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US 7,381,506 B2Granted
Reimageable paper
AssigneeXerox Corporation
InventorsGabriel Iftime, Naveen Chopra, Peter M. Kazmaier
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An image forming medium includes a substrate and a mixture including a photochromic material and a solvent wherein the mixture is coated on the substrate, such that the photochromic material exhibits a reversible homogeneous-heterogeneous transition between a colorless state and a colored state in the solvent.
Claims19
An image forming medium, comprising
- a substrate;
- and
- a mixture comprising a photochromic material and a solvent wherein said mixture is coated on said substrate, and wherein the image forming medium is configured to constrain the mixture in place on the substrate;
- wherein the photochromic material and the solvent are selected so that:
- the photochromic material exhibits a reversible homogeneous-heterogeneous transition between a colorless state and a colored state in the solvent;
- the photochromic material in its colorless state remains dispersed in the solvent, but phase separates from the solvent when the photochromic material is in its colored state;
- and
- the photochromic material in its colored state phase separates out of the solvent in the form of opaque, polydisperse crystals;
- and
- wherein the image forming medium is configured so that:
- the image forming medium may undergo image formation and image erasure at least two times;
- and
- an image formed on the image forming medium remains stable and visible under indoor ambient conditions for at least two days.
10 more elements
A method of forming a transient image, comprising:
- providing an image forming medium comprising:
- a substrate;
- and
- a mixture comprising a photochromic material and a solvent wherein said mixture is coated on said substrate, and wherein the image forming medium is configured to constrain the mixture in place on the substrate;
- wherein the photochromic material and the solvent are selected so that:
- the photochromic material exhibits a reversible homogeneous-heterogeneous transition between a colorless state and a colored state in the solvent;
- the photochromic material in its colorless state remains dispersed in the solvent, but phase separates from the solvent when the photochromic material is in its colored state;
- and
- the photochromic material in its colored state phase separates out of the solvent in the form of opaque, polydisperse crystals;
- and
- wherein the image forming medium is configured so that:
- the image forming medium may undergo image formation and image erasure at least two times;
- and
- an image formed on the image forming medium remains stable and visible under indoor ambient conditions for at least two days;
- and
- exposing the image forming medium to a UV light in an imagewise manner.
13 more elements
A method of making an image forming medium, comprising:
- providing a substrate;
- applying to the substrate a solvent mixture comprising a photochromic material and a solvent, wherein the photochromic material and the solvent are selected so that:
- the photochromic material exhibits a reversible homogeneous-heterogeneous transition between a colorless state and a colored state in the solvent;
- the photochromic material in its colorless state remains dispersed in the solvent, but phase separates from the solvent when the photochromic material is in its colored state;
- and
- the photochromic material in its colored state phase separates out of the solvent in the form of opaque, polydisperse crystals;
- and
- fixing said solvent mixture to said substrate;
- wherein the image forming medium is configured so that:
- the image forming medium may undergo image formation and image erasure at least two times;
- and
- an image formed on the image forming medium remains stable and visible under indoor ambient conditions for at least two days.
9 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.