Urethane Acrylates for D2T2 Printing System

The D2T2 (Dye Diffusion Thermal Transfer) printing system, which is famous in video printers, is used widely because of its gradation sequence and instancy. In this printing system, sublimation dye on the ink ribbon is transferred and spread into the receptive layer resin by heat from the thermal head. Since optical density depends on the glass transition temperature (Tg) of receptive layer resin, for high optical density we have to use low Tg resin for the receptive layer. However, when the resin with low Tg is used as the receptive layer resin, the stick-slip behavior becomes worse because the frictional coefficient is high. So, adjustment of the optical density and stick-slip behavior is important. We have found that UV/EB curable urethane acrylates that consist of the low molecular weight diols (glycols) are useful material to resolve these opposite properties. And we have studied the relationship between the kind of glycols and the properties of the receptive layer resin.