JPH0211896B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an image forming material, particularly an image forming material capable of forming ultra-high contrast metal images, and an image forming method using the same.

Currently, image forming materials consisting of a light-shielding metal layer and a photosensitive resin layer sequentially provided on a support are capable of producing ultra-high contrast images, do not cause fringes at the image periphery, and are silver-saving. Since then, it has been attracting attention as an alternative to conventional silver salt lithium-based photosensitive materials. This image-forming material has a light-shielding metal layer formed on a support such as a glass plate or a plastic film by a method such as vapor deposition, and a layer made of a negative photosensitive resin formed thereon. For example, when an image forming body having such a structure is subjected to positive image exposure, only the exposed portion of the layer made of photosensitive resin is cured, and the photosensitive resin in the unexposed portion is dissolved by development processing, and the light-shielding metal layer is cured. It will be exposed. When the developing solution is further applied, the exposed portion of the light-shielding metal layer dissolves into the developing solution and becomes transparent, forming a negative image (metallic image) that is the opposite of the printed positive image. Become.

The present invention has the same configuration as the image forming material as described above, but is significantly improved in that it can form a positive metal image in response to positive image exposure, and furthermore, it can form a negative metal image in response to negative image exposure. The object of the present invention is to provide a metal image forming material and a metal image forming method using the same. That is, the present invention provides an image forming material in which a light-shielding metal layer and a photosensitive resin layer are sequentially provided on a support, in which the photosensitive resin layer is composed of a prepolymer that is soluble in a developer, and a prepolymer that is soluble in a developer. An image forming material characterized in that it is a layer containing a soluble crosslinking agent and various other auxiliary agents, and an exposed area of the photosensitive resin layer by imagewise exposure from the photosensitive resin layer side of this image forming material. After curing, the unexposed areas of the photosensitive resin layer are dissolved and removed using a developer, except for the resist layer made of a crosslinking agent that is adhered and formed on the light-shielding metal layer, and the photosensitive resin layer is exposed to light. This image forming method is characterized in that the cured portion is peeled off from the surface of the light-shielding metal layer, and further, the portion of the light-shielding metal layer that is not covered with the resist layer is dissolved and removed.

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

1 and 3 to 5 are explanatory diagrams of the present invention, and in the figures, reference numeral 10 denotes an image according to the present invention in which a light-shielding metal layer 2 and a photosensitive resin layer 3 are sequentially provided on a support 1. It is a formation.

The support 1 can be selected from transparent or opaque materials such as glass, plastic, metal, and composite materials thereof, and can be in the form of a film or a plate. Furthermore, the support 1 must be inert to the developer used to form an image on the imaging material 10.

A light-shielding metal layer 2 is formed on the support 1 . This light-shielding metal layer 2 is a layer formed of a metal that can be dissolved by a developer, and includes aluminum,
Metals such as tin, copper, nickel, and aluminum with a thickness of 100 to 500Å
It is sufficient to provide the film with a certain thickness without pinholes by a vacuum evaporation method, an electrophoresis method, a sputtering method, or the like. This thickness varies depending on the metal used, but it is desirable to have a thickness that provides a transmission density of 3.0 or more.

A photosensitive resin layer 3 is formed on the light-shielding metal layer 2 using a negative type photosensitive resin.

Examples of negative photosensitive resins include those obtained by combining a prepolymer with a crosslinking agent and various other auxiliary agents. Image forming material 10' having a photosensitive resin layer 3' made of a conventional negative photosensitive resin of this type
As shown in FIG. 2a, when image exposure is applied through the film original 8, the prepolymers in the exposed area 4 of the photosensitive resin layer 3' are crosslinked with each other by the crosslinking agent, creating a three-dimensional structure, and the developing solution The unexposed areas do not undergo crosslinking, and the prepolymer, crosslinking agent, etc. become soluble in the developer. Therefore, when the developer is further applied, the light-shielding metal layer 2 is also dissolved, and an image 5 is formed as shown in FIG. 2b.
This image 5 becomes a positive image if negative image exposure is performed during exposure, and becomes a negative image if positive image exposure is performed.

In the present invention, the prepolymer in the photosensitive resin forming the photosensitive resin layer 3 is selected to be soluble in the developer, and the crosslinking agent is selected to be slightly soluble in the developer.

Specifically, the prepolymers include styrene vinyl benzoic acid copolymer, vinyl toluene itaconic acid copolymer, vinyl toluene itaconic acid prepolymer, vinyl toluene maleic anhydride copolymer,
Examples of crosslinking agents such as styrene maleic acid monobutyl ester copolymer include trimethylolpropane triacrylate, dipentaerythritol hexaacrylate, and pentaerythritol diacrylate.

When a cross-linking agent with poor solubility in the developer is used in this way, only the resist layer 6 made of the cross-linking agent adhered and formed on the light-shielding metal layer 2 in the unexposed area is exposed, as shown in FIG. Other crosslinking agents and prepolymers, as well as initiators, sensitizers, development accelerators,
Various auxiliary agents such as adhesion improvers are dissolved in the developer, and when development is further progressed, as shown in Figure 4, the cured photosensitive resin layer is crosslinked and is therefore dissolved in the developer. Instead, it floats in the developer solution as a film. When the film in the exposed area is peeled off, the light-shielding metal layer in that area is exposed, and the metal part is eluted into the developer. Since the resist layer 6 made of a crosslinking agent remains in the non-exposed area, it acts as a resist to the developer, and the light-shielding metal layer 2 underneath does not dissolve into the developer, as shown in FIG. A metal image 7 is now formed. If the photosensitive resin constituting the photosensitive resin layer 3 has high oxygen dependence, an overcoat layer may be added as necessary.
It may also be formed from a PVA aqueous solution, polyvinylpyrrolidone, or the like.

According to the image forming material and image forming method according to the present invention, a positive-positive type image forming material and image forming method can be provided regardless of the use of a negative photosensitive resin, and furthermore, the obtained image can be obtained using a light-shielding metal. Since it is a layered image, it is possible to sufficiently secure the necessary transmission density, and furthermore, it is possible to make the image quality extremely high contrast.

Examples of the present invention will be described below.

<Example> 5 g of vinyltoluene maleic anhydride prepolymer and 5 g of trimethylolpropane triacrylate (crosslinking agent) were placed on a silver Lumirror manufactured by Toray Industries, Inc. (support thickness 75 μm, aluminum vapor deposition layer thickness 500 Å).
g and benzyl methyl ketal (polymerization initiator) 0.25
A photosensitive resin layer was formed by dissolving 90 g of methyl cellosolve in 90 g of methyl cellosolve and coating the resulting photosensitive resin with a spin coater (100 rpm). Furthermore, after forming an overcoat layer by applying a PVA aqueous solution on top of it, it was heated to 60℃.
The image forming material of the present invention was obtained by drying for 30 minutes. The thicknesses of the photosensitive resin layer and overcoat layer were 0.7μ and 0.5μ, respectively. Next, the positive film original was brought into close contact with the overcoat layer surface of the image forming material, exposed for 30 seconds to a 2Kw mercury lamp, and then heated to 30°C.
It was immersed in a developer solution of 1% NaOH and shaken. In the non-exposed areas of the photosensitive resin layer, the resist layer made of the crosslinking agent (trimethylolpropane triacrylate) attached to the surface of the light-shielding metal layer (aluminum evaporated layer) is left in place one minute after development starts, and the other areas are removed. Dissolved in developer. As the development progresses further, the cured part of the photosensitive resin layer (the exposed part) peels off from the light-shielding metal layer, and after 2 minutes, the aluminum vapor deposited layer (light-shielding metal layer) that was peeled off and exposed begins to dissolve. After 3 minutes, a metal positive image could be obtained on the transparent support.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the image forming material of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of an image forming method using a conventional image forming material, and FIGS. 3 to 5 are explanatory diagrams of an image forming method of the present invention. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Support, 2... Light-shielding metal layer, 3... Photosensitive resin layer, 6... Resist layer, 7... Metal image layer, 10... Image forming material.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 An image forming material in which a light-shielding metal layer and a photosensitive resin layer are sequentially provided on a support, and the photosensitive resin layer is composed of a prepolymer that is soluble in an alkaline developer and a prepolymer that is sparingly soluble in the developer. Images are exposed from the photosensitive resin layer side of the image forming material, which is a layer containing a crosslinking agent selected from trimethylolpropane triacrylate, dipentaerythritol hexaacrylate, and pentaerythritol diacrylate and various auxiliary agents. After curing the exposed areas of the photosensitive resin layer, an alkaline developer is used to cure the unexposed areas of the photosensitive resin layer, except for the resist layer made of the crosslinking agent that is adhered and formed on the light-shielding metal layer. An image forming method comprising dissolving the photosensitive resin layer, peeling the exposed and hardened portion of the photosensitive resin layer from the surface of the light-shielding metal layer, and further dissolving and removing the portion of the light-shielding metal layer that is not covered with the resist layer.