JP2003080834A - Ink-jet image recording material and image recording method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an ink-jet image recording material which can effectively be applied to an ink-jet printing system, is conveyed stably in the system, and has good quality and an image recording method which can form an image in a simple manhour by using the recording material. SOLUTION: In the ink-jet recording material, an ink image acceptable layer 14 and an image protective layer 16 are formed on a support 10, and a back coat layer containing a matting agent and/or a lubricant is formed on the opposite surface to the support. The recording material is set in the image recording system in the shape of a roll and unrolled for printing.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ink jet image recording material and an image recording method using this image recording material, and more particularly, it is based on image information such as color electrophotographic film or digital camera. The present invention relates to an inkjet image recording material suitable for recording and an image recording method using the image recording material.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Electrostatic transfer method, sublimation heat transfer method, inkjet method by digitizing image formation by popularization due to high quality, general speed, and low cost of color image in color image formation with silver salt color sensitive material. For example, full-color image creation methods are rapidly spreading. The method using a silver salt color sensitive material is excellent in image quality such as color reproducibility, image sharpness, image density, glossiness, and image durability, and is one of the goals of developing an inkjet method. There is.

The ink jet system is relatively easy to realize full color by inputting digital information of a color original image, selection of ink species, etc., and is advantageous in that printing noise is relatively low as compared with other systems. However, the ink used contains a relatively large amount of water or solvent, and the absorption and removal of the droplets, beading of continuous ejection of fine unit droplets, prevention of sharpness deterioration due to bleeding, and silver salt color Unlike image formation in a film of a light-sensitive material, image formation is performed by ejecting an ink containing a dissolved or dispersed dye, and protection of the image and improvement of durability are particularly required.

Conventionally, a general paper and a sheet further provided with a waterproof resin layer have been used as a substrate of the recording support. Examples of such a substrate include, for example, JP-A-59-22.
Examples thereof include a printing sheet described in No. 683. Further, a resin film, for example, a polyester described in JP-A-59-222381, a transparent film such as cellulose acetate, a film filled with a white pigment, a synthetic paper, or the like is used. A transparent or opaque substrate described in JP-A No. 11-5362, which is integrated with a layer provided on the surface of an ink-absorbent paper, a porous resin film, or the like to improve the ink absorbency and heat. Depending on the treatment, it is used as an oxygen barrier support.

JP-A-59-222381, JP-A-59
-22683, JP-A-8-2090, JP-A-9-1
04163, JP-A-11-5362, and JP-A-2000.
-43368, JP-A-2000-43369, etc.
It is described that an ink image receiving layer is provided on a substrate and an image protective layer or the like is provided on the surface thereof. In addition, JP-A-7-23
7348, JP-A-9-104163, JP-A-9-1
JP-A-56206 and JP-A-11-5362 describe that an ink image-receiving layer is provided with a hydrophilic binder and a porous adsorbent which easily adsorbs and fixes the ink.

Further, JP-A-59-215885, JP-A-59-103782 and the like disclose a protective layer formed by laminating coating on the surface of an ink image-receiving layer, and JP-A-62-62.
-59076, JP-A-62-56184 and the like, especially JP-A-1-291990, describe that a protective layer is provided on the surface of the ink image-receiving layer by laminate coating, polymer solution coating or extrusion method. Further, JP-A-7-237348, JP-A-8-2090, and JP-A-2000-43368 also describe a method in which after forming an image using a porous polymer layer, heat treatment is performed to provide a protective layer. There is. However, in these methods, the durability of the surface of the recording material before the heat treatment is not sufficient, and improvement in this durability is desired. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-22569
No. 5 and the like describe a method of ejecting droplets for protecting the formed image by an ink jet and adhering them to the image forming surface. However, in this method, the method of providing the image protective layer after the image formation is not preferable in terms of the number of steps and the manufacturing cost.

An ink jet type recording system for efficiently recording an excellent image corresponding to a system for printing on a silver salt color sensitive material from an original image from the silver salt color sensitive material and a recording material used therefor have been found. Absent. In order to continuously and efficiently record the input image information by the inkjet method, it is necessary to specially devise the image recording material. For example, in order to continuously output a large number of images using a sheet-shaped recording medium, it is necessary to stack and store a large number of sheet-shaped recording media.

When a large amount of sheet-shaped recording medium is conveyed, a conveyance error may occur, which may cause continuous output to stop. This phenomenon is
When storing a large number of sheet-shaped recording media,
This is due to the adhesion of sheet-shaped recording media that are in contact with each other. These problems are more likely to occur as a number of sheet recording media are stacked. Therefore, in order to continuously perform a large number of recordings, it has been desired to solve these problems.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The object of the present invention can be effectively applied to an ink jet printing system, and
An object of the present invention is to provide an inkjet image recording material having excellent transportability in a system and an image recording method capable of forming an image with a simple man-hour using the image recording material.

[0010]

The above objects can be achieved by the following inventions. <1> An ink jet image recording material having an ink image receiving layer on one surface of a support, which is loaded in a recording system in a roll form, wherein a back coat layer contains a matting agent and / or a lubricant. An ink jet image recording material containing the same. <2> An image protective layer having a porous resin structure containing a thermoplastic resin latex having a minimum film forming temperature (MFT) of 50 ° C. or more is provided on the surface of the ink image receiving layer. 1> The inkjet image recording material described in 1>. <3> The inkjet image recording material according to <1> or <2>, wherein the ink image receiving layer is a layer having a plurality of porous structures made of inorganic fine particles. <4> The ink image receiving layer contains fine particle silica and /
Alternatively, the inkjet image recording material according to <3>, which has at least two layers having a porous structure containing an alumina hydrate and a hydrophilic binder. <5> The above-mentioned <1> to <4>, wherein the matting agent is made of resin latex or inorganic fine particles having an average particle size larger than the thickness of the back coat layer.
The inkjet image recording material as described in any one of <>. <6> The lubricant is a silicone-based or fluorine-based surfactant, <1> to <>
5> The inkjet image recording material according to any one of 5>. <7> An image recording method in which images are continuously recorded by being conveyed from an image recording material which is preliminarily loaded in a roll shape by an inkjet method based on image information representing an image to be recorded on a recording medium. An image recording method, wherein the image recording material is the image recording material according to any one of claims 1 to 6.

[0011]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION -Inkjet Image Recording Material- Fig. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a main part showing a preferred embodiment of the inkjet image recording material of the present invention.
Reference numeral 10 is a support, 12 is an undercoat layer, 14 is an ink image receiving layer, 16 is an image protective layer, and 18 is a back coat layer.

[Support] As the support in the image recording material of the present invention, either a transparent support made of a transparent material such as plastic or an opaque support made of an opaque material such as paper can be used. In order to make the most of the transparency of the colorant receiving layer, it is preferable to use a transparent support or a highly glossy opaque support.

As a material usable for the transparent support, a material which is transparent and has a property of withstanding radiant heat when used in an OHP or a backlight display is preferable. Examples of the material include polyesters such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET); polysulfone,
Examples thereof include polyphenylene oxide, polyimide, polycarbonate and polyamide. Among them, polyesters are preferable, and polyethylene terephthalate is particularly preferable. The thickness of the transparent support is not particularly limited, but is preferably 50 to 200 μm in terms of handleability.

As the highly glossy opaque support, it is preferable that the surface on the side where the ink image receiving layer is provided has a glossiness of 40% or more. The glossiness is JIS P-
8142 (value of 75 ° specular gloss test method for paper and paperboard). In particular,
The following supports may be mentioned.

For example, high gloss paper supports such as art paper, coated paper, cast coated paper, and baryta paper used for silver salt photographic supports; polyesters such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET); nitrocellulose. , Cellulose acetate, cellulose acetate such as cellulose acetate butyrate, plastic film such as polysulfone, polyphenylene oxide, polyimide, polycarbonate, polyamide, etc. were made opaque by containing a white pigment etc. (may be subjected to surface calendering treatment) High-gloss film; or a high-gloss film containing the various paper supports, the transparent support, or the white pigment is provided with a coating layer of polyolefin containing or not containing a white pigment. Support. Further, a white pigment-containing expanded polyester film (for example, expanded PET in which polyolefin fine particles are contained and voids are formed by stretching) can also be preferably mentioned.

The support may be corona discharge treated,
Those subjected to glow discharge treatment, flame treatment, ultraviolet irradiation treatment and the like may be used.

The polyethylene covering the front and back surfaces of the base paper is mainly low density polyethylene (LDPE) and / or
Alternatively, high density polyethylene (HDPE) may be used, but other LLDPE, polypropylene or the like may be partially used.

In particular, the polyethylene layer on the side for forming the ink image receiving layer is formed by adding rutile or anatase type titanium oxide into polyethylene, as is commonly used in photographic printing paper, to obtain opacity and whiteness. Those improved are preferable. Here, the content of titanium oxide is preferably 3 to 20 mass% with respect to polyethylene, and 4 to 1 is preferable.
3 mass% is more preferable.

The polyethylene-coated paper can be used as a glossy paper, or when a polyethylene is melt-extruded on the surface of a base paper for coating, a so-called embossing treatment is performed to obtain a matte surface or a matte surface obtained by ordinary photographic printing paper. It is also possible to use those having a silk surface.

In the present invention, in order to obtain the quality of the image recording material comparable to that of the silver salt color sensitive material, the whiteness and the smoothness of the current baryta paper or WP (support in which both sides of the base paper are coated with the thermoplastic resin) are required. High substrates should be used. Further, it is preferable to use a substrate in which the support itself has an oxygen barrier property after image formation.

[Undercoat Layer] It is desirable to provide an undercoat layer on the support in order to enhance the adhesion between the support and the ink image receiving layer. For the undercoat layer, a hydrophilic resin such as polyvinyl alcohol or a modified product thereof or gelatin or a modified product thereof having good adhesion between the surface of the support and the ink image-receiving layer is used, and a crosslinking curing agent, a thermoplastic resin latex, or the like. It is better to mix them. By providing such an undercoat layer, it is possible to improve the adhesion between the support and the ink image receiving layer and the water absorbency. Further, a white pigment such as barium sulfate, a fluorescent whitening agent, an antioxidant and a light stabilizer can be mixed in the undercoat layer.

[Ink image-receiving layer] A layer having a function of absorbing ink applied by an ink jet with a small amount of bleeding, adsorbing a dye and holding an image. An inorganic pigment that adsorbs a dye, a binder that has good ink permeability and does not hinder pigment adsorption, and a thermoplastic resin latex that protects an image are mainly used. In order to enhance the absorption of water, to adsorb and fix the image forming dye in a specific layer, and to obtain an image with less bleeding and beading, it is desirable that the ink image receiving layer has a multilayer structure of two or more layers. . For example, it is desirable to provide a water absorbing layer on the layer closer to the support (first layer) and a layer for adsorbing and fixing the dye on the layer further away from the support (second layer). .

As the inorganic pigment that adsorbs the dye, silica,
Known materials such as calcium carbonate, calcium sulfate, diatomaceous earth, calcium silicate, colloidal silica, alumina, pseudo-boehmite, colloidal alumina, and alumina hydrate are used. Alumina hydrate, silica, colloidal silica and the like are particularly preferable. These inorganic pigments are formed in a void shape in the ink image receiving layer to adsorb the dye and prevent ink bleeding.

The alumina hydrate can be produced by a known method such as hydrolysis of aluminum alkoxide and hydrolysis of sodium aluminate. The shape thereof is not particularly limited, such as cilia, needle, plate, or spindle, and may or may not have orientation. As the alumina hydrate used in the present invention, those commercially available, or those processed from their raw materials can be used, and the characteristics of these alumina hydrates are transparency and gloss. Further, it is more preferable that it has a high dye fixing property, does not have cracks during the formation of a film, and has a good coating property. Examples of commercially available products include A manufactured by Catalyst Kasei Co., Ltd.
S-2, AS-3, 520 manufactured by Nissan Chemical Co., Ltd. and the like can be mentioned. These alumina hydrates usually have a fine particle diameter of 1 μm or less and have excellent dispersibility, and therefore can give a recording medium excellent smoothness and gloss.

The binder for binding the inorganic pigment can be freely selected from water-soluble polymers. For example, polyvinyl alcohol or a modified product thereof,
Starch or a modified product thereof, gelatin or a modified product thereof, casein or a modified product thereof, gum arabic, cellulose derivatives such as carboxymethyl cellulose, hydroxyethyl cellulose, hydroxypropylmethyl cellulose, SBR latex, NBR latex, methyl methacrylate-butadiene copolymer, etc. Conjugated diene-based copolymer latex, functional group-modified polymer latex, vinyl-based copolymer latex such as ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer, polyvinylpyrrolidone, and acrylate copolymer are preferable. These binders may be used alone or in combination of two or more.

The mixing ratio of the inorganic pigment, particularly alumina hydrate, and the binder is a mass ratio, preferably 1: 1 to 30 :.
1, more preferably from 5: 1 to 25: 1. When the amount of the binder is less than the above range, the mechanical strength of the ink image receiving layer may be insufficient, and cracking or powder falling tends to occur. Further, if the mixing ratio of the binder to the inorganic pigment, especially alumina hydrate is higher than the above range, the pore volume may be reduced and the ink absorptivity may be lowered.

The coating liquid for forming the ink image receiving layer contains, in addition to the alumina hydrate and the binder, a dispersant, a thickener, a pH adjusting agent, a lubricant, a fluidity modifier, if necessary. It is also possible to add a surface active agent, a defoaming agent, a water resistance agent, a release agent, an optical brightening agent, an ultraviolet absorber, an antioxidant and the like.

The coating amount of the inorganic pigment, especially alumina hydrate, on the substrate is 10 g in order to have the dye fixing property.
/ M ² or more is preferable, when the substrate does not have ink absorbability, the coating amount is more preferably in the range of 30 to 50 g / m ² , and when the substrate has ink absorbability, the coating amount is The range of 20 to 40 g / m ² is more preferable. The coating / drying method is not particularly limited, but the alumina hydrate and the binder may be subjected to a baking treatment, if necessary. By carrying out such a baking treatment, the binder crosslinking strength is increased, the mechanical strength of the ink receiving layer is improved, and the surface gloss of the alumina hydrate layer is improved.

In addition, silica or colloidal silica can be used as the inorganic pigment in the ink image receiving layer in the same porous structure as alumina hydrate. In this case, as the binder, for example, a cationically modified polyvinyl alcohol or its copolymer can be used in addition to those described in JP-A-61-110483.

[Image Protecting Layer] The image protecting layer is provided on the ink image receiving layer to improve the physical strength of the ink image receiving layer and to improve the durability and weather resistance of the image, and also to provide a back coat described later. Together with the layer, it plays a role of transporting the ink jet recording image recording material, and preventing peeling due to adhesion of the ink image receiving layer in the roll form. The image protection layer preferably forms a porous resin layer using a thermoplastic resin latex, and the latex preferably has a specific particle distribution. The average particle size of the resin latex is 0.1
To 10 μm, preferably 0.3 to 5 μm, and more preferably 0.3 to 3 μm. The distribution is preferably a monodisperse distribution, and a latex having uniform particles such that 90% or more of the particles are in the range of ± 2/3, preferably ± 1/3 of the average particle size is preferable. In particular, it is preferable that fine particles of latex do not enter. The thermoplastic resin latex preferably has a particle solid content of about 10 to 60% by mass, and does not impair ink permeability, and it is desirable that a transparent resin film be formed by heat treatment after image formation.

The thermoplastic resin used in the image protective layer is made non-porous by heat treatment during image recording to form a film,
A resin having a property of protecting an image, particularly a resin containing a component having a high ultraviolet absorption is preferable. For example, vinyl chloride type, vinylidene chloride type, styrene type, acrylic type, urethane type, polyester type, ethylene type material or vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate type, vinyl chloride-acrylic type, vinyl chloride-vinylidene chloride type, Vinylidene chloride-acrylic, SBR, NBR, etc. latex,
Latex of these two or more copolymers, such as SB
Examples of the latex include R-based / NBR-based mixtures and vinyl chloride-acrylic / vinyl acetate-based mixtures. The content of the component containing the conjugated double bond component is preferably 50% or less.

The image protective layer contains 10 to 3 of silica sol or the like.
It is preferable to mix 0% by mass. It has the effect of enhancing adhesion with the ink image receiving layer, preventing beading, etc., and improving sharpness.

Further, the image protective layer has a hydrophilic property which is used for the ink image receiving layer in order to optimize the adhesion with the ink image receiving layer, improve the sharpness, and maintain the physical strength of the image protective layer. It is preferable to add a binder such as polyvinyl alcohol.

The coating amount of the image protective layer is such that after image formation, heat treatment, preferably smoothing treatment, a sufficient surface gloss is given.
An amount that gives a thickness that exerts an image protection function, and preferably an amount that gives a dry coating film of 1 μm to 10 μm.
The smoothing treatment is a treatment in which, after the heat film-forming treatment, a roll having a smooth surface is pressed near the Tg temperature to smooth the surface. If necessary, the coating liquid for forming the image protective layer may include a dispersant, a thickener, a pH adjuster, a lubricant, a fluidity modifier, a surfactant, an antifoaming agent, a water-proofing agent, and a fluorescent whitening agent. It is also possible to add agents, ultraviolet absorbers, antioxidants and the like.

[Backcoat Layer] The backcoat layer is provided on the surface of the support opposite to the surface having the ink image receiving layer. By providing a back coat layer, the transportability of the recording paper in the image recording process is improved, the ink image receiving layer is substantially protected, and the function of the image protective layer is simplified, so that an abnormal event in the image recording processing process occurs. Can be reduced.

As the hydrophilic binder used in the back coat layer, a binder having good adhesion to the support or the surface-treated surface is used, and the back coat layer coating solution is preferably applied after undercoating the support. As the hydrophilic binder, for example, gelatin or a modified product thereof, casein or a modified product thereof, polyvinyl alcohol or a modified product thereof, polyvinylpyrrolidone, polyethylene oxide, polyacrylic acid, polyacrylic acid amide, carboxymethyl cellulose, hydroxyethyl cellulose,
Hydroxypropylmethyl cellulos or their derivatives may be used alone or in combination of two or more. In order to enhance the adhesiveness and physical strength of the back coat layer, it is preferable to use a curing agent for the binder. For example, a curing agent such as boric acid or a salt thereof can be used for polyvinyl alcohol or a copolymer thereof, or another polymer. Further, a known curing agent such as an epoxy compound can be used for gelatin or its modified product.

In order to improve the transportability of the recording material, a matting agent, that is, a dispersion of resin latex or inorganic pigment particles having a particle size sufficiently larger than the thickness of the back coat layer can be used. The average particle size of the matting agent is 0.5 μm, which is larger than the dry film thickness of the back coat layer.
30 μm is preferable, and more preferably 0.5 μm to 10 μm.
It is preferably μm and monodisperse. The amount is preferably such that a convex portion of about 10 to 30 is provided per 1 mm ² of the surface of the back coat layer.

In order to improve the adhesiveness of the recording material in a roll form, it is used as a lubricant, for example, a dispersion or a surfactant such as a silicone oil type or a fluorine type surfactant. In particular, it is desirable to use these surfactants in combination with the matting agent. The thickness of the back coat layer is 0.2 μm to 1
It is 0 μm, preferably about 0.2 μm to 5 μm.

The ink jet type image recording material according to the present invention is particularly preferably used for recording a high quality color image. It is preferably used in an image recording system for recording continuously by an ink jet system based on an image obtained by a development processing system of a silver halide photographic light-sensitive material and image information obtained by a high quality color digital camera.

-Image recording method-The image recording method of the present invention is to use the above-mentioned ink jet type image recording material, and in particular, after the ink is printed using the ink jet type image recording material of the present invention, it is heated. Processing is desirable. This heat treatment is preferably carried out under the temperature condition and treatment time necessary for making the ink image image-receiving layer comprising a porous layer containing thermoplastic resin particles non-porous. The layer has good weather resistance such as water resistance and light resistance, and can impart gloss to the image, and at the same time, the ink that has been printed and has penetrated into the ink image receiving layer of the porous layer is made non-porous to receive an ink image receiving image. By adsorbing and fixing in the layer, the printed matter can be stored for a long period of time.

The heat treatment temperature at this time is preferably not less than the flow temperature of the thermoplastic resin particles, more preferably not less than the minimum film-forming temperature (MFT). The membrane temperature (MFT) is
It is the temperature at which the image protection layer, which is mainly used, becomes transparent by heat treatment, and also depends on the processing time.

The heat treatment temperature is preferably such that the image protective layer is made non-porous and transparent at the same time. In this case, the T of the thermoplastic resin particles constituting the image protective layer is T.
film forming temperature (MFT) of g and thermoplastic resin latex
It is desirable to use a resin latex having a difference of 10 ° C. or less. If the difference between the Tg and the minimum film forming temperature (MFT) of the thermoplastic resin latex is larger than 10 ° C., a sufficiently uniform protective film cannot be formed. Therefore, the heat treatment temperature varies depending on the type of the thermoplastic resin latex and the like, but if the heat treatment temperature is too high, there is a problem in that curling occurs after the treatment or a large amount of heating energy is used. On the other hand, if the heat treatment temperature is too low, the problem of causing unevenness due to insufficient formation of the protective layer occurs. The heat treatment temperature is preferably about 60 to 180 ° C, more preferably 80 to 130 ° C.

As means for applying such an image recording method, it is desirable to have at least means for printing the ink on the image recording material of the present invention and then heat-treating the printed image recording material at a predetermined temperature. In addition, ink-jet recording image recording material in roll form can be loaded,
Moreover, an image recording system capable of printing while rewinding this roll-shaped inkjet recording image recording material is desirable.

Further, the ink jet type image recording material according to the present invention is preferably used for recording a high quality color image. In this case, the image recording apparatus has the above-mentioned heat treatment means and can be loaded with a roll-shaped inkjet recording image recording material, and printing is performed while rewinding the roll-shaped inkjet recording image recording material. An image recording apparatus capable of performing continuous recording by an inkjet method based on an image obtained by a development processing system for silver halide photographic light-sensitive materials, image information obtained from a high-quality color digital camera, etc. Good for recording systems. For example, Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-361
It is preferably used as a recording material of the image recording apparatus described in No. 518.

This image recording apparatus, as shown in FIG.
A housing 20A of the inkjet printer 20 has a substantially box shape, and a magazine 72 that stores a long image recording material 70 wound around a reel 72A is set at one end of the housing 20A. It Magazine 72 is housing 20
In the state where the reel 72A is set to A, the reel 72A is connected to the pullout / conveyance motor via a speed reduction mechanism (all are not shown), and is rotated by driving the pullout / conveyor motor. As a result, the image recording material 70 is pulled out from the magazine 72.

The image recording material 70 drawn out from the magazine 72 is directed to the other end side of the housing 20A by a pair of conveying rollers 74, 76, 78, 80, 82 arranged on the downstream side in the drawing direction of the image recording material 70. Be transported. The conveying roller pair 74 is rotationally driven by the driving force of the pull-out conveying motor, and the conveying roller pairs 76, 78, 80, 82 are rotationally driven by the driving force of the synchronous conveying motor (not shown).

A loop forming mechanism (not shown) is provided between the conveying roller pairs 74 and 76, and a loop of the image recording material 70 is formed between the conveying roller pairs 74 and 76 by this loop forming mechanism. . In the vicinity of the loop forming position, loop sensors 84 composed of a pair of a light emitting element and a light receiving element facing each other across the loop forming position are provided at two different height positions.

Pull-out and transport motors, synchronous transport motors, loop forming mechanism, and transport roller pairs 74, 76, 78, 8
Reference numerals 0 and 82 constitute the recording material conveying section 62, and the printer control section 56 records the loop sensor 84 located on the upper side after the loop of the image recording material 70 is once formed by the loop forming mechanism. When the loop of the material 70 is not detected (the light emitted from the light emitting element is received by the light receiving element without being shielded by the recording material), the pulling / conveying motor is driven to drive the reel 72A and the conveying roller pair. By rotating 74, the drawing of the image recording material 70 from the magazine 72 is started, and when the loop sensor 84 located on the lower side detects the loop of the image recording material 70 (the light emitted from the light emitting element is When the light receiving element does not receive light because it is shielded by the lowermost part of the loop of the recording material 70), the drive of the drawer transport motor is stopped and the magazine is stopped. It repeated stopping the withdrawal of the image recording material 70 from 2.

By forming the above loop, the image recording material 70 can be conveyed asynchronously with the drawing of the image recording material 70 from the magazine 72 on the downstream side of the loop. For this reason, the printer control unit (not shown) is configured so that the image recording material 7 by the recording head 60 is provided on the downstream side of the loop.
In order to convey the image recording material 70 in synchronism with the image recording on 0, the synchronous conveying motor is driven to convey the conveying roller pair 7.
6, 78, 80, 82 are driven to rotate.

A recording head 60 is arranged above the pair of conveying rollers 76 and 78. The recording head 60 is arranged near the conveyance path of the image recording material 70. A cutter 100 for cutting the long image recording material 70 in units of individual information is provided on the downstream side of the conveying roller 82. The image recording material 70 cut for each image by the cutter 100 is the tray 10 provided in the housing 20A.
It is discharged to 2.

Inks of different colors (for example, C, M, Y, BK) are stored in a plurality of main tanks (not shown), and are supplied to each nozzle row through the ink chambers. As a result, ink of different colors is ejected from each nozzle for each nozzle row.

A 3-line CCD sensor (an area sensor may be used) 98 for reading a color image (output image) recorded on the image recording material 70 is arranged between the conveying rollers 80 and 82. There is. The CCD sensor 98 constitutes a part of the image reading unit, and the image signal output from the CCD sensor 98 is supplied to an amplifier included in the image reading unit.
An output image data representing an output image is input to the printer control unit through an A / D converter and a correction unit that performs correction such as dark correction.

On the other hand, as the ejection method for ejecting the ink from the nozzle, any of various known ejection methods can be adopted. For example, as a typical method, a piezoelectric element attached to an ink chamber is used. A pulse voltage is applied to the piezoelectric element to deform the piezoelectric element to change the ink fluid pressure in the ink chamber, and the change in ink fluid pressure is used to eject ink droplets from the nozzle. It is possible to employ a thermal method or the like in which the ink is heated by the heating element and the ink droplets are ejected from the nozzles by the bubbles generated in the ink chamber by the heating. The recording head 60 is also provided with a pump 112 that sucks ink in all the ink chambers inside the recording head 60 by generating a negative pressure in order to eliminate clogging of the nozzle ejection port.

When the image recording material of the present invention is applied to the image recording apparatus shown in FIG. 2, when the image recording material 70 loaded in the reel form is taken out from the magazine 72 and conveyed in the image recording apparatus, Since the back coat layer provided on the back surface of the image recording material 70 contains the matting agent and / or the lubricant, the back coat layer and the image protective layer do not come into close contact with each other to prevent conveyance failure. Is normally conveyed in the image recording apparatus, and an image defect due to a conveyance defect does not occur. In addition, after the ink is printed on the image recording material 70 from the recording head 60, the heat treatment unit 64
As a result of making the porosity non-porous by heat treatment with, the surface property and the transparency of the surface of the image recording material 70 are improved, and the printed ink is adsorbed and fixed in the ink image receiving layer. Thus, the durability and weather resistance of the image recording material can be improved and the image can be sharpened.

[0055]

EXAMPLES Examples of the present invention will be described, but the present invention is not limited thereto. [Example 1] 1. 1. Preparation of Inkjet Recording Material of the Present Invention 1.1 Preparation of Backcoat Layer and Undercoat Layer on Support (Preparation of Backcoat Layer) Polyethylene double-sided laminate having a constitution used for producing ordinary color photographic paper A paper support (thickness 100 μm) was used. Corona discharge treatment is applied to both surfaces of this surface.

(1) Preparation of Backcoat Layer 0.3% by mass of an epoxy curing agent was added to a 5% by mass gelatin aqueous solution, and monodisperse distribution particles of modified polyethylene having an average particle size of about 5 μ (manufactured by Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd.). ) About 3% by mass
Was added. Furthermore, 0.1% by mass of a fluorine-containing acrylic resin-based aqueous emulsion (manufactured by Asahi Glass) was added and stirred to obtain a coating liquid for backcoat layer. This coating liquid was coated on the back surface of the support to form a back coat layer having a thickness of about 5 μm.

(2) Preparation of undercoat layer 5% by mass containing sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate
A coating liquid for undercoat layer was obtained by adding 0.3% by mass of an epoxy type curing agent to an aqueous gelatin solution. This coating solution was applied on the surface of a support to form an undercoat layer having a thickness of about 0.5 μm.

1-2 Preparation of Ink Image Receiving Layer Boehmite sol 100 having a crystal thickness in the (020) plane direction of 80 μm and a secondary agglomerated particle diameter of 1.5 to 4 μm synthesized by the hydrolysis method of aluminum isoproxide. 11 parts by mass of polyvinyl alcohol (both in terms of solid content) and water were added to parts by mass to prepare a coating liquid for an ink image receiving layer. This coating solution was applied onto the surface of the undercoat layer so as to form a coating film having a dry film thickness of 30 μm. The coating film thus prepared was a transparent porous film having a pore size of the alumina hydrate porous layer of 50 nm.

1-3 Preparation of Image Protecting Layer (1) Acrylonitrile / vinylidene chloride / acrylic acid (mass ratio 15/79/6): (P-1) synthesis (1) 230 g of distillation in a 400 ml eggplant-shaped flask Water, (2) 0.8 g Triton-770, (3) 1
2.34 g of acrylonitrile, (4) 4.93 g of acrylic acid, (5) 64.96 g of vinylidene chloride,
(6) 0.204 g of potassium metabisulfite and (7) 0.102 g of potassium persulfate were sequentially added.
The flask was sealed, shaken at 30 ° C., and put in for 18 hours. The polymerization mixture was freed from volatile residual monomers for 15 minutes at room temperature under reduced pressure. (Tg: 46 ° C.) The particle size and distribution of the latex obtained by changing the amount of the emulsifier Triton-770 and the speed of shaking were measured with Microtrac UPA (manufactured by Nikkiso Co., Ltd.), and the desired one was used. Was selected. Sample P-1 has an average particle size of about 0.8 μ.
It is a monodisperse distribution resin latex in which 90% or more of particles are contained in a diameter range of m, 0.5 to 1.1 μm.

(2) Thermoplastic resin latex sample P-1
8% by mass of polyvinyl alcohol and 2% by mass of silica sol having an average particle diameter of about 0.05 μm are mixed to prepare a coating solution, which is dried at 50 ° C. to form a porous resin layer having a thickness of about 6 μm. It was coated. Recording material sample No. Got 1.

[Comparative Example 1] The sample No. In the process of producing No. 1, sample No. 1 was prepared except that the back layer was not provided. Comparative recording material sample a was obtained in the same manner as in the preparation of 1.

2. Image Production Inkjet image recording material N obtained by the present invention
o. 1 was used, connected to the roller of the support in a continuous manner so as to be able to record continuously, in the form of a roller, and loaded in the image recording apparatus in FIG.

In the configuration diagram shown in FIG. 2, the color negative film superia40 manufactured by Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd.
A film having a color negative image using 0 is converted into digital information by an A / D mechanism using a film scanner (12), corrected and corrected by an image processing device (18), and image data of an inkjet printer (20). It is input to the storage unit. The image recording material according to the present invention is
Inkjet printer (20) magazine (72)
, And is stored in combination with a leader band wound on a reel (72A). The recording material is rollers (74, 7).
6) and through the loop sensor (84) to fit the recording head (60). The image information input to the image data storage unit passes through the printer control unit, and inks C, M, Y, and BK of different colors are ejected from each level of the recording head (60) to form an image. The recording material on which the ink image is obtained is heated by the edge roller (78) and sent to the drying section (64), and is heat-treated at about 120 to 140 ° C., and the image quality is checked by the CCD sensor by the rollers (80, 82). Sent to the tray (102) and cut into a predetermined size by the cutter (100).

3. Evaluation 3-1 Evaluation Item (1) Transportability The image information input to the image data storage unit was connected to form a roll, and 10 copies were continuously recorded, and the order of transportability was observed. (2) Abrasion resistant recording materials are stacked so that the image protective layer and the back coat layer are aligned with each other, a weight of 1 kg is placed on the material, the intermediate material is taken out, and the degree of friction is visually observed. (3) Image quality The image obtained is subjected to visual comparison and observation to determine the hue, sharpness,
Observe for scratches. (4) Weather resistance The image recorded matter was left outdoors (including in direct sunlight) for 10 days, and the change in the image was visually observed. Evaluation: ◎ Particularly excellent ○ More excellent △ Equivalent (slightly inferior in practical use, but usable) × Inferior 3-2 Evaluation result

[0065]

[Table 1]

[Examples 2 to 4] Image recording material sample No. 1 of Example 1 Image recording material No. 1 in the same manner as in Example 1 except that the constitution of the back layer was changed as shown in Table 2. 2,
Image recording material No. 3, image recording material No. Got 4.
Table 2 shows the results of evaluation performed in the same manner as in Example 1.

[0067]

[Table 2]

[Embodiment 5] Image recording material No. 1, the following points were changed and the image recording material No. 1 was changed. Got 5. In the image protection layer, the following thermoplastic resin sample P-2 was mixed with 2% by mass of silica sol having an average particle size of about 0.05 μm to prepare a coating solution, which was dried at 60 ° C. and a porous resin having a thickness of about 5 μm. The layers were coated. Preparation of back coat layer About 0.2% by mass of sodium metaborate was added to an aqueous polyvinyl alcohol solution, and about 3% by mass of a latex having an average particle size of 6μ having a modified polystyrene monodisperse distribution was added to the aqueous solution of fluorine-containing acrylic resin. 0.1 mass% was added to obtain a coating liquid. Using this coating solution, a back coat layer having a thickness of about 5 μm was provided on the back side of the support. Image recording material sample No. Got 5. Sample P-2 acrylonitrile / vinylidene chloride / acrylic acid mass ratio 39/69/2 (Tg 79 ° C.)

Comparative Example 2 Preparation of Recording Comparison Material b Recording Material Sample No. 5, sample No. 5 except that a back coat layer of polyvinyl alcohol having a thickness of about 5 μm was provided on the back surface of the ink image receiving layer. It was similar to 5.
The evaluation results are shown in Table 3.

[0070]

[Table 3]

[Comparative Example 3] Production of recording comparative sample C Recording material sample No. Comparative Material C was obtained in the same manner as in 5, except that the back coat layer was not provided.

[0072]

According to the ink jet image recording material and the image recording method of the present invention, the image by the ink jet method is continuously conveyed (as in the print production by photofinishing) from the image recording material in the roll form, Can record quickly and efficiently. Since a specific back coat layer is provided, it prevents the ink image receiving layer in roll form from adhering to the back, protects the image layer, and conveys without any abnormalities, making it possible to continuously stabilize high-quality images. Obtainable.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a preferred embodiment of an inkjet image recording material of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an example of an image recording system used in the image recording method of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 Support 12 Undercoat layer 14 Ink image receiving layer 16 Image protection layer 18 Back coat layer 20 inkjet printer 60 recording head 64 Heat treatment section 70 Image recording materials

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    F term (reference) 2C056 EA13 FC06 HA46                 2H086 BA14 BA15 BA16 BA24 BA31                       BA33 BA34

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. An image recording material for an inkjet system, which has an ink image receiving layer on one surface of a support and is loaded into a recording system in a roll form, wherein a back coat layer is a matting agent and / or a lubricating agent. An ink jet image recording material comprising an agent. 2. An image protective layer having a porous resin structure containing a thermoplastic resin latex having a minimum film forming temperature (MFT) of 50 ° C. or higher is provided on the surface of the ink image receiving layer. The inkjet image recording material according to claim 1. 3. The ink jet image recording material according to claim 1, wherein the ink image receiving layer is a layer having a plurality of porous structures made of inorganic fine particles. 4. The ink jet image recording according to claim 3, wherein the ink image receiving layer has at least two layers having a porous structure containing fine particle silica and / or alumina hydrate and a hydrophilic binder. material. 5. The inkjet according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the matting agent is made of resin latex or inorganic fine particles having an average particle size larger than the thickness of the back coat layer. Image recording material. 6. The inkjet image recording material according to claim 1, wherein the lubricant is a silicone-based or fluorine-based surfactant. 7. An image recording method in which an image recording material preliminarily loaded in a roll form by an inkjet method is fed from an image recording material based on image information representing an image to be recorded on a recording medium, and images are continuously recorded. An image recording method, wherein the image recording material is the image recording material according to any one of claims 1 to 6.