Eastman-kodak Company

Lee Walter

Bradford D West

Steven J Adamson

A reusable thermal dye donor element for a dye transfer thermal printer comprising: a continuous web support layer having inner and outer surfaces; and a dye donor layer on the outer surface, the dye donor layer formed of a thin film amorphous inorganic or diamond-like carbon (DLC) coating which is hard and wear resistant.

Reusable color dye closed loop donor web system for thermal printers

Protective inorganic and DLC coatings for plastic media such as plastic

The laminate of the invention is provided with an etch stop to protect the laminate's adhesive layer. The etch stop also circumvents any etching interference due to degradation products which would arise from breakdown of the adhesive layer. The etch stop is a protective thin film in the form of a metal oxide, metal nitride, metal oxynitride, metal carbide or metal oxycarbide coating deposited on the back side of the metal sheet prior to lamination onto the substrate by means of an organic adhesive. The thin etch stop film is in the form of a blanket coating to assure adhesion to the metal surface and to the adhesive. It may be deposited onto the metal sheet by standard vacuum deposition techniques such as DC and magnetron sputtering, thermal and E-beam evaporation, chemical vapor deposition, and plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition methods. The thin film thickness is flexible, and can range in thickness from tenths of angstroms to microns.

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San Diego, CA, United States of America

Lee Walter