Stock material or miscellaneous articles – Structurally defined web or sheet – Discontinuous or differential coating – impregnation or bond
Reexamination Certificate
2001-03-26
2003-06-17
Kelly, Cynthia H. (Department: 1774)
Stock material or miscellaneous articles
Structurally defined web or sheet
Discontinuous or differential coating, impregnation or bond
C428S331000, C428S341000, C428S500000, C428S513000, C428S537500
Reexamination Certificate
active
06579598
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the invention
This invention relates to an ink-jet recording material having an ink-receptive layer, more specifically to an ink-jet recording material particularly excellent in feeding and conveying characteristics in a printer, and the surface of which is difficultly damaged by rubbing between the front and the back surfaces at preparation, processing and printing, having high anti-blocking property and having high glossiness and ink-absorption property.
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, etc., and a water-soluble binder such as polyvinyl alcohol, etc., 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, etc., with an aqueous 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. 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 a mean particle size of a primary particle of several nm to several tens nm, and has characteristics of giving high glossiness and high ink-absorption properties. However, since it is untrafine particles, the surface of the ink-receptive layer is easily damaged and there is a problem that a plural number of sheets is conveyed at once (hereinafter referred to as “double-feeding”) when printing is carried out by a printer.
Also, in Japanese Provisional Patent Publication No. 55830/1994, a recording paper has been proposed to improve feeding and conveying characteristics by adding a specific lubricant to the opposed surface of the ink-receptive coating layer, but there are problems of causing blocking during preservation and causing flaws on the surface of the ink-receptive layer. Also, in Japanese Provisional Patent Publication No. 179025/1995, a recording sheet has been proposed in which spherical fine particle polymer is added to a back-coating layer of a support but there are problems that the surface of the ink-receptive layer is easily damaged at the preparation or processing thereof, and particularly when ultrafine particulate silica prepared by a gas phase process is used, smoothness or glossiness of the surface is high so that flaws are conspicuous.
On the other hand, as a support for an ink-jet recording material, paper has conventionally and generally been used, and the paper itself has a role of an ink-absorption layer. In recent years, a photo-like recording sheet has earnestly been desired, and in a recording sheet using a paper support, there are problems of poor glossiness, feeling in quality, water-resistance, cockling after printing (wrinkle or waving), etc. Thus, a water-proof paper support such as a resin laminated paper in which a polyolefin resin such as polyethylene, etc., is coated on the both surfaces of paper (a polyolefin resin-coated paper), a plastic film, etc., has been used. However, these water-proof supports have high smoothness on the surface at which an ink-receptive layer is provided so that they are, different from paper supports, easily damaged by rubbing themselves to cause flaws on the surface of the ink-receptive layer when these materials are laminated and the problem of “double-feeding” is likely caused when feeding paper in a printer at printing. In particular, there is no ink-absorption property in the support itself so that the ink-receptive layer is provided with thick and glossiness is high whereby damages are likely caused and are conspicuous.
Also, to obtain higher ink-absorption property, it is necessary to reduce an amount of a binder relative to the fumed silica, but by reducing an amount of the binder, damages are further increased.
Also, in a recording sheet in which an ink-receptive layer using a relatively large amount of pigment and a hydrophilic binder is provided on a polyolefin resin-coated paper support, a problem of curl newly occurred. In general, a polyolefin resin-coated paper is covered by a thermoplastic resin such as polyolefin, etc., on the both surfaces thereof and in spite of curl balance of the resin-coated paper itself by resin coated amounts on the front and back surfaces thereof, when an ink-receptive layer as mentioned above is coated on one surface thereof, the curl balance therebetween is lost and a problem that the recording sheet curls to the front surface side or the back surface side due to outer environments is generated. These curls occur failure of feeding papers or paper is inclined when it is fed to a printer for printing when the curl is remarkable.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an ink-jet recording material which has photo-like high gloss and high ink-absorption capacity, and is improved in high anti-blocking, high flaw resistance, and high feeding and conveying properties.
The above-mentioned objects of the present invention can be accomplished by the following means. That is, in an ink-jet recording material comprising a support in which both surfaces of a base paper are covered by a polyolefin resin, and an ink-receptive layer containing inorganic fine particles and a hydrophilic binder provided on the support, a surface of the support opposite to the surface at which the ink-receptive layer is provided has a ten-point mean roughness Rz measured according to JIS-B-0601 of boarding is 12 to 40 &mgr;m under the condition of a reference length of 8 mm. Preferably, an opposed surface of the support to the surface on which the ink-receptive layer is provided has 10 or more mountains in a sectional surface curve measured by the conditions of a reference length of 8 mm according to JIS-B-0601, and a ratio of a total length X of a mean line across the mountain part to a total length Y of a mean line across a valley part, X/Y is 1/10 to 3/1.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
In the following, the embodiments of the present invention are explained in detail.
A polyolefin resin-coated paper support (hereinafter referred to as “a resin-coated paper”) to be used in the present invention is explained in detail. In the resin-coated paper to be used in the present invention, its water content is not particularly limited, and preferably from curling property in the range of 5.0 to 9.0%, more preferably in the range of 6.0 to 9.0%. The water content of the resin-coated paper can be measured by using any kinds of water-content measuring method. For example, an infrared water content meter, an absolute dry weight method, a permittivity method, a Curl Fisher method, etc., may be used.
A base paper constituting the resin-coated paper to be preferably used in the present invention is not particularly limited, and any paper generally used may be employed. More preferably a smooth base paper such as that used as paper for a photographic support may be used. As pulp for constituting the base paper, natural pulp, regenerated pulp, synthetic pulp, etc. may be used singly or in combination of two or more. In the base paper, various additives conventionally used in the papermaking industry such as a sizing agent, a strengthening additive of paper, a loading material, an antistatic agent, a fluorescent brightener, a dye, etc. may be formulated.
Moreover, a surface sizing agent, a surface strengthening
Tokunaga Yukio
Yamanobe Susumu
Kelly Cynthia H.
Manelli Denison & Selter PLLC
Mitsubishi Paper Mills Limited
Shewareged B.
White, Jr. Paul E.
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