|
|
 |
 |
|
|
№ 1 October 2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Security Layer
THIS IS THE MONEY OF TOMORROW
The newest collection of security technologies was shown in Nice The security printed products industry and in banknote production in particular is uphill now. During the latest years the central banks of the most countries constantly report the cash money volume growth, and consequently growing orders for the production of new banknotes. The banknote manufacturers do their best to provide their products with increasing security by developing and applying new technologies. At the 22nd Security Printers’ Conference which took place in Nice (France) on October 10 – 12, the Central Banks of the leading world countries shared their plans for the future, and the manufacturers introduced the latest developments designed to suppress the production of counterfeits.
Intergraf-2007: three constituent parts
The 22nd Security Printers’ Conference and the 9th Security Printers’ and Suppliers’ Exhibition organized by Intergraf – the European International Confederation for security printing and allied industries took place in Nice (France) on October 10 – 12. This year the Conference gathered the record number of participants – over 950 people. The Exhibition had about 100 booths.
The peculiarity of such events is the attention focusing at the novelties in the field of security printing. European manufacturers dominate here. The speeches and novelties introduced in Nice this October may be divided into three large groups.
It is first of all the introduction of security technologies for banknote production. The central bank representatives shared their plans, and the manufacturers offered new solutions.
Secondly, there are passport solutions. The electronic passport with biometric data is one of the thriving directions. Therefore almost half of the speeches and fully a half of the exhibition were dedicated to this issue.
And finally, the third trend introduced at the Conference consisted of the solutions for non-banknote field of the security printing: printing of security forms, travel and lottery tickets, labels etc. Today the brand security is becoming one of the major challenges for the modern companies.
Anticipating new banknotes
The next few years promise to be very rich as to issuing new series of banknotes. In 2008 the USA will issue the new 5-dollar banknote; its virtual presentation took place in the Internet this September (http://www.moneyfactory.gov/newmoney). The same year the American Bureau of Engraving and Printing will publish the design of the new 100-dollar banknote, which will likely be issued in 2009.
Another grand unveiling is planned for 2009 – the second generation of the euro banknotes will be issued. Though the European Central Bank (ECB) gradually reveals secrets regarding the new banknote series, the main questions still remain unanswered: how fundamentally the appearance of the united European currency will change and what the procedure of the new European banknote introduction will be.
Two more European countries outside the Euro zone – Denmark and Switzerland – expressed their intention to issue new banknote series.
Switzerland has traditionally been the trendsetter of the banknote fashion. The country ranks second to none in the security level of its banknotes and innovation solutions application to them. The Swiss Central Bank ordered research works to find new security features and solutions in the field of the banknote substrate durability. The leading Swiss companies in the field of special printed products - Sicpa, Kurz, Ladqart – carried out the research. The result was a few security features which one will likely see on the new series of the Swiss banknotes.
The USA and the European Union also incline to apply the most recent security printing achievements on their new banknotes. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the European Central Bank have studied the market of security elements and have already published some of their decisions. Thus, it has already been announced that security thread with the Motion element will be used in the new 100-dollar banknote production. Other security elements of this new banknote have not been promulgated yet. There may be a few more original novelties among them. In spite of the fact that the issue of the NextGen series of the American banknotes is not finished yet, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing are already thinking about the FuGen series to succeed this one, which should contain a set of absolutely innovative elements.
In its turn, the European Central Bank has defined a short list of 30 security elements from which the features for euros will be chosen. It includes the majority of the recent developments of the world leaders in the banknote protection field: Spark by Sicpa (Switzerland), Motion by Crane (USA), thread with a transparent window by Portals, the Verify element by G&D (Germany). In the final list there should be left about 18 – 20 elements of three security levels (public, machine-controlled, for the control by the Central Bank) to be used in the new banknotes. The European Central Bank promises to decide upon the final list of security elements in the nearest future. But the list will not be officially revealed until the European Central Bank starts the broad informational campaign to prepare for the issue of the second generation of the euro banknotes. After the decision of the security elements the European Central Bank will start developing the new design of the euro banknotes. After that the trial issue should be printed and a pilot project of manufacturing relatively big amounts of banknotes at a few enterprises simultaneously should be carried out. If all the stages are finished successfully in the second half of 2009, the European Central Bank may start industrial production of the new generation of the euro banknotes.
One of the most important moments in the production of banknotes of the new generation, highlighted by the representatives of both the European Central Bank and the Swiss Central Bank, is the choice of substrate. Weak wear and tear resistance characteristics registered in the euro banknotes with the low face-values became one of the reasons of the European currency criticism. Practically immediately after the first generation of the euro banknotes was issued, the European Central Bank began to look for a new substrate for the low face-values of the euro banknotes. As the representatives of the European Central Bank assured, numerous tests were carried out, and as a result of them the most durable substrate for the euro banknotes of the new generation was to be defined. The European Central Bank has not published the results of its research officially.
In Switzerland Landqart developed the Durasafe substrate, which will likely be used for printing the new series of the Swiss banknotes.
The increasing openness of the process of the banknote development and design choice are becoming the tendency of our time. In essence it is the beginning of the public campaigns popularizing the knowledge of the new banknotes. With the development of the digital printing technologies and active application of new anti-copying features, the meaning of information about security features designed for the population has increased dramatically. The public process of the design choice and mass awareness of the new banknote issue stages allow to involve the society into the process and to consolidate the knowledge about the new money security means.
The experience of Switzerland, where a competition for the new banknote design was held, is demonstrative in this context. Twelve artists were invited to take part in it and given the technical requirements. In six months they offered the design variants, and the jury chose three best ones. Finally, out of the three remaining claimants one design by Manuela Pfrunder was chosen and became the basis of the new banknote series.
The European Union, the USA, Switzerland, Denmark – this is not the complete list of countries planning to renew their banknote series in the nearest future. A number of countries with large amounts of banknotes in circulation have not announced the new series introduction officially, but there are anticipations. Therefore the major world manufacturers of banknotes, security elements and substrates are trying to forestall the Central Banks’ expectations and offer the most recent developments to them.
Security features “haute couture”
This year the International Security Printers’ Conference had a lot of novelties in the field of security technologies.
Giesecke & Devrient (Germany) introduced a lot of new developments. The demonstration banknote with the portrait of Ludwig II of Bavaria contained a number of interesting solutions in the security field. The developers of G&D continued the work upon their old and approved PEAK® element. The new PEAK® pixel development, like the previous ones, is a combination of offset and intaglio printing. The element represents an evenly painted area with a covert image observed at acute angle. The peculiarity of the element of the new generation is that the colour of the image observed at acute angle varies depending on the view direction in respect to the banknote axis. That is, when the banknote is viewed at acute angle and rotated around its axis, the image colour changes four times. The effect is achieved with the help of the combination of three-colour offset-printed dots with the accurately registered blind printing.
Another element is the further development of the idea of the window within the paper banknote which used to be combined with the Varifeye film. Now the specialists of G&D have introduced the new TWIN element, which is a combination of the window in the paper, offset and intaglio printing. Depending of the background colour (light or dark), various images are seen in the transparent window. In the demonstration banknote they are the swan image or figure “8”. On the new demonstration banknote of the company the transparent window is carried out by cutting out an aperture with its further sealing with a plastic strip. This solution allows to place holographic images on the strip.
A number of companies offered the thermochromic effect for banknote security. G&D used the FEEL® element (an offset image covered with the thermochromic layer). When the element is heated by fingers or a lamp close by, the upper ink layer becomes transparent revealing the image concealed under it.
De La Rue has found another application of the thermochromic inks. Threads manufactured by Portals and embedded into the paper change their colour depending on the temperature. The colour is shifted from red to azure or from dark-blue to azure. Along with the colour shift, the text invisible in reflected light also appears on the thread.
A number of novelties in the field of security ink production were offered by Sicpa (Switzerland). The new complex security system OASIS offered by the company combines the advantages of colour-shifting inks observed visually without special equipment, and machine-readable elements identified with the help of special devices.
Goznak introduced the continuation of its developments in the field of security threads with an overt image. The technology developed by Goznak allows to produce security threads with a figured overt image along the whole width of the banknote. The shape of the overt area on the banknote surface may be various – a zigzag, a queue, diamonds. The combination of the thread overt image and its figured edge allows to create a unique complex security element. Its advantage is that it is embedded into the product at the stage of papermaking and can not be imitated by printing. At the same time, the element is complex and includes a whole number of features allowing to authenticate the product – in transmitted and reflected light, according to its front and back sides. This element usage leaves on the banknote room for other elements to be applied in the printing process.
The described technologies are not all the novelties of the Conference at all. The modern security element industry answers the challenges of counterfeiters who have mastered the modern digital equipment, and offers new developments constantly. The universal security element is not found yet and will hardly ever be found, but the complex application of security systems and the wide awareness of the population of the authentication elements will decrease the risk of receiving a counterfeit to its minimum.
Another peculiarity of the modern security industry is the constant reduction of implementation time of the new security elements. Taking into account the published programs of the new banknote issues by a whole number of Central Banks, it means that we will see a lot of the novelties introduced at the Exhibition on the real products very soon.
Georgy Kornilov
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
