METHOD FOR CREATING A SCRATCH-OFF DOCUMENT WITH LOW ENERGY COMPONENTS
A method of creating a scratch-off document, the method includes the steps of providing a substrate; applying an image toner on the substrate; heating the image toner which causes the image toner to fix to the substrate and causes low surface energy component in the image toner to migrate to a surface of a formed image; applying a non-image toner on the surface of the formed image and the substrate; fusing the non-image toner which fuses the non-image toner to the surface of the formed image and the substrate, which causes the fused non-image toner to fuse to a level that permits scratch-off of a scratch-off portion of the fused non-image toner.
1 . A method of creating a scratch-off document, the method comprising:
providing a substrate;
applying an image toner on the substrate;
heating the image toner which causes the image toner to fix to the substrate and causes low surface energy component in the image toner to migrate to a surface of a formed image;
applying a non-image toner on the surface of the formed image and the substrate;
fusing the non-image toner which fixes the non-image toner to the surface of the formed image and the substrate, which causes the fused non-image toner to fuse to a level that permits scratch-off of a scratch-off portion of the fused non-image toner.
2 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the mass of the non-image toner is greater than 0.7 mg/cm2.
3 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the image toner is fixed using nip forming heated rollers, radiant fusing, flash fusing, microwave fusing or solvent fusing.
4 . The method according to claim 1 wherein the mean size of the image toner used 4 to 10 microns.
5 . The method according to claim 1 wherein the mean size of the non image toner used 15 to 100 microns.
6 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the combined mass of the image toners is less than 0.7 mg/cm2.
7 . The method according to claim 4 wherein the image toners comprise a visible pigments to form an image
8 . The method according to claim 5 wherein the image is monochrome or a composite image produced by combining at least two toners with different colorants.
9 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the surface energy of the low surface energy additives is between 10 and 35 mN/m at 25° C. or more preferably between 18 and 35 mN/m at 25° C.
10 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the image toner contains one or more of the low surface energy additives selected from the group comprising, aliphatic hydrocarbons, olefinic hydrocarbons, silicones and fluorocarbons.
11 . The method according to claim 9 , wherein the aliphatic or olefinic hydrocarbons or silicones could be present in the form of an acid, amide, alcohol or a salt.
12 . The method according to claim 10 , wherein the amount of low surface energy additives is between 1 and 10% by weight of the toner.
13 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the non-image toner is opaque.
14 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the non-image toner is either sintered or fixed using nip forming heated rollers, radiant fusing, flash fusing, microwave fusing, solvent fusing.
15 . A method of creating a scratch-off document, the method comprising the steps of:
providing a substrate;
applying an image toner on the substrate;
heating the image toner which causes the image toner to fix to the substrate and causes low surface energy component in the image toner to migrate to a surface of a formed image;
applying a non-image toner on the surface of the formed image and the substrate;
sintering the non-image toner which adheres the non-image toner to the substrate and to the surface of the formed image which causes the sintered non-image toner to adhere at a level that permits scratch-off.
16 . The method according to claim 15 , wherein the mass of the non-image toner is greater than 0.7 mg/cm2.
17 . The method according to claim 15 , wherein the image toner is fixed using nip forming heated rollers, radiant fusing, flash fusing, microwave fusing or solvent fusing.
18 . The method according to claim 15 , wherein the mean size of the image toner used 4 to 10 microns.
19 . The method according to claim 15 , wherein the mean size of the non image toner used 15 to 100 microns.
20 . The method according to claim 15 , wherein the combined mass of the image toners is less than 0.7 mg/cm2.
21 . The method according to claim 20 wherein the image toners comprise a visible pigments to form an image.
22 . The method according to claim 20 wherein the image is monochrome or a composite image produced by combining at least two toners with different colorants.
23 . The method according to claim 20 , wherein, the surface energy of the low surface energy additives is between 10 and 35 mN/m at 25° C. or more preferably between 18 and 35 mN/m at 25° C.
24 . The method according to claim 15 , wherein the image toner contains one or more of the low surface energy additives selected from the group comprising, aliphatic hydrocarbons, olefinic hydrocarbons, silicones and fluorocarbons.
25 . The method according to claim 24 , wherein the aliphatic or olefinic hydrocarbons or silicones could be present in the form of an acid, amide, alcohol or a salt.
26 . The method according to claim 24 , wherein the amount of low surface energy additives is between 1 and 10% by weight of the toner.
27 . The method according to claim 15 , wherein the non-image toner is opaque.
28 . The method according to claim 15 , wherein the non-image toner is either sintered or fixed using nip forming heated rollers, radiant fusing, flash fusing, microwave fusing, solvent fusing.