Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Yoji Ide

Keiichi Shiokawa

Tetsuji Kunitake

Mihoko Matsumoto

Yasumitsu Kuga

Hiroshi Tohmatsu

Susumu Kawakami

Hironori Hata

Shigekazu Teranishi

Mihoko Akiyama

Yoichi Iwaki

Yoshihiko Hiyoshi

Masahiro Sato

Kumi Surizaki

A thermal image transfer recording method includes the steps of holding a thermal image transfer recording medium including a support material and a thermal image transfer layer provided on the support material, and an image recording material between a line edge thermal head and a platen roller, with a contact pressure being applied therebetween; transferring the thermal image transfer recording layer imagewise from the thermal image transfer recording medium to the image recording material with imagewise application of heat by use of the line edge thermal head; and taking up the thermal image transfer recording medium after the image transfer, with the take-up tension applied to the thermal image transfer recording medium being set larger than both the shearing strength and peeling strength at 70.degree. C. of the thermal image transfer layer. A thermal image transfer recording medium including a thermal image transfer layer with a shearing strength of 200 g/cm or more at 25.degree. C. provided on a support material is provided for use in this thermal image transfer recording method.

Thermal image transfer recording method and thermal image transfer

A thermal image transfer recording medium includes a substrate, a thermal image transfer ink layer provided on the substrate, and a heat resistant protective layer which is provided on the back side of the substrate, opposite to the thermal transfer ink layer with respect to the substrate, with which a thermal head comes into contact. The heat resistant protective layer is made of an organic polymeric material free from cross-linking structure, with a film strength of 10 mN or more, and the surface of the heat resistant protective layer has a contact angle with pure water of 95.degree. or more and a dynamic coefficient of friction of 0.07 or loss. The heat resistant protective layer may also be made of a modified copolymer containing (a) a main backbone chain polymer including an active-hydrogen-containing polymer which encompasses no cellulose compounds and (b) a side chain polymer which is a copolymer of a reactive silicone and a vinyl monomer.

Thermal image transfer recording medium

A thermal image transfer recording method includes the steps of holding a thermal image transfer recording medium including a support material and a thermal image transfer layer provided on the support material, and an image recording material between a line edge thermal head and a platen roller, with a contact pressure being applied therebetween; transferring the thermal image transfer recording layer imagewise from the thermal image transfer recording medium to the image recording material with imagewise application of heat by use of the line edge thermal head; and taking up the-thermal image transfer recording medium after the image transfer, with the take-up tension applied to the thermal image transfer recording medium being set larger than both the shearing strength and peeling strength at 70.degree. C. of the thermal image transfer layer. A thermal image transfer recording medium including a thermal image transfer layer with a shearing strength of 200 g/cm or more at 25.degree. C. provided on a support material is provided for use in this thermal image transfer recording method.

Thermal image transfer recording method

A thermal image transfer recording medium includes a substrate, a thermal image transfer ink layer provided on the substrate, and a heat resistant protective layer which is provided on the back side of the substrate, opposite to the thermal transfer ink layer with respect to the substrate, with which a thermal head comes into contact. The heat resistant protective layer is made of an organic polymeric material free from cross-linking structure, with a film strength of 10 mN or more, and the surface of the heat resistant protective layer has a contact angle with pure water of 95.degree. or more and a dynamic coefficient of friction of 0.07 or less. The heat resistant protective layer may also be made of a modified copolymer containing (a) a main backbone chain polymer including an active-hydrogen-containing polymer which encompasses no cellulose compounds and (b) a side chain polymer which is a copolymer of a reactive silicone and a vinyl monomer.

A multiple-use thermal image transfer recording method includes the step of transferring a thermal image transfer ink component a plurality of times to an image-receiving medium from at least an identical portion of a thermal image transfer recording medium composed of a support and a thermal image transfer ink layer formed thereon, with the application of heat thereto. The thermal image transfer ink layer is composed of the thermal image transfer ink component mainly containing a coloring agent and a thermofusible material, and a porous resin component which is not thermally transferable, with both components having mutual releasability. The image-receiving medium has a recording surface, with the product of the absorption coefficient (Ka) of the recording surface measured by the Bristow Method (J. TAPPI. No. 51 - 87) at a pressure of 0.1 MPa, using an extra pure liquid paraffin, and the gradient (fc) of a linear portion of a load curve measured by a three-dimensional surface roughness analysis, being in the range of 2.0 to 6.0.

Multiple-use thermal image transfer recording method

A multiple-use thermal image transfer recording medium is composed of a heat-resistant support, a thermal image transfer layer formed on the heat-resistant support, which thermal image transfer layer is composed of a plurality of thermofusible ink layers overlaid on the heat-resistant support, and a porous resin layer formed on the thermal image transfer layer. The thermal image transfer layer contains a thermofusible ink component containing as the main components a coloring agent and a thermofusible material. The melt viscosity of the thermofusible ink component in each of the thermofusible ink layers is in such a relationship that the melt viscosity increases toward the heat-resistant support.

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Mishima, Japan

Yoji Ide