Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Other

Kunichika Morohoshi

Yoshihiko Hotta

Fumihito Masubuchi

Akira Suzuki

Makoto Kawaguchi

Toru Nogiwa

Yukio Konagaya

Tetsuya Amano

Atsushi Kutami

Nobuo Mochizuki

Nobuo Yamada

Kazumi Suzuki

Toshiyuki Kawanishi

Masato Igarashi

Takao Igawa

Tsutomu Kagawa

Yusuke Takeda

Masafumi Torii

Masafumi Moriya

Kazuo Hosoda

Koji Kawai

Hideyuki Kobori

Motoo Tasaka

Katsushi Sugiyama

Katsuaki Kokubo

Kunitoshi Sugiyama

Nobuyoshi Sugiyama

Satoru Sampei

Akihide Ito

Katsuyoshi Kodama

Suzuki Kazumi

A reversible thermosensitive recording medium comprising at least a reversible thermosensitive recording layer provided on a supporting substrate and, a protective layer provided on the recording layer, wherein the recording layer is arranged so as to develop a first color therein when it is heated to a specific temperature level between a second temperature and a third temperature which is higher than the second temperature and then cooled to a first temperature level between normal temperature and the second temperature which is higher than the normal temperature, while so as to develop a second color therein when it is heated to another temperature level more than a fourth temperature which is higher than the third temperature and then cooled to a particular temperature which is lower than the first temperature, and the protective layer contains at least a lubricant showing the melting point ranging from higher than or equal to the first temperature to lower than or equal to the second temperature and has a surface roughness (Rz) (where Rz represents an average rise on the surface by ten measurements) of 1.2 &mgr;m or more. The recording medium eliminates the gap of air formed between the thermal printing head and the surface, thus heat conductivity is elevated allowing uniform application of thermal energy during the erasing action thereby its erasing property is improved, while the surface smoothness is improved as for as during the heating action at high temperatures, resulting an excellent thermal head matching, and the storage capability therefor is improved.

Reversible thermosensitive recording medium and image processing method using the same

A reversible thermosensitive recording medium is capable of assuming a first color in a first temperature range which is above room temperature, having a first color assuming initiation temperature and a first color assuming upper-limit temperature, and assuming a second color when heated to a second temperature range which is above the first temperature range and then cooled, having a second color assuming lower-limit temperature, (a) the first color assuming upper-limit temperature being 125&deg; C. or more, (b) the difference between the first color assuming upper-limit temperature and the second color assuming lower-limit temperature being 20&deg; C. or less, and (c) the first color assuming initiation temperature being 95&deg; C. or more, and a method of recording and erasing images, using the recording medium, a method of producing the recording medium, and the application thereof a card, a label, writable or rewritable disk cartridge, disk and tape cassette are proposed.

Reversible thermosensitive recording medium, card, label, disk, disk cartridge, tape cassette, method of producing the recording medium, and method of recording and erasing images using the same

A reversible thermosensitive recording material containing a support which is composed of a first film, an adhesive layer formed on the first film and a second film formed on the adhesive layer, with the adhesive strength between the first film and the second film being 0.5 kgf/25 mm or more in terms of the average tensile load at an angle of 180.degree. measured in accordance with JIS K 6854, and a reversible thermosensitive recording layer formed on the support, capable of reversibly assuming a transparent state and a white opaque state depending on the temperature thereof, which recording layer contains a matrix resin and an organic low-molecular-weight mateiral dispersed in the form of finely-divided particles in the matrix resin.

Reversible thermosensitive recording material

A reversible thermosensitive recording material which has a substrate and a recording layer formed on the substrate and in which the recording layer assumes a first color state at a first coloring temperature higher than room temperature when the recording layer is heated by applying heat energy in a first color recordable energy range and in which the recording layer then assumes a second color state when heated at a second coloring temperature higher than the first coloring temperature and then cooled, wherein provided that an initial first color recordable energy range is E.sub.1 and a changed first color recordable energy range of the recording material which has been preserved at 35.degree. C. for 48 hours is E.sub.D, a changing rate E.sub.c of a first color recordable energy range, i.e., 100(E.sub.1 -E.sub.D)/E.sub.1, is less than about 35%.

Reversible thermosensitive recording material and method of use thereof

An image recording method using a reversible thermosensitive recording material which is capable of assuming a transparent state when heated to a first temperature which is above room temperature, and a colored state when heated to a second temperature which is higher than the first temperature and then cooled, and a heating element, including the step of applying energy to the heating element for generating heat in such a manner as to form each picture element of an image to be formed in the recording material by a plurality of energy pulses applied thereto. An image recording apparatus for this image recording method is also described, which includes a pulse division device for dividing the energy to be applied to the heating element into the plurality of energy pulses, an ambient temperature measurement device for measuring the ambient temperature around the recording material, and a pulse-generation timing adjustment device for adjusting the timing for the generation of the plurality of energy pulses.

Image recording method using reversible thermosensitive recording

A reversible thermosensitive recording medium having a supporting substrate and a reversible thermosensitive recording layer formed on the supporting substrate, having the ratio, of two values of light intensity scattered by the recording layer at large angles and small angles, of more than or equal to two, the ratio of the two numbers of particles of low-molecular-weight organic material with the large size to small size, of more than or equal to 2%, and the ratio of the two numbers of the particles with the small size to the total particles, of more than or equal to 10%, is provided which has improved display quality and excellent durability for repeated recording and erasing cycles over an extended period of time.

Reversible thermosensitive recording medium and method for producing the

There is disclosed a method of successively forming and/or erasing images selectively in different portions of a recording layer of a recording medium which comprises a reversible thermosensitive recording material capable of recording images and erasing the same by reversibly changing the transparency or the color tone of the portions of the recording layer with the application of heat thereto, depending upon the temperature thereof, in such a manner that the same portion of the recording layer is not continuously used for image formation and/or erasure in excess of a predetermined number of times, thereby repeating the use of the recording medium for an extended period of time.

Image formation method using reversible thermosensitive recording

An image recording method for recording information in and erasing recorded information from a display medium which contains a reversible thermosensitive recording material capable of writing information therein and erasing recorded information therefrom by the application of heat thereto, by using a heat application member with round corners, and contacting the surface of the heat application member with the display medium.

Image recording method

A method of producing a reversible thermosensitive recording material composed of a support, and a reversible thermosensitive recording layer formed thereon, which contains a matrix resin and an organic low-molecular weight material dispersed in the matrix resin, and capable of reversibly assuming a transparent state and a white opaque state depending upon the temperature thereof, is composed of the steps of applying a solution or dispersion of the matrix resin and the organic low-molecular-weight material dissolved or dispersed in a solvent to the support, and drying the applied solution or dispersion with the application of heat thereto in such a manner that when the temperature of the solution or dispersion applied side of the support it t.sub.1, and the temperature of the back side surface of the support, opposite to the solution or dispersion applied side thereof, is t.sub.2, t.sub.1 is lower than t.sub.2 (t.sub.1 &lt;t.sub.2), with the back side surface of the support being heated immediately after the coating of the solution or dispersion.

Method for producing reversible thermosensitive recording material

A method of erasing images recorded in an image recording medium capable of recording images therein and erasing the same therefrom by application of heat thereto includes the step of applying heat to both a front image bearing side and a back side of the image recording medium for erasing images.

Image erasing method

An image recording method of recording information in and erasing recorded information from a display medium which contains a reversible thermosensitive recording material capable of writing information therein and erasing recorded information therefrom by the application of heat thereto, by use of a heat application member with a flat portion by bringing the flat portion into contact with the display medium provided on a supporting base, at least one of the display medium or the flat portion of the heat application member having an elastically deformable portion through which one of the display medium or the flat portion of the heat application member performs elastic deformation and the display medium is capable of coming into close contact with the heat application member.

A transfer-type electrothermographic recording method comprising the steps of uniformly charging an electrothermographic recording layer which exhibits chargeability A at room temperature and chargeability B above room temperature, where the chargeabilities A and B are in the relationship of A&gt;B.gtoreq.0, forming a latent electrostatic image by applying digital thermal signals which correspond to an original image, developing the latent electrostatic image with a toner of which polarity is the same as or opposite to the polarity of the electric charge of the latent electrostatic image to form a toner image, transferring the toner image to a receiving medium, and fixing the toner image transferred on the receiving medium; and a recording medium for use with the transfer-type electrothermographic recording method, comprising the above electrothermographic recording layer.

Transfer-type electrothermographic recording method and recording medium

A card processing method of recording information or displaying, rewriting or erasing recorded information in a card having a magnetic recording portion, and a rewritable display portion which employs a reversible thermosensitive recording material, in which the step (a) of reading recorded information in the magnetic recording portion and the step (b) of rewriting the recorded information in the magnetic recording portion are carried out prior to the step (c) of erasing recorded information from the rewritable display portion and the step (d) of writing information in the rewritable display portion.

Card processing method

A method of compensating for the distortion in a recording layer of a reversible thermosensitive recording medium, for which transparency of the recording layer is changeable, depending upon the temperature thereof, and the recording layer is capable of forming images and erasing the images reversibly. The distortion in the recording layer is caused by the repeated image formation by image formation means and/or image erasure by image erasing means. In this method, stress is applied to the recording layer before and/or after image formation by the movement of the recording medium relative to the image formation means, in a direction different from the direction of the application of stress in the course of a previous image formation or image erasure. Instead of the stress, thermal energy can be employed for compensating for the distortion in the recording layer.

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Numazu, Japan

Kunichika Morohoshi