Record receiver having plural interactive leaves or a colorless – Having plural interactive leaves
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-18
2001-05-29
Hess, Bruce H. (Department: 1774)
Record receiver having plural interactive leaves or a colorless
Having plural interactive leaves
C428S195100, C428S413000, C428S423100, C428S474400, C428S480000, C428S500000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06239069
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a film for protecting images on a sublimation transfer image receiver used in combination with a heat transfer sheet containing a sublimation dye, a method for protecting images on an image receiver using said film, and a sublimation transfer image receiver protected by an image protecting layer of said film.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A sublimation type heat transfer method provides printed images by heating, with a thermal head and the like, a heat transfer sheet coated with a sublimation dye to transfer the sublimation dye to a sublimation transfer image receiver that comes into contact with the heat transfer sheet.
The dyeable resin to be used for the dyeable layer of the above-mentioned sublimation transfer image receiver mainly contains a saturated polyester, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication Nos. 57-107885, 60-64899, 61-258790, 62-105689 and the like. Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 3-136896 discloses an image receiver characterized by a multilayer laminate.
When a saturated polyester is used as a resin for a dyeable layer, high quality images having superior color density, tone and color reproducibility can be obtained. Inasmuch as recorded images are closely related to the dye preservation state, considerably high preservation performance has become attainable by carefully designing a resin for a dyeable layer, though still below the image preservation performance of photographs.
When compared to photographs, moreover, this construction, wherein a dye image receiving layer is formed on the surface, is inherently associated with a problem that images are disturbed by a long term preservation.
This problem can be resolved by the use of a dyeable resin having a higher preservation performance, but the dye sensitivity and printing speed decrease when the dyeable resin is used. Conventional multilayer laminates aim at improving releasing property by preventing heat-melting caused by heating with a thermal head.
In addition, a method for protecting images by, after dyeing, superimposing a transparent or semitransparent film having a heat-melt layer on a sublimation transfer image receiver and melt-adhering the heat-melt layer to the dyeable layer has been proposed (Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication Nos. 1-237193, 3-70637, 4-15118 and 4-52223).
Yet, the image durability afforded by these methods is insufficient.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a protecting film for sublimation transfer image receiver, which is capable of resolving the above-mentioned problems and improving image durability while maintaining highly sensitive, high quality images for a long time.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method for protecting images on a sublimation transfer image receiver using this film.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a sublimation transfer image receiver protected by an image protecting layer of said film.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention now submits the use of a resin having a glass transition temperature of not less than 68° C. and/or a resin having an alicyclic skeleton in the main chain, as a component of a layer protecting the images on a sublimation transfer image receiver.
Accordingly, the present invention provides the following films, protection methods and sublimation transfer image receivers.
(1) A protecting film for sublimation transfer image receiver, comprising a heat resistant substrate and an image protecting layer formed on said heat resistant substrate, the layer comprising at least one member selected from the group consisting of (a) a resin having a glass transition temperature of not less than 68° C. and (b) a resin having an alicyclic structure in the resin skeleton.
(2) The protecting film for sublimation transfer image receiver of (1) above, wherein at least one of the resin (a) and the resin (b) is a member selected from the group consisting of a polyester resin, a polyurethane resin, a polyamide resin, an epoxy resin and an acrylic resin.
(3) The protecting film for sublimation transfer image receiver of (2) above, wherein at least one of the resin (a) and the resin (b) is a member selected from the group consisting of a polyester resin, a polyurethane resin and a polyamide resin.
(4) A method for protecting a sublimation transfer image receiver, comprising superimposing an image protecting layer of the protecting film for sublimation transfer image receiver of (1) above on a dyeable layer of the sublimation transfer dye image receiver, and melt-adhering the image protecting layer to the dyeable layer by heating.
(5) A sublimation transfer image receiver comprising a substrate, a dyeable layer formed on said substrate and an image protecting layer, the protecting layer comprising at least one member selected from the group consisting of (a) a resin having a glass transition temperature of not less than 68° C. and (b) a resin having an alicyclic structure in the resin skeleton.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5547534 (1996-08-01), Conforti et al.
patent: 5668081 (1997-09-01), Simpson et al.
patent: 5759954 (1998-06-01), Taguchi et al.
patent: 6043194 (2000-03-01), Saito et al.
patent: 0 715 965 A1 (1996-06-01), None
patent: 8-300837 (1996-11-01), None
patent: WO 96/14993 (1996-05-01), None
patent: WO 98/07577 (1998-02-01), None
Hess Bruce H.
Morrison & Foerster / LLP
Toyo Boseki Kabushiki Kaisha
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