Security Layer
ALL COLOURS OF THE RAINBOW
Security fibers may be of all colors of the rainbow. Red, orange, yellow, green, azure, blue, purple. They may fluoresce with yellow, orange, red, green under the influence of UV-light; they only can’t fluoresce with azure
Security fibers incorporated into the paper for security printing are small, imperceptible but very important guards protecting the document against counterfeiting. They are used in the majority of products manufactured by Goznak. What is the role of security fibers in the general security complex? The specialists of the Security Technologies Directorate of Goznak told the Watermark about it.
Why the azure fibers are prohibited
Fibers are one of the paper security components. They are incorporated into the paper during the sheet formation. Natural or chemical (artificial or synthetic) fibers may be used as security ones, if during their production or post-processing special properties providing anti-counterfeiting protection were added to them. And there are large numbers of various fibers in each of these categories.
Synthetic fibers are most frequently used nowadays, because they may be “charged” with additional security characteristics, for example by creating fibers of an irregular shape. Natural fibers have fewer resources for the security potential; they are only dyed as a rule. Natural fibers are identified according to their outward appearance, without the help of additional technical devices, easier than synthetic ones — they have a specific freakish shape unnatural for synthetic fibers.
From the visual security point of view, security fibers are not the dominating feature in the modern security complex — their size is too small, and besides, visually the fibers may be quite well imitated by ordinary overprinting, which may be distinguished from the real fibers only with the help of a magnifying glass. Therefore it is more correct to rank the fibers as semi-expert or expert features than as visual ones. However, according to the specialists, there is nothing complicated about identifying the fibers — with the help of a magnifying glass a person can definitely tell whether the fibers are overprinted or incorporated into the paper.
The simplest polymer fibers represent pieces of thread of circular section 3–5 mm long, which may be dyed in various colours and possess (or not) UV-luminescence. The fibers may be dyed in various colours; the luminescence may be of all colours except for azure.
“The azure luminescence of the fibers is not allowed according to the Technical Requirements to security printed products issued by the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation due to the fact that they may be quite easily imitated. As the surface of the majority of industrial paper types has azure luminescence, one of the simplest imitation ways is the following: by overprinting with varnish the absence of the paper UV-luminescence is achieved, and afterwards “the fibers” are “scratched” on it. In this case the paper exposed regions luminescence is quite similar to the azure fibers luminescence”, as the specialists of the Security Technologies Directorate of Goznak explained.
However, the effects applied to the fibers are not limited to various colours and optical characteristics.
The Synthetic security fibers may have specific geometry of the cross-section received in the process of their production. It is a purely expert feature, of course, because such a profile is visible only by microscope. If one views such fiber cuts by microscope, various figures may be seen — starting with a simple circle and up to a hexagonal petal or a diamond. This feature is so characteristic that any expert will surely identify such fibers with the cross-section. Unique equipment and technologies are necessary for the production of the profile fibers; therefore the fiber imitation is technologically complicated and unlikely. Security fibers may be visible (dyed) and invisible (colorless). From the security point of view invisible (colorless) fibers with various-colour luminescence are considered more valuable because they are not detected without the help of special devices — UV sources. Besides, the importance of the invisible fibers is caused by the fact that some detectors and indicators of the automated complexes for banknote soiling control may apprehend color fibers as contaminants and consequently sort out the banknotes according to this characteristic. Besides the optical features, security fibers may also possess a number of special properties, for example, magnetic ones. This is the expert security level, because special devices are required for the identity control.
Exclusively for the customer
The specialists in the product anti-counterfeit protection field of Goznak are proud of the “Zone” fibers, which were described in the Watermark more than once. These fibers allow the product authentication with 99‑percent guarantee — it is necessary to check their outward appearance and the features of their separate parts with the help of a magnifying glass or a UV-source.
We would like to remind that “Zone”, or the so-called “graded” fibers, are fibers with specific geometric properties expressed by the alternating sectors with various cross-sections of the individual fiber. The sectors may be dyed in different colors; they may or may not have UV-luminescence. According to the specialists’ opinion, the appearance of the “Zone” security fibers with alternating cross-sections became a revolutionary break-through in the high-security fibers development. “There is a wide range of such fibers versions, and we are able to make exclusive kinds not applied anywhere else for our customers. The differences will be noticeable in the optical features of the fiber — both visible and under the influence of UV-light”, — say the specialists of Goznak. The conjugate fibers have been developed and tested in promotional products by Goznak recently. It is polymer fiber with various optical properties in cross direction. Moreover, these are not two separate fibers connected with each other (such things have existed in the market for a long time), but a single fiber with different properties in its cross direction. Now Goznak applies conjugate fibers with the combination of red and blue, yellow and green, lettuce green and red colors within the visible spectrum. “The color combination is practically unlimited, and in case of necessity we are able to produce fibers with unique color combination for our customers”, the developers point out.
But one should not expect the fibers to reflect the finest color shades: on the one hand, the fiber is too small, and the paper in this case operates as a color filter, which prevents distinguishing the shades. On the other hand, the complicated technology of the fiber manufacture allows small variations in the shade of different lots of the same fibers.
As for the fiber production — there are different approaches. “We produce the natural fibers at Goznak. Our long-term partner produces and delivers the synthetic fibers. At that, we are not only the consumers of this type of fibers — being demanding customers, we give an impulse to the new types of fiber development. This work may be called joint, because in the majority of cases Goznak, the only producer of paper with fibers within the territory of Russia, is the only consumer of fiber. There are other factories which are able to produce paper with fibers in theory and technology, but they don’t produce it. And there are special high-security and expensive fibers, “Zone” and conjugate fibers in particular, that are produced for Goznak only. Goznak’s fibers are exclusive not only in the Russian security product market. In one of the reports dedicated to security fibers at the recent Cross Conference Goznak’s “Zone” fiber was distinguished as one of high security, well-identified and difficult to imitate.
To trim a sweater and glue the fibers
As for the counterfeits, there are attempts to imitate everything. It is certainly easier to reproduce simple colored fibers. They are usually imitated by printing (most often); sometimes the fibers are cut from a thread or woolen clothes of the matching color and glued to the paper surface. Such counterfeits look like originals, but are easily identified because the original fibers are located inside the paper, and only their parts are in its surface layer. If the fibers are completely on the surface, it is an imitation. As a rule, simple colored fibers are used seldom, often as a supplement to the more complicated ones.
The most complicated counterfeit is when Goznak’s fibers are imitated with some alien ones, and the fibers are embedded at the sheet formation stage of the paper production. Moreover, the UV-luminescence is also imitated as a rule.
“There are such cases, and therefore we always remind our customers how important it is to use high security fibers, which guarantee protection even against high-quality counterfeits. Caprone threads are sold freely, and it is not a great problem to cut such thread and implement it into the paper”, say the specialists of Goznak.
And another important circumstance: no matter how good a certain security element is, it is necessary to check the whole security complex of the product. There are no counterfeits with all the elements imitated well enough. Such a product may be printed well, but the fibers or the thread may be roughly imitated. Or the fibers may be “as good as the real ones”, but the printing betrays the counterfeit at once.
“If we say today that some security element works, one should not suppose that it will be for ever. The Counterfeiters also receive this information. And they learn to imitate the most popular and “unmistakable” element within a year or two”, the specialists caution. The fibers obtain new security features. The technology of their implementation into the paper does not stand still. And although the technology has not changed principally, every security paper manufacturer has his own “secrets” connected with the peculiarities of raw material, technological processes and the applied equipment, as well as the characteristics of the fibers.
The further developments in the field of security fibers are not only in the primordial attachment of certain features to the fiber itself, but are also in the implementation of the new unique characteristics to the fiber and paper composition. In order to achieve it, it is necessary to solve many problems, including technological
ones.
Elena Kiseleva
