JPH0930165A - Optical card - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Object] To provide an optical card in which an optical recording member is embedded in a concave portion of a card substrate and which has excellent bending strength. [Structure] An optical recording member 5 in which an optical recording layer 4 is laminated on the transparent protective layer 3 so as to cover the track pattern 2 formed on the lower surface of the transparent protective layer 3, and a concave portion 7 formed in a card substrate 6 is formed.
In the optical card embedded in the adhesive layer 8 via the adhesive layer 8,
The tensile strengths of the transparent protective layer 3 and the card substrate 6 are made the same or at least approximated to each other, or the difference between the tensile strengths of both is 10 or less.
Within 0 kgf / cm ² , or within 50% of the difference in elongation at break between the two. When the card is bent, the bending stresses generated in the two become substantially equal, so the optical recording member 5
The stress acting on the corner portion of the concave portion 7 of the card base material 6 for embedding is reduced, and the strength against bending of the card is improved.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical card used for credit cards, cash cards, medical cards and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a card-type recording medium, an optical card having a storage capacity larger than that of a magnetic card or an IC card has been developed. There are a ROM type, a write-once type, and an erasable type as the recording system of this optical card, and a recording medium and a structure of each are being studied. Among such optical cards, those in which an optical recording member is embedded in a card base material in an island shape are known (for example,
See Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 22222/1990).

[0003]

By the way, in the above-mentioned embedded type optical card, since the optical recording member is embedded in the rectangular concave portion provided in the card base material through the adhesive layer, the card is bent. Since stress concentrates on the corners of the concave portion of the card base material at this time, there is a problem that repeated bending causes cracks in this part. Especially,
This tendency was significantly observed when one side of the optical recording member in the longitudinal direction was located near the center of the card.

In the embedded optical card as described above, a magnetic stripe or an IC module is formed in order to form an emboss or a pattern on a portion other than the optical recording surface and further to diversify the usage. It is desirable to provide. For this purpose, a card base material that is generally excellent in embossing suitability, sublimation transfer suitability, magnetic stripe transfer suitability and the like is used. On the other hand, as the optical recording member, it is preferable to use a material having high transparency and small birefringence for its support, but a material satisfying such optical characteristics is inferior in suitability for additional function as described above. It is normal. Therefore, in consideration of the bendability of the card, it is most preferable to use the same material as the support of the optical recording member as the card base material, but in reality, the support of the optical recording member prioritizes optical characteristics and Gives priority to additional functionality, and as a result uses different materials for both, which is a factor that hinders the improvement of bendability of the card.

The present invention has been made in view of such problems, and an object thereof is to provide an optical card having excellent bending strength.

[0006]

To achieve the above object, an optical card of the present invention is an optical card in which an optical recording layer is laminated on a transparent protective layer so as to cover a track pattern formed on the lower surface of the transparent protective layer. In an optical card in which a recording member is embedded in a recess formed in a card substrate, the transparent protective layer and the card substrate have the same or at least approximately the same tensile strength, or the transparent protective layer and the The difference in tensile strength of the card base material is set within 100 kgf / cm ² ,
Alternatively, the difference between the breaking elongations of the transparent protective layer and the card base material is within 50% as a basic constitution, and thereby the hardness of both of them for bending is the same or similar, and the strength of the card itself against bending is set. I tried to raise it.

That is, even if the transparent protective layer and the card base material are different materials, if the materials having the same or similar hardness to bending are used, the bending stresses generated in the both when the card is bent are substantially equal. Therefore, the stress acting on the corner portion of the concave portion of the card base material is reduced, and the cracking of the card is prevented.

[0008]

1 is a perspective view showing an example of an optical card according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a partially enlarged sectional view taken along line XY of FIG. 1, and this optical card is shown in FIG. Thus, an optical recording member 5 in which a surface hardened layer 1, a transparent protective layer 3 provided with a track pattern 2 on the lower surface, and an optical recording layer 4 are laminated in this order from the top
Is embedded in the concave portion 7 formed in the card base material 6 via the adhesive layer 8. It is preferable that the end surface a of the optical recording member 5 is embedded in the concave portion 7 in a state where the end surface a does not protrude from the card base material 6, and as shown in the figure, the adhesive layer 8 between the optical recording member 5 and the card base material 6 is the optical recording member 5. It is good not only to be on the bottom surface but also on the end surface. In addition, the optical recording member 5
In order to make it easier to fit the card substrate 6 into the recess 7 of the card substrate 6, the end face a of the optical recording member 5 and the card substrate 6 are
It is preferable to provide a taper α (3 to 50 °) on the concave part side surface b, and such a taper α is preferably provided at least on each side in the longitudinal direction.

There are roughly two methods for obtaining the optical recording member 5 and the card substrate 6 as described above. First
Is a method of processing the end surface of the optical recording member 5 and the concave portion 7 of the card base material 6 by cutting, and the second is a method of manufacturing the optical recording member 5 and the card base material 6 by an injection method or a casting method.

In the first method, first, the transparent protective layer 3
An optical recording member 5 having a surface-hardened layer 1 formed on one surface and a pattern layer and an optical recording layer 4 formed on the other surface is produced, and the optical recording member 5 is cut into individual pieces to obtain an optical recording member having a predetermined size. Get 5. At this time, a desired taper is provided on the end surface, if necessary. A protective layer is provided in order to prevent the optical recording layer 4 from being damaged during this cutting. As the protective layer, an acrylic type, vinyl chloride-based type, polyester type, or the like that does not affect the optical recording layer is used. If a protective film is used, it is not necessary to provide this protective layer.

The material used for the transparent protective layer 3 must have high transparency and low birefringence. Specifically, there are polycarbonate (PC), polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) and the like. According to the measuring method defined in ASTM D638, the tensile strength of polycarbonate has a central value of 640 kgf / cm ² , and the tensile strength of polymethyl methacrylate has a central value of 540 to 760 kgf /
It has a width of about cm ² . Further, the elongation at break of polycarbonate has a center value of 100%, and the elongation at break of polymethylmethacrylate has a center value of about 2 to 60%.

As the surface hardened layer 1 formed on one surface of the transparent protective layer 3, an acrylic UV curable hard coat agent is suitable. In addition, a melamine-based or silicon-based hard coating agent may be used, but one having excellent temperature and humidity suitability and having high hardness and not causing cracks even when bent is preferably used.

The patterned layer formed on the other surface of the transparent protective layer 3 is formed by a generally known 2P method, injection method, casting method or the like. This time,
When the pattern is formed by the 2P method, a UV-curable resin is used, and the same material as the transparent protective layer 3 is used by the injection method and the casting method. It should be noted that the layer with the track pattern is preferably made by filling it except that it has a dimple that allows cutting. This is because the optical recording material is effectively used.

As the material for forming the optical recording layer 4, in addition to the commonly used metal-based optical recording materials such as tellurium and bismuth, phthalocyanine-based dye-based optical recording materials,
A naphthoquinone type can be used. Further, not only the write-once type but also the ROM type may be used.

On the other hand, the card substrate 6 is formed with a recess 7 in which the optical recording member 5 is embedded by cutting (counterbore processing). When the end surface of the optical recording member 5 is provided with a taper, the side surface of the recess 7 is counterbored so that the end surface of the optical recording member 5 has the same taper. Further, in order to obtain parallelism between the concave portion 7 and the card end surface, the end surface of the card base material 6 is cut at the same time as the counterbore processing.

Polyvinyl chloride is preferably used as a material for the card substrate 1. Specifically, 0.10 /
0.28 / 0.28 / 0.10 mm, 0.05 / 0.3
A 4-layer structure such as 7 / 0.37 / 0.05 mm is suitable. Note that 0.10 mm and 0.05 mm are transparent polyvinyl chloride, 0.28 mm and 0.37 mm are opalescent polyvinyl chloride, and opalescent polyvinyl chloride is used to increase abrasion resistance of printing. Is printed on one side. According to the measuring method specified in ASTM D638, the tensile strength of polyvinyl chloride is 620 kgf / cm ²
Is the central value, and the elongation at break is 55%.

Then, the optical recording member 5 is fixed to the concave portion 7 of the card substrate 6 via the adhesive layer 8. As the adhesive used for this, conventionally known ones such as urethane type, epoxy type, acrylic type, vinyl type, amide type can be used,
Since the adhesive comes into direct contact with the optical recording layer 4, it is preferable that the adhesive has good recording sensitivity and excellent temperature and humidity suitability. As a bonding method, a UV curable adhesive is dropped on the concave portion 7 of the card base material 6, the optical recording member 5 is fitted therein, and the flat recording press corresponding to the size of the optical recording member 5 is pressed and then ultraviolet rays are irradiated. And a hot melt adhesive is applied to the optical recording member 5 with a T-die and then hot pressed with a flat press or a roll press for adhesion. In either case, the pressing conditions are set so that the adhesive agent spreads between the end surface of the optical recording member 5 and the side surface of the recess 7 of the card substrate 6. Further, a pressure sensitive adhesive may be used for the adhesive layer 8, and in this case, the double-sided pressure sensitive adhesive sheet may be used to fix the optical recording member 5 in the concave portion 7 of the card substrate 6.

In another bonding method, an optical recording is formed by forming a surface hardened layer 1 on one surface of a transparent protective layer 3 and forming a layer 2 having a track pattern and an optical recording layer 4 on the other surface. A member 5 is prepared, and a plastic hot melt adhesive is applied onto the optical recording layer 4, and the optical recording members 5 laminated up to this adhesive are individually cut or cut into a predetermined size, The optical recording member 5 is fitted into the concave portion 7 of the card base material 6 and heat-pressed with a flat press or a roll press to bond them. In this case, the pressing conditions are set so that the adhesive melts and spreads between the end surface of the optical recording member 5 and the side surface of the concave portion 7 of the card substrate 6.

In the second method, first, a resin such as polycarbonate or acrylic is used, and the patterned transparent protective layer 3 is produced by a generally known injection method or casting method. At this time, if necessary, the end face of the transparent protective layer 3 is shaped so as to have a taper. Then, the surface hardened layer 1 is formed on the side opposite to the pattern surface, and the optical recording layer 4 is formed on the pattern surface. The surface hardened layer 1,
As the optical recording layer 4, the same one as described above is used. On the other hand, an ABS resin, a polyvinyl chloride resin, or the like is used to produce the card base material 6 by the injection method or the casting method. At this time, the concave portion 7 in which the optical recording member 5 is embedded is formed. When the end surface of the optical recording member 5 is provided with a taper, the side surface thereof is the same as the taper of the end surface of the optical recording member 5. Mold. In addition, painting is performed by in-mold molding. Then, the optical recording member 5 is fixed to the concave portion 7 of the card base material 6 with an adhesive or a pressure-sensitive adhesive by the same method as described above.

The optical card of the type shown in FIG. 1 is one in which the optical recording member 5 is embedded in an island shape, but as shown in FIG. You may embed it. By embedding in such a form, when the recess 7 is formed in the card substrate 6 by the counterbore processing, even if the recess 7 is wide, the processing can be performed in one pass, so that the cost can be reduced. When TeOx or the like is used for the optical recording layer 4, it is preferable that the optical recording layer 4 at both end portions 5a of the optical recording member 5 be omitted because the edge portions at both ends may be oxidized. If you do so, it will look like the one embedded in an island.

In order to diversify the use of the optical card of the present invention, as shown in FIGS. 4 to 6, the same surface as the optical recording member 5 or the opposite surface or both surfaces of the card substrate 6 are used. The magnetic stripe 9 may be provided on the optical recording member 5, or the IC module 10 may be provided on the same surface as or the surface opposite to the optical recording member 5. Furthermore, it is of course possible to form card information such as a personal name and a registration number as embossed characters in a region other than the optical recording member 5 as embossed characters, or to form a facial photograph by a sublimation transfer method.

[0022]

EXAMPLES Hereinafter, examples showing the present invention will be described together with comparative examples.

(Example) First, a sheet-formed thickness of 0.
4mm polycarbonate (tensile strength: 630kgf /
cm ^2, elongation at break: using the transparent protective layer 100%), a hard coating agent by spin coating on one surface of which (manufactured by Toray Industries, Inc., to form a surface hardened layer UH-001) applied to the.
Next, a guide track pattern was formed on the surface opposite to the surface hardened layer by the 2P method, and TeOx was sputtered on the guide track pattern to form an optical recording layer. Then, on the optical recording layer, an adhesive (PPET manufactured by Toagosei Co., Ltd., using a T-die was used.
-2101) was applied in a thickness of 50 μm. Then, cut so that all the end faces have a taper of 10 ° and have parallelism with the track of the card.
An optical recording member having a size of mm × 84 mm was prepared.

On the other hand, two core sheets of 0.28 mm opalescent vinyl chloride were printed by single-sided silk offset printing, and the non-printed surfaces of these two core sheets were combined to form an oversheet of 0.10 mm. It was sandwiched by two sheets and heat-fused to produce a four-layer card base material. A magnetic tape of 650 Oersted was formed on one surface of one oversheet, and a magnetic tape of 290 Oersted was formed on one surface of the other oversheet. Then, a recess was formed in the card base material by cutting to embed the optical recording member. In this case, the concave side
Zoning was performed with a taper of 0 ° and a size slightly larger than that of the optical recording member described above, and the end surface of the card substrate was also cut so that parallelism with the recess was obtained. The vinyl chloride used has a tensile strength of 620 kgf / c
m ² and elongation at break are 55%.

[0025] fit the optical recording member into the recess of the card substrate prepared above, using a flat press that matches the size of the optical recording member, 120 ° C., 2 under the conditions of 6 kg / cm ^2.
Heat pressing was performed for 5 seconds. This melts the adhesive,
The optical recording member could be bonded while covering the bottom surface and the end surface. In addition, since the vinyl chloride hitting the bottom surface of the optical recording member carries heat from the upper surface of the transparent protective layer (polycarbonate), there was no sagging due to the heat.

In contrast to the optical card manufactured as described above, an optical card R / W (manufactured by OMRON, 3B3H-DJ-0
When data of 100 tracks was written in 1), the error rate was within 1 × 10 ⁻⁴ . Furthermore, even if the card base material was embossed, data could be written and read by the optical card R / W. Further, this optical card was subjected to a bending test in accordance with the ISO bending test standard, but there was no problem.

Comparative Example Using polymethylmethacrylate (tensile strength: 760 kgf / cm ² , breaking elongation: 2%), a transparent protective layer with a track pattern having a thickness of 0.4 mm was prepared by a casting method. At this time, all the end faces were designed to have a taper of 10 °. Then, a hard coating agent (UH-001, manufactured by Toray) is applied to the opposite side of the track pattern surface by a spin coating method to form a surface hardened layer, and then TeOx is sputtered on the track pattern surface to form an optical recording layer. By forming it, an optical recording member having an outer size of 16 mm × 84 mm was prepared.

On the other hand, a card base material similar to that of the previous example was prepared. Then, the optical recording member was embedded in the concave portion of the card substrate by the same bonding method as in the example. When data of 100 tracks was written to the optical card thus manufactured by the optical card R / W (manufactured by OMRON, 3B3H-DJ-01), the error rate was within 1 × 10 ⁻⁴ . However, when this optical card was subjected to a bending test in accordance with the ISO bending test standard, the hardness of the transparent protective layer and the card base material against bending was significantly different, and therefore the optical card was not bent along the long side of the recess of the card base material. occured.

[0029]

As described above, the present invention has the following advantages.

The tensile strength of the transparent protective layer of the optical recording member and that of the card substrate in which the optical recording member is embedded are made equal to each other or at least approximated to each other, or the difference between the tensile strengths of the two is 10.
When the card is bent, the bending stresses generated in the both are substantially equal by setting the breaking elongation between them to be 0 kgf / cm ² or less than 50%. The stress acting on the corners of the recess of the material is reduced, and the strength of the card against bending can be improved.

By providing the end surface of the optical recording member and the side surface of the concave portion of the card base material corresponding to the taper that spreads outward, the optical recording member can be easily embedded, and the end surface of the optical recording member and the card substrate can be easily embedded. Since the gap on the side surface of the concave portion of the material is eliminated, the material looks good.

Since the optical recording member is embedded in a part of the card substrate, by utilizing the remaining area of the card substrate, an optical card of a form that could not be manufactured up to now, for example, an embossed optical card. Card, optical card with sublimation transfer pattern, optical card with magnetic stripe on both sides, optical card with optical recording side and IC module not on the same side, optical card with CP processing on both sides, hologram on both sides An optical card or the like that can be transferred can be manufactured.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of an optical card according to the present invention. .

FIG. 2 is a partially enlarged cross-sectional view taken along the line XY of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a plan view for explaining an optical card as another embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing an example of an optical card provided with a magnetic stripe on the same surface as an optical recording member.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing an example of an optical card provided with a magnetic stripe and an IC module on the same surface as an optical recording member.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing an example of an optical card provided with two magnetic stripes and an IC module on the same surface as an optical recording member.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Surface Hardened Layer 2 Track Pattern 3 Transparent Protective Layer 4 Optical Recording Layer 5 Optical Recording Member 6 Card Base Material 7 Recesses 8 Adhesive Layer 9 Magnetic Stripe 10 IC Module

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. An optical card in which an optical recording member, which covers a track pattern formed on the lower surface of a transparent protective layer and has an optical recording layer laminated on the transparent protective layer, is embedded in a recess formed in a card substrate. An optical card in which the tensile strength of the transparent protective layer and the tensile strength of the card base material are the same or at least approximated to each other. 2. An optical card in which an optical recording member, which covers a track pattern formed on the lower surface of a transparent protective layer and has an optical recording layer laminated on the transparent protective layer, is embedded in a recess formed in a card substrate. An optical card characterized in that the difference in tensile strength between the transparent protective layer and the card substrate is within 100 kgf / cm ² . 3. An optical card in which an optical recording member, which covers a track pattern formed on the lower surface of a transparent protective layer and has an optical recording layer laminated on the transparent protective layer, is embedded in a recess formed in a card substrate. An optical card, wherein the difference in break elongation between the transparent protective layer and the card substrate is within 50%. 4. The optical card according to claim 1, wherein an end surface of the optical recording member and a side surface of the concave portion of the card substrate are provided with tapers corresponding to the outer side. 5. The end surface of the optical recording member and the recess of the card base material are machined by cutting.
Optical card according to the above. 6. The optical card according to claim 1, 2, 3 or 4, wherein the optical recording member and the card base material are produced by an injection method or a casting method. 7. A magnetic stripe is provided on the same surface, the opposite surface, or both surfaces of the optical recording member.
The optical card described in 4, 5, or 6. 8. An IC module is provided on the same surface as the optical recording member or on the opposite surface to the optical recording member.
Optical card according to the above. 9. An optical card according to claim 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8, wherein an area other than said optical recording member is embossed.