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EP0046026A2 Expired / Lapsed EP ⏱️ 0.0 years remaining

Transfer, encapsulating, and fixing of toner images

Assignee: 3M Co
•
Filing: 1981-07-27
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2001-07-27
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Abstract

Abstract A method of transferring, encapsulating, and fixing dried liquid toner images in electrography is provided. Stable, abrasion-resistant articles are disclosed which have a substrate bearing a polymeric receptor coating, the receptor coating having encapsulated therein particles of substantially submicron size distributed in image-wise fashion in a homogeneous continuum up to about eight particle-diameters thick and having a resulting transmission optical density within the range of 0 to 4.0, the particles being encapsulated in the receptor coating so that at least 75% are not protruding from the surface of the coating.

Inventors

  • 👤 Melville R.V. Sahyun
  • 👤 Tsung-I Chen
  • 👤 Timothy W. King
  • 👤 Valdis Mikelsons
  • 👤 Smarajit Mitra

Bibliographic Details

Application Number —
Jurisdiction EP
Data Source google_patents
Last Synchronized 2026-11-01 04:40
CPC Classifications
G; G03; G03G; G03G7/00; G03G7/0006; G03G7/002; G03G7/0026; G03G7/0046; G03G13/00; G03G13/22; G03G7/004

Claims Analysis

Total Claims: 11
Claim 1
Independent Claim 152 words
A method of transferring, encapsulating, and fixing dried liquid toner images in electrography characterized by the steps of: a) providing a substrate carrying a liquid toner developed image on at least one surface thereof, b) removing the liquid dispersant from said liquid toner image so that the toner material is converted to a dried toner image composition comprising at least 50% by weight solids, c) bringing said dried toner image into contact with a soft or softenable receptor coating on a substrate, applying pressure and, optionally, heat so that said dried toner image undergoes linear transfer and becomes encapsulated within the soft or resulting softened receptor coating, the material comprising said soft or softened receptor coating having a Newtonian complex dynamic melt viscosity of less than about 1.7 ± 0.2 x 10 3 poise and a loss tangent greater than 10 at the temperature of transfer, and d) hardening the receptor coating.
Claim 2
Independent Claim 152 words
A method of transferring, encapsulating, and fixing dried liquid toner images in electrography characterized by the steps of: a) providing a substrate carrying a liquid toner developed image on at least one surface thereof, b) removing the liquid dispersant from said liquid toner image so that the toner material is converted to a dried toner image composition comprising at least 50% by weight solids, c) bringing said dried toner image into contact with a soft or softenable receptor coating on a substrate, applying pressure and, optionally, heat so that said dried toner image undergoes linear transfer and becomes encapsulated within the soft or resulting softened receptor coating, the material comprising said soft or softened receptor coating having a Newtonian complex dynamic melt viscosity of less than about 1.7 ± 0.2 x 10 3 poise and a loss tangent greater than 10 at the temperature of transfer, and d) hardening the receptor coating.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim 21 words
The method of Claim 1, characterized by the feature that said toner image is selected.from an electroradiographic image and a micro-image.
Claim 4
Independent Claim 74 words
The method of electrography according to either of Claims 1 and 2, further characterized by the feature that the liquid toner developed image is formed by development of an electrostatic charge pattern with a finely divided solid opaque charged or polarizable pigment material or is formed by development of a magnetic pattern with a finely divided opaque magnetic or magnetizable pigment material, which pigment material is dispersed in a suitable high resistivity organic liquid.
Claim 5
Independent Claim 30 words
The method according to any one of Claims 1 to 3, further characterized by the feature that the image-carrying substrate is a photoreceptor capable of bearing an electrostatic charge pattern.
Claim 6
Independent Claim 35 words
The method according to any one of Claims 1 to 3, further characterized by the feature that the image-carrying substrate is an insulating substrate onto which a charge pattern has been transferred or directly sprayed.
Claim 7
Independent Claim 37 words
The method according to any one of Claims 1 to 5, further characterized by the feature that the receptor coating is about 3 to 100 microns thick and the temperature of transfer is between 20 and 130°C.
Claim 8
Independent Claim 23 words
The method according to any one of Claims 1 to 6, further characterized by the feature that the receptor coating is radiation curable.
Claim 9
Independent Claim 64 words
The method according to any one of Claims 1 to 7, further characterized by the feature that the resulting encapsulated image exhibits continuous tone and transmission optical densities within the range of 0 to 4.0 and at least some toner particles extend to a depth of 3 microns into the receptor coating, and said toner developed image exhibits resolution up to about 200 lp/mn.
Claim 10
Independent Claim 29 words
The method according to any one of Claims 1 to 8, further characterized by the feature that said substrate and said soft or softenable receptor coating are optically transparent.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim 81 words
A stable, abrasion-resistant electrographic article produced according to the method of Claim 1 characterized by a substrate bearing a polymeric receptor coating, said receptor coating having encapsulated therein particles of substantially.submicron size distributed in image-wise fashion in a homogeneous continuum up to about eight particle-diameters thick and having a resulting transmission optical density within the range of 0 to 4.0, said particles being encapsulated in said coating so that at least 75% are not protruding from the surface of the coating.

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