Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture – Methods – Surface bonding and/or assembly therefor
Reexamination Certificate
2001-02-28
2003-05-20
Hess, Bruce H. (Department: 1774)
Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture
Methods
Surface bonding and/or assembly therefor
C428S195100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06565695
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a transfer sheet useful for forming a image on an image-receiving material such as clothes by forming a record image on the transfer sheet with the use of an electrophotographic printer and transferring the record image to the image-receiving material (or member).
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A variety of printing methods such as a screen printing method typical of them are usually employed in order to print images such as marks, logos and pictures on a surface of clothes such as T-shirts, earthenware, plastic articles or the like. These methods, however, require making an original printing plate, which is expensive. Thus, these methods are not suitable for a small scale of printing from the viewpoint of cost. Further, it is difficult to print rapidly because it takes many hours to make the printing plate.
In order to solve the above problems, there has been recently proposed a process which comprises previously recording an image on a transfer sheet which has a support layer and a transfer layer by means of a ink-jet printer or a color copying machine, and thermal-transferring the record image on the transfer sheet to an image-receiving material such as clothes (e.g., Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 16382/1998(JP-A-10-16382)). In the process for forming a record image on a transfer sheet, a color laser printer, which has been recently popularized rapidly as well as the ink-jet printer can be employed. The color laser printer adopts an electrophotographic system, that is, an image is formed by converting an original image to digital signals, radiating a laser beam to a photosensitive member according to the digital signals and developing with toner. Thus, the color laser printer can provide a high quality image and is suitable for recording an image on a transfer sheet.
Such electrophotographic printers such as the color copying machine and the color laser printer require heating a toner image formed on a transfer layer of a transfer sheet by means of a heat roller to fix the toner image. However, when a temperature of the heat roller is elevated, the transfer sheet adheres to the heat roller to twist around the roller, and the printer often clogs with the sheet.
For solving the problem, there have been proposed, as a transfer sheet for the color copying machine, (i) a sheet comprising three layers of a support layer, a release layer and a thermal adhesive layer, and specifying thickness of the support layer and the thermal adhesive layer (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 137427/1995(JP-A-7-137427)), (ii) a sheet comprising a transfer layer, a release layer and a support layer, and specifying thickness of the transfer layer and the release layer (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 25787/1996(JP-A-8-25787)), and (iii) a sheet comprising a support layer and a thermal adhesive layer, and specifying a melting point and a melt index(viscosity) of a polymer constituting the thermal adhesive layer (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 137428/1995 (JP-A-7-137428)). With respect to these sheets, however, when a temperature of a heat roller is elevated for improving the transferring efficiency in the same case as the electrophotographic printer such as a laser printer, the sheet twists around a heat roller, and the sheet tends to curl. On the other hand, when a heat resistant layer is formed on a surface of a transfer layer, the twist around a heat roller is inhibited, but a thermal transferability is deteriorated.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a transfer sheet for use in an electrophotographic printer which has the high thermal transferability and can be inhibited to twist or wind around a heat roller.
Another object of the invention is to provide a transfer sheet for an electrophotographic printer which is possible to form a clear or sharp image on an image-receiving material (e.g., clothes) by thermal transferring.
Still further object of the invention is to provide a transfer sheet for an electrophotographic printer, which is possible to form a transfer image having excellent texture or feeling (softness).
Still another object of the invention is to provide a transfer sheet for an electrophotographic printer, which is possible to form a transfer image having excellent water resistance and washing resistance.
As a result of intensive investigations made to solve the above problems, the present inventors found that, by forming a transfer layer having the specific surface roughness on a support, the twist of the transfer sheet for an electrophotographic printer can be inhibited. These findings have now led to completion of the present invention.
Thus, the transfer sheet for an electrophotographic printer of the present invention comprises a support and a transfer layer capable of separating from the support and fixing a toner image. An average value of surface roughness of the transfer layer is 0.5 to 3.5 &mgr;m. The transfer layer may comprise a thermoplastic resin and a fine particle. A weight ratio of the thermoplastic resin to the fine particle may be the thermoplastic resin/the fine particle=about 50/50 to 99/1. The thermoplastic resin may be at least one member selected from the group consisting of thermoplastic polyurethane-series resins, polyamide-series resins, polyester-series resins and polyolefinic resins. The fine particle may be an organic fine particle having a mean particle size of 1 to 100 &mgr;m, and in particular may comprise at least one resin selected from the group consisting of polyolefinic resins, acrylic resins, styrenic resins and silicone-series resins. Moreover, an anchor layer separable from the support may be interposed between the support and the transfer layer.
The present invention also includes a method of forming an image on a image-receiving material, which comprises forming a toner image on the transfer layer of the transfer sheet by an electrophotographic printer, and transferring the image on the image-receiving material.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
A transfer sheet of the present invention comprises at least a support and a transfer layer capable of separating or peeling from the support and of fixing a toner image formed by an electrophotographic printer. Moreover, an anchor layer separable or peelable from the support may be interposed between the support and the transfer layer.
[Support]
As the support, any of supports such as opaque, semitransparent and transparent supports may be used as far as the transfer layer and the anchor layer are capable of separating therefrom. Examples of the support usually include a release (releasable) support such as a paper treated for providing releasability, a synthetic paper, a chemical (artificial) fiber paper and a plastic film, which may be treated for providing releasability.
As a paper, there may be mentioned printing papers such as wood free paper, medium quality paper, high-grade groundwood paper, groundwood paper, art paper and coated paper, wrapping papers such as kraft paper and roll paper, thin (tissue) paper such as glassine paper and indian paper, and the like. The paper may be treated or processed. The treatment includes laminating with the use of polypropylene, polystyrene or the like and surface-coating.
As a synthetic paper, there may be mentioned, a variety of synthetic papers made of polypropylene, polystyrene or the like.
As a chemical fiber paper, there may be mentioned, a variety of chemical fiber papers made of chemical fibers such as rayon fiber, acetate fiber, vinylon fiber, nylon fiber, acrylic fiber, vinyl chloride fiber, polyester fiber and polypropylene fiber.
As polymers constituting the plastic film, there may be mentioned polyolefins such as polypropylene; cellulose derivatives such as cellulose acetate; polyesters (e.g., polyalkylene terephthalate such as polyethylene terephthalate and polybutylene terephthalate, polyalkylene naphthalate such as polyethylene naphthalate and polybutylene naphthalate, or c
Morisuna Shinichi
Nakama Kenji
Takeuchi Tatsuo
Watanabe Yukio
Daicel Chemical Industries Ltd.
Hess Bruce H.
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