Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Medium and processing means
Reexamination Certificate
2002-06-05
2003-04-15
Gordon, Raquel Yvette (Department: 2853)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Medium and processing means
Reexamination Certificate
active
06547385
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a re-transferable ink jet image forming method and an image forming sheet thereof.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In recent years, an ink jet recording system has been applied to various printing fields such as photography, various kinds of printing, and special printing such as marking and color filter, due to the fact that said system makes it possible to simply and inexpensively produce images. It has become possible to obtain the image quality equivalent to conventional silver salt photography, particularly employing a recording apparatus which ejects and controls minute ink droplets, ink which has been subjected to improvements in color reproduction range, durability and ejection adaptability, and special paper sheets which have been subjected to marked enhancement of ink absorbability, color forming properties of coloring materials, and surface gloss. Enhancement of image quality of the current ink jet recording system is achieved only when all the recording apparatus, ink, and special sheet are equally improved.
On the other hand, experiments have been conducted in which recording is carried out onto a transfer receptive medium which is different from said special paper sheets while employing an ink jet system. Specifically, said ink jet system includes an oil ink jet system in which an ink, comprised of rapid drying organic solvents as a main component, is employed, and a UV ink jet system, in which, after recording, exposure of UV radiation proceeds with crosslinking.
However, these methods have resulted in problems such as unpleasant odor due to high volatile ink, head clogging due to dried ink, bleeding due to different penetrating properties of ink, depending on substrates, and unstable drying (UV curing properties). Particularly, in recording onto a non-absorptive ink transfer receptive medium, as well as onto a transfer receptive medium which is not capable of controlling ink absorption, immediately after ink contact, it has been substantially difficult to obtain high quality images of high resolution.
Further, as a method to minimize bleeding immediately after ink contact, there is a phase change ink jet method in which a wax ink, which is solid at room temperature (e.g. 15 to 35° C.), is employed. Here, however, problems occur in which, since said ink is comprised of wax, it is difficult to obtain sufficient fixability of images.
In order to utilize the high quality image drawing properties which are inherent in said ink jet system, as well as to form an image onto a transfer receptive medium which is different from said special paper, a method is most effective in which an image is temporarily formed on a re-transferable ink jet image forming sheet, and subsequently, said resultant image is transferred onto an image receptive medium.
For example, Japanese Patent Publication Open to Public Inspection No. 6-23973 proposes a method in which a thermoplastic resin, such as a polyamide resin which melts at relatively low temperature, is applied onto a transparent plastic film, and ink jet recording is carried out onto the resultant film which is subsequently adhered onto a recording medium while heated. However, problems occur in which such a simple structure makes it difficult to obtain high resolution images which result in minimal bleeding.
Further, Japanese Patent Publication Open to Public Inspection No. 9-240196 proposes that by employing a transfer type image forming sheet material which is comprised of a support, a peeling coat layer, a top coat layer, an ink receiving layer, and an adhesive layer, adhesion properties to an adhesion receptive body, as well as weather resistance, are obtained. A method is proposed in which a thermoplastic resin or a delayed tack agent is applied to an adhesive layer so as to be porous and ink penetrable, and ink is absorbed in an ink receiving layer so that the surface remains adhesive. Alternately, as ink jet recording transfer medium which is transferred to OHP as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication Open to Public Inspection No. 62-170383 and textiles for items such as T-shirts as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication Open to Public Inspection No. 10-16382, a structure comprised of a base material (being a releasing layer), and a transfer layer comprised of fine thermoplastic resin particles, having a relatively large particle diameter and a polymer binding agent, is disclosed.
As described above, conventionally, in order to obtain absorbability and transferability of ink, a method is proposed in which the surface layer is allowed to be porous, and coarse thermoplastic resin particles are applied onto the surface.
However, these recording media are not capable of resulting in image drawing performance of the ink jet recording system in which image quality has been markedly enhanced in recent years, as described above.
Namely, methods in which the resin surface is allowed to be porous and coarse thermoplastic resin particles are employed as a main component, result in high ink absorbability of the recording layer. However, problems occur in which, due to high roughness of the surface, the image forming sheet tends to result in insufficient resolution as well as insufficient color forming properties. When heated and transferred, the porous layer or the fine thermoplastic particle layer is not sufficiently transparentized. When transparency is desired under said structure, ink absorbability is degraded. As a result, problems occur in which during ink jet recording, ink overflows and bleeding tends to occur due to said overflow. Further, depending on the kinds of images or recording modes, problems have occurred in which the image area results in neither sufficient transferability nor adhesion properties; images are distorted due to the distortion of the image area during transfer; and when images after transfer are stored for a long period of time, bleeding, as well as discoloration occurs.
Further, the present situation is that ink, as well as the recording method suitable for the re-transfer system, to obtain high image quality and high image durability has not yet been adequately developed.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet image forming sheet which minimizes bleeding, exhibits high resolution as well as high color forming properties, and minimizes image distortion on a support which is commonly difficult to use for direct recording, yet results in high quality images which are equivalent to those obtained by employing a special image receptive paper sheet, and an image forming method in which images formed by employing said image forming sheet exhibit high durability.
The aforesaid object of the present invention was achieved employing items 1. through 21., as described below.
1. An image forming method, comprising the steps of:
jetting at least one of a plurality of different color inks for each pixel onto an image forming sheet by a plurality of ink-jet heads to form an image on the image forming sheet, the jetting step including a step of regulating a total amount of the plurality of different color inks for each pixel to form a mixed color image to be at most 250% of a predetermined maximum amount of one of the plurality of different color inks for a pixel to form a mono-color image; and
transferring the image from the image forming sheet onto an image receptive medium by superimposing the image forming sheet on the image receptive medium and by applying pressure and heat on the image forming sheet and the image receptive medium superimposed,
wherein each of the plurality of different color inks contains water in a range of 40 to 95 weight % thereof, and
wherein the image forming sheet comprises a support having thereon an ink receiving layer containing a hydrophilic resin and a thermoplastic resin.
2. The image forming method of item 1, wherein each of the plurality of different color inks contains alkali metal ions in a range of 100 to 3000 weight ppm thereof, and
wherein each of the plurality of different
Cameron Kerrigan Squire Sanders & Dempsey L.L.P.
Gordon Raquel Yvette
Konica Corporation
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