EP0710184A1

EP0710184A1 - Identity card and process for producing it

Info

Publication number: EP0710184A1
Application number: EP95919308A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Rainer Blome
Original assignee: Orga-Kartensysteme GmbH; Orga Kartensysteme GmbH
Current assignee: Idemia Germany GmbH
Priority date: 1994-05-18
Filing date: 1995-05-16
Publication date: 1996-05-08
Anticipated expiration: 2015-05-16
Also published as: CN1046461C; RU2127671C1; EP0710184B1; WO1995031338A1; DE59502879D1; DE4447428A1; DE4447428C2; CN1126969A; US5774168A

Abstract

An identity card, especially a credit card, with an image section (B) containing a photograph of the holder, in which image spots of different absorption, especially the grey and black sections, are burned into the cover layer (1) and/or an intermediate layer (2) under a transparent cover layer (1) of the identity card by a laser beam and a colour section (BF) is also applied in register with the image, especially by the heat transfer process. Security characteristics can also be applied to the image distribution.

Description

ID card and process for its production

description

The invention relates to an identification card, in particular a credit card, with an image part which contains a photo of the person to be identified, where point-by-image image points of different absorption are introduced with a laser beam into a cover layer and / or into an intermediate and / or inlet layer lying under a transparent cover layer .

It is known from DE 31 51 407 to manufacture such identification cards, wherein a Nd-YAG laser strongly absorbing a laser beam De ^c kschicht or arranged under a transparent lamination Abi.oφtionsschicht and possibly also in a ticking layer, the pixels of an identification image be branded. In particular, the introduction into the layer under the lamination provides a relatively high level of security against forgery. Controlling the intensity of the laser when scanning the pixels makes it possible to achieve high-quality gray-scale formation and thus good black-and-white or monochrome image quality. However, the intensity control of the raster point exposure slows down the image creation, especially if a high pixel density is to be achieved.

Furthermore, it is known from DE 39 07 415 A1 to provide identification cards with an image part which is produced in thermal transfer multi-color printing, the high-quality color image, however, being superficially applied to the cover layer and thus being relatively easy to change or remove and replace .

It is an object of the invention to provide an identification card with a high-quality color image part, which has an increased level of security against forgery, and a manufacturing method therefor. The solution is that a single-color portion and / or gray or black portion of the image part is / are laser-introduced into the identification card and that a complementary color image portion is applied over it in a congruent manner with respect to the image.

Advantageous refinements are specified in the subclaims.

By dividing the image into a laser-generated part and a complementary color portion applied using the thermal transfer process, an image with a high depth of color is generated, which enables a very good identification of a person represented in the image also by skin and hair color, eye color and so on. The different processing of the card with highly technical devices makes counterfeiting difficult by means of widespread color copying and color printing techniques. Sublimation inks are preferably used for color printing technology, which firmly bond to a suitable thermoplastic surface of the cover layer of the card and diffuse into it. This makes counterfeiting difficult because the surface of the color-bearing part of the image remains smooth and undamaged.

The portion of the image produced by laser technology can be generated directly in the cover layer if it is prepared with material components or pigments that can be changed by laser beam. However, the laser image portion is preferably introduced into an intermediate layer or into the inlet layer usually containing white dye, the laser energy input being selected such that an absorption change takes place in the deeper layer and the transparent cover layer remains largely unchanged.

The splitting of the image into two parts, which are spaced apart from one another in the depth of the map, makes it possible to identify forgeries in which one of the parts is missing, since the parts of the image appear offset from one another when viewed obliquely and accordingly appear to be fuzzy correlated. This effect can be increased still further and can be exploited from a security point of view by generating the intensity of the laser image in a suitable manner, for example in strips a higher or lower laser intensity is introduced and, accordingly, the color image is additionally applied in the opposite manner, additionally in terms of its intensity with respect to the absorption region which is thereby missing. As a result, the image appears completely normal and homogeneous when viewed vertically, but when viewed obliquely, along the security pattern with discolored or lightened or darkened edges.

Lasering generally produces a black part of the image using the known methods and conventional materials, which ranges from gray to white depending on the intensity, but a single-color image can also be produced if the layer to be lasered is suitably pigmented. In particular, pictures with dark brown discoloration by lasers are known, since brown decomposition products often result from the decomposition of the dye components of the inlet. When the color image is created, a correspondingly reduced color component is preferably provided, so that the normal color image, including its black components, is formed summarily. The separate generation of the broadband absorbing image components in the laser image largely saves the simultaneous superimposition of complementary colors in the color image part for the generation of the black portion and the color depth there, which enables excellent image formation with relatively little color.

Advantageous configurations are shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

Fig. 1 shows a credit card with an image portion in supervision;

2 shows a credit card enlarged in the section of the image area.

The credit card in FIG. 1 has an area with an information microprocessor chip (C) and an image part (B) in which a passport photo of the credit card holder is shown. Further features of the user and information can be printed in the usual way or can be accommodated on the card on a magnetic or optical data carrier. The cross section through the image part (B) of the preferred credit card in FIG. 2 shows that it is made up of several layers 1 to 4, of which the two outer layers are transparent cover layers (1, 4) made of plastic and under the top cover layer (1 ) a laser-changeable intermediate layer area (2) is introduced, under which there is an inlet layer (3) which is opaque and is preferably originally white in the image area.

The intermediate layer region (2) contains an image part (BL) which has been changed in its absorption property by laser radiation. The cover layer (1) is provided with a color image portion (FB) through the fusion with several sublimation colors, according to the design of the image.

In the production of the lasered image part (BL), the credit card is preferably first subjected to the laser image point by point in a grid-like manner and its absorption property is accordingly changed. The known laser irradiation method can also be used, in which the surface of the ticking (3) is changed by the laser beam in its absorption property. In the next step, it is then correlated in a color printer step by step, broken down into sub-steps, and the color image portion (BF) of the image is preferably composed of three color components. In a known manner, punctiform electrodes of a cutting-shaped thermal printer line are heated in an electrically controlled manner, so that the color layer of a color film introduced between the thermal printer line and the top layer melts and / or evaporates at points and is deposited on the top layer (1). The individual colors are applied one after the other in a known manner, either by using several color printer lines, each with different color foils, or by using a multi-color color foil with changing color sections, with the credit card being guided under the print line in a pilgrimage step. The precise assignment of the color and image components is controlled in a known manner via resolvers on the card transport and photosensors on the ink ribbon. If a discoloration of the intermediate layer (2) or the inlet (3) is provided by the laser, it is a simplification to omit this color component in the color image portion and to work only t two components there, which simplifies color printing. In this way, a subsequent falsification of an image is easily recognizable, since it can then be seen that, with additional features introduced, the color component that must be present in depth is introduced into the surface during the falsification, insofar as it is assumed that the Counterfeiters usually cannot access a suitable laser device.

Instead of the thermal transfer process, another paint application process can also be used. For example, the electrostatic-optical method that comes from color copying technology and that has been converted to dot creation for computer printers, and also the multi-color inkjet method that is used for computer printing can be used.

A further advantageous embodiment of the method and the device for carrying out the method is that the same laser raster device that was used to introduce the laser image portion is used to apply the color image portion. For this purpose, the thermal transfer color film is brought into close contact with the card surface, whereupon the laser beam scans the image field in a controlled manner with the color information.

This procedure is repeated for the different colors one after the other. The color film can be pressed on with an abutment made of a transparent material, in particular glass, the card being pressed from behind with an elastic counter-holder. The hold-down device can be designed as a full-surface plate or as a ruler, in particular as a glass rod. In the linear training there is a movement, e.g. B. rolling, on the color film in an image axis, and the laser beam is deflected only perpendicularly in the direction of the rod and sent through the rod, which acts as a lens. The color image generation with the same laser simplifies the device and its control and extreme precision of the spatial image and color correlation, since the same positioning means are used in each case. There is also an acceleration of the production of the color image compared to the color transfer with electrically heated image points, since the cooling of the image points between successive lines has to be waited for and the image lines have to be mechanically transported to the next line position, as a result of which the shortest image build-up time is determined. Instead of pressing the colored film with an abutment, the film can also be tensed, whereby the elastic card is arched at least in the image area and thus ensures full-surface contact with the film. The arrangement described here and the method for generating a color transfer image with heating the pixels by a laser beam is a separate invention, which is significant regardless of the generation of a laser beam in depth.

Claims

1. ID card, in particular credit card, with an image part (B) which contains a photo of the person to be expelled, with dot-by-dot image points of different light absorption with a laser beam in a cover layer (1) and / or in a layer under a transparent cover layer (1) lying intermediate layer (2) and / or inlet layer (3) are introduced, characterized in that a single-color portion and / or gray or black portion of the image portion (BL) is / are introduced by laser technology in the identification card and are congruent with the image one complementary to the other Color image part (BF) is applied over it.

2. ID card according to claim 1, characterized in that the laser image part (BL) contains the gray and black portion of the image and the color image portion (BF) contains essentially no gray or black portion.

3. ID card according to claim 1, characterized in that the laser image part (BL) contains a first color portion of the image and the color image portion (BF) of the image (B) completes the color portion of the image (B) including an overlay of the overall colors to gray and Contains black.

4. ID card according to claim 1, characterized in that the laser image portion (BL) is modulated in a predetermined pattern in its intensity and the color image part (BF) is complementary to the laser image portion (BL) is modulated in intensity, so that the overall image results completely from a vertical view and the given pattern becomes visible from a side view.

5. ID card according to claim 1, characterized in that the intermediate layer (2) is interspersed with a pigment or material portion which can be optically changed by laser radiation.

6. ID card according to claim 1, characterized in that it has a white inlet layer (3) which is superficially variable in its light absorption property by laser radiation.

7. ID card according to claim 1, characterized in that the

Cover layer (1) consists of a thermoplastic, which attaches sublimation dyes and optionally dye binders under the action of heat.

8. A method for producing an identification card according to one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the color intensity values of pixels of a color image to be introduced into the identification card are split into an intensity value component to be converted by laser technology and into a color intensity value component and a laser raster device is applied to the former, whereby this A laser beam is applied to the ID card in accordance with the image point and a laser image component (BL) is generated in it, and that thermal transfer color image generation is controlled separately with the color intensity value component according to color and thus different thermal transfer colors are successively applied to the ID card according to the location of the laser image component.

9. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that in the thermal transfer color image generation in succession for the different

Colors, a thermal transfer color film is pressed with one of the thermal transfer colors onto the card surface and the corresponding color image points are heated with the laser beam in a controlled manner in accordance with the color intensity value component and are thereby transferred to and into the card surface.