JPH0577459A - Card manufacturing method - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] To solve the problems when pasting facial photographs on cards. According to a method for forming an image on an image display surface of cards including identification cards, at least 3 of cyan, yellow, and magenta are used according to a signal obtained by color-separating an original.
A method for producing a card, comprising forming a color image by transferring a sublimable dye from a color sublimation transfer sheet to the above image display surface with a thermal head.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing cards including identification cards, driver's licenses, commuter passes, cash cards, IC cards and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, ID cards and driver's licenses have been added,
Card-like recordings that are usually carried are accompanied by various images such as necessary certification items, date, face photograph, and signature. These various images are characters and numbers. In this case, type, normal printing, embossing, etc. are common, and in the case of a facial photograph, a small facial photograph is generally stuck.

[0003]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]
For cards, the display part of the card is
The image may become dirty or unclear due to the friction and impact of
To prevent this, an overcoat layer is generally formed on the display surface.
Or protect the displayed image by laminating a transparent film
is doing. However, for example, add a face photo to the display surface.
If you do, there is a face photograph of appropriate size taken separately
Since it has a thickness of about 10 mm, it can be pasted as it is
When you mine, only that part will be raised and it will be invisible.
It Therefore, in the past, only the gelatin part of the face photo was peeled off.
It is attached with a small thickness, but this is complicated
Is. Even in this way, there is some excitement in that part
Inevitable. Also, when the display surface image is printed,
Aside from simple characters such as type, in the case of complex multicolor images
In that case, the printing equipment cost for that is large, and the number of sheets is small
There is a problem that cards are not economically suitable. Further
For such multicolor images, select the printing ink to use.
If not selected, delamination between the protective layer and the protective layer
It is also a cause. In addition, JP-A-59-11537
The report uses a transfer sheet with a sublimable colorant.
The method of forming an image on the screen is described.
Transfer sheet used in the method is a suitable base sheet Three colors
Or prepare dye ink of more colors And these ins
By multi-color printing machine Therefore, what formed the image
Is. This method requires the creation of 3 or more gravure plates.
It is necessary to transfer and form the same image on several thousand to tens of thousands of sheets.
In some cases it is advantageous, but as in the face picture of the card, the card
It is completely impractical to form a separate image for each
The above method never achieves the object of the present invention. Also known
As a technique, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 52-114334 discloses a technique.
Use a sublimation transfer printing paper and a thermal recording head when issuing a term ticket.
It is disclosed that information is printed on a commuter pass by using it.
However, in this publication, even from the drawing
It is possible to form a multi-colored image on a ticket like a color face photograph.
There is no suggestive description, and the sticking of a facial photograph in the present invention
The problems to be solved by the conventional technology in
There is no suggestion at all. Of course, this public statement
The information suggested by the dedication is the information formed by sublimable dyes.
Is that it is a character or symbol. The inventor
As a result of earnest research to solve the drawbacks of the prior art,
Images of cards such as
When formed, various problems as described above are solved.
The present invention has been completed based on this finding.

[0004]

That is, the present invention relates to a method for forming an image on the image display surface of cards including identification cards and the like, in accordance with signals obtained by color-separating an original, cyan, yellow and magenta. Of the sublimation transfer sheet of at least three colors, the sublimation dye is transferred to the image display surface with a thermal head to form a color image.

[0005]

[Function] An image of a card or the like is formed from a sublimable dye by a sublimation transfer method, and since the formed image is dyed in the display layer, the display layer is raised, or after that. Even if the surface protective layer is formed, the surface thereof does not rise and delamination from the surface protective layer does not occur.

[0006]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The present invention will be described more specifically with reference to the following preferred embodiments. Cards referred to in the present invention include business cards, identification cards such as name plates, driver's licenses, passports, postcards, cash cards, telephone cards, (registered trademark) medical examination cards, laser cards,
It is generally about the size of a hand, such as a commuter pass, coupon, IC card, etc., and in most cases, it is carried and used, and the most effective one in the present invention is a face photograph. .. Next, the present invention will be described more specifically with reference to the accompanying drawings showing an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a front view of cards 10 according to the present invention, and FIG.
FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along arrow A, in which 1 indicates a card substrate, 2 indicates a display layer, 3 indicates a surface protective layer, and 4 indicates a display image. As shown in the accompanying drawings, the cards 10 of the present invention have a display image 4 on the display layer 2 that is sublimated by a thermal head from a sublimation transfer sheet of at least three colors of cyan, yellow, and magenta according to a signal obtained by color separation of an original. It is characterized in that it is a color image composed of the transferred sublimable dye, and the characteristic solves the problems of the above-mentioned various conventional techniques.

The material that can be used as the card substrate 1 in the present invention may be any of various types of paper, processed paper, plastic sheet, metal, glass, etc., as long as it is a material that can be directly dyed with a sublimable dye, such as a plastic sheet. The card base 1 can also serve as the display layer 2. These card substrates 1 generally have a thickness of 0.68 to 0.80.
The size is about 11 mm to 8 × 8 to 5 cm. The display layer 2 is made of a material that can be dyed with a sublimable dye, such as polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, ABS, AS, polyvinyl chloride, polyester,
A plastic material such as polyamide or polyurethane is suitable, and these layers can also serve as the card substrate 1 as described above. When also serving as the card base 1,
Although the thickness and size are as described above, a material that cannot be dyed with a sublimable dye, such as paper, processed paper, and metal, is used as the card substrate 1.
In such a case, it can be formed by applying a solution made of a plastic material which can be dyed with a sublimable dye as described above to the card base 1, or laminating these films on the card base 1. A thickness of about 3 to 50 μm is suitable.

The card 10 of the present invention is characterized in that all or part of the display image 4 displayed on the display layer 2 as described above is
It is characterized in that it is formed of a sublimable dye as described above, and the image 4 as described above may be formed by a conventionally known method. For example, a sublimation transfer sheet used in a conventionally known sublimation transfer method, that is, a paper, a plastic film, a sheet, or the like, on which the surface of a support is coated with a dye capable of being sublimated by heating, is displayed. It can be easily formed by superposing it on the layer 2 and performing pattern-like heating from the back surface of the sublimation transfer sheet to transfer the dye into the display layer 2. Although such a sublimation transfer method itself has been publicly known, the present invention is characterized in that such a method is used for forming the display image 4 of the card 10 and therefore the conventionally known drawbacks are solved. Is.
That is, according to the present invention, since the display image 4 formed as described above is dyed in the display layer 2, the display layer 2 is raised, or the surface protective layer 3 is subsequently formed. Even if formed, the surface thereof does not rise, and delamination from the surface protective layer 3 does not occur. As the sublimation dye for forming the display image 4 as described above, any sublimation dye used in the prior art can be used as it is in the present invention.

However, according to the detailed study by the present inventor, conventionally known sublimable dyes generally have a molecular weight of about 150 to 300 in order to make the sublimation transfer rate sufficient. However, when a dye having such a molecular weight is used, the dye has a drawback that the dye moves in the display layer 2 or bleeds to the surface after transfer because the molecular weight is small. In the present invention, such a drawback is
The solution was to use a relatively high molecular weight sublimable dye, on the order of 800. Such a sublimable dye having a relatively high molecular weight has a low transfer rate and is not practical in a normal use method. However, in the present invention, the card substrate 1 having the display layer 2 is used to form the display image 4. , For example, 40
˜100 ° C., preferably about 50 to 80 ° C., superposed on a sublimation transfer sheet, and when sublimation transfer is carried out in the same manner as in the prior art, such a relatively high molecular weight dye may be used. Sublimation transfer is performed at a sufficient speed, and as a result, the dye that has migrated into the display layer 2 has a high molecular weight.
The inventors have found that they exhibit sufficient robustness without moving inside and bleeding on the surface.

As described above, when a dye having a relatively high molecular weight is used and the temperature of the display layer 2 which is the material to be transferred is raised to a certain temperature, the sublimation transfer sheet and the display layer 2 adhere to each other in some cases. However, in the present invention, in forming the display layer 2 as described above, a compound having a good release property, for example, a release agent such as a silicone compound is included in the display layer 2 or the display layer 2 is used. By forming a layer of a release agent having a thickness of about 0.01 to 5 μm on the surface of the layer 2, the above problem of adhesion can be avoided, and the temperature of the display layer 2 during sublimation transfer is further increased. For example, the temperature can be set to 100 ° C. or higher, and a more excellent sublimation transfer rate can be achieved. The most preferred embodiment of the present invention is cards
The display image 4 of 10 is a facial photograph, and such a facial photograph is color-separated from the facial photograph of the original by preparing cyan, yellow, magenta, and, if necessary, black sublimation transfer sheets. By performing sublimation transfer in accordance with the electric signal, a full-color facial photograph can be formed on the sublimation transfer display layer 2, so that the problem of pasting facial photographs in the prior art as described above has been solved.

The sublimation transfer as described above may be carried out directly on the card substrate 1 having the display layer 2, or separately.
It is also possible to prepare the plastic sheet of 1), form the image 4 on this sheet, and then adhere or laminate it to the card substrate 1. Although the cards 10 of the present invention are obtained as described above, a transparent plastic layer may be formed as the protective layer 3 on the display layer 2 as shown in the present invention. The protective layer 3 may be formed from a plastic solution by any method such as a coating method and a transfer method, or may be laminated with a plastic film so as to wrap the entire card. .. When such a protective layer 3 is a plastic material dyeable with a sublimable dye, it is advantageous to use the preferred embodiment of the invention described above, i.e. a dye of relatively high molecular weight. That is, when a dye having a relatively low molecular weight as in the prior art is used, these dyes may migrate to the protective layer 3 for a long time, but in the preferred embodiment of the present invention, Such fears have been fully resolved.

[0012]

EXAMPLES Next, the present invention will be described more specifically with reference to examples. Example 1 An ink composition for forming a display layer having the following composition was prepared, and a dry coating amount of 4.0 g was applied to a polyethylene terephthalate film (Lumirror # 100 manufactured by Toray) having a thickness of 100 μm.
/ M ² and then dried to obtain a film for the display layer used in the present invention. Polyester resin: Vylon200 (Toyobo) 1 part by weight Amino-modified silicone: KF-393 (Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.) 0.03 parts by weight Epoxy-modified silicone: X-22-343 (Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.) 0.03 parts by weight Methyl ethyl ketone / Toluene / cyclohexanone (4: 4: 2) 9.0 parts by weight The above polyester film is heated to 70 to 90 ° C.,
On top of that, cyan sublimation dye (molecular weight of 400 or more)
Layered with a sublimation transfer sheet carrying
Thermal energy was applied by a thermal bed connected to the electric signal of the cyan component obtained by color-separating the face photograph to obtain a cyan image. Then magenta sublimable dye (molecular weight 400
Sublimation transfer sheet using the above) and a sublimation transfer sheet using a yellow sublimation dye (having a molecular weight of 400 or more) are similarly subjected to sublimation transfer to form a display image consisting of a full-color facial photograph and other character graphics. did.

A sheet having this display image has a thickness of about 50.
A card base of a μm white opaque hard vinyl chloride resin sheet was overlaid, and a protective layer of a polyester film with a thickness of about 100 μm was overlaid thereon and heat-compressed to obtain an integrated card of the present invention. The surface of this card was smooth on the whole, and there was no swelling in the image area. Further, the image of this card did not show any image disturbance or delamination even in the accelerated test of keeping it in an atmosphere of 40 ° C. for 3 months.

Example 2 Instead of the 100 μm polyethylene terephthalate film in Example 1, a soft vinyl chloride resin film having the same thickness was used as a display layer, and a transparent soft vinyl chloride resin having a thickness of 100 μm was used as a protective layer. A card of the present invention was obtained in the same manner as in Example 1 except that the film was used. This card also showed the same excellent quality as in Example 1.

[0015]

[Effect] According to the present invention as described above, the present invention can be applied to an identification card, a driver's license, a passport, a cash card, a telephone card, a medical examination card, a laser card, a commuter pass,
Coupon, I.D. C. By applying to various cards 10 such as cards, various drawbacks of the prior art, for example, defects in sticking a facial photograph, have been solved.

[0016]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a card of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross section of a card of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: Card base 2: Display layer 3: Protective layer 4: Image 10 : Card

Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification code Office reference number FI Technical display location B42D 15/10 501 K 9111-2C G06K 19/077 // B42D 203: 00 9111-2C 8305-2H B41M 5 / 26 101 B 8623-5L G06K 19/00 K

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A method for forming an image on an image display surface of cards including identification cards, etc., wherein a thermal head is formed from a sublimation transfer sheet of at least three colors of cyan, yellow and magenta according to a signal obtained by color-separating an original. And a sublimable dye is transferred onto the image display surface to form a color image. 2. The method for manufacturing cards according to claim 1, wherein the displayed image is a facial photograph. 3. The method for producing cards according to claim 1, wherein the sublimable dye has a molecular weight of 400 to 800. 4. The method for producing cards according to claim 1, wherein the display layer contains a release agent.