A photopolymerizable radiation-sensitive resin composition comprising a styrene-maleic acid copolymeric resin as well as an ethylenically unsaturated compound and a photopolymerization initiator is disclosed. A radiation-sensitive sheet material comprising a support (10) having coated thereon a layer (11) of the photopolymerizable radiation-sensitive resin composition is also disclosed. The composition and sheet material disclosed herein can be conveniently used particularly in the preparation of various cards such as credit cards, banking or cash cards and the like.TECHNICAL FIELDThe present invention relates to a photopolymerizable radiation-sensitive resin composition and a radiation-sensitive sheet material comprising a layer of such composition. In particular, the present invention relates to a photopolymerizable radiation-sensitive resin composition and a radiation-sensitive sheet material comprising a layer of such composition, which are suitable for use in the preparation of identification cards (so-called ID cards) and the other similar cards having encapsulated therein a photographic image.BACKGROUND ARTWith the advance of information processing by means of computers, various cards having a magnetic coating are frequently used as an input medium to an input device of the computer. For example, typical cards include a credit card, a banking or cash card, a driver's licence card, a commutation or season ticket, a key card and the like. In these cards which have special usages, the requirements concerning the quality of the material and the construction imposed on them are widely varied. For instance, in accordance with the standards provided by the Japanese Banker's Association and the American Banker's Association, credit cards and banking or cash cards should have a base sheet of vinyl chloride resin. Furthermore, it is generally well-known that from the view point of crime prevention, such care must be taken that the cards may not easily be forged or falsified and may not unjustly be used by any person other than the owner. These aims which are very desirable to prevent crime and other related aims are best achieved by, for example, reproducing a photograph of the owner's face and or a signature of the owner on the surface of the base sheet of the card and furthermore covering the reproduction with a protective sheet. However, in order to realize the above aims, it is necessary to first solve several technical problems. Examples of the problems to be solved are that the reproduced photograph or signature should be clear and fine and be easily discriminable and that the protective sheet should be firmly adhered to the base sheet. Furthermore, it will be understood, if the use of the card as an input medium to an input device of a computer is considered, that the card should not be deformed and the surface of the card must not lose its smoothness. However, in fact, it is very troublesome to form an image having a beautiful color and an excellent discrimination quality on the base sheet. For example, since cards of this type have different patterns to be reproduced on the card, it is difficult and expensive to attain a precise reproduction of the patterns through a printing process. Furthermore, since the reproduction is interposed between the base sheet and the protective sheet, it is necessary to take care so that the bonding of these sheets will not be undesirably affected.It has long been effected in the formation of a person's photograph and signature on the base sheet to reproduce photographically such a photograph and signature, and it has also been well-known that various radiation-sensitive resins can be used for this object. One of the well-known radiation-sensitive resins includes diazo compounds. The diazo compounds are generally radiation-sensitive resins which are obtained by mixing a water-soluble colloidal material such as gelatin, polyvinyl alcohol, casein, emulsified polyvinyl acetate and the like, with the diazo compounds. A process for the production of cards using the above-mentioned radiation-sensitive resins comprises coating a radiation-sensitive resin on a base sheet, and exposing it to actinic radiation through a transparent negative to water-insolubilize the radiation-sensitive resin in areas exposed to radiation, namely, the exposed areas. Then, the radiation-sensitive resin in the unexposed areas on the base sheet is removed through washing with water. Thereafter, a hardened image formed on the exposed areas is dyed. While this process can provide an image having any desired colour, it suffers from such a drawback that the dyes used in dyeing of the image tend to stain the base sheet. This well-known process for the production of the cards has further drawbacks that the radiation-sensitive resins used therein have a poor shelf stability (due to their reaction in the dark) and therefore, if they are used, they must be coated on the base sheet immediately before exposure to radiation. The drawbacks similar to those can be caused even if the diazo compounds are replaced with bicromates or iron salts.It has been well-known that radiation-sensitive resins containing diazo compounds and couplers corresponding thereto are also useful in the preparation of the cards. The well-known process for the production of cards using the above radiation-sensitive resins comprises exposing a radiation-sensitive resin-containing coating formed on a base sheet to an actinic radiation through a transparent negative, and colour developing the exposed coating in an alkaline aqueous solution or gaseous ammonia. However, this process has drawbacks in that only a few colours are usable in dyeing the images due to a limited combination of the diazo compounds and the couplers. Furthermore, this process involves undesired problems that the unexposed areas are also slightly coloured.As another process using diazo compounds, a radiation-sensitive resin comprising a blend of the diazo compounds and pigments is also well-known. Sheet structures having a coating of such a radiation-sensitive resin are disclosed, for example, in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,136,637 (Assignee: Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company). The base sheet used in this U.S. application is a metal base sheet which is suitable as a printing master plate. However, even if the base sheet is replaced with one composed of vinyl chloride resins, desirable results cannot be obtained. This is because, when a diazo-type radiation-sensitive resin is coated on the base sheet composed of vinyl chloride resins, some chemical modification can be caused on the surface portion of the base sheet. The chemical modification results in marrying the unexposed areas of the base sheet. Especially, when a pigment is contained in the radiation-sensitive resin, the pigment is adsorbed onto the base sheet prior to exposure to radiation. Therefore, even after the removal of the radiation-sensitive resin in the unexposed areas as a result of development, a stain on the base sheet due to the adsorbed pigment can not been removed and remains indelible. Apparently, this is because any organic solvent which will dissolve vinyl chloride resins, such as toluene, xylene, methyl ethyl ketone, cyclohexane, acetone, ethyl acetate and the like, must be used in the radiation-sensitive resin composition. The chemical modification in the surface of the base sheet results in, in addition to the marrying mentioned above, difficulties in adhering a protective film to the surface of the base sheet through heat fusion. These drawbacks are very undesirable in the production of the cards, but the cause or causes have not yet been clarified.It is also known to produce a coloured image on the base sheet using a silver salt emulsion. For example, this process is a dye transfer process developed by Eastman Kodak Company. According to this imaging process, a silver salt matrix film (Trade name: KODAK Dye Transfer Film) is firstly imagewise exposed with a tungsten lamp through a transparent negative. Then, the exposed film is developed with a developing solution to harden gelatin in the exposed areas of the film, and the unexposed areas of the film are washed off with warm water. Thereafter, the exposed areas are dyed with a dye, and the dyed image is transferred to a base sheet. Thus, a coloured image can be formed on the base sheet. However, the coloured image obtained through the above imaging process has drawbacks in that, if in the subsequent processing steps a protective coating is formed on the base sheet or a protective sheet is laminated on the base sheet, the coloured image bleeds out. Further, the matrix film which was used in the transfer process must be discarded due to nonuse in the subsequent steps, and this means that the use of the matrix film is not economical. In addition to the above process, a process which comprises directly adhering a matrix film of the above-mentioned type, the unexposed areas of which can be washed off, to the base sheet is also proposed. According to this process, the exposed and developed matrix film can be blackened with a blackened silver bleaching solution containing as a main component potassium ferrocyanide and the like, and, after bleaching the film, the bleached portion of the film can be dyed to obtain a coloured image having any desired colour. Accordingly, the thus obtained film can be bonded to the base sheet by means of a special adhesive to form any desired coloured image on the base sheet. This process would be economical since the matrix film used herein also functions as the laminate film. However, the cards produced in accordance with this process are likely to undergo deformation or become crooked because the quality of the matrix film is different from that of the base sheet. Furthermore, potassium ferrocyanide used in the bleaching step is likely to cause water pollution problems, since the solution containing waste potassium ferrocyanide is decomposed by ultra violet radiations in sun light to form toxic cyanogen.Various radiation-sensitive resins are further well-known. For example, Japanese Patent Publication Gazette No. 45-022,085 discloses the radiation-sensitive resins containing polyazide vinyl benzoate, and those containing cinnamic acid esters and the like. However, most of these radiation-sensitive resins cannot be coated on the base sheet composed of vinyl chloride resins, since an organic solvent which may dissolve the base sheet is contained either in the radiation-sensitive resins or in the developing solution which is used in the subsequent processing.The inventors, aware of the above information, made efforts to develop a suitable photopolymerizable radiation-sensitive resin composition for forming photographic images, which has not the drawbacks mentioned above. As a result of this, we found the following photopolymerizable radiation-sensitive resin compositions.(A) A photopolymerizable composition which is soluble in water or weak alkaline aqueous solution, the composition comprising different polymerizable polymers such as polymers of polyester type, polyacryl type, polyurethane type, polyamide type or cellulose type, those containing double bonds in its molecule, those having been modified and the like, a crosslinking agent (binding agent), and a photoreaction initiator;(B) A photopolymerizable composition which comprises polymerizable monomers, a binding agent soluble in water or weak alkaline aqueous solution, and a photoreaction initiator, and;(C) A photopolymerizable composition which comprises polymerizable oligomers, a binding agent soluble in water or weak alkaline aqueous solution, and a photoreaction initiator.However, these polymerizable radiation-sensitive resin compositions can not show a practically useful sensitivity without adding thereto a suitable photopolymerization initiator, since their photopolymerization proceeds slowly. In order to attain a practically useful photopolymerization rate, different photopolymerization initiators must be added to the composition, as its essential component, separately or in combination of two or three initiators depending upon the particular radiation-sensitive resin composition to be used. However, these photopolymerizable compositions cause a dark reaction under the influence of heat and the like, are gradually polymerized, and become insoluble in a solvent. In addition, such a reaction is generally further aaccelerated through the addition of the photopolymerization initiator. Generally, for the purpose of inhibiting polymerization caused during keeping or producing under the influence of heat and the like, various polymerization inhibitors are added to the photopolymerizable compositions to improve their shelf stability. However, while the addition of suitable polymerization initiators is effective to improve the shelf stability of the photopolymerizable compositions, it also has drawbacks in that the photopolymerizability of the compositions is inhibited. Therefore, the amount of the polymerization initiators to be added is necessary to be remarkably small.The photopolymerizable compositions which can effect only a limited photopolymerization and show a low rate of hardening are not preferable as the composition for use in the production of credit cards. This is because it is difficult to reproduce an image having excellent sharpness from compositions with a low hardening rate, since such compositions need a long exposure time to attain an imagewise exposure for imaging. In this connection, a method of shortening the exposure time, which comprises increasing the amount of radiation energy emitted from the exposure light source, is proposed. However, in practicing this method, we must allow for remarkable exothermic heat produced at the same time. For example, when a substrate such as a sheet of vinyl chloride is used, the heat from the light source will cause undesirable results such as a deformation and modification of the substrate and the like.DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTIONIt is an object of the present invention to provide a novel photopolymerizable radiation-sensitive resin composition which can completely eliminate the above-discussed drawbacks of the prior radiation-sensitive resins.It is another object of the present invention to provide a photopolymerizable radiation-sensitive resin composition which does not contain an organic solvent capable of dissolving, particularly, vinyl chloride or vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate copolymeric resins.Furthermore, it is another object of this invention to provide a photopolymerizable radiation-sensitive resin composition which is soluble in water or a highly diluted alkaline aqueous solution and in which the dissolved components can be easily recovered through neutralization.In addition, it is another object of this invention to provide a photopolymerizable radiation-sensitive resin composition in which pigments may be freely incorporated depending upon the desired hue.In addition, it is another object of this invention to provide a photopolymerizable radiation-sensitive resin composition which is photopolymerized by ultraviolet radiation having wavelengths of from 2,500 to 4,200 A and is not photopolymerized by radiation having wavelengths of more than 4,200 A, and therefore which may be subjected to an exposure step under daylight conditions.In addition, it is another object of this invention to provide a photopolymerizable radiation-sensitive resin composition having a long-term shelf stability.A further object of the invention is to provide a radiation-sensitive sheet material having a water-soluble or weak alkali-soluble protective coating formed on a layer of radiation-sensitive material, in which the protective coating does not inhibit a photopolymerization of radiation-sensitive resin which is induced by actinic radiation irradiated onto the layer of radiation-sensitive material, and does not chemically bond with the photopolymerized resin during photopolymerization of the radiation-sensitive resin.According to the present invention, there is provided a photopolymerizable radiation-sensitive resin composition comprising a styrene-maleic acid copolymeric resin as well as an ethylenically unsaturated compound and photopolymerization initiator.Also, according to the present invention, there is provided a radiation-sensitive sheet material comprising a support and, at least, a layer of a radiation-sensitive material coated on one side of the support, said layer of the radiation-sensitive material being a layer of a photopolymerizable radiation-sensitive resin composition which comprises a styrene-maleic acid copolymeric resin as well as an ethylenically unsaturated compound and a photopolymerization initiator.According to this invention, the sheet material having sensitivity can be obtained, and the surface of the obtained sheet material has an excellent abrasion resistance. When the sheet material is conventionally exposed to an actinic radiation and then washed with water or a weak alkaline aqueous solution, an overall protective coating formed on the sheet material and an unexposed radiation-sensitive material lying under the protective coating can be completely removed. Thus, only an image which is formed from the insoluble radiation-sensitive material existing within the exposed areas of the sheet material is sharply produced. While the surface of the support, which surface lies under the insoluble radiation-sensitive material, can be firmly bonded to said insoluble radiation-sensitive material, the other surface of the support is not changed and is as before. Therefore, it is possible to firmly bond a protective sheet to the support to protect the image formed on the support. |