Heat sensitive inked element for high speed thermal printers

Claim 1

A heat-sensitive inked element for high-speed dot printing machine comprising a plastics material base carrier having a thickness of from about 5 to about 15 microns covered on one side with a dried adherent layer having a thickness of from about 2 to about 6 microns, said layer formed of a mixture which is transferable to a printing carrier when subjected to heat and pressure, the mixture comprising a pigment and/or colouring agent and a binder consisting of a blend of 53 to 60 percent by weight thermoplastic resins selected from the group consisting of alicyclic, colophane and rosin based non-polymeric resins and correspondingly 47 to 40 percent by weight of a wax selected from the group consisting of natural waxes, synthetic waxes and mixtures thereof with a melting point of between 60° and 80° C., wherein the resins and wax are selected so as to be compatible with each other and to provide a melting point for said mixture of between 60° C. and 80° C. and a melt viscosity for said mixture of between 50 and 1,000 cps, said layer being capable of adhering to any printing paper having a roughness between 10 and 100 mil/min by applying a thermal energy not higher than about 10 joule/cm 2 and of giving a good quality of printed dots with a definition of up to 10 dot/mm and a printing feed movement of up to 20 cm/sec.