JPH0646461B2 - Optical card manufacturing method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (A) Object of the Invention [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an optical card.

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, cards that store various types of information, such as ID cards, cash cards, and bank cards, have become widespread.

[Prior Art] It is necessary to record various information such as personal data and data of the issuing company on this kind of card, and at the initial stage, such information is recorded with visible characters or symbols. In addition, at the stage described later, it is recorded by an electric signal using magnetism, but it is necessary to prevent alteration and cope with an increase in the amount of information.

Therefore, recently, an optical card applying a laser technique has been developed. This optical card is equipped with an information recording medium having an optical information pattern having an optical reflection surface, and the optical reflection surface functions as a data pit or a guide track.
The data pits are detected by the laser based on the difference in optical reflection of the optical information pattern, and the information is read.

What has been conventionally adopted as a process for producing such an optical recording medium or an optical card having such an optical recording medium is that the entire surface of a base sheet made of a sheet having the same size as the card substrate is vapor-deposited. A metal reflective film is formed, and then, by an etching method or a resist lift-off method,
An optical information pattern is engraved on a metal reflective film in a portion to be used as a recording medium, and a remaining portion not used as an optical recording medium is removed, and a base sheet having the optical recording medium thus formed is attached to a card substrate. Together, the optical card is completed.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, although the optical recording medium is usually provided on a part of the optical card, in order to manufacture the optical recording medium, the same size as the card base material is used. The number of steps is to prepare a single-sheet base sheet, form a metal reflection film on the entire surface of the base sheet, and remove a part of the metal reflection film where an optical information pattern is to be formed and unnecessary unnecessary parts. In addition to increasing the required time, there is much waste in terms of materials.
Furthermore, it is considerably difficult to obtain the remaining optical recording medium with few pinholes, which causes the cost increase of the optical card. Moreover, it is difficult to improve the production efficiency if the optical recording medium is handled as a single sheet like the completed optical card.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, the optical card can be mass-produced, an optical recording medium can be obtained in a state without pinholes, and the material is not wasteful. Moreover, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method for manufacturing an optical card, which requires less steps and time required for manufacturing the optical card.

(B) Structure of the Invention [Means for Solving the Problems] In response to this object, the method for manufacturing an optical card of the present invention is
Manufacture of an optical card in which an optical recording medium comprising a light reflecting film and a light non-reflecting optical information pattern layer covering the surface of the light reflecting film is located between a card base material and a light transmitting protective layer. In the method, the optical information pattern layer is formed on the protective layer, the light reflection film is formed on a base film, and the optical information pattern layer and the light reflection film are overlapped with each other. It is characterized in that the base film is attached, and the protective layer and the card substrate are attached together with the light reflection film and the base film sandwiched therebetween.

Hereinafter, details of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings illustrating an embodiment.

First, an optical card, which is an object to be manufactured, will be described.

In FIGS. 1 and 2, 1 is an optical card. The optical card 1 comprises an optical recording medium 4 sandwiched between a card base material 2 and a protective layer 3 which are bonded together.

The card base material 2 guarantees the strength of the optical card 1. Such a card base material 2 may be paper, a synthetic resin plate such as PVC, or a thin metal plate. A visible pattern layer 5 for displaying visible information such as characters and figures and a magnetic recording layer 9 are displayed on the card substrate 2 by printing or the like.

The protective layer 3 is made of a material having a high light transmittance such as a polycarbonate resin, an acrylic resin, or glass.
The optical recording medium 4 includes a base film 6, a light reflecting film 7 formed thereon, and an optical information pattern layer 8 further thereon. The base film 6 functions as a support for supporting the light reflection film 7 and the optical information pattern layer 8, and is made of a material such as polyester having excellent smoothness. The light reflection film 7 is vapor-deposited on the base film 6. The light reflection film 7 is composed of a thin film made of a material having high light reflectivity, and examples of such a material include Al and C.
u, Ag, Ni, Cr, Zn, Sn, Ti or the like can be used. The light reflecting film 7 is formed by depositing the above-mentioned materials on the base film 6.

A sub-layer may be interposed between the base film 6 and the light reflection film 7 in order to improve the smoothness of the base film 6 and the adhesion of the light reflection film 7. An optical information pattern layer 8 is formed on the light reflecting film 7. The optical information pattern layer 8 is a light non-reflective layer having fine holes expressing data pits and guide tracks. Therefore, the light reflecting film 7 below is exposed at the portions of the fine holes to expose the data pits and guide tracks. And the light reflection film 7 in other parts.
Is hidden by the light non-reflective optical information pattern layer 8.

This optical information pattern layer is printed, coated with a photographic emulsion and then exposed and developed, or a colored and non-light-reflecting layer is formed and then etched or re-registered off. Are formed by subsequently coloring the layer patterned by etching or resist lift-off.

The protective layer 3, the base film 6 and the light-reflecting film 7 are adhered to a required portion of the protective layer 3 by a transparent adhesive layer 10, and the card substrate 2 and the protective layer 3 are further adhered by an adhesive layer 11. The optical recording medium 4 is sandwiched between them by being bonded.

A surface hardened layer 12 having a high hardness may be provided on the reading side of the protective layer 3 integrally with or separately from the protective layer 3 in order to improve scratch resistance.

Next, a method of manufacturing the above optical card will be described with reference to FIG.

First, the roll 2a of the card substrate 2 and the roll 3 of the protective layer 3
A and a plurality of base film rolls 6a are prepared (FIGS. 3A, 3B and 3C). The card base material 2 is fed out from the roll 2a of the card base material 2 and a predetermined card pattern is printed by the printing machine 21 on multiple sides (FIG. 3 (d)). Further, an adhesive 11 is applied to the inner surface by a coater 22.
Is coated (FIG. 3 (e)).

On the other hand, as for the roll 6a of the base film, the thin base film 6 is unrolled from the roll 6a and the light reflection film 7 is formed on one surface by the vacuum vapor deposition device 23 (FIG. 3 (f)).

Next, it is divided into tapes by the slitter 30 (third part).
(Figure (g)). Further, for the roll 3a of the protective layer, the film of the protective layer 3 is fed out from the roll 3a and the coater 24
The outer surface is subjected to a surface hardening treatment by (Fig. 3 (i)),
The optical information pattern layer 8 is printed on the inner surface by the printing machine 25 with multiple surfaces (FIG. 3 (j)), and the inner surface is coated with the adhesive 10 by the coater 26 (third portion).
(Figure (k)).

In the card base material 2, the protective layer 3, the base film 6 and the light reflecting film 7 thus formed, the protective layer 3 and the base film 7 are bonded together so that the optical information pattern layer 8 and the light reflecting film 7 overlap each other. And the light reflection film 7 and the base film 6 are sandwiched between the protective layer 3 and
And the film of the card substrate 2 are attached (FIG. 3 (l)).

In this way, the optical card 1 is completed by pulling out the aggregate of the optical cards 1 bonded together in this manner for each optical card unit (FIG. 3 (n)).

[Operation] In the optical card 1 thus configured, the side of the protective layer 3 serves as the reading side, and the reading optical recording medium 4 is read from this reading side.
It is possible to read out the information by reading the presence or absence of the data pits by the incidence of the light on the basis of its reflectivity.

(C) Effect of the Invention In the optical card of the present invention, an optical recording medium having an expensive reflection film and its information pattern is not formed by vapor deposition or etching for each optical card, but an optical card is prepared with multiple faces. As a result of separating this, a large number of light-reflecting films are produced on a large-area base film in a multi-faceted manner, and each optical recording medium is cut out and used, so that waste of materials can be saved, It is possible to reduce the number of manufacturing steps and the time required.

Further, in the optical card of the present invention, the formation of the light reflecting film on the optical recording medium can be performed by using the roll-type roll body. When making a light-reflecting film with a sheet type,
Compared with the winding type, Al vapor deposition costs 10 times or more, so that the present invention exerts a remarkable effect in terms of cost.

[Brief description of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a front view of the optical card, and Fig. 2 is II in Fig. 1.
-II sectional view and FIG. 3 are explanatory views showing an example of the manufacturing process of the optical card. 1 ... Optical card, 2 ... Card base material, 2a ... Roll,
3 ... Protective layer, 3a ... Roll, 4 ... Optical recording medium, 5
...... Visible pattern layer, 6 ... Base film, 6a ...
Roll, 7 ... Light reflection film, 8 ... Optical information pattern layer, 9
... magnetic recording layer, 10 ... adhesive layer, 11 ... adhesive layer, 12 ... surface hardening layer, 21 ... printing machine, 22 ... coater, 23 ... vacuum deposition device, 24 ... coater, Two
5 ... Printing machine, 26 ... Coater, 30 ... Slitter

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An optical recording medium comprising a light-reflecting film and a non-light-reflecting optical information pattern layer covering the surface of the light-reflecting film is located between a card substrate and a light-transmitting protective layer. A method of manufacturing an optical card, wherein the optical information pattern layer is formed on the protective layer, the light reflection film is formed on a base film, and the optical information pattern layer and the light reflection film are overlapped with each other. And bonding the protective layer and the base film to each other, and further bonding the protective layer and the card base material while sandwiching the light reflection film and the base film. Optical card manufacturing method