Stock material or miscellaneous articles – Thermal transfer donor
Reexamination Certificate
2002-03-15
2004-08-10
Hess, B. Hamilton (Department: 1774)
Stock material or miscellaneous articles
Thermal transfer donor
C428S029000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06773772
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thermal transfer sheet, a thermal transfer recording method, and a thermal transfer recording system and, more particularly, it relates to a thermal transfer sheet, a thermal transfer recording method, and a thermal transfer recording system, which can regulate so as to limit the use to authentic thermal transfer sheets which received the approval of the quality assurance by printer manufacturers so that appropriate printing can be performed in a printer, and which can prevent deterioration of the printing quality and deterioration of a thermal head.
The present invention also relates to a thermal transfer sheet, a thermal transfer recording method, and a thermal transfer recording system, which can regulate so as to limit the use to authentic thermal transfer sheet which received the approval of the quality assurance by printer manufacturers, and at the same time which can prevent deterioration of the printing quality and deterioration of a thermal head when a cassette case is reused by exchanging of a thermal transfer sheet.
The present invention further relates to a thermal transfer sheet, a thermal transfer recording method, and a thermal transfer recording system which can be used for facsimiles and, more particularly, it relates to a thermal transfer sheet, a thermal transfer recording method, and a thermal transfer recording system, which can regulate so as to limit the use to authentic thermal transfer sheets which received the approval of the quality assurance by facsimile apparatus manufacturers so that appropriate printing can be performed with facsimile apparatuses, and which can prevent deterioration of the printing quality and deterioration of a thermal head, in a method of recording, by thermal transfer, the reception contents on a recording paper using a thermal transfer sheet with facsimile apparatuses by which users can transmit to any receiver, or receive and record manuscripts via the communication circuit.
2. Description of the Related Art
There have been hitherto used thermal transfer sheets in which a thermally transferable layer of a heat meltable ink layer or a sublimation dye layer is provided on one side of a substrate film as a thermal transfer recording medium used for thermal printers, facsimiles and the like.
The previous thermal transfer sheets are the sheets on which a heat meltable ink layer or a sublimation dye ink layer is provided thereon by using as a substrate film a paper such as a condenser paper and a paraffin paper having the thickness of around 10 to 20 &mgr;m or a plastic film such as polyester and cellophane having the thickness of around 3 to 20 &mgr;m and coating on this substrate film a heat meltable ink obtained by mixing a wax with a colorant such as a pigment, a dye and the like or a sublimation dye ink obtained by dispersing or dissolving a sublimation dye in a resin binder.
And printing is performed by heating and pressing predetermined positions of the thermal transfer sheet with a thermal head from a back side of the substrate film to melt or sublimate an ink layer located corresponding to a printing part among a heat meltable ink layer or a sublimation dye layer and, which is thereby transferred to a printing paper.
In addition, there are generally used thermal transfer sheets in continuous lengths and in the form of rolled up sheets obtained by rolling up on a supply bobbin and adhering a front end of rolled up thermal transfer sheet to a rolling up bobbin. And thermal transfer sheets are contained in a thermal transfer sheet cassette in many cases and thermal transfer sheets are exchanged as a thermal transfer sheet cassette containing a thermal transfer sheet at the end of using the thermal transfer sheet and recently, however, users simply exchange thermal transfer sheets and cassettes are reused from a viewpoint of the reuse of resources and the like.
In addition, thermal transfer recording media are generally used by rolling up a thermal transfer sheet on a supply bobbin, connecting a lead film to a front end of the rolled up thermal transfer sheet, and adhering a front end of the lead film to the rolling up bobbin, which is mounted on a printer. The lead film exerts respective functions such as guidance and pulling up of a thermal transfer sheet at an initial stage of use, protection of a rolled unused thermal transfer sheet from the outside, improvement of the workability and accuracy of mounting when a thermal transfer sheet is mounted on a cassette or directly on a printer, and removal of crease upon rolling up of a thermal transfer sheet after starting of use (See JP-A(Kokai)-6-336065, JP-A(Kokai)-9-272247).
In addition, there is disclosed a cassette for a thermal transfer sheet in which a display label of the number of sheets on which information regarding the number of recordable image planes of the thermal transfer sheet is recorded is applied to a front end of the thermal transfer sheet without connecting a lead film to the thermal transfer sheet (JP-U(Kokai)-63-68452).
Furthermore, there is disclosed such a thermal transfer sheet cassette that it is not misused in a printer, a light diffraction structure on which information for printing is recorded as a light diffraction image is provided in order to prevent forgery, the surface of the light diffraction structure is formed to be on the same level of that of the cassette case or on the more recessed level than that of the case surface, and the light diffraction structure having the fragility is used (JP-A(Kokai)-8-318657, JP-A(Kokai)-8-318658).
There are many kinds of thermal transfer printers and required to have the excellent printing quality such as the clearness of a printed image, high concentration, high sensitivity and the like. To the contrary, an amount of a thermal transfer sheet to be used in a printer has been increasing and many products which have not received approval of the quality assurance by printer manufacturers, that is, a thermal transfer sheet which is not authentic called as a pirated article are on the market.
When this pirated article is used in a printer, it is inferior in the matching properties with that printer, and deterioration of the printing quality and deterioration of a thermal head occur frequently, leading to problems.
However, in the thermal transfer sheet with the lead film as described above, the misuse can be prevented and operations can be easier upon mounting on a printer but it can not be regulated that the use of it in a printer is limited to thermal transfer sheets which received approval of the quality assurance by printer manufacturers, that is, authentic thermal transfer sheets so that appropriate printing can be performed to that printer.
In addition, when the aforementioned display label of the number of sheets on which information regarding the number of recordable image planes is recorded is applied to a front end of a thermal transfer sheet, a printer can be endowed with information regarding the number of recordable image planes but it can not be regulated that the use of it in that printer is limited to authentic thermal transfer sheets.
In addition, the provision of a light diffraction structure on which information for printing is recorded as a light diffraction image in the aforementioned cassette case is assumed that exchange is made as a cassette when the use of a thermal transfer is completed and the thermal transfer sheet is exchanged with a new one and, therefore, if a cassette is opened and a thermal transfer sheet contained therein is exchanged with not authentic one for use, it can not be regulated so that the use is limited to authentic thermal transfer sheets.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, the first object of the present invention is to solve the aforementioned problems and provide a thermal transfer sheet, a thermal transfer recording method, and a thermal transfer recording system, which can regulate so as to limit the use to the authentic thermal transfer sheets which received the approval
Katai Taketomo
Shinozaki Kensuke
Takeda Hideichiro
Yokouchi Kazunori
DAI Nippon Printing Co., Ltd.
Hess B. Hamilton
Ladas & Parry
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