Radiation imagery chemistry: process – composition – or product th – Radiation sensitive product – Two or more radiation-sensitive layers containing other than...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-11-03
2002-11-05
Schilling, Richard L. (Department: 1752)
Radiation imagery chemistry: process, composition, or product th
Radiation sensitive product
Two or more radiation-sensitive layers containing other than...
C430S512000, C430S507000, C430S527000, C430S531000, C430S533000, C430S534000, C430S535000, C430S536000, C430S939000, C428S423100, C428S423700, C428S424200, C428S480000, C428S482000, C428S483000, C428S515000, C428S516000, C428S520000, C428S522000, C428S523000, C347S105000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06475713
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to photographic materials. In a preferred form it relates to base materials for photographic reflection and transmission display.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
It is known in the art that photographic display materials are utilized for advertising, as well as decorative displays of photographic images. Since these display materials are used in advertising, the image quality of the display material is critical in expressing the quality message of the product or service being advertised. Further, a photographic display image needs to be high impact, as it attempts to draw consumer attention to the display material and the desired message being conveyed. Typical applications for display material include product and service advertising in public places such as airports, buses and sports stadiums, movie posters, and fine art photography. The desired attributes of a quality, high impact photographic display material are a slight blue density minimum, durability, sharpness, and flatness. Cost is also important, as display materials tend to be expensive compared with alternative display material technology such as lithographic images on paper. For display materials, traditional color paper is undesirable, as it suffers from a lack of durability for the handling, photo processing, and display of large format images.
Prior art photographic display materials historically have been classified as either reflection or transmission. Reflection display material typically is highly pigmented image supports with a light sensitive silver halide coating applied. Reflection display materials are typically used in commercial applications where an image is used to convey an idea or message. An application example of a reflection display material is product advertisement in a public area. Prior art reflection display materials have been optimized to provide a pleasing image using reflective light. Transmission display materials are used in commercial imaging applications and are typically backlit with a light source. Transmission display materials are typically a clear support with a light sensitive silver halide and an incorporated diffuser (to hide the “show through” of the lamps used to provide viewing illumination) or a substantially transparent support coated with a light sensitive silver halide emulsion which requires a diffusing screen placed behind the material as a means to obscure the “show through” of the lamps used to provide illumination to the media. Prior art transmission display materials have been optimized to provide a pleasing image when the image is backlit with a variety of light sources. Because prior art reflection and transmission products have been optimized to be either a reflection display image or a transmission display image, two separate product designs must exist in manufacturing, and two inventories of display materials must be maintained at the commercial printer. Further, when the quality of the backlighting for transmission display material is reduced when, for example, a backlight bums out or the output of the backlight decreases with the age, the transmission image will appear dark and reduce the commercial value of the image. It would be desirable if an image support could function both as a reflection and transmission display material. Prior art transmission display materials use a high coverage of light sensitive silver halide emulsion to increase the density of the image compared to photographic reflection print materials. While increasing the coverage does increase the density of the image in transmission space, the time to image development is also increased as the coverage increases. Typically, a high-density transmission display material has a developer time of 110 seconds compared to a developer time of 45 seconds or less for photographic print materials. Prior art high-density transmission display materials, when processed, reduce the productivity of the development.lab. Further, coating a high coverage of emulsion requires additional drying of the emulsion in manufacturing, which reduces the productivity of emulsion coating machines. It would be desirable if a transmission display material was high in density and had a developer time less than 50 seconds. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,030,756 it has been proposed to form a Day/Night photographic display material with a biaxially orineted polyolefin sheet. Bourdelais et al disclose examples for the formation of a day
ight display material by extrusion laminating a biaxially oriented sheet to a clear polyester sheet using a melt extrudable blend of ethylene plastomer and polyethylene. While this provides a good means of bonding the two sheets together, there remains a need for improvements.
Prior art reflection photographic materials with a polyester base use a TiO
2
pigmented polyester base onto which light sensitive silver halide emulsions are coated. It has been proposed in WO 94/04961 to use an opaque polyester containing 10% to 25% TiO
2
for a photographic support. The TiO
2
in the polyester gives the reflection display materials an undesirable opalescent appearance. The TiO
2
pigmented polyester also is expensive because the TiO
2
must be dispersed into the entire thickness, typically from 100 to 180 micrometers. The TiO
2
used in this fashion also gives the polyester support a slight yellow tint, which is undesirable for a photographic display material. For use as a photographic display material, the polyester support containing TiO
2
must be tinted blue to offset the yellow tint of the polyester causing a loss in desirable whiteness and adding cost to the display material.
Prior art photographic display material uses polyester as a base for the support. Typically the polyester support is from 150 to 250 micrometers thick to provide the required stiffness. A thinner base material would be lower in cost and allow for roll handling efficiency, as the rolls would weigh less and be smaller in diameter. It would be desirable to use a base material that had the required stiffness but was thinner to reduce cost and improve roll-handling efficiency. Duplitized display materials possessing both reflection properties, as well as sufficient dye formed on the backside as a means to present pleasing densities when backlit, would be highly desired for display applications. The media would present eye-catching and aesthetically pleasing reflection images, as well as being able to provide pleasing images of sufficient dye densities during nighttime or in low ambient light levels when illuminated from the backside. In addition, the dual property of the formed image (both reflection and transmissive) would allow for pleasing images in outdoor applications or those cases subject to non-controllable high ambient reflection surface lighting (man-made or natural) by the property of the formed front side image. The face side image formed and backed by the semi-reflective property of the substrate and illuminated by front surface lighting would not appear “washed out” as conventional transmission only display media would. However, the same attributes that provide a multi purpose media for viewing have been found to present some difficulties in forming said images. The inability to predict the future with regard to printer design and expected wear of existing printers can cause serious deficiencies in correct latent image formation. Specifically, a backside light sensitive layer, when exposed against a backing platen of non-uniform reflectivity (due to either wear or design) can adversely affect both the quality of the formed backside latent image, as well as the subsequently processed image resulting in localized non-uniform dye density. The obvious use of an antihalation layer below and adjacent to the bottommost light sensitive layer in the backside structure would clearly resolve the problem of non-uniform reflectivity of any backing apparatus in the printer but presents its own set of issues. This inclusion of an antihalation layer will solve the problem of backlight scatter b
Aylward Peter T.
Bourdelais Robert P.
Camp Alphonse D.
Smith Thomas M.
Eastman Kodak Company
Leipold Paul A.
Schilling Richard L.
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