Method for transferring hot melt ink to a recording medium

Abstract

The present invention discloses a method for thermally transferring an ink pattern to a recording medium, comprising the steps of preparing an ink sheet provided with a hot-melt and/or hot-sublimable ink layer and a transparent material sheet provided with a transparent hot-melt material layer, thermally producing an ink pattern on the transparent material layer of the transparent material sheet by heating the ink sheet with thermal head, and thermally transferring the ink pattern to the recording medium together with the transparent hot-melt material layer. And an another method comprising the steps of preparing an ink sheet having a transparent hot-melt material frame layer and a hot-melt and/or hot-sublimable ink frame layer, thermally transferring the transparent hot-melt material frame layer onto a surface of a platen roller, thermally producing an ink pattern on the transparent hot-melt material frame layer on the platen roller by heating the hot-melt and/or hot-sublimable ink frame layer with a thermal head, and thermally transferring the ink pattern together with the transparent hot-melt material frame layer onto a recording medium.

What is claimed is:  
     
       1. A method for thermally transferring an ink pattern to a recording medium, comprising the steps of: 
       preparing an ink sheet provided with a hot-melt and/or hot-sublimable ink layer thereon and a transparent material sheet provided with transparent hot-melt material layer thereon;  
       thermally producing an ink pattern on said transparent hot-melt material layer of the transparent material sheet by heating said hot-melt and/or hot-sublimable ink layer with a thermal head; and  
       thermally transferring the ink pattern produced on said transparent hot-melt material layer to the recording medium together with said transparent hot-melt material layer.  
     
     
       2. A method for thermally transferring an ink pattern to a recording medium as defined in  claim 1  wherein said step of thermally producing an ink pattern on said transparent hot-melt material layer of the transparent material sheet is further characterized in that the ink pattern so produced has a printing area larger than the area of said recording medium.