Recording medium and recording method using the same

Details Recording medium and recording method using the same Recording medium and recording method using the same

1999-06-10

2003-08-12

Schwartz, Pamela R. (Department: 1774)

Stock material or miscellaneous articles

Structurally defined web or sheet

Discontinuous or differential coating, impregnation or bond

C347S105000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06605336

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording medium provided with a porous ink-receiving layer laminated on the substrate and a method for conducting a record thereon by an ink-jet system.
The ink-jet recording system is a system of ejecting minute ink droplets by various operating principles and depositing them to a recording medium such as paper to make a record of images, characters or the like, has features that high speed, low-noise and multi-color recording can be easily realized and a compatibility in recording pattern is high without need for development or fixation, and then has rapidly been spreading in various uses. Furthermore, according to the multi-color ink-jet recording system, there can be formed multi-color images, which are almost equal in quality as compared with a color print according to the color photography process or a multi-color print according to the plate making process, and recorded articles can be obtained at lower cost than those by a usual multi-color printing or print in case of a small number of copies, and therefore the multi-color ink-jet recording system is being widely applied to the field of full-color image recording.
2. Related Background Art
With the request for improvement in recording characteristics, such as speedier, more precise and fully-colored records, an ink-jet recorder and recording method have so far been improved, but at the same time high level characteristics have been required for a recording medium to be used.
According to the ink-jet recording system, an ink comprising a large amount of a solvent such as water or a mixture of water and an organic solvent is used from the need for ejecting ink droplets from a nozzle toward a recording medium at high speed. Thus, to obtain an recorded image having a high color density, a large amount of ink must be used. Besides, since ink droplets are continuously ejected, there may occur a beading phenomenon in which ink dots are joined, causing disorder in an image. To prevent this beading phenomenon, a large amount and a high speed of ink absorption in a recording medium is required.
Such being the case, many types of recording media with a porous layer comprising inorganic particles such as alumina hydrate formed on the substrate as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-276670 have been proposed to improve the absorbency, coloration and resolution. Furthermore, a recording medium with an ink fixing layer comprising a transparent resin soluble or swellable in the solvent of an ink formed on the substrate as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-101880 has been proposed.
Furthermore, to improve an ink-absorbency, there has been proposed a recording medium with two upper and lower porous particle layers having different pore radii and comprising porous inorganic particles and binder as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-111782.
Besides, a recording medium with a porous polymer layer (mixture layer of organic particles and inorganic particles) formed on a porous alumina layer by applying and drying a dispersion comprising a polymer latex having an average particle diameter of from 0.05 to 0.5 &mgr;m and inorganic particulates such as silica particles has been also proposed as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-237348.
On the other hand, to improve a resolution while retaining an ink-absorbency, a recording medium having two peaks in a pore radius distribution curve has been also proposed as described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 63-22997.
Also, with the ink-jet recording system, there has often been used an ink of such a type as dissolving the dye component into a solvent thus far. However, since the dyestuff ink is poor in light fastness and ozone-resistance by nature, a long-term storage of recorded documents has brought about a problem of fading or discoloring. Thus, there has been proposed a method in which recording is conducted on a recording medium provided with a porous layer comprising a thermoplastic resin material on the substrate and then a porous layer is fused under an action of heat or pressure to make the recording medium denser, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 58-136482 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,374,475. Still more, there has been also proposed a recording medium provided with a two-layered ink-receiving layer in which an inorganic pigment layer having a large ink-absorptivity is provided on the substrate and a top surface layer comprising a thermoplastic organic polymer is provided, as described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2-31673.
However, these background arts have the following problems.
In a recording medium with porous layer comprising inorganic particles as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-276670, neither sufficient light fastness nor ozone-resistance is obtained when using a dyestuff ink.
Besides, a recording medium with an ink fixing layer using a resin soluble or swellable in an ink solvent as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-101880 has a problem of being slow in drying of ink and sticky for a while after the completion of recording.
Also, with a recording medium with a two-layered ink-receiving layer as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-111782, an ink-absorbency can be improved, but defects in the adjustment of coating conditions and drying conditions for obtaining the uniformity of a coated film or the reduction in fault of a coated film occur in the step of forming the two layers, causing not a few problems in production.
Further, according to a recording medium with a porous polymer layer formed as a upper layer of a two-layer construction by using a polymer latex and inorganic particulates as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-237348, an ink-absorbency can be further promoted, but the two layer construction also makes it difficult to obtain a uniform coated film. Particularly, defects such as cracks or fissures may occur. Furthermore, when using a large amount of ink, no sufficient examination has been made on what porous construction the porous polymer layer should be composed of.
Still also, in a recording medium having two peaks in a pore radius distribution curve as described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 63-22997, the pore radius distribution curve has two peaks due to pores by voids formed between the aggregates of primary particles of 0.2 &mgr;m or below in diameter and due to pores in the particles themselves. Here, the pores are so set as to increase the pore volume having small radii of 0.05 &mgr;m or below. In case of using a photo ink rich in solvent and surfactant to promote the gradation in a half tone or the like under recent circumstances of requiring a photographic tone, no sufficient absorbency is always obtained with a pore structure as mentioned above. Namely, an ink-absorbency due to voids having a larger peak pore radius becomes further needed, but in the formation of a pore, formed between the aggregates of very small primary particles, it is difficult to form a greater amount of pores having a sufficiently large peak radius. Accordingly, when a higher speed printing than achieved by a conventional printing method is required, or for a decrease in the number of printing passes, no sufficient absorbing power for ink has been obtained.
And, according to a method in which recording is conducted on a recording medium provided with a porous layer comprising a thermoplastic resin material and then the porous layer is fused to make the recording medium denser, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 58-136482 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,374,475, problems of fading or the like of dyestuff ink can be solved, but when the formation of a denser record image is needed, the ink-absorbency remains yet insufficient.
And also, in a two-layered recording medium as described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2-31673, problems on production remain as with the above two-laye

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