Abstract: A UV printed transferrable material and a method for producing the same are disclosed. For example, the UV printed transferrable material includes a first liner, a UV ink layer on top of the first liner in a desired image, a primer layer on top of the UV ink layer, wherein the UV ink layer and the primer layer are cured, and a second liner on top of the primer layer.

Abstract: A printing apparatus includes: a conveyor that conveys a medium including a base layer and a separation layer and including a first through third regions; a printer; and a controller. The controller is configured to: obtain wrapping-manner information indicating (a) a first wrapping manner in which the second region and the third region are wrapped around a wrapped member after the first region and the third region are stuck to each other such that the printed medium is located around the wrapped member or (b) a second wrapping manner in which the second region and the third region are wrapped around the wrapped member after the first region is stuck to the wrapped member; and change control of the conveyor and the printer, depending upon whether the obtained wrapping-manner information indicates the first or second wrapping manner.

Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for generating customized labels having electronic circuitry such as RFID circuitry. A printing system generates the label by selectively transfer printing elements (e.g., electronic circuitry, physical components, etc.) and donor layers (e.g., conductive materials, non-conductive materials, etc.) from a ribbon to a receiver (e.g., an item that receives the indicia). In addition, the printing system can program and test the label or indicia thereof, thereby providing the ability to customize each label according to predetermined criteria and to ensure that each label functions properly.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method and a transfer strip for decorating surfaces, in particular for decorating outer packagings. A transfer strip comprising a strip-like backing film (11), a decorative layer (13) and a release layer (12) arranged between the decorative layer (13) and the backing film is provided. The decorative layer (13) has a multiplicity of identical optically variable decorative elements, which are arranged in first area regions, which are separate from one another and spaced apart from one another in the longitudinal direction of the transfer strip. The decorative layer (13) has second area regions, which are separate from one another and spaced apart from one another in the longitudinal direction of the transfer strip and in which the decorative layer (13) has one or more individualizable layers for providing respectively different machine-readable optical markings.

Abstract: A thermal transfer donor element can be used to provide a clear protective overcoat on a thermal image receiver element from a thermal transferable protective clear film on the donor element. This thermal transferable protective clear film includes a transparent poly(vinyl acetal) binder to which are attached silicone groups to improve scratch resistance of the transferred protective overcoat. Such protective overcoats can also be applied over thermally transferred dye images.

Abstract: A heat-sensitive transfer sheet having on a support at least one thermal transfer layer of a yellow color, at least one thermal transfer layer of a magenta color, at least one thermal transfer layer of a cyan color and at least one releasable, thermally-transferable protective layer, wherein the thermal transfer layer of each color contains a release agent and contents of the release agent in the thermal transfer layers are reduced in a frame-sequential mode.

Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for generating customized labels having electronic circuitry such as RFID circuitry. A printing system generates the label by selectively transfer printing elements (e.g., electronic circuitry, physical components, etc.) and donor layers (e.g., conductive materials, non-conductive materials, etc.) from a ribbon to a receiver (e.g., an item that receives the indicia). In addition, the printing system can program and test the label or indicia thereof, thereby providing the ability to customize each label according to predetermined criteria and to ensure that each label functions properly.

Abstract: This invention provides a method for image formation, which can produce a thermally transferred image possessing excellent heat resistance and various fastness properties even under severe service conditions, and an intermediate transfer recording medium and an image formed object.

Abstract: A scratch layer transfer sheet comprising a substrate film and a transferable scratch layer disposed on one surface of the substrate film, the transferable scratch layer comprising a hiding layer, being able to be thermally transferred to the print surface of a transfer-receiving material and being able to be removed from the print surface by scratching it after it is transferred. The scratch layer transfer sheet is overlapped on a transfer-receiving material such that the transferable scratch layer faces the print surface of the transfer-receiving material to transfer said transferable scratch layer to the print surface by heating.

Abstract: A thermal transfer dyesheet comprising a substrate bearing a region of a thermally transferable dye, the region including a first printable portion within the region having a first optical density, a second printable portion within the region having a second optical density, the difference in optical density between the first and second optical densities being detectable by a detection means on a dyesheet printer, and a third printable portion within the region having an optical density substantially the same as that of the first printable portion is provided, together with a method for manufacture of the dyesheet and an associated printer.

Abstract: A thermal transfer member includes a plurality of color material layers on one surface of a base material, wherein at least one of the color material layers contains a dicyanomethine based coloring agent represented by Structural formula 1 and at least one of the other color material layers contains an indoaniline based coloring agent represented by Structural formula 2.

Abstract: A scratch layer transfer sheet comprising a substrate film and a transferable scratch layer disposed on one surface of the substrate film, the transferable scratch layer comprising a hiding layer, being able to be thermally transferred to the print surface of a transfer-receiving material and being able to be removed from the print surface by scratching it after it is transferred. The scratch layer transfer sheet is overlapped on a transfer-receiving material such that the transferable scratch layer faces the print surface of the transfer-receiving material to transfer said transferable scratch layer to the print surface by heating.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a two-sided thermal transfer ribbon comprising a substrate having a first side and a second side, opposite the first side, and respective first and second thermal transfer coatings supported on the respective first and second sides is provided. In further embodiments, the first thermal transfer coating is adapted to transfer to print media when heated to a first temperature, and the second thermal transfer coating is adapted to transfer to print media when heated to a second temperature different from the first temperature.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for fluorescent image formation which can form a highly scratch-resistant fluorescent full-color image using a colorless fluorescent agent and can freely regulate the tone of color mixture of a combination of two or more fluorescent colors in order to impart, to articles, a higher level of forgery preventive function than a prior art technique and a print having a high level of forgery preventive function. The invention characterized in that fluorescent inks are provided that are substantially colorless upon visible light irradiation and contain organic fluorescent agents which, upon ultraviolet light irradiation, emit fluorescences in a visible region, and that two or more fluorescent inks, which emit fluorescences having mutually different color tones, are deposited on a printing face in its image formation region according to information on an image to be printed in a dot matrix manner so that dots of one color do not overlap with dots of another color.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a protective heat transferable overcoat element comprising a support having thereon a protective polymer layer of at least one benzoated phenoxy resin of Formula I. The present invention also relates to a thermal transfer dye donor element comprising a support having on one side thereof at least one dye layer and a protective polymer layer of at least one benzoated phenoxy resin of Formula I and a thermal transfer assemblage comprising at least one thermal transfer donor element comprising a support having on one side thereof a protective polymer layer of at least one benzoated phenoxy resin of Formula I. Finally, the present invention relates to a protected image reproduction comprising a support, an imaging layer containing an image, and a transferred protective heat transferable overcoat comprising a protective polymer layer of at least one benzoated phenoxy resin of Formula I.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a thermal donor comprising a dye mixture and a urea light-stabilizing compound, wherein the light-stabilizing compound is represented by structure I: wherein: R1, R2 and R3 represent a hydrogen atom, alkyl group, cycloalkyl group, alkenyl group, aralkyl group, aryl group or heterocyclic group, provided that at least one of R1, R2, and/or R3 is a hydrogen atom; R4-R8 represent a hydrogen atom, hydroxyl group, alkyl group, cycloalkyl group, alkenyl group, aralkyl group, aryl group, heterocyclic group, aryloxy group, or alkoxy group; and R3 forms a heterocyclic ring with either R4 or R8, and an imaging system comprising a donor sheet having a layer containing a dye and an image receiving sheet having a dye receiving layer, wherein either the donor sheet or the image receiving sheet comprises a dye mixture and a urea light-stabilizing compound of structure I.

Abstract: An image forming method containing the steps of (a) forming an image on a thermal transfer sheet of a thermal transfer recording material, and (b) transferring the image onto an image receiving sheet of the thermal transfer recording material, wherein the thermal transfer sheet including a substrate having thereon a yellow ink layer containing a thermally transferable yellow dye, a magenta ink layer containing a thermally transferable magenta dye, and a cyan ink layer containing a thermally transferable cyan dye, the image receiving sheet including a substrate having thereon a thermally transferable dye receiving layer; at least one of the thermally transferable dyes is reactive with a dye fixing agent, and satisfies Formula of (Aa/Am)×100?75; and a printing rate of each of the yellow ink layer, the magenta ink layer and the cyan ink layer is not more than 2.5 msec./line.

Abstract: A magenta dye combination having improved lightfastness and keeping properties is described, wherein the magenta dye combination can be used in thermal printing.

Abstract: There is disclosed thermal transfer media containing both fixed and variable printed information, and method of making and using such a thermal transfer medium. The fixed information is printed in one or more fixed-information zone(s) preferably on a web during a long production run and thereafter as the need arises the variable information is printed or imprinted in one or more variable information zone(s) on sections of the web during shorter production runs. The transfer medium is particularly suited for printing onto fabrics that are subject to repeated home laundering and commercial dry cleaning.

Abstract: A thermal transfer recording medium 1 according to the present invention is to obtain a reliable printed matter with no space between picture information and a protective film thereof and has a melting type transfer portion 161 including a melting type primer layer 181 whose main component is styrene vinyl acetate copolymer and a melting type ink layer 171. Since styrene vinyl acetate copolymer softens or melts by heating to lose mechanical strength thereof, the melting type transfer portion 161 is transferred with ease from a base sheet 11 by heating to form a printing layer 47. On the surface of the printing layer 47, a residual resin 49 formed of material of the melting type primer layer 181 is exposed; however, since styrene vinyl acetate copolymer sticks well to a thermoplastic resin existing on the surface portion of a protective portion 251, there is no space generated between the protective portion 251 and the printing layer 47.

Abstract: Disclosed is a protective transparent overcoat comprising a protective polymer and a surfactant compound having multiple non-end-group hydrogen bonding groups directly or indirectly bonded to the backbone chain of the surfactant compound. The coating enables simplified manufacturing of a thermal sublimation dye transfer donor of high quality.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for fluorescent image formation which can form a highly scratch-resistant fluorescent full-color image using a colorless fluorescent agent and can freely regulate the tone of color mixture of a combination of two or more fluorescent colors in order to impart, to articles, a higher level of forgery preventive function than a prior art technique and a print having a high level of forgery preventive function. The invention characterized in that fluorescent inks are provided that are substantially colorless upon visible light irradiation and contain organic fluorescent agents which, upon ultraviolet light irradiation, emit fluorescences in a visible region, and that two or more fluorescent inks, which emit fluorescences having mutually different color tones, are deposited on a printing face in its image formation region according to information on an image to be printed in a dot matrix manner so that dots of one color do not overlap with dots of another color.

Abstract: A method of forming sheet rolls made of a heat transfer recording sheet having a transfer ink layer on a surface of a base by winding the recording sheet around the outer peripheries of a plurality of cores. The method includes supplying a web heat transfer recording sheet, cutting a portion thereof corresponding to a region between two adjacent sheet rolls to form cut ends; placing a non-adhesive waste sheet and a pair of adhesive tapes attached to the waste sheet ends between the transfer recording sheet, the tapes having an adhesive portion, an outside-exposed portion, and a portion attached to a cut end of the recording sheet, winding the sheet around a core outer periphery, positioning the waste sheet between winding apparatus and a discharging portion, and cutting the waste sheet so positioned.

Abstract: A multicolor image forming material comprising: an image receiving sheet comprising an image receiving layer; and at least five heat transfer sheets different in color each comprising a substrate, a light-heat conversion layer and an image forming layer, each of the heat transfer sheets being adapted to be superposed on the image receiving sheet with the image forming layer facing the image receiving layer and irradiated with laser light to transfer the irradiated area of the image forming layer to the image receiving layer to record an image on the image receiving sheet, wherein the area of the recording has a size of 515 mm by 728 mm or larger, and at least one of the heat transfer sheets comprises titanium oxide as a colorant in the image forming layer thereof.

Abstract: A transfer sheet comprises a base sheet, a thermal transfer layer having a plurality of YMC transfer region sets, each transfer region set having a plurality of transfer regions with functions different from each other, and identification marks formed in the YMC transfer region sets, respectively. The identification marks formed in the different YMC transfer region sets have different forms, respectively. The transfer regions are printed by using a plurality of transfer region printing cylinders, each provided with a plurality of printing plates, and the identification marks of different forms are printed by using a single identification mark printing cylinder. The respective identification marks of the YMC transfer region sets represent information about the positions of the corresponding YMC transfer region sets, respectively. The transfer regions are transferred after correcting transfer conditions on the basis of information represented by the identification marks.

Abstract: Disclosed is an imaging element comprising a bichromophoric molecule comprising a first chromophore that exhibits a first absorption maximum above 700 nm and a second chromophore that exhibits a second absorption maximum different from the first absorption maximum, wherein the absorption of the first and second chromophores are substantially independent of each other, and a process for imaging using such a donor element. Elements of the invention eliminate unwanted absorptions in the final image.

Abstract: An object is to provide a fluorescent latent image transfer film which makes it possible to form a fluorescent latent image excellent in transferability and gradiation-property; a fluorescent latent image transfer method using the same; and a security pattern formed matter.

Abstract: A multicolor image-forming material which comprises an image-receiving sheet comprising a support having thereon a coating layer including at least an image-receiving layer, and a plurality of heat transfer sheets each comprising a support having coating layers including at least a light-to-heat converting layer and an image-forming layer, wherein the ratio of the optical density (OD) of the image-forming layer in each heat transfer sheet to the layer thickness, OD/layer thickness (&mgr;m unit), is 1.50 or more, the recording area of a multicolor image of the heat transfer sheet is 515 mm or more multiplying 728 mm or more, the definition of a transferred image is 2,400 dpi or more, the coating layer in the image-receiving sheet and/or the coating layers in each heat transfer sheet has at least one layer containing a dispersant and a matting layer having an average particle size of from 0.

Abstract: An image transcription method of transcribing an image of the dye on a printing sheet outputted by e.g., a video printer onto a substrate for transcription, such as a cup of pottery or the like. For transcription, a resin is coated on the surface of the substrate for transcription to form a reception layer. This reception layer is dried in an electrical oven to form a support for transcription. A printing sheet carrying an image of a sublimable dye is stacked on the reception layer of the support for transcription and pressured to the reception layer under application of heat and pressure. As the resin for the reception layer, the acrylic resin or the epoxy resin or both are employed. If the resin composed mainly of the acrylic resin is employed, the viscosity of the resin is set to 43 to 52 seconds in terms of the Ford cup viscosity, and the resin discharge pressure from a spray gun is set to 35 kg/m2±0.01 kg.cm2.

Abstract: A multicolor image-forming material comprises: an image-receiving sheet having an image-receiving layer and a support; and at least four thermal transfer sheets each including a support, a light-to-heat converting layer and an image-forming layer, in which each of the thermal transfer sheets has a different color, wherein a multicolor image is formed by: superposing the image-forming layer in each of the at least four thermal transfer sheets on the image-receiving layer, such that the image-forming layer is opposed to the image-receiving layer; irradiating the image-forming layer with a laser beam; transferring the irradiated area of the image-forming layer onto the image-receiving layer to form an image; and transferring the image on the image-receiving layer onto an actual printing paper, and each of the at least four thermal transfer sheets has a recording area being defined by a product of a length of 515 mm or more and width of 728 mm or more, and each of the at least four thermal transfer sheets is larg

Abstract: A thermal transfer recording medium including a substrate, and a thermal transfer recording layer formed on the substrate and mainly containing a coloring pigment, an amorphous organic high polymer and colorless or light-colored fine particles, the thickness of the thermal transfer recording layer being in the range of 0.2·m to 1.0·m, wherein the mixing ratios of the coloring pigment, the amorphous organic high polymer and the fine particles are confined to 20-60 parts by weight, 40-70 parts by weight and 1-30 parts by weight, respectively. An image-forming method using the thermal transfer recording medium, and an image-bearing body formed from the thermal transfer recording medium are also disclosed.

Abstract: A dry-transfer appliqué is provided for wall decoration. The appliqué has at least three bleed-resistant color pigments, including a bleed-resistant magenta pigment, that will not bleed or show through a coat of paint once the appliqué is painted over for redecorating. The appliqué has an as-applied thickness of 1.3-8 mils so that it will not be visible through a coat of paint. A plurality of dry-transfer appliqués are also provided having designs corresponding to a common design theme. The appliqués can be placed by the consumer to provide a custom design suited to that consumer's personal taste.

Abstract: A transfer sheet comprises a base sheet, a thermal transfer layer having a plurality of YMC transfer region sets, each transfer region set having a plurality of transfer regions with functions different from each other, and identification marks formed in the YMC transfer region sets, respectively. The identification marks formed in the different YMC transfer region sets have different forms, respectively. The transfer regions are printed by using a plurality of transfer region printing cylinders, each provided with a plurality of printing plates, and the identification marks of different forms are printed by using a single identification mark printing cylinder. The respective identification marks of the YMC transfer region sets represent information about the positions of the corresponding YMC transfer region sets, respectively. The transfer regions are transferred after correcting transfer conditions on the basis of information represented by the identification marks.