Stock material or miscellaneous articles – Composite – Of addition polymer from unsaturated monomers
Reexamination Certificate
1999-05-07
2003-03-11
Raimund, Christopher (Department: 1771)
Stock material or miscellaneous articles
Composite
Of addition polymer from unsaturated monomers
C428S423100, C428S423700, C428S480000, C427S379000, C427S393500, C427S385500, C346S135100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06531231
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a recording material and a method for production thereof. More particularly, the present invention relates to a recording material for ink jet printing and a method for production thereof.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Along with the recently prevailing electronic still cameras and computers, a hard copy technique has ben rapidly developed for recording the images thereof on paper, etc. The ultimate goal of the hard copy is the provision of recorded materials having high quality like silver salt photographs. In particular, how close the color reproduction, image density, gloss weatherability and the like can be brought to those of silver salt photographs is the problem posed during such development. The method for hard copy includes various methods such as a method comprising direct photographing of a display presenting images into silver salt photographs, sublimation heat transfer, ink jet method and electrostatic image transfer.
An ink jet printer has recently become very popular since it permits full color printing with ease and produces low printing noises. The ink jet printing is based on a high speed injection of ink drops from a nozzle toward recording materials, and the ink contains large amounts of solvents. For this reason, ink jet recording material is required to quickly absorb the ink and exhibit superior color developing performance.
However, conventional recording materials for ink jet printing have poor water resistance, so that when water adheres to the printed matter after absorption of the ink by an ink receiving layer, the ink tends to release from the material. In addition, slow absorption of the ink causes set-off during consecutive printing, and the gloss of the surface becomes poorer than in solver salt photographs, thus failing to provide high quality and high grade recording, such as silver salt photographs.
The present invention aims at solving such problems, and its object is to provide a recording material superior in water resistance, which has high gloss on the surface, permits recording by a color printer, and is capable of high quality and high grade recording like silver salt photographs, as well as methods for production thereof.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the present invention, there is now provided (1) a recording material comprising a substrate layer and an ink receiving layer formed on this substrate layer, wherein the ink receiving layer has a retention of ink concentration after water immersion of not less than 30% and a surface gloss of not less than 55%.
Other preferable embodiments are as follows.
(2) The recording material of (1), having a light permeability exceeding 60%.
(3) The recording material of (1), having a light permeability of not more than 60%.
(4) The recording material of (1), wherein the time necessary for the ink receiving layer to absorb 0.1-1.0 &mgr;l/cm
2
of an ink is not longer than 50 seconds.
(5) The recording material of (1), wherein the ink receiving layer comprises an ink absorptive resin, a curing agent and a surfactant.
(6) The recording material of (5), wherein the ink receiving layer further comprises a compound having a cation group.
(7) The recording material of (5), wherein the ink absorptive resin is polyvinyl alcohol.
(8) The recording material of (5), wherein the curing agent is a water soluble melamine resin.
(9) The recording material of (5), wherein the ink absorptive resin content of the ink receiving layer is 10-99% by weight.
(10) The recording material of (5), wherein the content of the curing agent is 0.1-20% by weight relative to the amount of the ink absorptive resin.
(11) The recording material of (5), wherein the surfactant content of the ink receiving layer is 0.5-20% by weight.
(12) The recording material of (1), wherein the substrate layer is a polyester film.
(13) The recording material of (3), wherein the substrate layer is a film having a number of fine voids and an apparent specific gravity of not less than 0.7 and less than 1.32.
(14) The recording material of (3), wherein the substrate layer has an inplane birefringence of from −0.02 to +0.04.
(15) The recording material of (1), further comprising an intermediate layer between the substrate layer and the ink receiving layer.
(16) The recording material of (15), wherein the intermediate layer comprises at least one member selected from the group consisting of polyester resin, polyurethane resin and polyacrylic resin.
(17) The recording material of (1), further comprising an easy slip layer formed on the substrate layer on the opposite surface from the ink receiving layer.
(18) The recording material of (17), wherein the easy slip layer comprises at least one member selected from the group consisting of polyester resin, polyurethane resin and polyacrylic resin, inorganic particles and/or organic particles, and an antistatic agent.
The present invention also relates to a method for producing a recording material, which comprises applying a composition comprising an ink absorptive resin, a curing agent, a surfactant and a solvent onto a substrate layer, heating the coating layer to a temperature not less than the boiling point of the solvent and not more than the boiling point plus 30° C., and further heating the layer at a temperature higher than said temperature to form an ink receiving layer.
Preferably the method comprises applying a composition comprising an ink absorptive resin, a curing agent, a surfactant and water onto a substrate layer, heating the coating layer to 100-130° C., and further heating the layer at 130-180° C. to form an ink receiving layer.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The recording material of the present invention comprises a substrate layer and an ink receiving layer formed on said substrate.
The substrate is subject to no particular limitation, and may be, for example, natural paper, synthetic paper, cloth, nonwoven fabric, wood, metal, plastic film, glass, artificial leather, natural leather, or an adhesion laminate of optional two or more members therefrom. The substrate layer may be a single layer or a composite having two or more layers.
When the substrate layer is a plastic film the material thereof is not particularly limited, and may be, for example, polyester resin, polyolefin resin, polyamide resin, polyacrylic resin, polyurethane resin, polyvinyl resin, polyether resin or polystyrene resin, with particular preference given to the following polyester resin.
That is, a polyester produced by condensation polymerization of an aromatic dicarboxylic acid such as terephthalic acid, isophthalic acid and naphthalene dicarboxylic acid, or an ester thereof, and a glycol such as ethylene glycol, diethylene glycol, 1,4-butanediol and neopentyl glycol. Such polyester can be also produced by, besides the direct reaction of aromatic dicarboxylic acid and glycol, ester exchange reaction between alkyl ester of aromatic dicarboxylic acid and glycol, followed by condensation polymerization, condensation polymerization of diglycol ester of aromatic dicarboxylic acid and the like. Typical examples of the polyester are polyethylene terephthalate, polybutylene terephthalate and polyethylene-2,6-naphthalate. These polyesters may be a homopolymer of a copolymerized product of two or more kinds of acid component and/or glycol component. According to the present invention, ethylene terephthalate unit, butylene terephthalate unit or ethylene-2,6-naphthalate unit is contained in a proportion of not less than 70% by mole, preferably not less than 80% by mole, and more preferably not less than 90% by mole of polyester.
The substrate film may contain inorganic or organic particles as necessary. The particles which may be added include silica, kaolinite, talc, calcium carbonate, zeolite, alumina, barium sulfate, carbon black, zinc oxide, titanium oxide, crosslinked acrylic particles and crosslinked polystyrene particles, which may be selected without limitation. The addition of such particles results in better slip characteristics of the obtai
Ito Katsuya
Kotani Toru
Suzuki Toshitake
Raimund Christopher
Toyo Boseki Kabushiki Kaisha
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