JPH07266723A - Card manufacturing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent an image from becoming dirty and unclear and prevent ply separation by heating a sublimation transfer sheet to form an image on a plastic sheet and bonding or laminating the plastic sheet having the image formed thereon to a card substrate. CONSTITUTION:A card 10 including an identification card is produced by superposing a sublimation transfer sheet on a plastic sheet becoming a display layer 2 and heating the same according to an electric signal to form an image 4 on the plastic sheet and bonding or laminating the plastic sheet to a card substrate 1. Since the formed display image 4 is dyed in the display layer 2, the building-up of the display layer 2 is prevented and, even when a surface protective layer 3 is formed thereafter, the surface thereof is not built up and the ply separation with the surface protective layer 3 is not happened. As a sublimable dye forming the surface image 4, a sublimable dye used by the prior art can be used as it is.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

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

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an ID card and a driver's license are added,
Various images such as required certification items, date, face photograph, and signature are attached to the card-like recorded matter that is usually carried, and these various images are characters and numbers. In this case, type, ordinary printing, embossing, etc. are generally used, and in the case of a facial photograph, a small facial photograph is generally stuck.

[0003]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION Problems to be Solved by the Invention In various types of cards as described above, the display portion of the card is generally displayed in order to prevent the image from becoming dirty or unclear due to friction or impact during handling. The display image is protected by forming an overcoat layer on the surface or laminating a transparent film. However, for example, when attaching a face photograph to the display surface, the face photograph of an appropriate size taken separately has a certain thickness, so if the face photograph is attached and surface laminated, Only the swells will be invisible. Therefore, in the past, only the gelatin part of the face photograph was peeled off to reduce the thickness, and this was awkwardly complicated. Even in this way, some excitement in that part cannot be avoided.

In addition, when the display surface image is printed, simple characters such as type are aside, but in the case of a complex multicolor image, the printing equipment cost for that is large, and it is suitable for cards with a small number of sheets. Has the problem of not being economically compatible. Further, in the case of such a multicolor image, if the printing ink to be used is not selected, it may cause delamination between the printing ink and the protective layer provided thereon. The present inventor, as a result of earnest research to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, when the image of the above cards is formed from a sublimable dye by a sublimation transfer method, various problems as described above occur. The present invention has been completed by finding that it can be solved.

[0005]

That is, according to the present invention, a sublimation transfer sheet is superposed on a plastic sheet serving as a display layer, and the sublimation transfer sheet is heated according to an electric signal to form an image on the plastic sheet. A method for producing cards including an identification card, which comprises adhering or laminating an image-formed plastic sheet on a card base.

[0006]

The present invention is applied to the identification card, driver's license, passport, cash card, telephone card, medical examination card,
Laser card, commuter pass, coupon, I.D. C. By applying to various kinds of cards such as cards, various drawbacks of the prior art, for example, defects in sticking a facial photograph can be solved.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, the present invention will be described more specifically. 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, Medical examination card,
A laser card, a commuter pass, a coupon ticket, an IC card, etc. are generally about the size of a hand, and in most cases, they are carried and used. It is a thing. 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 a card or the like 10 according to the present invention, and FIG. In the figure, 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 are characterized in that the display image 4 of the display layer 2 is composed of a sublimable dye formed by a thermal head using a sublimation transfer sheet. The features solve the problems of the various prior art described above. The material that can be used as the card base 1 in the present invention may be any of various types of paper, processed paper, synthetic paper, etc. These card bases 1 generally have a thickness of about 0.68 to 0.80 mm, The size is about 11 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, A
Plastic materials such as BS, AS, polyvinyl chloride, polyester, polyamide, polyurethane and the like are suitable.

When the card substrate 1 cannot be dyed with the sublimation dye as it is, a solution of a plastic material which can be dyed with the sublimation dye as described above is applied to the card substrate 1 or a film thereof. Can be formed by stacking on the card base 1, and a thickness of about 3 to 50 μm is preferable. 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 formed of a sublimable dye. The formation may be performed by a conventionally known method.

For example, a sublimation transfer sheet used in a conventionally known sublimation transfer method, that is, a surface of a support such as a paper, a plastic film, or a sheet is loaded with a dye capable of being sublimated by heating, by an arbitrary binder resin. It can be easily formed by superimposing an object on the display layer 2, heating the sublimation transfer sheet in a pattern from the back surface, and transferring 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 protection layer 3 is then formed.
Even if formed, the surface does not rise, and
It does not cause delamination from the surface protective layer 3. As the sublimable dye for forming the display image 4 as described above, any of the sublimable dyes used in the prior art can be used as they are 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.
When a dye having such a molecular weight is used, the dye has a small molecular weight, and therefore, there is a defect that the dye moves in the display layer 2 or bleeds to the surface after transfer.

According to the present invention, such a drawback is 400 to 80
The solution was to use a relatively high molecular weight sublimable dye of the order of zero. Such a sublimable dye having a relatively high molecular weight has a low transfer rate and a low practicability in a usual 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,
When the temperature is raised to about 100 ° C., preferably about 50 to 80 ° C., the sublimation transfer sheet is overlaid, and when sublimation transfer is performed in the same manner as in the prior art, it is sufficient to use such a relatively high molecular weight dye. Sublimation transfer is performed at various speeds, and as a result, the display layer 2
The dye transferred to the inside does not move in the display layer 2 or bleed to the surface due to its high molecular weight,
They have found that they exhibit sufficient robustness.

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 may adhere to each other in some cases. However, in the present invention, in forming such a display layer 2, a compound having a good mold release property, for example, a mold release agent such as a silicone compound is included in the display layer 2 or the display layer 2 is displayed. 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-mentioned 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 a card
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 an electric signal, a full-color face photograph can be formed on the sublimation transfer display layer 2, so that the above-described problem of sticking a face photograph in the related art is 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 card 10 of the present invention is obtained as described above, as shown in the present invention, a transparent plastic layer may be further formed as the protective layer 3 on the display layer 2. The protective layer 3 may be formed from a plastic solution by any method such as a coating method and a transfer method. Alternatively, for example, a plastic film may be laminated so as to wrap the entire card. . When such a protective layer 3 is a plastic material which can be dyed with a sublimable dye, it is advantageous when the above-mentioned preferred embodiment of the present invention, that is, a dye having a relatively high molecular weight is used. That is, when a dye having a relatively low molecular weight as in the prior art is used, there is a fear that 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.

[0015]

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 / m ² was applied to a synthetic paper having a thickness of 100 μm.
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 synthetic paper is heated to 70 to 90 ° C., and a sublimation transfer sheet in which a cyan sublimation dye (having a molecular weight of 400 or more) is carried by a binder resin is placed on the synthetic paper, and the face photograph is color-separated. Thermal energy was applied by a thermal bed connected to the electric signal of the cyan component obtained as described above to obtain a cyan image. Sublimation transfer sheet using magenta sublimation dye (molecular weight of 400 or more) and yellow sublimation dye (molecular weight of 400 or more) is used to perform sublimation transfer in the same manner to obtain a full-color facial photograph. A display image composed of other character graphics was formed. A sheet having this display image is superposed on a card substrate made of a white opaque hard vinyl chloride resin sheet having a thickness of about 50 μm, and a protective layer made of a polyester film having a thickness of about 100 μm is further superposed on the image surface and heat-compressed. The card of the present invention shown in FIG. 2 was obtained as one piece. 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 substrate in Example 1, coated paper was used as a substrate, and a transparent soft vinyl chloride resin film having a thickness of 100 μm was used as a protective layer. To obtain the card of the present invention. This card also showed the same excellent quality as in Example 1.

[0017]

[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 it to various cards 10 such as cards, various drawbacks of the prior art, for example, defects in sticking a facial photograph, have been solved.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

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

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A sublimation transfer sheet is superposed on a plastic sheet as a display layer, the sublimation transfer sheet is heated in accordance with an electric signal to form an image on the plastic sheet, and then the imaged plastic sheet is attached to a card substrate. A method of manufacturing cards, including identification cards, characterized by wearing or laminating. 2. The method for producing cards according to claim 1, wherein the 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.