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US 4,777,492 AGranted
Thermal recording method
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsToshikazu Ohnishi, Tsutomu Toyono, Katsumi Kurematsu, Shuzo Kaneko
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A recording method utilizing a thin blended layer of two or more polymers which assumes a mutually dissolved transparent state below a predetermined temperature but a phase-separated opaque state above this temperature, in which a halftone reproduction is achieved through control of temperature applied to the thin layer.
Claims12
A thermal recording method, comprising the steps of:
- selecting a recording material providing a recording layer of a blend of at least two stable polymers which are in a mutually dissolved unifrom state below a certain temperatue and at elast partially in a phase-separated state above said temperature, thereby changing from a transparent state to an opaque state heated above said temperature, wherein said layer (i) stays opaque if it is rapidly cooled below said temperatue and (ii) returns to said transparent state when it is gradually cooled below said temperature, and wherein an intermediate opaque state may be obtained by varying the amount of said blend which is in a phase-separated state;
- heating at least a portion of said blend layer to make said portion in said at least partially phase-separated state;
- and
- slowly cooling at least a portion of said heated portion to restore at least a portion of said slowly cooled portion to a less phase-separated state.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.