Thermal transfer printing method and color ink film therefor

Abstract

Abstract The present invention provides a thermal printing method using a sublimable dye, which is capable of faithfully printing on any kind of substrates, including plain paper without the tack sheets which make the process complicated. The method of the present invention comprises forming an image into a printing layer by heating a color layer with a printing head and then transferring the printing layer onto an image receive sheet by pressure or heat; wherein the color layer and printing layer are respectively formed on one substrate in a certain interval of distance without putting one upon another, the surface of the color layer is placed on the surface of the printing layer and heat is applied to the color layer from the substrate side with a printing head to form an image into a printing layer. The present invention also provide a color ink film comprising a substrate and both a color layer and a printing layer respectively formed on the substrate in a certain interval of distance without putting one upon another, wherein the color layer or the printing layer is formed from polyvinyl butyral having a butyralization degree of not less than 50 mol %.

Inventors

• 👤 Akihiro Imai
• 👤 Yasuo Fukui
• 👤 Nobuyoshi Taguchi

Bibliographic Details