WO2008145369A2 - Data carrier comprising a printed security feature - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed is a multilayer data carrier (100) comprising a core layer (10) and a visible face. On said visible face, the data carrier (100) is provided with a security print that is applied in two printed layers. The second printed layer (25) has a large area, covers the entire surface of the data carrier (100), and is designed especially as a design print. The first printed layer (15) is arranged underneath the first printed layer (25), has a reflective surface (16), and is composed of printed elements (17) that cover only a small area compared to the design print of the second printed layer (25). The printed elements (17) have a traveling effect which depends on the angle of vision and forms an authenticity feature.

Description

 Media with printed security feature

The invention relates to a multi-layer data carrier, in particular an identity card or the like, on which a security feature applied by printing technology is realized, which can be seen from the viewing side with the naked eye.

A generic data carrier is known from EP 1 317 352 B1, which has an opaque layer and at least one transparent layer which lies above it on a viewing side. On the transparent layer, a two-part security print image is formed, with a part on the top and a part on the bottom are placed so that the two fields complement when viewed in plan to form an overall picture. When viewed at an angle, however, the two partial images appear as a neutral line structure. The tilting effect is caused by the spaced arrangement of the two partial images on two sides of the transparent layer and becomes more pronounced the thicker the transparent layer is.

The known solution provides a well-recognizable security feature, but requires that a sufficiently strong transparent backing layer for the two-piece security print image can be realized on the disk. Furthermore, the interaction of the two sub-images of the security printed image requires that the specification of one part inevitably also geometry and pressure of the second part are determined.

The object of the invention is to specify a security feature which can be produced by printing technology for a data carrier which places lower demands on the required layer thicknesses and is as easy as possible to produce. This object is achieved by a data carrier with the features of claim 1. According to the invention a recognizable with the naked eye security feature is created by a security printing is formed on a disk in two pressure layers, wherein the first pressure layer is a large design pressure, while the second pressure position only consists of limited partial areas covering printing elements and is produced with a reflective color. Advantageously, the two pressure layers of the security pressure can be applied directly one above the other but also with the interposition of intermediate layers. It is particularly advantageous that there is no direct interaction between the patterns contained in both pressure layers, which is why the two pressure layers can be designed completely independently of one another.

In a preferred embodiment, the pressure level of the security pressure seen from the viewing side is a guilloche pressure. The first printing layer farther from the viewing side in a preferred embodiment mimics a security thread, as known from bank notes, and consists of rectangular sections, which are applied in the manner of a dot-dash line. The rectangular elements can, like the security thread of a banknote, contain alphanumeric characters. These can be conveniently generated by recesses in the pressure.

In a particularly advantageous embodiment of the invention, a third printing layer is applied over the large-area second printing layer of the security printing, which consists of a transparent to the unaided eye, fluorescent color, and which partially covers the pattern of the first printing layer. In the covered areas, a wandering effect on the pattern of the first printing layer is then no longer recognizable. In this way can be easily increase the strength of the security feature generated by the first printing layer on the one hand has areas that show a wandering effect and on the other hand, areas that do not.

Advantageously, a cover layer with a high-gloss surface towards the viewing side is applied over the large-area second or possibly the third printing layer.

The security printing according to the invention exhibits a viewing-angle-dependent traveling effect, wherein the pattern formed by the second printing layer seems to lie in plan view in the plane of the design print realized with the first printing layer or even above it, while when viewing the data carrier surface at an angle that in the second printing layer This migrating effect has the advantageous property that it is lost in photographic copying of the data carrier according to the invention.

With reference to the drawing, an embodiment of the invention will be explained in more detail below.

Show it:

Fig. 1 shows a cross section through the structure of an inventive

Disk, Fig. 2 is an illustration of the interaction of the various pressure layers when viewing a data carrier according to the invention at an angle and

Fig. 3 shows the appearance of the printing elements generated in the printing layers when viewed in plan view.

FIG. 1 shows an exploded view of the structure of a data carrier 100 according to the invention made up of several layers, which are shown prior to their being combined into a finished data carrier; FIG. The dimensions and proportions shown here are not to scale.

On a core layer 10 of the data carrier 100, there is an intermediate layer 20 towards the viewing side indicated by an arrow, on which in turn a cover layer 30 is formed. On the other side of the core layer 10 further layers are formed, which are referred to collectively as the back 40 here.

The data carrier 100 preferably represents an identification card, such as a credit card, bank card, cash card or authorization card, an identity card or a passport personalization page. The data carrier 100 can also be a chip card, for example in IC card or SIM format, or part of a chip card Book cover, about a passport cover, his. The data carrier 100 furthermore also represents a transfer element arranged on a carrier layer for application to an identity card or the like.

All layers 10, 20, 30, 40 are made of plastics, as they are known from the production of chip or ID cards, in particular polyester, polycarbonate or mixtures thereof, and are for processing expedient in film form. In principle, however, there are no restrictions with regard to the materials in question, provided that they have the properties resulting from the following and are suitable for the particular purpose described.

The core layer 10 is preferably made opaque. For its part, it may internally consist of a series of layers which bring about certain desired properties for the data carrier 100, for example as regards elasticity. The core layer 10 typically has a thickness of 50 to 500 μm. The intermediate layer 20 is basically optional and can be omitted entirely. Where available, it is transparent and has a height between 0 and 250 μm. In practice, a maximum total thickness is typically specified for the data carrier 100, as a result of which the margin for the thickness of a possible intermediate layer 20 is generally severely restricted and frequently no intermediate layer 20 is possible at all.

Like the core layer 10, it can consist internally of several partial layers, for example to achieve certain desired properties. The cover layer 30 is likewise transparent and preferably has a high-gloss surface towards the viewing side; it has a thickness of typically 50 to 250 microns. The layer sequence of the rear side 40 is generally carried out in basically the same way as the layer sequence to the viewing side and has, for example, a transparent intermediate layer and a cover layer disposed on the rear side above it. However, the layer sequence of the back 40 can also be easily removed from the

Layer sequence differ to the viewing side and about, as indicated in Fig. 1, consist of only a single layer. On the side facing the viewing side 11 of the core layer 10 is printing technology, applied by offset printing, a first printing layer 15 of a security printing on a scale of poorly reflective for matte surfaces to very well reflective for specular is at least medium to good reflective surface 16th having. For this purpose, the application of the first pressure layer 15 is expediently carried out using a special color, which has a metallic reflection behavior. In practical experiments, in particular, a UV curing silver series 770WL Fa. SICPA was used.

The first pressure layer 15 consists of pressure elements 17, which cover one or more limited small partial areas of the entire surface 11 of the core layer 10. Limited here means that the partial surfaces are small in relation to the total surface 11 and have a clear difference in brightness to the color of the surface 11 at the edges. For the size of the printing elements 17, the perceptibility of the desired traveling effect decreases with increasing surface area and the recognizability decreases as the size decreases.

In an expedient graphic design, as can be seen in FIGS. 2 and 3, the first printing layer 15 forms a security thread, as known from banknotes. The faces then have the shape of rectangles, which are placed in the form of a dotted line one behind the other. The individual subareas or rectangles can, as indicated in FIG. 3 on a rectangle, contain graphic patterns 18, for example alphanumeric characters. The patterns or characters are advantageously generated by recesses in the sub-areas or rectangles. The rectangles have, for example, a width b of 1 to 2 mm with a width B of the data carrier of 54 mm. On the side facing the viewing side 21 of the intermediate layer 20, a second pressure layer 25 of the security pressure is applied. The second pressure layer 25 preferably has a poorly or moderately reflecting surface 26. Preferably, the second pressure layer 25 covers the entire available surface 21 of the intermediate layer 20 and forms a design pressure. The second pressure layer 25 may be embodied, for example, as guilloche pressure. If an intermediate layer 20 is not present, the second pressure layer 25 of the security pressure is simply applied directly to the first pressure layer 15.

In a particularly preferred embodiment of the invention, a third pressure layer 27 is applied to the second pressure layer 25 of the security printing. The third pressure layer 27 is geometrically designed so that it partially overlaps the first pressure layer 15. For the third printing layer 27, a transparent color not visible to the naked eye is used. Suitably, the color is fluorescent so as to provide another verifiable security feature. In practical experiments, in particular a common UV-curable transparent color was used, as it is available for example from the company SICPA. If necessary, a preferably thin, transparent (not shown) intermediate layer can be provided between the second pressure layer 25 and the third pressure layer 27 of the security pressure, in particular if this is expedient for production-technical reasons.

The layers shown explosively in FIG. 1 are connected to a data carrier 100 by a conventional method. The connection can be effected, for example, by a laminating technique known from chip card production. However, other connections may training techniques are used, in particular, individual or noble layers can also be glued together.

In the finished state, the pressure layers 15, 25 and 27 of the security print produce a security feature in the form of a traveling effect, which can be perceived by supervision on the data carrier 100 from different angles, without being bound to specific explanations for this purpose.

FIG. 2 illustrates the perception of the security pressure when viewing the data carrier 100 from the viewing side at an angle to a light source. In this case, the second pressure layer 25 is the security pressure, i. typically the design print, well and clearly recognizable, while the pressure elements 17 formed in the first printing layer 15 are only milky or not recognizable. The pressure elements 17 of the first pressure layer 15 also tend to lie below the second pressure layer 25 or in the same plane as this.

Exempted from this perception of the pressure elements 17 of the first pressure layer 15, however, are those pressure elements over which a transparent, not perceptible to the viewer third pressure layer 27 is formed. These superimposed pressure elements 17 of the first pressure layer 15 also appear vigorously applied in plan view at an angle in the backlight and applied via the second pressure layer 25.

Fig. 3 illustrates the appearance of the same data carrier as in Fig. 2 in a vertical plan view. In this case, all the pressure elements 17 of the first pressure layer 15 as well as the design pressure formed in the second pressure layer 25 are equally clearly recognizable, wherein the pressure elements 17 the first printing layer 15 appear to be lying over the second printing layer 25 or applied directly thereto.

The apparent vertical migration of the printing elements 17 of the first printing layer 15 between the positions clearly recognizable on the design pressure and weakly not recognizable behind the design print, is dependent on the viewing angle as a security feature for verifying the authenticity of a data carrier 100 equipped therewith. This is all the more true if, in addition, a third pressure layer 27 of the security pressure has been applied and a part of the pressure elements 17 of the first pressure layer 15 is thus excluded from the apparent viewing angle-dependent migration. The described walking effect is particularly noticeable at certain viewing angles and increases as the thickness of the intermediate layer 20 increases. Suitable viewing angles are, above all, as indicated in FIG. 2, viewing angles under which direct light of a light source is directed over the surface 16 of the first printing layer 15 onto the eye of the observer. Since particularly suitable viewing angles can not be readily indicated analytically, the verification of the authenticity feature according to the invention takes place practically by considering a data carrier 100 to be tested at different angles in order to detect a migration effect.

Claims

Patent claims 1. Multilayer data carrier having a core layer and a viewing side, which has a security pressure applied in two pressure layers, wherein the second pressure layer is designed over a large area and preferably covers the entire surface of the data carrier, and the first pressure layer is arranged below the first pressure layer, characterized in that the first pressure layer (15) has a reflective surface (16) and consists of at least one pressure element (17) which covers a limited partial area of the surface (11) of the core layer (10). 2. A data carrier according to claim 1, characterized in that the surface (16) of the first printing layer (15) at least medium to good reflects. 3. A data carrier according to claim 1, characterized in that the first pressure layer (15) on the core layer (10) is formed. 4. A data carrier according to claim 1, characterized in that the second pressure layer (25) forms a design pressure whose pattern has no interaction with the pressure elements of the first pressure layer (15). 5. A data carrier according to claim 1, characterized in that on the second printing layer (25) a third printing layer (27) is printed, which partially covers the printing elements of the first printing layer (15) and consists of a transparent, preferably fluorescent color. 6. A data carrier according to claim 1, characterized in that the pressure elements (17) of the first printing layer (15) have graphic patterns (18) which are formed by releases. 7. A data carrier according to claim 1, characterized in that the second printing layer (25) on a transparent intermediate layer (20) is printed, which is applied over the first printing layer (15). 8. A data carrier according to claim I _7, characterized in that on the second printing layer (25) a cover layer (30) is applied, which has a high-gloss surface (31). 9. A data carrier according to claim 1, characterized in that the third pressure layer (27) consists of a UV-curable ink, which is applied by screen printing.