Abstract: The present invention is an object to provide a surface treating material and a surface treating process using the surface treating material capable of giving simply and effectively desired surface property on a surface of an image recording layer of an image recording material after image recording, and the surface treating material comprising at least a fusible particle and a hardly fusible particle which are used for changing a surface property on a surface of an image recording layer of an image recording material after image recording, the fusible particle is melted to form a continuous film by the surface treatment, and a flow starting temperature of the fusible particle is 50° C. or more, and less than a heating temperature in the surface treatment, and the hardly fusible particle is not melted with maintaining particle shape by the surface treatment, and a volume average particle diameter of the hardly fusible particle is 1 ?m to 30 ?m.

Abstract: It is an object of the present invention to provide an image-recording process and an image-recording apparatus, even at high density image and high speed image output, capable of suppressing the occurrence of curl in the final image sheet, and controlling and giving the desired direction and size of the curl. For this purpose, an image-recording process includes recording an image on an image-recording material which comprises a thermoplastic resin contained layer on a support, heating the image-recording material to a temperature higher than a glass transition temperature of thermoplastic resin in the thermoplastic resin contained layer, controlling the curl by contacting a curl controlling member with at least a part of the image-recording material, and cooling the image-recording material to a temperature below the glass transition temperature of the thermoplastic resin.

Abstract: The object of the present invention is to provide a paper which has high surface planarity and excellent gloss and a method for manufacturing the paper, and moreover, to provide an image-recording material support and an image-recording material. For this object, the present invention provides a paper which comprises a raw paper and a polymer-containing layer on at least one surface of the raw paper to be formed with an image-recording layer and is prepared by subjecting a press and dry treatment.

Abstract: The object of the present invention is to provide an image-receiving sheet for the electrophotography which can form an image having excellent glossiness, a little concave and convex (relief) and a high image quality compared to that of a silver salt photograph, is excellent in adhesion resistance and shelf stability, and can mitigate an environmental load during the production thereof, and also an image-forming process using the image-receiving sheet for the electrophotography. For this object, the present invention provides an image-receiving sheet for the electrophotography comprising a support and a toner image-receiving layer disposed on the support, wherein the toner image-receiving layer comprises a thermoplastic resin which is a polyester resin having a glass transition temperature (Tg) of higher than 60° C., a number average molecular weight (Mn) of 5,000 to 12,000 and the ratio (Mw/Mn) between the weight average molecular weight (Mw) and the number average molecular weight (Mn) of 1?Mw/Mn?3.

Abstract: An electrophotographic image receiving sheet with a toner image receiving layer containing a release agent and formed on a support sheet for use in a fixing belt type electrophotography is disclosed. The toner image receiving layer satisfies the following condition: ?sp0??sp1?2.5[mJ/m2] where ?sp0 and ?sp1 are values of a polar component of surface free energy of the image receiving layer before heating the image receiving sheet and after having heated the image receiving sheet to 120° C. and then cooled it to 25° C., respectively.

Abstract: The object of the present invention is to provide an image-recording label sheet in which between an image-recording layer and a base, an intermediate layer suppressing the stress is disposed and when the label sheet is adhesive-bonded to a medium having a curved or uneven surface in which an image is transferred from the label sheet, the crazing in the label sheet can be prevented, and which is excellent in adhesion resistance and is preferred for the electrophotography; and a method for forming an image using the image-recording label sheet.

Abstract: A base support for an image recording material strikes a balance between high flatness and superb stiffness and is favorably available for various image recording mediums capable of providing high quality. The base support comprising at least base paper satisfying a ratio of subsurface internal bond strength A relative central internal bond strength B that is represented preferably by A/B?0.7, and more preferably by 0.3?A/B?0.7. The subsurface internal bond strength is preferably from 90 to 150 mJ.

Abstract: In the image forming process of the present invention wherein a toner is fixed on an electrophotographic image-receiving sheet using a belt fixing and smoothing device, the relationship among the temperature of a heating and fixing roller, the melting point of a toner wax, and the glass transition point of a toner binder, the relationship among the temperature of a heating and fixing roller, the melting point of a wax in the image-receiving layer, and the glass transition point of a binder in the image-receiving layer, and the relationship between the polar components of surface free energy of the toner-image-receiving layer before and after image fixing are optimized. The present invention is to prevent offset in the toner and the toner-image-receiving layer of the electrophotographic image-receiving sheet upon releasing of the belt and to avoid deterioration in image quality especially in operation over the long run.

Abstract: An electrophotographic image receiving sheet comprises a support and a toner image receiving layer that is formed on at least one surface of the support and contains a mixture of a linear amorphous polymer having a glass-transition temperature (Tg1) in a range of from 40° to 120° C. and a linear crystalline polymer having a melting temperature (Tm) in a range of from 100° to 200° C. These linear amorphous polymer and linear crystalline polymer satisfy 1.0×Tg1(K)?Tm(K)?1.5×Tg1(K).

Abstract: To produce images at high speed, to conserve energy, and to be satisfactorily operated over the long run, a method fixes a toner onto an electrophotographic image-receiving sheet with the use of a belt fixing and smoothing apparatus and thereby forms an electrophotographic image. The belt fixing and smoothing apparatus includes a hot-pressing member, a belt member, a cooling device, and a cooling-releasing section. In the method, the total heat capacity per unit area in portions where the belt member, the toner, and the electrophotographic image-receiving sheet are in contact with one another is 840 J/K/m2 or less.

Abstract: An image recording material, includes: a support; and an image recording layer disposed on the support, and having a depression-and-protrusion at least on a part of an image face of the image recording material after an image recording. The depression-and-protrusion defines a slope inclined from the image face. The depression-and-protrusion of the image face has a ten point height of roughness profile Rz in a range from 5 ?m to 25 ?m and has an average depression-and-protrusion space Sm defined in JIS B0601-1994 in a range from 100 ?m to 1000 ?m.

Abstract: Provided is an image forming process which can effectively suppress the occurrence of separation electrification between a belt surface layer and an image-receiving layer of an electrophotographic image-receiving sheet at a cooling and separation unit, prevent dust from adsorbing to charges at each surface thereof, and print high quality images having near-photographic quality, in which a belt-fixing smoothing device having a heating and pressuring member, a belt member, a cooling device, and a cooling and separating unit is used to conduct fixing treatment to an electrophotographic image-receiving sheet. In this case, a surface resistivity (SR1) of one side of the image-receiving sheet on which an image is formed satisfies the formula 1.0×109 ?/cm2?SR1?1.0×1014 ?/cm2, and a surface resistivity (SR2) of one side of the belt member which becomes in contact with the image satisfies the formula SR2?1.0×1014 ?/cm2.

Abstract: The object of the present invention is to provide an image-recording material that may prevent a flocculation of a coating liquid for image-recording layer that contains a water-dispersible emulsion and a water-soluble polymer compound, and that may exhibit an enhanced stability, present an improved film-forming performance, and provide superior surface conditions. In order to achieve the object, an image-recording material according to the present invention is provided, in which the image-recording material comprises a support and at least one image-recording layer on the support, wherein the image-recording layer is formed from a water-dispersible emulsion of which volume-average particle size is 55 nm or more and a water-soluble polymer compound of which weight-average molecular weight (Mw) is 400,000 or less. Preferably, the water-dispersible emulsion is a polyester emulsion. Preferably, the water-soluble polymer compound is polyethyleneoxide.

Abstract: An electrophotographic image receiving sheet comprising a support and a toner image receiving layer formed on the support and a process of forming an image on the sheet are disclosed. The support comprises base paper that contains more than 0.5 g/m2 of at least one of an alkali metal salt and an alkaline earth metal salt and a moisture content of 6.5% by weight or more and a polyolefin resin layer formed on each surface of the base paper. The base paper preferably contains the salt in a range of from 0.6 to 3 g/m2 and a moisture content in a range of from 6.5 to 8.5% by weight.

Abstract: Provided is an image forming process which can effectively suppress the occurrence of separation electrification between a belt surface layer and an image-receiving layer of an electrophotographic image-receiving sheet at a cooling and separation unit, prevent dust from adsorbing to charges at each surface thereof, and print high quality images having near-photographic quality, in which a belt-fixing smoothing device having a heating and pressuring member, a belt member, a cooling device, and a cooling and separating unit is used to conduct fixing treatment to an electrophotographic image-receiving sheet. In this case, a surface resistivity (SR1) of one side of the image-receiving sheet on which an image is formed satisfies the formula 1.0×109 &OHgr;/cm2≦SR1≦1.0×1014 &OHgr;/cm2, and a surface resistivity (SR2) of one side of the belt member which becomes in contact with the image satisfies the formula SR2≦1.0×1014 &OHgr;/cm2.

Abstract: In the image forming process of the present invention wherein a toner is fixed on an electrophotographic image-receiving sheet using a belt fixing and smoothing device, the relationship among the temperature of a heating and fixing roller, the melting point of a toner wax, and the glass transition point of a toner binder, the relationship among the temperature of a heating and fixing roller, the melting point of a wax in the image-receiving layer, and the glass transition point of a binder in the image-receiving layer, and the relationship between the polar components of surface free energy of the toner-image-receiving layer before and after image fixing are optimized. The present invention is to prevent offset in the toner and the toner-image-receiving layer of the electrophotographic image-receiving sheet upon releasing of the belt and to avoid deterioration in image quality especially in operation over the long run.

Abstract: To produce images at high speed, to conserve energy, and to be satisfactorily operated over the long run, a method fixes a toner onto an electrophotographic image-receiving sheet with the use of a belt fixing and smoothing apparatus and thereby forms an electrophotographic image. The belt fixing and smoothing apparatus includes a hot-pressing member, a belt member, a cooling device, and a cooling-releasing section. In the method, the total heat capacity per unit area in portions where the belt member, the toner, and the electrophotographic image-receiving sheet are in contact with one another is 840 J/K/m2 or less.

Abstract: To provide an image-receiving sheet for electrophotography that suppresses blocking, allows toner images to fix satisfactorily, has excellent glossiness and reduced brittleness and can form high-quality images and to provide a process for image formation using the image-receiving sheet for electrophotography, an image-receiving sheet for electrophotography includes a substrate containing a base and a resin layer arranged on at least one side of the base; and at least one toner-image-receiving layer arranged on the resin layer of the substrate. The resin layer arranged between the toner-image-receiving layer and the base includes a polyethylene resin having a mass-average density of 0.935 g/cm3 or less and/or a melt flow rate MFR of 11 g/10 min. or less. In addition, an image-receiving sheet for electrophotography including a support and at least one toner-image-receiving layer over the support, the toner-image-receiving layer including a polyolefin resin.

Abstract: An electrophotographic image receiving sheet with a toner image receiving layer containing a release agent and formed on a support sheet for use in a fixing belt type electrophotography is disclosed.

Abstract: The present invention aims to provide an electrophotographic image-receiving sheet which can be more easily and efficiently manufactured and shows excellent image quality and glossiness, to provide a process for manufacturing the electrophotographic image-receiving sheet, and to provide a process for image formation using the electrophotographic image-receiving sheet. An electrophotographic image-receiving sheet which includes a support and a toner image-receiving layer which is to be disposed on at least one surface of the support and contains a thermoplastic resin, in which the electrophotographic image-receiving sheet is formed by soft calender treatment using a metal roller having surface temperature of glass transition temperature (Tg) of the thermoplastic resin minus 30° C. or more and the glass transition temperature plus 50° C. or less, so that the metal roller contacts a surface of the toner image-receiving layer.