Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Fluid or fluid source handling means
Reexamination Certificate
1995-10-04
2001-01-16
Barlow, John (Department: 2853)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Fluid or fluid source handling means
C347S105000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06174056
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an image-forming method which makes it possible to provide an image having high density and high resolution and, more particularly, to an image-forming method suitable for providing a recorded image having improved surface gloss. The present invention also relates to an image-forming method suitable for providing a recorded image having improved waterfastness.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, recording paper such as that described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 26665/1991 and glossy paper such as that described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 36237/1993 have been used as recording mediums for forming images by ink-jet recording methods. The recording paper described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 26665/1991 has a base paper and a coating layer formed on the base paper, the coating layer containing a fine silica powder and a water-soluble binder such as polyvinyl alcohol. The glossy paper described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 36237/1993 has a non-transparent base such as synthetic paper and a film comprising mainly a water-soluble resin and formed on the non-transparent base. Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 265680/1988 discloses cast-coated paper in which a coating layer comprising mainly silica and a binder is formed by a cast coating method.
Recently, with improvements in the performance of ink-jet recording apparatus, e.g., increase in speed, increase in the number of recording colors and so on, there has been a need for an ink-jet recording medium having various improved properties, e.g.,
(1) high ink absorbing ability and high ink drying speed,
(2) capability of maintaining a high optical density of the dots and freedom from blurring around the dots,
(3) capability of forming a dot shape close to a true circle with a smooth peripheral line,
(4) capability of maintaining improved uniformity of the solid printed portion, or freedom from density unevenness in the solid portion,
(5) capability of forming a sharp boundary even when inks of different colors are printed adjacent each other,
(6) capability of maintaining good waterfastness and light fastness of images such that the images are stably maintained without changing in quality during long-term preservation.
There is also a need for being able to form, by an ink-jet recording method, an image having a high degree of gloss on the surface of a recording medium, and recording on a recording sheet (glossy paper) having surface gloss is also required.
The coated paper described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 26665/1991 has a mat surface tone and has no gloss. On the other hand, a high-gloss and high-density image can be formed on the glossy paper described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 36237/1993. However, since the surface of this paper is formed by a hydrophilic resin coating, the time it takes to dry and fix ink attached to its surface is long, and a printed portion remains sticky long enough to hinder continuous recording. Also, the ink-absorbing speed is so low that non-uniformity of density can occur easily in a solid printed portion. There is also the problem of a formed image being low in waterfastness because the ink-receiving layer is water-soluble.
The cast coated paper for ink-jet recording described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 265680/1988 has good characteristics with respect to drying and fixation of ink, but entails problems in terms of waterfastness of images, blurring at the boundary between different colors (hereinafter referred to as “boundary blur”) and uniformity of the solid portion.
Attempts have been made to improve recording sheets to deal with the problems of low solid uniformity and boundary blur, which are serious in an image-forming process using a recording sheet having surface gloss, but satisfactory recording sheets have not been obtained. Also, essentially no attempts have been made to solve these problems with respect to both improving the ink and improving the recording sheets.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of these problems, an object of the present invention is to provide an image-forming method simultaneously satisfying the above-mentioned required characteristics.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an image-forming method for forming a recording image having high density, high resolution and high gloss.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide an image-forming method suitable for forming a high-quality pictorial image free from the problems of boundary blur and non-uniformity of the solid portions.
To achieve these objects, the present invention provides an image-forming method in which a droplet of each of color inks of cyan, magenta and yellow is attached to a recording medium by being ejected through an orifice of a recording head in accordance with a recording signal to form an image. The method comprises using a recording medium having a base and a coating layer provided on the base and which has a porous structure including a pigment, a binder and a cationic material and having surface gloss, and preparing the color inks so that each ink has a surface tension within the range of 25 to 40 dyne/cm.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4189734 (1980-02-01), Kyser et al.
patent: 4243994 (1981-01-01), Kobayashi et al.
patent: 4463359 (1984-07-01), Ayata et al.
patent: 4478910 (1984-10-01), Oshiwa et al.
patent: 4636805 (1987-01-01), Toganoh et al.
patent: 4664952 (1987-05-01), Arai et al.
patent: 4686118 (1987-08-01), Arai et al.
patent: 4723129 (1988-02-01), Endo et al.
patent: 4740796 (1988-04-01), Endo et al.
patent: 4758461 (1988-07-01), Akiya et al.
patent: 4785313 (1988-11-01), Higuma et al.
patent: 4832984 (1989-05-01), Hasegawa et al.
patent: 4849774 (1989-07-01), Endo et al.
patent: 4877680 (1989-10-01), Sakaki et al.
patent: 4931810 (1990-06-01), Iwata et al.
patent: 4956223 (1990-09-01), Arai et al.
patent: 4957553 (1990-09-01), Koike et al.
patent: 4965612 (1990-10-01), Sakaki et al.
patent: 5041328 (1991-08-01), Akiya et al.
patent: 5075699 (1991-12-01), Koike et al.
patent: 5081470 (1992-01-01), Kurabayashi et al.
patent: 5101218 (1992-03-01), Sakaki et al.
patent: 5122814 (1992-06-01), Endo et al.
patent: 5137778 (1992-08-01), Nakatsugawa et al.
patent: 5159349 (1992-10-01), Endo et al.
patent: 5182175 (1993-01-01), Sakaki et al.
patent: 5246774 (1993-09-01), Sakaki et al.
patent: 5277962 (1994-01-01), Nakatsugawa et al.
patent: 5320898 (1994-06-01), Yoshida et al.
patent: 5362558 (1994-11-01), Sakaki et al.
patent: 5382283 (1995-01-01), Yui et al.
patent: 5526031 (1996-06-01), Kurabayashi
patent: 5576088 (1996-11-01), Ogawa et al.
patent: 0461939 (1991-12-01), None
patent: 0487350 (1992-05-01), None
patent: 500021 (1992-08-01), None
patent: 0529308 (1993-03-01), None
patent: 0588241 (1994-03-01), None
patent: 54-59936 (1979-05-01), None
patent: 59-20696 (1984-02-01), None
patent: 63-139964 (1988-06-01), None
patent: 63-265680 (1988-11-01), None
patent: 3-26665 (1991-04-01), None
patent: 5-36237 (1993-05-01), None
patent: 647914 (1994-02-01), None
Patent Abstracts of Japan, vol. 10, No. 56. (C-331) Mar. 6, 1986 with respect to JP 60-197778 of Oct. 7, 1985.
Patent Abstracts of Japan, vol. 12, No. 398 (C-538) Oct. 21, 1988 with respect to JP 63-139964 of Jun. 11, 1988.
Patent Abstracts of Japan, vol. 13, No. 60 (M-796) Feb. 10, 1989 with respect to JP 63-265680 of Nov. 2, 1988.
Hirose Mifune
Katayama Masato
Sakaki Mamoru
Suzuki Eiichi
Barlow John
Brooke Michael
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Fitzpatrick ,Cella, Harper & Scinto
LandOfFree
Color ink-jet recording method does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Color ink-jet recording method, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Color ink-jet recording method will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2554506