the major hurdle remaining is to improve print speed. Part of this problem is the limitation of the amount of data the printer can handle rapidly. The more complex the design, the slower the printing process. Right now
Bourdelais Robert P.
Gao Justin Z.
Greener Jehuda
Jones Tamara K.
Nair Mridula
Eastman Kodak Company
Leipold Paul A.
Schilling Richard L.
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