Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Yutaka Ariga

Hidehiro Mochizuki

Hiroyuki Uemura

Chiharu Nogawa

Hiroki Kuboyama

Masaru Shimada

Shinya Kawahara

Naoya Morohoshi

Makoto Sekiyama

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 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 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

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

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.

An image receiving medium for use in combination with a sublimation type thermal image transfer recording medium with a sublimation-type dye containing image transfer layer is composed of a substrate including a sheet made of a fibrous material and a polymeric material in the form of partcles or a porous resin, the polymeric material or the porous resin being located in the interstices within the fibrous material; and a dye receiving layer formed the substrate.

Image receiving medium for use with sublimation type thermal image

A sublimation-type thermal image transfer recording medium is composed of a support and a plurality of ink layers, such as yellow, magenta and cyan ink layers, and a black ink layer if necessary, formed on the support side by side, or on different separate supports, each ink layer containing an organic binder agent and a sublimable dye dispersed in the organic binder agent, with the gram-absorptivity coefficient of the sublimable dye being 150,000 or more.

A sublimation-type thermal image transfer recording medium is composed of a support, a dye-supply layer and a dye-transfer layer which are successively overlaid on the support, each layer containing a sublimable dye and an organic binder agent in which the above-mentioned sublimable dye is dispersed, and a top layer provided on the dye-transfer layer, containing a non-dyeable resin or a low-dyeable resin.

An image receiving medium for use in a sublimation-type image transfer recording system is composed of a support, an intermediate layer containing an isocyanate compound, and a dye-receiving layer containing an active-hydrogen-containing resin, an isocyanate compound and a polyether-modified silicone, which layers are overlaid in this order on the substrate.

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Fuji, Japan

Yutaka Ariga