Patent ID: 7185979

Claim:
A transferring unit comprising: (a) feed means for superimposing a transferring film atop a recording material to form a laminated sheet with a transferable protective layer of the transferring film atop a finely roughened surface of the recording material, the finely roughened surface comprising a plurality of raised portions having a height of from 5 to 20 μm and a pitch of from 50 to 500 μm, and the transferring film comprising a transferable protective layer provided on a heat-resistant substrate, said substrate comprising a polyethylene terephthalatic film: (b) press-bonding means for heating and pressing the laminated sheet to cause the transferable protective layer to bond to the finely roughened surface of the recording material, said press-bonding means comprising a receiving member and transferring pressure roll means, including a transferring pressure roll, for pressing against the transferring film while the laminated sheet is being heated, said receiving member and transferring pressure roll being disposed adjacent each other with a gap therebetween, said feed means feeding the laminated sheet through the gap between the transferring pressure roll and the receiving member, said transferring pressure roll comprising a cylindrical roll main body and an elastic material layer which covers a surface of the roll main body, said elastic material layer comprising an elastic material with a hardness of less than HA40 as measured by a measuring method defined in JIS-K6253; and (c) peeling means for peeling the heat-resistant substrate off the laminated sheet heated and pressed by the press-bonding means; said feed means feeding the laminated sheet from the press-bonding means to the peeling means.