Incremental printing of symbolic information – Thermal marking apparatus or processes – Pre or post image recording treatment
Reexamination Certificate
2002-09-10
2004-05-04
Tran, Huan H. (Department: 2861)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Thermal marking apparatus or processes
Pre or post image recording treatment
C156S384000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06731319
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatus and method for heat-activating, and heat-activating and thermosensitive-recording a thermosensitive agent layer of a thermosensitive adhesive label.
The present invention also relates to the thermosensitive adhesive label comprising a support and a thermosensitive adhesive agent layer provided thereon, which is not adhesive at room temperature, but can be made adhesive with application of heat thereto.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, a recording label, in particular, a thermosensitive recording label has been used in a wide variety of fields, for example, in a system of point of sales (POS). In most of the above-mentioned conventional thermosensitive recording labels, a pressure-sensitive adhesive agent layer is generally provided on a back side of a thermosensitive recording layer, so that the label is stored in such a way that a liner (i.e., disposable backing sheet) is attached to the pressure-sensitive adhesive agent layer.
Such a thermosensitive recording label is useful, but it has some drawbacks. For example, the liner must be discarded after being released from the adhesive layer. Thus, consideration must be given to the problem of waste disposal from the ecological viewpoint. In addition, manufacturing cost is increased because of not only cost of the liner itself but also expenses involved by treatment of the liner.
To solve the above problems, there are proposed recording labels without a liner. For instance, as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Utility Model Application Nos. 59-439979 and 59-46265, and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 60-54842, it has been proposed to employ an adhesive layer comprising an adhesive agent in microcapsule form, and to provide a releasing agent layer on a surface of the recording label opposite to the recording surface. By the above conventional proposals, however, a sufficient adhesion can not be obtained, and printing can not be carried out on the surface of the label when the releasing agent layer is provided thereon.
Japanese Laid-Open Paten Application No. 63-303387 and Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 5-11573 disclose another recording label comprising a thermosensitive adhesive agent layer with no liner being attached thereto.
When such a recording label comprising the thermosensitive adhesive agent layer is used, it is necessary to heat-activate the thermosensitive adhesive agent layer by application of heat so as to make the thermosensitive adhesive layer sufficiently adhesive. With respect to the above-mentioned heat activation treatment, the following methods are conventionally proposed: the application of hot air or infrared rays to the thermosensitive adhesive agent layer (Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 5-11573); use of an electrical heater or induction coil (Japanese Laid-Open Application No. 5-127598); the application of microwave to the thermosensitive adhesive agent layer (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 6-8977); the application of xenon flash to the thermosensitive adhesive agent layer (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 7-121108); and the application of halogen lamp to the thermosensitive adhesive agent layer (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 7-164750).
There has been also proposed a heat activating method of the thermosensitive adhesive agent layer by bringing the thermosensitive adhesive agent layer into contact with a heating medium. For example, the thermosensitive adhesive agent layer is brought into contact with a belt as heating medium. In this case, the belt is heated by a thermal heater (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 57-37534). A heat-application drum and a heat-application roll serving as the above-mentioned heating media are disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Application Nos. 60-45132 and 6-263128, respectively.
On the other hand, those heat activating methods have the shortcomings as follows, so that those proposals have not yet put to practical use.
In a case where heat is applied to the thermosensitive adhesive agent layer by use of electronic heater or halogen lamp, it is difficult to apply heat to the thermosensitive adhesive agent layer efficiently so as to lessen a safety against induction into a overheated state, and to use thermal energy efficiently, thereby leading to energy cost problem. Taking safety and cost problems into consideration, it is thought that a heating portion is also covered. In such a case, this makes it impossible to manufacture a compact apparatus.
In a case where a heat application is carried out by bringing the thermosensitive adhesive agent layer into contact with the heat means such as the heat application drum, the heat application roll and the heating medium such as the belt which is heated by a heating unit, the heating unit must stand by in a heated state in order to accomplish a fast heat activation. This may induces safety problems. Also, there may be occasions that the thermosensitive adhesive agent layer is transferred into the heating unit or the heating medium during heat activating operation. Due to the above transfer problem, there may be occasions that the recording label is would around the heating unit.
In addition, when the above recording label also comprises a thermosensitive coloring layer, it is required to prevent a coloring reaction in a background of the thermosensitive coloring layer during the heat activating operation, so that a heat-resistance of the thermosensitive coloring layer must be improved and thermal sensitivity of the above recording label is low.
It should be noted that Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 7-258613 discloses a activating method in which the thermosensitive adhesive agent layer is activated by pressing a heating unit against a substrate side of the recording label. Prevention of transfer of the thermosensitive adhesive agent layer into the heat means and wind of the recording label around the heat means can be realized in this way. However, this method causes thermal energy of the heat means to be used inefficiently because the thermal energy is not used sufficiently for the heat activation of the thermosensitive adhesive agent layer. Moreover, this heat activation of the thermosensitive adhesive agent layer can not be carried out quickly, so that operation efficiency of heat-activating and subsequent sticking the thermosensitive adhesive agent layer can be lowered.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 11-79152 discloses a heat activating method and an apparatus for use in the method, in which a thermosensitive adhesive agent layer of a thermosensitive adhesive label is heated by a heating unit comprising a resistive element provided on a ceramic substrate and a protective layer provided on a surface of the resistive element. In this case, there may be occasions that meander movement of the thermosensitive adhesive label occurs to generate transportation failure because of poor slidability of the thermosensitive adhesive agent layer. Additionally, adhesive strength of the thermosensitive adhesive label may be decreased due to transfer of the thermosensitive adhesive agent layer into the heating medium or the like.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is a general object of the present invention to provide a heat activating apparatus, a heat activating and thermosensitive recording apparatus, and heat-activating and thermosensitive-recording method, and a thermosensitive adhesive label for use in such method, in which the disadvantages of the aforementioned prior art are eliminated.
A first object of the present invention is to provide a heat activating apparatus, and a heat activating and thermosensitive recording apparatus in which when heat activation is carried out by a heating medium comprising a thin film resistive element provided on a ceramic substrate and a protective layer covering a surface of the thin film resistive element, good transportability of a thermosensitive adhesive label during heat activating operation, good heat activa
Ichikawa Akira
Nagamoto Masanaka
Yamada Hiroshi
Cooper & Dunham LLP
Ricoh & Company, Ltd.
Tran Huan H.
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