Incremental printing of symbolic information – Thermal marking apparatus or processes – Having an intermediate medium for transferring ink
Reexamination Certificate
2001-12-27
2003-11-11
Tran, Huan (Department: 2621)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Thermal marking apparatus or processes
Having an intermediate medium for transferring ink
C347S001000, C347S004000, C347S212000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06646666
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of forming a forgery-preventive image and an apparatus therefor which are capable of forming a forgery-preventive image on a print medium, such as a card, by using printing technology.
2. Prior Art
In a conventional method of forming a forgery-preventive image, a print medium formed of two (or more) image-receiving layers is used for printing. In the method, after printing on a first layer of the two image-receiving layers, a transparent second layer is affixed onto the first layer, and then printing is performed on the second layer. In this case, images partially different from each other are printed on the respective first and second layers, such that the two images form an entire image in a synthesized manner when they are viewed from the front of the print medium. Further, determination as to whether forgery has been committed is made by cutting the print medium printed with the images and inspecting a cross section of the print medium to determine whether or not the entire image is formed as a multi-layered image.
In the method, however, e.g. when a card is used as a print medium, it is required to carry out complicated and troublesome operations of alignment or positioning of the two images and corresponding edges of the two layers of the card during lamination of image-receiving layers after printing, and hence it takes a lot of time and labor to make the card as a medium printed with a forgery-preventive image, which results in an increase in manufacturing costs.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the invention to provide a method of forming a forgery-preventive image and an apparatus therefor which are capable of easily making a forgery-preventive medium without spoiling ease of determination as to whether forgery has been committed.
To attain the above object, according to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of forming a forgery-preventive image, comprising the steps of:
printing an image on an ink image-receiving sheet by using a sublimable dye ink, thereby causing the sublimable dye ink to be held by the ink image-receiving sheet;
heating the image-receiving sheet and a medium body overlaid upon each other, thereby causing diffusion of the sublimable dye ink held in the ink image-receiving sheet in a surface of the medium body and color development, and
controlling an amount of heat applied to the ink image-receiving sheet and the medium body so as to adjust depth of diffusion of the sublimable dye ink.
To attain the above object, according to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided an apparatus for forming a forgery-preventive image, comprising:
printing means for printing an image on an ink image-receiving sheet by using a sublimable dye ink, thereby causing the sublimable dye ink to be held by the ink image-receiving sheet;
heating means for heating the image-receiving sheet and a medium body overlaid upon each other, thereby causing diffusion of the sublimable dye ink held in the ink image-receiving sheet in a surface of the medium body and color development, and
heat amount control means for controlling an amount of heat applied to the ink image-receiving sheet and the medium body so as to adjust depth of diffusion of the sublimable dye ink.
According to the method of forming a forgery-preventive image and the apparatus therefor, when an image is printed on the print medium, the sublimable dye ink is impregnated into the ink image-receiving sheet and held therein. Then, the print medium is heated in this state, and this causes diffusion of the sublimable dye ink from the ink image-receiving sheet into the surface layer (surface) of the medium body and color development to form an image.
In general, it is observed that when an image (sublimable dye ink) is transferred from the ink image-receiving sheet to the medium body, the diffusion (transfer) depth of the sublimable dye ink varies with the length of heating time, or more accurately, the amount of heat. That is, the sublimable dye ink penetrates into a deeper location to be fixed thereat as the amount of heat applied thereto increases. Therefore, fixation depth of the sublimable dye ink in the surface layer of the medium body can be kept concealed by finding out the correlation between the amount of heat applied to the print medium and diffusion depth of the sublimable dye ink in the medium body and controlling the amount of heat applied to the print medium. Further, by inspecting a cross section of the medium body, it is possible to easily determine whether or not the medium body is a forgery.
Preferably, the method further includes the step of dividing data of the image into data of a plurality of divisional images, and the step of separating the ink image-receiving sheet and the medium body which have been heated, from each other, and the step of printing includes printing one of the plurality of divisional images on a new ink image-receiving sheet, and wherein a cycle of the step of printing, the step of heating, and the step of separating is repeated a number of times corresponding to the number of the plurality of divisional images, and wherein the step of controlling the amount of heat includes progressively reducing the amount of heat as the cycle is repeated.
Preferably, the apparatus further includes image dividing means for dividing data of the image into data of a plurality of divisional images, and separation means for separating the ink image-receiving sheet and the medium body which have been heated, from each other, and control means for controlling operations of the printing means, the heating means, the separation means, and the heat amount control means, based on the data of the plurality of divisional images formed by the image dividing means, and wherein printing means prints one of the plurality of divisional images on a new ink image-receiving sheet, and the control means carries out control such that a cycle of printing on the ink image-receiving sheet by the printing means, heating of the ink image-receiving sheet and the medium body overlaid upon each other by the heating means, and separation of the ink image-receiving sheet and the medium body overlaid upon each other from each other by the separation means is repeated a number of times corresponding to the number of the plurality of divisional images and that the amount of heat is progressively reduced by the heat amount control means as the cycle is repeated.
According to these preferred embodiments, an image is divided into a plurality of divisional images, and printing and heating are repeatedly carried out on a divisional image-by-divisional image basis to form a desired entire image. Further, in the processes of the repeated heating operations, the amount of heat applied to the print medium is progressively reduced. Accordingly, a divisional images formed earlier is fixed at a deeper location in the surface layer of the medium body, whereas a divisional image formed later is fixed at a shallower location. Therefore, fixation depth of sublimable dye ink of each divisional image in the surface layer of the medium body can be kept concealed. Further, by determining the fixation depth of each sublimable dye ink of each divisional image through inspection of a cross section of the medium body, it is possible to easily determine whether or not the medium body is a forgery.
More preferably, the method further includes the step of overlaying the ink image-receiving sheet on the medium body, prior to the step of printing, and the cycle includes the step of overlaying.
More preferably, the apparatus further includes ink image-receiving sheet supply means for supplying a new ink image-receiving sheet, and overlay means for overlaying the ink image-receiving sheet and the print medium upon one another, and the cycle includes supplying of the ink image-receiving sheet by the ink image-receiving sheet supply means, and overlaying of the ink image-receiving sheet and the print medium upon one another by the
Hogan & Hartson LLP
Seiko Epson Corporation
Tran Huan
LandOfFree
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