DE102009059815A1 - Storage material for security papers, security documents and other data carrier, comprises a substrate with two opposite head surfaces, and a pigment-free, color-shifting coating on the two opposite head surfaces of the substrate - Google Patents

Abstract

The storage material (10) for security papers, security documents and other data carrier, comprises a substrate (12) with two opposite head surfaces, and a pigment-free, color-shifting coating that is applied on the two opposite head surfaces of the substrates. The color-shifting coating is present on the head surface of the substrate as layers and contains a three-layered thin-film element of a reflective layer, an absorber layer and a dielectric spacer layer (24) arranged between the reflective layer and the absorber layer, and a five- or multi-layered thin-film element. The storage material (10) for security papers, security documents and other data carrier, comprises a substrate (12) with two opposite head surfaces, and a pigment-free, color-shifting coating that is applied on the two opposite head surfaces of the substrates. The color-shifting coating is present on the head surface of the substrate as layers and contains a three-layered thin-film element of a reflective layer, an absorber layer and a dielectric spacer layer (24) arranged between the reflective layer and the absorber layer, and a five- or multi-layered thin-film element with the reflective layer, the absorber layer and the dielectric spacer layer. The storage material contains a magnetic layer for aligning the storage material, where the storage material present in the form of fibers has a length of 3-6 mm and a width of 0.2-1 mm, and is present in the form of flat planchette with arbitrary outline shape and a largest dimension of 2-6 mm. Independent claims are included for (1) a method for producing storage material for security papers, security documents and other data carrier; (2) a data carrier such as security paper or security document; and (3) a method for producing a data carrier such as security paper or security document.

Description

The invention relates to a storage material in the form of fibers or planchettes for security papers, documents of value and other data carriers. The invention further relates to a method for producing such a storage material, a data carrier with such storage material and a manufacturing method for such a data carrier.

It is known to use colored or fluorescent mottled fibers as security features for security papers or documents of value. Fluorescent mottled fibers usually consist of short fibers which are provided with a fluorescent coating. For example, the current euro banknotes contain evenly embedded mottled fibers in the paper with the fluorescent colors red, blue and green. In normal lighting, the mottled fibers are invisible, but under UV illumination they appear clearly despite their small size due to their bright fluorescence.

Planchettes are also used as security features in paper production. These are leaflets in round or polygonal shape, which are introduced into the paper over the entire surface or within a defined strip.

On this basis, the invention has for its object to avoid the disadvantages of the prior art and in particular to specify a storage material of the type mentioned above with appealing visual appearance and good counterfeit protection.

This object is achieved by the intercalation material having the features of the main claim. A manufacturing method for such a storage material, a data carrier and an associated manufacturing method are specified in the independent claims. Further developments of the invention are the subject of the dependent claims.

According to the invention, a generic potting material comprises a substrate having two opposite major surfaces and a pigment-free, color-shifting coating applied to at least one of the two opposing major surfaces of the substrate. As explained in more detail below, such a storage material exhibits a visually appealing appearance due to the color shift effect of its coating and is also perceived more easily than conventional mottling fibers by the optical variability. For authenticity testing no special UV illumination is necessary, but it is sufficient to tilt the disk with the embedded material back and forth. The storage material therefore represents an easily recognizable and to be tested security feature.

In addition, the incorporation of the color-shifting coating material together with the supporting substrate allows a particularly good anchoring in the embedding medium. The pigment-free coating is formed in particular by vapor-deposited interference layers and provides a brilliant and luminous color effect.

The substrate of the interstitial material may be formed by paper, polymer or composite materials, with the present invention being preferred as a polymer. The substrate may in particular comprise a polymer film of polypropylene, polyethylene, polystyrene, polyethylene terephthalate, polycarbonate or polyvinyl acetate.

In an advantageous variant of the invention, the pigment-free, color-shifting coating is present only on one main surface of the substrate. This offers the advantage that the substrate itself or a layer applied to the main surface of the substrate opposite the coating can further support the anchoring of the intercalation material in the data carrier.

The pigment-free, farbkippende coating can be constructed both single-layered and multi-layered. For example, in a single-layered construction, the coating may consist of a cholesteric liquid crystal layer. With particular advantage, the pigment-free, color-shifting coating contains a three-layer thin-film element comprising a reflection layer, an absorber layer and a dielectric spacer layer arranged between the reflection layer and the absorber layer. Such three-layered thin-film elements can also be applied to both main surfaces of the substrate, wherein the thin-film elements of the opposing surfaces can be formed with the same or with different color-shift effects.

The pigment-free, color-shifting coating can also contain a five-layer or multi-layer thin-film element with at least one reflection layer, at least one absorber layer and at least one dielectric spacer layer. Such thin-film elements may also be provided only on one main surface of the substrate and yet produce visible color-shift effects from both sides.

The layers of the thin film element are advantageously produced by vapor deposition in a vacuum coating process. The dielectric spacer layer can also be replaced by a Printing layer or by an ultra-thin film, in particular a stretched polyester film may be formed. Particularly preferred is currently a design in which the dielectric spacer layer is formed by a low-refractive dielectric layer, in particular a vapor-deposited SiO _x layer or a MgF ₂ layer.

Further details of the structure of such thin-film elements and the materials and layer thicknesses which can be used for the reflection layer, the dielectric spacer layer and the absorber layer can be found in the document WO 01/03945 are removed, the disclosure of which is included in the present application in this respect.

In one development of the invention, the intercalation material contains a magnetic layer for aligning the intercalation material. The magnetic layer may be part of the color-shifting coating, for example a magnetic metal may be used for the reflection layer of a thin-film element, or a magnetic layer may be arranged below or between two non-magnetic reflection layers of high reflectivity. The storage material can then be aligned after storage, for example, in the still wet state of a paper web, by an external magnetic field as desired. After drying the paper web, the intercalation material is permanently fixed in the desired position.

The intercalation material is advantageously present either in the form of fibers having a length of 0.5 mm to 10 mm, preferably 3 mm to 6 mm and a width of 0.2 mm to 1 mm, or in the form of flat planchettes with any Outline shape and a size dimension of 1 mm to 10 mm, preferably from 2 mm to 6 mm.

In a method for producing a generic intercalation material, a planar substrate with two opposing major surfaces is provided, a pigment-free, color-shifting coating is applied to at least one of the two opposing major surfaces of the planar substrate, and the planar substrate is cut or punched in the form of fibers or planchettes ,

The pigment-free, color-shifting coating is preferably applied by vapor deposition or printing. In the case of a multilayer coating, one or more of the layers may also be vapor-deposited and one or more of the layers printed.

The invention also includes a data carrier, in particular a security paper or a document of value with an intercalation material of the type described. The intercalation material may in particular be incorporated into the volume of the data carrier or applied in a binder to the surface of the data carrier. In the case of a multilayer data carrier, the intercalation material can also be incorporated between two layers of the data carrier. The data carrier is, for example, a banknote, in particular a paper banknote, a polymer banknote or a film composite banknote.

• a) bei der Herstellung des Datenträgersubstrats in das Volumen des Datenträgersubstrats oder einer Lage des Datenträgersubstrats eingelagert wird, oder
• b) in einem Bindemittel auf die Oberfläche des Datenträgers aufgebracht wird, oder
• c) zwischen zwei Lagen des Datenträgers eingelagert wird.

The invention further includes a method for producing a data carrier, in particular a security paper or a value document, in which a storage material of the type described

• a) is incorporated in the production of the data carrier substrate in the volume of the data carrier substrate or a layer of the data carrier substrate, or
• b) is applied in a binder on the surface of the data carrier, or
• c) is stored between two layers of the data carrier.

If the data carrier comprises a paper layer, then the intercalation material is advantageously added to the paper pulp during the production of the paper layer. If the data carrier comprises a polymer layer, the intercalation material is advantageously added to the polymer composition during the extrusion of the polymer layer.

If the intercalation material contains a magnetic layer, then the intercalation material is advantageously aligned in an immovable state in the data carrier by an external magnetic field and then fixed, for example by drying an initially still moist paper layer or by crosslinking an initially uncrosslinked polymer layer.

Further exemplary embodiments and advantages of the invention are explained below with reference to the figures, in the representation of which a representation true to scale and proportion has been dispensed with in order to increase the clarity. The various embodiments are not limited to use in the specific form described, but can also be combined with each other.

Show it:

1 a mottled fiber according to an embodiment of the invention schematically in perspective view,

2 a mottled fiber according to another embodiment of the invention in cross-section,

3 in (a) to (c) are plan views of a mottled fiber and two planchettes according to embodiments of the invention, and

4 in (a) to (c) data carriers according to embodiments of the invention with different variants of the storage of mottled fibers according to the invention.

1 shows in perspective view schematically a mottled fiber according to the invention 10 which is intended for storage in security documents, documents of value or other data carriers.

The mottled fiber 10 contains a substrate 12 from a polymer film, wherein as a film material, for example, polypropylene, polyethylene, polystyrene, polyethylene terephthalate, polycarbonate or polyvinyl acetate can be used.

On the two opposite major surfaces of the substrate 12 is in each case a three-layer thin-film element 20 vapor-deposited with a color-shift effect. Each of the two thin-film elements 20 consists of an aluminum reflection layer 22 , a chromium absorber layer 26 and one between the reflective layer 22 and the absorber layer 26 arranged dielectric spacer layer 24 made of SiOx.

The color shift effect is due to such thin-film elements 20 on viewing angle dependent interference effects due to multiple reflections in the different sublayers of the element. The path difference of the light reflected at the different layers depends, on the one hand, on the optical thickness of the dielectric spacer layer 24 starting the distance between the absorber layer 26 and reflection layer 22 on the other hand varies with the respective viewing angle. Since the path difference is on the order of the wavelength of the visible light, the result is an angle-dependent color impression for the viewer due to the extinction and amplification of certain wavelengths. By a suitable choice of material and thickness of the dielectric spacer layer 24 For example, a variety of different color-shift effects can be designed, such as tilting effects, in which the color impression changes with the viewing angle from green to blue, from blue to magenta, or from magenta to green.

By suitable choice of the layer thickness of the two spacer layers 24 can be on both sides of the mica fiber 10 the same or a different color shift effect are generated.

The mottled fibers 10 have a length of 0.5 mm to 10 mm, in particular from 3 mm to 6 mm and a width of 0, 2 mm to 1 mm.

For the production of the mottling fibers 10 becomes a polymer carrier film on its opposite sides with the desired layer sequence of the thin-film elements 20 steamed. Then, the coated carrier sheet is cut or punched into fibers of the desired length and width. For this purpose, the coated carrier film, for example, continuously advanced at a certain feed rate to a moving up and down cutting blade and cut by the cutting blade into fibers of the desired size. The coated carrier sheet can also be slid against a rotating cutting propeller, and by choosing the ratio of feed rate and rotational speed of the propeller, the desired dimension of the fibers can be adjusted.

2 shows in cross-section an alternative design of color-shifting mottled fibers 30 in which a transparent substrate 12 only on one of its major surfaces with a color-shifting thin-film element 32 is provided. To be able to see a color shift effect from both sides is on the substrate 12 a five-layer thin-film element 32 applied, the bottom of a first chromium absorber layer 26 , a first SiOx spacer layer 24 , an aluminum reflection layer 22 , a second SiOx spacer layer 24 and a second chromium absorber layer 26 having. This variant has the additional advantage that either the substrate 12 yourself or one on the opposite main surface 34 applied layer for a particularly good anchoring of the mottling fibers in the embedding disk can provide.

In addition to the preferred application of the thin-film element by vapor deposition, in particular by means of PVD, one or more layers of the thin-film structure may also be printed. In particular, the spacer layer can 24 of the 1 or the spacer layers 24 of the 2 also be printed.

Even if thin-film elements are presently preferred, the color-shifting coating in the context of the invention can also be formed, for example, by a liquid-crystal coating, by photonic crystals or by a diffractive or achromatic embossing layer. It is essential according to the invention only that the color-tilting coating is not formed by pigments or pigments containing printing ink, the farbkippende coating is thus pigment-free.

With reference to the supervision of the 3 The incorporation material according to the invention can not only in the form of fibers 40 ( 3 (a) ), but also in the form of planchettes, in the form of discs 42 ( 3 (b) ), Stars 44 ( 3 (c) ) or other geometric shapes are formed. The outline of the planchettes is basically arbitrary, but the largest dimension is preferably between 1 mm and 10 mm, in particular between 2 mm and 6 mm.

When embedding the intercalation material according to the invention in a data carrier, the intercalation material 50 in a first variant of the invention in the form of fibers or planchettes in the volume of a data carrier 52 stored as in 4 (a) illustrated. Even with non-transparent or translucent data carriers can by the concentration of the intercalation material 50 To ensure that a sufficiently large number of fibers or planchettes are located in near-surface areas of the disk and therefore at least partially visible.

The data carrier may be, for example, a security paper for the production of security or value documents. The storage material 50 in this case is preferably added to the papermaking of the paper pulp. In particular, cotton-based paper, as is customary in the banknote sector, is considered as security paper. Of course, paper can also be used which contains a proportion x of polymeric material, where x can be between 0 and 100% by weight.

If the data carrier has a multilayer structure and at least one paper layer, such as a paper / foil / paper composite note or a foil / paper / foil composite banknote, the intercalation material 50 can be added to the paper pulp during the production of the paper layer of the multilayer data carrier , The films of the aforementioned composite can be z. Example of polyethylene (PE), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), polyethylene naphthalate (PEN), polypropylene (PP) or polyamide (PA) may be formed. Such a composite is characterized by an extremely high stability, which is for the durability of the security element of great advantage. Also, these composite materials can be used in certain climatic regions of the earth with great advantage.

The substrate for the data carrier can also be designed as a multilayer composite, in particular as a paper-film composite. The films of the composite can be z. Example of polyethylene (PE), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), polyethylene naphthalate (PEN), polypropylene (PP) or polyamide (PA) may be formed. Such a composite is characterized by an extremely high stability, which is for the durability of the security element of great advantage. Also, these composite materials can be used in certain climatic regions of the earth with great advantage.

All materials used as a substrate for the data carrier can have additives which serve as further authenticity features. It is primarily to think of luminescent, which are preferably transparent in the visible wavelength range and in the non-visible wavelength range by a suitable tool, for. B. a UV or IR radiation emitting radiation source, can be excited to produce a visible or at least detectable luminescence.

If the data carrier is a data carrier made of polymer or a data carrier with a polymer layer, then the intercalation material can 50 be added in the extrusion of the data carrier or the polymer layer of the polymer composition.

The storage material 50 can according to a further variant of the invention also in a suitable binder 54 embedded on the surface of a volume 56 be applied as in 4 (b) shown. Because the storage material 50 In this case, it is always located near the surface of the data carrier, the optically variable effect of the color-shifting coating is particularly visible.

Finally, the intercalation material 50 also between two layers 62 . 64 a multi-layered disk 60 be introduced, as in 4 (c) shown. To ensure good visibility of the storage material 50 to ensure at least one of the layers in this variant 62 . 64 with advantage transparent or translucent.

The substrate of the intercalation material according to the invention is preferably made of a polymer material, although paper and composite materials are basically also suitable. Compared with conventional safety fibers, the material according to the invention offers the particular advantage that the color-shifting coating is stored together with the supporting substrate in the target data carrier, whereby a particularly good anchoring can be achieved.

The intercalation material may further include a magnetic layer that allows alignment of the interstitial material, approximately parallel to the disk surface. Such a magnetic layer can, for example, below the metallic reflection layer 22 of the 1 be provided. Another possibility is the metallic reflection layer 22 of the 2 split into two partial reflection layers and to arrange the magnetic material between them. If no additional layer is to be provided, the reflective layer itself can also be formed from magnetic material, for example from a cobalt-nickel alloy.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS

10

mottling

12

substratum

20

thin-film element

22

reflective layer

24

spacer layer

26

absorber layer

30

colored fibers

32

thin-film element

34

main area

40

fibers

42, 44

planchettes

50

storage material

52

disk

54

binder

56

disk

60

disk

62, 64

documents

QUOTES INCLUDE IN THE DESCRIPTION

This list of the documents listed by the applicant has been generated automatically and is included solely for the better information of the reader. The list is not part of the German patent or utility model application. The DPMA assumes no liability for any errors or omissions.

Cited patent literature

• WO 01/03945 [0013]

Claims (20)

A storage material in the form of fibers or planchettes for security papers, documents of value and other data carriers, having a substrate with two opposing major surfaces and having a pigment-free, color-shifting coating applied to at least one of the two opposing major surfaces of the substrate. Embedding material according to claim 1, characterized in that the substrate comprises a polymer film, in particular polypropylene, polyethylene, polystyrene, polyethylene terephthalate, polycarbonate or polyvinyl acetate. Embedding material according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the pigment-free, color-shifting coating is present only on one main surface of the substrate. Embedding material according to at least one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the pigment-free, color-shifting coating is constructed as a single layer or as a multilayer. The incorporation material according to at least one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the pigment-free, color-shifting coating comprises a three-layered thin-film element comprising a reflection layer, an absorber layer and a dielectric spacer layer arranged between the reflection layer and the absorber layer. Embedding material according to at least one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the pigment-free, color-shifting coating contains a five- or multi-layer thin-film element with at least one reflection layer, at least one absorber layer and at least one dielectric spacer layer. Insertion material according to at least one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the intercalation material contains a magnetic layer for aligning the intercalation material. Insertion material according to at least one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the intercalation material in the form of fibers having a length of 0.5 mm to 10 mm, preferably from 3 mm to 6 mm and a width of 0, 2 mm to 1 mm is present. Insertion material according to at least one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the intercalation material in the form of flat planchettes with any outline shape and a largest dimension of 1 mm to 10 mm, preferably from 2 mm to 6 mm is present. A method for the production of storage material for security papers, documents of value and other data carriers, in which a flat substrate is provided with two opposite major surfaces, on at least one of the two opposing major surfaces of the sheet substrate, a pigment-free, color-tilting coating is applied, and the sheet-like substrate in the form of Fibers or planchettes are cut or punched. A method according to claim 10, characterized in that the pigment-free, color-shifting coating is applied by vapor deposition or printing, or that in the case of a multi-layer coating, one or more of the layers are vapor-deposited and one or more of the layers are printed. Data carrier, in particular security paper or document of value with an intercalation material according to one of claims 1 to 9. A data carrier according to claim 12, characterized in that the emplacement material is incorporated in the volume of the data carrier. A data carrier according to claim 12, characterized in that the intercalation material is applied in a binder to the surface of the data carrier. A data carrier according to claim 12, characterized in that the data carrier is multi-layered and the intercalation material is stored between two layers of the data carrier. A data carrier according to at least one of claims 12 to 15, characterized in that the data carrier is a banknote, in particular a paper banknote, a polymer banknote or a film composite banknote. Method for producing a data carrier, in particular a security paper or a value document, in which an intercalation material according to one of claims 1 to 9 a) is incorporated in the production of the data carrier substrate in the volume of the data carrier substrate or a layer of the data carrier substrate, or b) is applied in a binder on the surface of the data carrier, or c) is stored between two layers of the data carrier. The method of claim 17, wherein the data carrier comprises a paper layer and the Embedding material in the preparation of the paper layer of the pulp is added. The method of claim 17, wherein the data carrier comprises a polymer layer and the intercalation material is added during the extrusion of the polymer layer of the polymer composition. A method according to at least one of claims 17 to 19, wherein the intercalation material comprises a magnetic layer, the interstitial material is still aligned in the disk by an external magnetic field and then fixed.

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