Printing – Processes – With heating or cooling
Reexamination Certificate
2001-12-27
2003-11-04
Eickholt, Eugene H. (Department: 2854)
Printing
Processes
With heating or cooling
C101S492000, C400S120180, C428S914000, C428S195100, C503S200000, C503S206000, C008S467000, C008S471000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06640717
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of forming an image on a card and an apparatus therefor, which are capable of printing on the card by an ink jet printing method by using a sublimable dye ink.
2. Prior Art
Conventionally, there have been proposed a method of forming an image on a card of a general type and an apparatus therefor, which print an image on a card by an ink jet printing method by using a sublimable dye ink. In this method and apparatus therefor, after an image is formed on the card by ejecting a dye ink from an ink jet head, a surface printed with the image is subjected to a lamination process to protect the printed image on the card. The lamination process is carried out by covering the whole front surface of the card with a transparent film and conducting thermal pressing of the card and film, followed by cutting off an undesired portion of the transparent film according to the size of the card in a die-cutting fashion. This makes it possible to enhance the abrasion resistance and rub resistance of the card printed with the image so that the printed image is not damaged even if it is frequently used by the user.
However, in the conventional image forming method and apparatus of the above-mentioned kind, a punch die is required for performing the lamination process, and moreover it is difficult to cut off the undesired portion of the transparent film such that the periphery of the card is not damaged by the punch die. Therefore, the size of the card having been subjected to the lamination process becomes necessarily larger than that of the original one, thereby impairing the convenience for the user. To carry out the lamination process without using a punch die, however, it is necessary to coat the transparent film such that it does not extend from the periphery of the card, which makes it impossible to uniformly protect the top surface of the card.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the invention to provide a method of forming an image on a card and an apparatus therefor, which are capable of printing an image on a card and protecting the printed image in an appropriate and simplified fashion without changing the size of the card.
To attain the above object, according to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of forming an image on a card, comprising the steps of:
printing an image on a card by an ink jet printing method by using a sublimable dye ink while feeding the card, the card having a substrate layer, an ink-fixing layer laminated on a surface of the substrate layer, and an ink image-receiving layer peelably laminated on a surface of the ink-fixing layer, whereby the sublimable dye ink is caused to be held by the ink image-receiving layer;
conveying the card to a heating source; and
subjecting the card to heat treatment by the heating source to thereby cause diffusion of the sublimable dye ink held in the ink image-receiving layer in the ink-fixing layer and color development to form an image; and
peeling the ink image-receiving layer off the card after the heat treatment.
According to this method, when an image is directly printed on a card by the ink jet printing method by using a sublimable dye ink, ink droplets of the sublimable dye ink are impregnated into the ink image-receiving layer and held therein. In this state, when the card is conveyed to the heating source and heated thereby, the heat treatment causes evaporation and diffusion of the ink deep into the ink-fixing layer as migration particles having sizes at a molecular level, and color development, whereby an image is formed. Then, the ink image-receiving layer is peeled off the card to cause the ink-fixing layer to be exposed. Thus, a card can be produced which is printed with an image with ease with a high durabililty.
Therefore, when the card is printed, the ink image-receiving layer capable of temporarily holding an ejected sublimable dye ink is used as an intermediate medium, so that a clear image printed by the ink jet printing method can be directly transferred to the ink-fixing layer, that is, to the surface of the card. This makes it possible to efficiently form a clear image, and further protect the image by the ink-fixing layer without particularly applying pressure thereto, which enhances the rub resistance of the printed surface.
It should be noted that in the step of heating the card by the heating source, it is preferable to apply heat to the card in a non-contacting fashion. Further, it is preferred that the ink image-receiving layer is formed to be slightly larger than the ink-fixing layer. This makes it possible to properly carry out whole surface or edge-to-edge printing of the card, in the step of printing an image on the card, and also makes it easy to peel off the ink image-receiving layer, in the step of peeling the ink image-receiving layer off the card.
Preferably, the ink-fixing layer and the ink image-receiving layer are formed on each of a front surface and a back surface of the card, and the step of printing includes a first printing step of printing an image on one of the front surface and the back surface of the card while feeding the card, an inverting step of inverting the printed card upside down, and a second printing step of printing an image on another of the front surface and the back surface of the card while feeding the inverted card, and the step of heating includes heating the front surface and the back surface of the card simultaneously by the heating source, the step of peeling includes peeling the ink image-receiving layer off the each of the front surface and the back surface of the card.
According to this preferred embodiment, the card used by the method has the same laminate structure on both of the front surface and back surface thereof, which is formed by laminating the layers in the order of the ink-fixing layer and the ink image-receiving layer on the opposite sides of the substrate layer, such that doubled-sided printing by the ink jet printing method can be effected. In the doubled-sided printing, after an image is printed on an ink image-receiving layer of one surface of the card, the card is inverted upside down to print an image on an ink image-receiving layer of the other surface of the card. The card in this inverted position is sent to the heating source and heated thereby, similarly to the above, whereby the ink is fixed in each ink-fixing layer to form a respective image. By peeling off the ink image-receiving layers to expose the respective ink-fixing layers, it is possible to provide a card having images printed on both surfaces thereof.
This makes it possible to properly perform double-sided printing on a card, and efficiently form images on both surfaces of the card to shorten the whole processing time, since the heat treatment is carried out after printing the images on both sides of the card at a time. In this case, it is preferred that the same ink jet printing apparatus is employed in the first printing step and the second printing step. Further, the peeling of the ink image-receiving layer off the each of the front surface and the back surface of the card may be effected by simultaneously peeling off the ink image-receiving layers on both sides.
Preferably, a fluorine film layer is laminated between the ink-fixing layer and the ink image-receiving layer.
According to this preferred embodiment, after the heat treatment of the card, the ink droplets held in the ink image-receiving layer(s) pass through the fluorine film layer to be diffused and fixed in the ink-fixing layer(s). Further, after the ink image-receiving layer(s) is/are peeled off, the card has fluorine film layer(s) as topmost layer(s) thereof for protecting an image or images fixed in the ink-fixing layer(s). Thus, the image(s) is/are protected by the fluorine film layer(s) similarly to laminating films, whereby the surfaces of the card are made more excellent in weather resistance, light resistance, heat resistance, rub or abrasion resistance, and chemical resistance due to c
Kosaka Zenta
Matsuhashi Kunihiko
Minowa Yoshiki
Morozumi Kazuaki
Eickholt Eugene H.
Hogan & Hartson LLP
Seiko Epson Corporation
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