The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 26, 2002
Filed:
Sep. 06, 2000
William H. Simpson, Penfield, NY (US);
Jacob J. Hastreiter, Jr., Spencerport, NY (US);
Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, NY (US);
Abstract
A dye-donor element for thermal dye transfer comprising a support having thereon at least one dye layer area comprising an image dye in a binder and another area comprising a transferable protection layer, the transferable protection layer area being approximately equal in size to the dye layer area, wherein the transferable protection layer contains inorganic particles, a polymeric binder and unexpanded synthetic thermoplastic polymeric microspheres, the microspheres having a particle size in the unexpanded condition of from about 5 to about 20 &mgr;m, and which expand to about 20 to about 120 &mgr;m upon application of heat during transfer of the protection layer to an image-receiving layer to provide a matte surface thereon, the microspheres comprising a mixture of low softening point microspheres and high softening point microspheres, the low softening point microspheres having a softening point less than about 105° C., the high softening point microspheres having softening point greater than about 110° C., and the ratio of the low softening point microspheres to the high softening point microspheres being from about 9:1 to about 1:6.