Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Hidehiro Mochizuki

Hiroyuki Uemura

Yutaka Ariga

Masaru Shimada

Akira Suzuki

Naoya Morohoshi

Hiroki Kuboyama

Chiharu Nogawa

Shinya Kawahara

Makoto Sekiyama

Masanaga Imamura

Yutaka Kuga

Keishi Taniguchi

Tomiaki Ito

Tadashi Saitou

An image forming material for forming an image on an image recording material with an image binding force being established between the image and the image recording material, the image forming material containing an image forming substance, and a binding force reducing substance which reduces the image binding force when the image is heated. A method of removing an image formed on an image recording material with a binding force being established between the image and the recording material by contacting a stripping member with the image with heating under pressure. A binding force reducing substance may be contained in the surface of the stripping member or in the image recording material.

Image forming material, method and device for removing images, and image forming process and apparatus

A continuous crushing method including at least feeding a toner block into a crusher through a screw feeder thereof having a crushing capacity while cyclically increasing and decreasing a feeding amount of the toner block; and crushing the toner block to prepare a toner, in which the feeding amount of the toner block in the increasing cycle is larger than the crushing capacity.

Continuous crushing method and apparatus

A thermal transfer image receiving material including a substrate, an intermediate layer which includes hollow particles and a binder resin and which is formed overlying the substrate, and an image receiving layer which includes a resin and which is formed overlying the intermediate layer and on which an image is to be formed, wherein each of the hollow particles in the intermediate layer has a particle diameter not greater than about 35 &mgr;m.

Thermal transfer image receiving material and thermal transfer recording method using the receiving material

A sublimation thermal transfer recording material which includes a substrate and an ink layer formed on the substrate for forming a color image, the ink layer including a plurality of sublimable dye groups each of which has different hue and each of which includes one or more sublimable dyes, wherein, provided that weighted average values of solubility of each dye to toluene in each sublimable dye group are values D1, D2, D3, . . . , and Dn, and a maximum value thereof is Dh, each of the values Dn other than the maximum value Dh is greater than about 0.5&times;Dh, and/or wherein, provided that weighted average values of a product of solubility of each dye to toluene and an extinction coefficient of the dye in each sublimable dye group are values E1, E2, E3, . . . , and En, and a maximum value thereof is Eh, each of the values En other than the maximum value Eh is greater than about 0.5&times;Eh.

Sublimation thermal transfer image recording material

A sublimation thermal transfer recording material including a substrate and one or more ink layers formed on one side of the substrate and including at least a yellow sublimable dye, a magenta sublimable dye and a cyan sublimable dye to form at least a black color image on a receiving material, wherein the magenta and the cyan sublimable dye have better light resistance than the yellow sublimable dye.

Thermal transfer recording material and receiving material thereof and

A sublimation thermal image transfer recording method for thermally forming images on an image receiving sheet prepared by forming a dye-receiving layer on a substrate, includes the steps of superimposing a sublimation thermal image transfer recording sheet which has a substrate and at least one recording layer formed thereon containing a sublimable dye, on the image receiving sheet in such a manner that the recording layer of the recording sheet comes into contact with the dye-receiving layer of the image receiving sheet, recording images on the dye-receiving layer of the image receiving sheet by applying thermal energy Ei imagewise to the recording sheet from the substrate side thereof using a thermal head, and subjecting the image-bearing image receiving sheet to heat treatment by applying thermal energy Eb to the image receiving sheet using the thermal head through a sheet member for heat treatment, the thermal energy Eb being smaller than the thermal energy Ei. In the image receiving sheet, an overcoat layer may be formed on the dye-receiving layer, the overcoat layer having a dynamic friction coefficient of less than 0.45 which is measured in accordance with ASTM-01894 and containing a silicone resin and a lubricant.

Sublimation thermal image transfer recording method and image receiving

A sublimation thermal transfer recording material which includes a substrate and an ink layer formed on the substrate for forming a color image, the ink layer including a plurality of sublimable dye groups each of which has different hue and each of which includes one or more sublimable dyes, wherein, provided that weighted average values of solubility of each dye to toluene in each sublimable dye group are values D1, D2, D3, . . . , and Dn, and a maximum value thereof is Dh, each of the values Dn other than the maximum value Dh is greater than about 0.5.times.Dh, and/or wherein, provided that weighted average values of a product of solubility of each dye to toluene and an extinction coefficient of the dye in each sublimable dye group are values E1, E2, E3, . . . , and En, and a maximum value thereof is Eh, each of the values En other than the maximum value Eh is greater than about 0.5.times.Eh.

A noncontact-reading type IC card image receiving material useful for sublimation thermal transfer recording is provided which is made by forming a resin cover film overlying a substrate including an IC chip and an antenna and in which an image is recorded on a surface of the receiving material or a receiving layer optionally formed on the receiving material by imagewise heating a sublimation thermal transfer recording material having an ink layer which contacts the receiving material or the receiving layer, wherein the resin cover film is formed by an injection and compression molding method. The receiving material is preferably subjected to a heat treatment after an image is formed thereon.

Sublimation thermal transfer image receiving material and image

A sublimation thermal transfer receiving material having an image receiving layer is provided for sublimation thermal transfer recording, wherein the image receiving layer including a resin having activated hydrogen, an isocyanate compound and a catalyst promoting the crosslinking reaction of said resin and said isocyanate compound, and wherein a degree of gelation of the image receiving layer is about 70 to 99% and the isocyanate compound includes one of a xylylene diisocyanate compound and an aliphatic isocyanate compound excepting an adduct of hexamethylene diisocyanate. The receiving material is preferably subjected to a heat treatment after being formed an image thereon.

Sublimation thermal transfer receiving material and image forming method

An image supporting sheet, preferably for sublimation thermal transfer recording, which has excellent resistance to heat, light, solvents, scratch, and alteration. The image supporting sheet including:

Image supporting sheet

A sublimation-type thermal image transfer recording medium is composed of a support, a dye-containing layer formed on the support, containing a sublimable dye, and a top layer formed on the dye-containing layer, containing a hydrolyzed product of a silane coupling agent. This sublimation-type thermal image transfer recording medium may be composed of a support, at least two dye-containing layers formed on the support, containing a sublimable dye and an organic binder agent in which the sublimable dye is dispersed, and a top layer formed on at least the two dye-containing layers, containing a hydrolyzed product of a silane coupling agent. Alternatively, the above sublimation-type thermal image transfer recording medium may be composed of a support, a dye-supply layer formed on the support, containing a sublimable dye and an organic binder agent in which the sublimable dye is dispersed, a dye-transfer layer formed on the dye-supply layer, containing a sublimable dye and an organic binder agent in which the sublimable dye is dispersed and a low-dyeable resin layer formed on the dye-transfer layer, containing an organic binder agent and a hydrolyzed product of a silane coupling agent.

Sublimation-type thermal image transfer recording medium

An image receiving sheet for sublimation-type thermal image recording includes substrate; and a dye receiving layer which is formed on the substrate directly or through an intermediate layer, the dye receiving layer including a dyeable cured resin and having a gel percentage of 70 wt. % or more. A sublimation-type thermal image transfer recording method for recording images by use of this image receiving sheet and a sublimation-type thermal image transfer recording medium is disclosed.

Image receiving sheet for sublimation-type thermal image transfer

An image receiving medium for use in a sublimation-type thermal image transfer recording system, comprising a substrate, and a dye receiving layer formed thereon, comprising (a) a resin which can be dyed with a heat-sublimable dye, such as a copolymer of vinyl chloride and vinyl acetate, (b) a first silicone oil which is compatible with the resin, such as polyether-modified silicone oil, and (c) a second silicone oil which is not compatible with the resin, such as amino-modified silicone oil.

Image receiving medium for use in sublimation-type thermal image

A sublimation-type thermal color image transfer recording medium for transferring images onto an image receiving sheet by moving the sublimation-type thermal color image transfer recording medium with a speed of 1/n (n&gt;1) relative to the image receiving sheet with a speed of 1 is composed of at least one support, and an ink layer formed on the support. The ink layer includes at least one dye-supply layer formed on the support, which is composed of a resin binder agent and one sublimable dye dispersed therein, such as a yellow sublimable dye, a magenta sublimable dye, and a cyan sublimable dye; and a dye-transfer-contribution layer formed on the dye-supply layer, which is composed of a resin binder agent and a sublimable dye with substantially the same color as that of the sublimable dye in the dye-supply layer, wherein the total of the sublimable dye contained in the dye-supply layer and that in the dye-transfer contribution layer, M g/m.sup.2, and the value of M.multidot.1/n for each color ink section are in a predetermined relationship.

Sublimation-type thermal color image transfer recording medium

A sublimation-type thermal image transfer recording medium is composed of a support, a dye-containing layer formed on the support, containing a sublimable dye, and a top layer formed on the dye-containing layer, containing a hydrolyzed product of a silane coupling agent. This sublimation-type thermal image transfer recording medium may be composed of a support at least to dye-containing layers formed on the support, containing a sublimable dye and an organic binder agent in which the sublimable dye is dispersed, and a top layer formed on at least the two dye-containing layers, containing a sublimable product of a silane coupling agent. Alternatively, the above sublimation-type thermal image transfer recording medium may be composed of a support, a dye-supply layer formed on the support, containing a sublimable dye and an organic binder agent in which the sublimable dye is dispersed, a dye-transfer layer formed on the dye-supply layer, containing a sublimable dye and an organic binder agent in which the sublimable dye is dispersed and a low-dyeable resin layer formed on the dye-transfer layer, containing an organic binder agent and a hydrolyzed product of a silane coupling agent.

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Numazu, Japan

Hidehiro Mochizuki