Security Layer 

• New opportunities - JUST HAVE A LOOK

• Review - THE PLASTIC IS ADVANCING, THE PAPER DOESN’T GIVE UP

• Opportunities - NEW OPPORTUNITIES OF OFFSET PRINTING

• Meeting point - SECURITY TECHNOLOGIES CONQUERED KAZAN

• Point of View - IN SEARCH OF NEW IMAGES

• Dramatis personae - STRENGTHENING OF BANKNOTES AB INTRA

• Dramatis personae - ADDITION TO THE KINEGRAM® FAMILY

• Know-how - “AMOEBA” WILL FRIGHTEN COUNTERFEITS AWAY

• Holography - SCIENCE AND BUSINESS MET IN KIEV

• Technology - TAKE A PICTURE FOR A HOLOGRAM

SECURITY TECHNOLOGIES CONQUERED KAZAN

The three days of the Watermark Conference were filled with presentations, meetings and informal companionship

In the opinion of participants of the 3rd International Security Printing Conference –
the Watermark Conference which took place on June 23–25 in Kazan, the present Conference turned out to be the most successful in the history of the event.

The intensive working program was smoothly combined with wide opportunities for leisure, and the excellent infrastructure of the Korston hotel complex specializing in large-scale forums holding made the stay of the Watermark Conference participants and guests in Kazan as comfortable as possible.


The history of holding the Watermark Conference is not so long so far, but it is already quite serious. It started in 2005 when “Watermark” company (the publisher of The Watermark magazine) with the support of Goznak organized the 1st Watermark Conference — the International Scientific and Practical Conference on Security Printing — in Saint-Petersburg. Unlike the existing events of the same trend, Watermark announced itself as the only Conference held within the territory of Russia and uniting customers, developers and manufacturers of security products interested in the Russian market and the markets of the CIS. And what was only announced in 2005 is a reality today. The growing interest of the security product market participants in the Watermark Conference is evidence to that.

Another peculiarity of the Watermark Conference is the desire to choose interesting, original and picturesque cities for holding the Conferences. In 2007 the Conference participants were welcomed in the ancient Russian city of Suzdal. And in 2009 Kazan, the city which had received a patent for the right to be called “the third capital of Russia” recently and celebrated its 1000th anniversary a few years ago, became the meeting point.



In spite of the crisis

236 participants from 25 countries arrived in Kazan. It happened in spite of the fact that preparation to the Conference was carried out in the conditions of the world financial crisis, which had made many companies change their plans of conference and exhibition activity.

Goznak became the General Sponsor of the Watermark Conference for the third time already. The Honorable Sponsors were also traditional: both KBA-GIORI and SICPA (both from Switzerland) had previously supported the Conference in St. Petersburg and in Suzdal. The Sponsors of the Conference included the leaders of the field: Gleitsmann Security Inks (Germany), Drent Goebel (the Netherlands), Petrel (France), Leonhard KURZ (Germany), OVD Kinegram (Switzerland), “Double V” Group of Companies (Russia), “Scientific Development and Production Center “KRYPTEN” (Russia), “HoloGrate” (Russia), “The Eastern Industrial Engineering Group” (Russia), “Mezhdunarodnaya Kniga — Security Papers” (Russia).

This time there was an opportunity of enlarge the exhibition space, and besides the sponsors, Lodvila (Lithuania), Madras Security Printers (India) and the Department of the State Notes of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Belarus also took part in the Exhibition that was held together with the Conference.

In the two days of the working session the participants of the Watermark Conference made 24 presentations reflecting the whole range of matters of the field now. These are the modern technologies of the banknote production, counterfeiting counteractions and authentication technologies, ID documents and RFID application, equipment, materials and security technologies, instrumental control of quality and authenticity of security products.



Beware of counterfeits

According to Vladimir Finogenov, Head of Division of Currency Units and Counterfeiting Prevention of the Department of Currency Circulation of the Bank of Russia, the number of counterfeited currency units has increased several times. And quantity passes into quality — the monetary unit imitations become more and more perfect. It concerns 1000‑ruble banknotes first of all. In 2008 twenty-one counterfeits were detected per every million of banknotes in circulation, but the prognosis for this year is 29 counterfeits. Speaking about the 1000‑ruble banknotes, last year 58 counterfeits were detected per every million of such banknotes, but the index of 82 counterfeits is expected at the end of 2009.

Vladimir Finogenov noted that counterfeiters have learned to imitate the banknote paper rigidity (by using the two-layer paper substrate) and counterfeit watermarks and security fibers quite efficiently. Sometimes there appear counterfeits of such high quality that even an experienced bank employee may not detect them without a magnifying glass.

Moreover, counterfeiters have managed to select agents reproducing the color-shifting effect of OVI more or less accurately. There are imitations of MVC effect, in much simplified versions, of course, but still…

“It is necessary to look for ways of strengthening the banknote security”, said Vladimir Finogenov. The Bank of Russia named the following major principles to be realized during the new banknote security complex development. It is first of all the complex approach: combination of security elements with artistic finish, application of multi-layer features. Secondly, it is high technical level of the security element execution. Thirdly, it is optimization of the security complex and the banknote value. And finally, a possibility of the banknote authentication by different user categories.



Targeted approach

In the opinion of the majority of specialists, the security complex of any banknote should develop harmoniously: it is necessary to improve both the so-called “public” security features (intended for authentication by the population) and the machine-readable covert features.

SICPA presented its works upon the evolutional development of OVI. The representatives of SICPA had already presented SPARK security feature two years ago at the Watermark Conference in Suzdal. Since then, it received practical application — now SPARK is used in eight banknotes, both commemorative and ordinary.

Among the newest developments of the Company there are SICPA OASIS semi-covert feature (using the light polarization phenomenon) and SICPATALK security technology developed specially for machine reading.

The necessity to pay more attention to the banknote design was announced at the Conference more than once (more details in “Looking for new images”, page 16).



Information helps

Another tendency specified during the Watermark Conference was in the fact that today it is not enough simply to develop this or that security document. It is necessary to create the infrastructure (including informational) for its authentication.

In particular, Andrey Cheglakov, Deputy General Director of Production of Goznak spoke about it in his presentation “Creating a close-loop system of security document circulation”. A situation at the spare-part market for the products of the fictitious Cheburashka-Motors JSC was modeled. In order to fight counterfeited spare parts it was offered to create a close-loop informational system in order to authenticate the products of Cheburashka-Motors and control the turnover of products with the mark of Cheburashka-Motors. Such a close-loop informational system allows to enter electronic data about the product, control the data at every stage of the product transit in the system, receive information about every stage of the product transit, keep a register of all the received and executed electronic documents, provide the data confidentiality and transfer.



***

But any Conference (and all the more so the Watermark Conference) consists not only of presentations and reports. It also consists of negotiations, companionship at the exhibition, new meetings and new contacts. It all was in Kazan.

There also was an intense cultural program, starting with the Welcoming Cocktail Party in the building of the Kazan Town Hall (the former Noble Assembly) and up to the Gala Dinner at one of the best restaurants of the city. And certainly everybody had an opportunity to survey the famous Kazan Kremlin.

The question where the next, 4th Watermark Conference will be held (it will take place in June 2011) is still open. Therefore it is possible to offer one’s variants.

Photo-report: http://www.watermark-conference.com/2009/eng/photo.htm



Anna Izmailova