Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Youji Ide

Tetsuji Kunitake

Keiichi Shiokawa

Yoshihiko Hiyoshi

Kumi Surizaki

Nobuyuki Maeda

Tadafumi Tatewaki

Masanaka Nagamoto

Shigeru Miyajima

Naoshi Yamamoto

Yuichi Taka

Moriyasu Nagai

Minoru Hakiri

Motoo Tasaka

Mihoko Akiyama

Ryouchi Shimura

Kei-ichi Shiokawa

A thermal image transfer recording medium is composed of a support, and a thermofusible ink layer formed on the support, the thermofusible ink layer containing a thermofusible material with a loaded needle penetration of 2 or less at 25.degree. C., and a coloring agent, and having a shearing strength of 8 to 20 gf/cm at 20.degree. C., and an adhesion strength of 1.0 to 2.0 gf/cm with respect to the support. The thermofusible ink layer can be composed of a first ink layer formed thereon, comprising finely-divided particles of a thermofusible material with a loaded needle penetration of 2 or less at 25.degree. C. and an average particle diameter in the range of 0.5 to 3.0 .mu.m, with a voidage of 5 to 30 vol. %, and a second ink layer formed on the first ink layer, composed of a thermofusible material with a loaded needle penetration of 2 or less at 25.degree. C., which may be in the form of finely-divided particles, and a coloring agent.

Thermal image transfer recording medium

A thermal image transfer recording medium comprising a support, and a thermofusible ink layer formed thereon, which comprises a resin matrix and a thermofusible ink, with the above resin matrix and the thermofusible ink having a property of repelling each other.

An image receiving sheet for use in a thermal image transfer recording system, has an absorption coefficient (Ka) of 0.05 to 0.75 ml/m.sup.2 .multidot.(msec).sup.1/2 with respect to extra pure liquid paraffin at a pressure of 0.1 MPa when measured by the Bristow's Method (J.TAPPI No. 51-87). As such an image receiving sheet, an image receiving sheet having a recording surface with the product of (a) the absorption coefficient (Ka) with respect to the liquid paraffin (extra pure reagent) measured by the Bristow's Method (J.TAPPI No. 51-87) at a pressure of 0.1 MPa and (b) the gradient (fc) of a linear portion of a load curve obtained by a three-dimensional surface roughness analysis being in the range of 0.5 to 6.0 can be used. An image receiving sheet having a recording surface with the amount (V) of an ink transferred to the receiving sheet during 100 msec being in the range of 2.3 to 11.5 ml/m.sup.2 can also be used. The amount (V) is obtained from (a) the absorption coefficient (Ka) and (b) the surface roughness index (Vr) of the recording surface, which are measured by the Bristow's Method (J.TAPPI No. 51-87) at a pressure of 0.1 MPa, with respect to the liquid paraffin (extra pure reagent).

Image receiving sheet for use in thermal image transfer recording system

A thermal image transfer recording medium is disclosed, which comprises a substrate and an ink layer formed thereon comprising as the main components (i) a coloring agent and (ii) a copolymer consisting of at least a monomer selected from Group A consisting of acrylonitrile and methacrylonitrile and at least a monomer selected from Group B consisting of monomers represented by the following formula (I); ##STR1## wherein R.sup.1 represents hydrogen or a methyl group; and R.sup.2 represents hydrogen, a straight-chain or branched alkyl group having 1 to 4 carbon atoms, a glycidyl group, or a hydroxyalkyl group having 2 to 4 carbon atoms.

A thermal image transfer recording medium is composed of a support and a thermofusible ink layer formed on the support, with the water-content ratio of the recording medium excluding the support being in the range of 0.3 to 4.0 wt. % of the total weight of the recording medium excluding the support.

A thermal image transfer recording medium is composed of a support and a thermofusible ink layer formed thereon, and the thermofusible ink layer contains as the main components a coloring agent, a wax component and a rubber elastomer component which is discontinuously dispersed in the form of layers in the thermofusible ink layer, or is composed of a first ink layer containing a wax component and a rubber elastomer and a second ink layer containing a coloring agent, a wax component and a binder resin, which is overlaid on the first ink layer.

A thermal image transfer recording medium is composed of a support and an ink layer formed thereon which includes (i) a lower thermal image transfer portion located in the vicinity of the support, containing a three-dimensional network structure of a resin with a voidage A and a thermofusible ink which is held within the network structure, and (ii) an upper thermal image transfer portion located on top of the lower thermal image transfer layer portion, containing a fine porous structure of a resin with a voidage B which is smaller than the voidage A of the network structure, and a thermofusible wax component which is held within the porous structure, and the network structure being at least partially connected to both the porous structure and the support.

A thermal image transfer recording method consisting of the steps of bringing a line thermal head into contact with a multiple-use thermal image transfer recording medium with Young's modulus of 1,200 kg/mm.sup.2 or more in both the lengthwise and crosswise directions, which comprises a support and an ink layer formed thereon, with the back side of the support of the recording medium being directed to the thermal head, and applying thermal energy from the line thermal head to at least the same portion of the recording medium, thereby causing an ink component contained in the ink layer at least from the same portion of the recording medium to transfer to an image-receiving medium.

Multiple-use thermal image transfer recording method

A thermal image transfer recording medium comprising a support, and an ink layer formed thereon, consisting essentially of (i) a lower non-porous layer portion located in the vicinity of the support, comprising a first thermofusible ink and a first resin, and (ii) an upper porous layer portion located on top of the lower layer portion, comprising a second thermofusible ink and a second resin having a minute porous structure in which the second thermofusible ink is supported. In this recording medium, the occupation ratio of the second resin in the upper porous layer portion is higher than that of the first resin in the lower layer portion, and the second resin and the support is connected with each other by the first resin.

A thermosensitive image transfer recording medium is disclosed, which comprises a support and a thermofusible ink layer formed thereon, comprising a thermofusible material, a coloring agent, and a filler, with the difference between the refractive index of the filler and the refractive index of the thermofusible material being 0.15 or less.

Thermosensitive image transfer recording medium

A thermal transfer recording medium possesses an ink layer. The ink layer comprises a first thermally fusible material layer stacked on one surface of a heat resistant supporting material, at least one second thermally fusible material layer stacked on the first thermally fusible material layer, and a third thermally fusible material layer stacked on the second thermally fusible material layer. An elongation rate of the second thermally fusible material layer at 20.degree. C. is higher than the respective elongation rates of the first and third thermally fusible material layers at 20.degree. C.

Thermal transfer recording medium

A thermosensitive image transfer recording medium is disclosed, which comprises (a) a support, (b) a peel-off layer formed on the support, which comprises as the main component a thermofusible material, and has a melt viscosity A, and (c) a transparent thermofusible ink layer comprising a plurality of different color thermofusible ink sections, formed side by side in the form of a repeating unit on the peel-off layer, each thermofusible ink section comprising as the main components a thermofusible resin and a coloring agent and having a melt viscosity B which is larger than the melt viscosity A of the peel-off layer, with the melt viscosity A of the peel-off layer being in the range of 10 cps to 10,000 cps at 110.degree. C., and the melt viscosity B of the thermofusible ink layer being in the range of 100 cps to 500,000 cps at 110.degree. C.

A thermosensitive image transfer recording material is disclosed, which comprises a ribbon-shaped substrate; a plurality of thermosensitive image transfer layer sections formed on the substrate, each thermosensitive image transfer layer section having a different color, which are sequentially disposed adjacent to each other in the longitudinal direction of the substrate; and a plurality of marker layer sections for optically detecting the color of any of the thermosensitive image transfer layer sections adjacent to the marker layer section, each of which marker layer sections is disposed in the regions between the thermosensitive image transfer layer sections in such a configuration that at least part of the surface of each marker section is covered by at least one of the two thermosensitive image transfer layer sections adjacent to the marker layer section, with the entire surface of the substrate being completely covered by the image transfer layer sections and the marker layer sections.

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Mishima, Japan

Youji Ide