Stock material or miscellaneous articles – Ink jet stock for printing – Plural ink receptive layers
Reexamination Certificate
2000-12-19
2004-01-13
Hess, B. Hamilton (Department: 1774)
Stock material or miscellaneous articles
Ink jet stock for printing
Plural ink receptive layers
C428S032260, C428S032280, C428S032360, C428S032370, C428S032180
Reexamination Certificate
active
06677005
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an ink-jet recording material, particularly to an ink-jet recording material excellent in ink-absorption capacity, drying property and glossiness after printing.
2. Prior Art
As a recording material to be used for an ink-jet recording system, a recording material which comprises a porous ink-receptive layer comprising a pigment such as amorphous silica, and a hydrophilic binder such as polyvinyl alcohol being provided on a support such as a usual paper or the so-called ink-jet recording sheet has generally been known.
There have been proposed recording sheets obtained by coating a silicon-containing pigment such as silica with a hydrophilic binder onto a paper support as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Provisional Patent Publications No. 51583/1980, No. 157/1981, No. 107879/1982, No. 107880/1982, No. 230787/1984, No. 204390/1985, No. 160277/1987, No. 184879/1987, No. 183382/1987, No. 11877/1989, and the like.
Also, in Japanese Patent Publication No. 56552/1991, Japanese Provisional Patent Publications No. 188287/1990, No. 81064/1998, No. 119423/1998, No. 175365/1998, No. 203006/1998, No. 217601/1998, No. 20300/1999, No. 20306/1999 and No. 34481/1999, U.S. Pat. No. 5,612,281, and EP 0 813 978 A, and the like, there have been disclosed ink-jet recording materials using synthetic silica fine particles prepared by a gas phase process (hereinafter referred to as “fumed silica”). The fumed silica is ultrafine particles having an average particle size of a primary particle of several nm to several tens nm, and has characteristics of giving high gloss and high ink-absorption properties.
On the other hand, a number of recording materials in which an ink-receptive layer mainly comprising a hydrophilic polymer have been proposed. For example, there have been proposed use of polyvinyl alcohol and polyacrylic acid type water-soluble polymer in Japanese Provisional Patent Publication No. 168651/1985; use of hydroxyethyl cellulose in Japanese Provisional Patent Publication No. 262685/1985; use of a mixture of carboxymethyl cellulose and polyethylene oxide in Japanese Provisional Patent Publication No. 181679/1986; use of a mixture of water-soluble cellulose and polyvinyl pyrrolidone in Japanese Provisional Patent Publication No. 193879/1986; use of a receptive layer formed from an aqueous gelatin solution having a specific pH in Japanese Provisional Patent Publication No. 263084/1987; and use of a mixture comprising gelatin and a surfactant in Japanese Provisional Patent Publication No. 146784/1989, respectively.
Also, in recent years, a two-layered structure recording material comprising a porous (void type) ink-receptive layer (a void layer) using the above-mentioned pigments and a swelling type ink-receptive layer (a swelling layer) using a water-soluble polymer has been proposed. For example, a recording material which comprises a swelling layer comprising a water-soluble polymer provided on a void layer comprising silica fine particles or alumina sol, etc. is disclosed in Japanese Provisional Patent Publications No. 51470/1993 and No. 323475/1997; a recording material having a porous ink-receptive layer (a void layer) comprising a hydrophobic polymer provided on an ink-receptive layer (a swelling layer) comprising a water-soluble polymer is disclosed in Japanese Provisional Patent Publications No. 35275/1986 and No. 196175/1987; and a recording material having an ink-receptive layer (a void layer) comprising a pigment provided on an ink-receptive layer (a swelling layer) comprising a water-soluble polymer is disclosed in Japanese Provisional Patent Publications No. 140878/1987, No. 222887/1987, No. 72460/1991, No. 50739/1993, No. 186521/1995, No. 187934/1996, No. 29369/1998 and No. 100397/1998. In Japanese Provisional Patent Publication No. 20066/1997, a recording material having an ink-receptive layer mainly comprising inorganic fine particles provided on an ink-receptive layer mainly comprising a pigment and a binder has been disclosed. Also, an ink-jet recording material having a first ink-receptive layer containing a hydrophilic binder as a lower layer and a second ink-receptive layer containing a fumed silica as an upper layer is disclosed in Japanese Provisional Patent Publications No. 34481/1999, No. 48602/1999 and No. 48603/1999. In the above-mentioned Japanese Provisional Patent Publication No. 48602/1999, there is disclosed that a hydrophilic binder and solid fine particles are contained in the lower layer, and in Japanese Provisional Patent Publication No. 48603/1999, there is disclosed that a polymer latex and a hydrophilic binder are contained in the lower layer.
However, the above-mentioned recording materials are not sufficiently satisfied in the important characteristics such as an ink-absorption capacity, drying properties and glossiness after printing, simultaneously. In particular, a high speed plotter with a large-sized and a large ink amount has been developed in recent years so that the above-mentioned characteristics are becoming more important.
Also, as described above, in the void type ink-receptive layer containing the fumed silica which are ultrafine particles having an average particle size of a primary particle of several nm to several tens nm, high gloss and high ink-absorption properties can be easily obtained. However, since ultrafine particles are used, there is a problem that crack or crazing is easily generated at the time of drying after coating. In particular, crack or crazing is markedly caused when the ink-receptive layer comprises two-layer structure and a layer containing the fumed silica is used as an upper layer.
On the other hand, as a support for the ink-jet recording material, paper has generally been used. In recent years, a recording sheet having characteristics like photography has earnestly been desired. However, a recording sheet using paper as a support has problems of gloss, the feel of a material, water resistance, cockling (wrinkle or surface waviness) after printing, and the like. Thus, a water resistant support such as a plastic resin film including a polyester film, or a resin-laminated paper in which a polyolefin resin such as polyethylene is laminated on the both surfaces of paper has now been used. However, different from a paper support, these water resistant supports cannot absorb ink so that it is important that an ink-receptive layer provided on the support has a high ink absorption property. Accordingly, to prepare a recording sheet using a water resistant support, a much amount of a pigment should be coated on the support as compared with that of a recording sheet using a paper support. When the content of the pigment is increased, surface crack (crazing) is likely caused at the time of drying the ink-receptive layer after coating whereby the quality of the sheet is markedly lowered.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide an ink-jet recording material which causes no cracking at an ink-receptive layer, has high ink-absorption capacity, is rapid in drying property after printing and has high gloss. Moreover, another object of the present invention is to provide a photo-like ink-jet recording material using a water resistant support.
The above objects of the present invention can be basically accomplished by an ink-jet recording material which comprises a support, a first layer containing (1) at least one of a polymer latex and a resin emulsion, and (2) solid fine particles provided on the support and at least one second layer containing fumed silica provided on the first layer.
In the present invention, an ink-receptive layer is divided into at least two layers to obtain high ink-absorption capacity and rapid drying properties after printing. That is, an upper layer containing fumed silica rapidly absorbs ink and transmit the ink to a lower layer, and the lower layer comprising at least one of a polymer latex and a resin emulsion, and solid fine particles retains the ink. In the present invention, the pr
Kaneko Satoshi
Miyachi Norimasa
Hess B. Hamilton
Mitsubishi Paper Mills Limited
Shewareged B.
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