From November 27th to 29th, 2018, the card and ID card industry will meet again in Cannes in the south of France to showcase their latest developments at TRUSTECH. Covestro has more than 30 years of experience in material solutions for ID card manufacturers.
At booth A 043 in Riviera Hall, the company will showcase a comprehensive passport concept that includes innovative technologies based on specialty films. They provide improved features for secure card manufacturing, especially enabling new applications to prevent counterfeiting. Key features are the new concept of transparent window technology and a new generation of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) for passport hinges.
Additional safety features: clear window
At TRUSTECH, Covestro will present a new concept of transparent window technology. Such a window provides an additional security feature that prevents counterfeiting attempts. For the manufacture of ID cards, the card structure must have a flat surface without irregularities. Covestro has developed a very thin film with extremely high opacity, which is especially suitable for seamless integration in transparent window applications.
Innovative film solutions enable a new production method that eliminates the need to fill perforated windows and other materials in polycarbonate cards or passport data pages. During the lamination process, the transparent layers merge and there are no irregularly filled pores on the surface of the document. This innovative structure provides more space for the transparent layer and integrates additional security features. Complex window geometries are also possible. The thinner opaque film also simplifies the lamination process and significantly reduces cycle time and visibility of integrated antennas and chips.
In conventional manufacturing, the die-cut window is filled with a Makrofol® ID type transparent polycarbonate film. It is stamped from small film strips to reduce material waste and is processed on an automated card production line.
Simplified production process
"We are very proud to provide our customers with solutions that reduce the complexity of the production process," explains Cengiz Yesildag, Covestro's Global ID Security Division Director. "Makrofol ID thin white highly opaque film combines the advantages of easier construction of transparent windows in security documents, shortens the lamination cycle, and provides customers with a clear win-win advantage."
For opaque films, Covestro won the Blue Shield Innovation Award at the Security Document Summit in China on October 17, 2018-this is the fifth consecutive time.
Next-generation TPU hinge material
Another development of Covestro influenced the internal design of the passport. The data sheets are laminated onto a thin fold and then integrated into the passport to ensure security. The production process is very efficient and the bonding is durable: passports can be opened and closed as often as needed, without being restricted by flexibility or folded tears.
The fold consists of a multilayer film composite made of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU). At TRUSTECH, Covestro will exhibit a new Platilon® ID film that offers a further 35% higher tear resistance than the standard Platilon® ID9122.
More design freedom
The layers in a thin film composite have a lower layer thickness than a single thin film, thus allowing greater design freedom, especially for thinner data pages. As a result, the integration of safety functions is simplified, and the lower layer thickness saves costs.
The multilayer Platilon® ID can be perfectly combined with polycarbonate, ensuring that data pages are not layered without damaging the passport.
Covestro has developed Makrofol® ID ultra-laser polycarbonate film specifically for anti-counterfeit security cards. The three-layer composite is extremely sensitive to laser radiation. As a result, laser engraving requires less energy than traditional laser-sensitive films and saves at least 20% of the time in the production process. At the same time, maximum contrast can be achieved even at very low layer thicknesses: 50% of the data content of a personal photo is already contained in a layer that is only 10 microns thick.