EP1159137A1

EP1159137A1 - Graphic printing machine for card-type storage medium, method for printing said storage media and storage media

Info

Publication number: EP1159137A1
Application number: EP00907707A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Paul Morgavi
Original assignee: Gemplus Card International SA; Gemplus SA
Current assignee: Gemplus SA
Priority date: 1999-03-01
Filing date: 2000-02-21
Publication date: 2001-12-05
Anticipated expiration: 2020-02-21
Also published as: ATE244641T1; FR2790421A1; DE60003792D1; ES2202063T3; US20140063086A1; CA2364092A1; CN1342116A; US7286257B1; AU2920500A; EP1159137B1; DE60003792T2; CA2364092C; CN1182961C; WO2000051818A1

Abstract

A graphic printing machine and method for a card-type storage medium employs a jet printing head and a controller to perform ink jet printing on the medium. The invention is useful for printing plastic or cardboard or paper cards.

Description

GRAPHIC PRINTING MACHINE FOR MEDIA

CARD TYPE STORAGE, PRINTING METHOD

GRAPH OF SAID STORAGE MEDIA AND MEDIA

MEMORY

The invention relates to a printing machine and method for a storage medium, in particular of the plastic card type, and the storage media printed according to the method. It relates more particularly to a machine and a graphic printing process, in particular color and of high quality for storage medium.

By graphic printing is meant the production of surfaces having an aesthetic effect with a decorative, photographic pattern, etc. as opposed to printing alphanumeric characters online.

The invention applies to all card applications and in particular to plastic cards such as payment cards, credit cards, telephone cards, mobile phone cards, authentication cards whether cards with magnetic stripe and / or memory cards.

The memory cards include an electronic micromodule containing an integrated circuit chip with flush or contactless contacts, with one or more memories and most often a microprocessor or a magnetic strip.

The invention also applies to chip cards with flush or contactless contact or to cards with electromagnetic antenna and / or with integrated circuit chip.

In the following we will talk to simplify either storage medium or cards with chip or plastic cards to designate a medium of the smart card and / or magnetic and / or electromagnetic type made of plastic or cardboard or paper. The market for high quality graphic printing for media such as cards is today exclusively dominated by traditional technologies which are offset, screen printing or flexography.

These technologies, which are well suited to mass production, are not, however, suitable for media which have differences in surface level, in particular eπiDossages on credit cards. In addition, they can damage the electronic circuits that the card could contain due to the pressure exerted on the supports, in particular with regard to offset technology. These technologies are not easy to use because they do not allow the printing of different information from one medium to another presented successively continuously on a printing chain.

These last years have seen the appearance of a new generation of electrophotographic type equipment which makes it possible to modify more or less simply information to be printed "on the fly" (that is to say during the operation of a printing chain) using preset computer programs. These devices have the disadvantages of introducing electrostatic charges which could damage the electronic circuits contained in the support. They also have the disadvantage of exerting pressure on the support as before and of requiring good surface flatness of the support.

In addition, these solutions are only suitable for applications in which the supports to print are in the form of large rolls or sheets.

The present invention overcomes these drawbacks.

It offers a printing machine for plastic card-type media using inkjet technology.

The invention makes it possible to print, at industrial rates, plastic cards of variable sizes and thicknesses which may include elements such as an electronic micromodule, a magnetic strip, an electromagnetic antenna or the like, which of course must not be without the need for physical contact between the printing machine and the medium to be printed.

According to the invention, the machine makes it possible to have the possibility of partially or entirely changing the information to be printed between two successive cards in the continuous printing chain.

The printing machine according to the invention is capable of printing plastic supports, which is most often the case for supports such as smart cards but also low cost cards made of cardboard or paper.

The present invention therefore more particularly for obi and a printing machine for card-type storage medium comprising at least one ink and ink head and means for controlling said head to operate by and ink printing. on the said support.

The supports to be printed are plastic cards or cards made of cardboard or paper. In the case of plastic cards, the ink or inks used are radiation crosslinking inks.

The radiation used for crosslinking is ultraviolet radiation.

In the case of cardboard or paper cards, the ink or inks used are preferably aqueous or phase-change or solvent-based inks. In the case of memory cards, said machine comprises a reader capable of reading information contained in said memory cards, in particular information useful to the control means and capable of communicating said information read to said control means.

The information read, useful to the control means corresponds to the information which it is desired to print on the storage medium.

According to another characteristic, the machine comprises means for dynamic measurement of geometric parameters and / or positioning of a support for communicating this measurement information to the control means.

The measurement means comprise a computer-assisted vision device comprising a video camera.

According to another characteristic, the machine comprises means for controlling the quality of the print, arranged after the print head or heads and capable of communicating to the control means, information relating to any anomaly detected.

According to another characteristic, the machine comprises a support element for receiving a plurality of card-type supports to be printed continuously, said supports to be printed being arranged on the support element so that the machine head or heads see the supports to be printed running.

In the case of single pass printing, the support element is a flat conveyor belt.

In the case of printing in several passes, the support element is a drum.

According to another characteristic, the machine comprises a suction device, the drum being perforated, so as to maintain the supports to be printed on the support element during its movement.

According to another characteristic, the machine comprises a system for turning over the supports to be printed for double-sided printing. According to another characteristic, the machine comprises one or more printheads, these printheads being aligned in the direction of movement of the support element and facing the latter. According to another characteristic, the machine comprises one or more color print heads for printing images of the photographic or colored type, and monochrome for marking.

According to another characteristic, the machine comprises means for operating a transformation of the ink into gel during printing and means for operating a crosslinking of the ink at the end of printing.

The means for operating a transformation of the ink into gel comprise an optical fiber placed after each print head, connected to a source of light radiation.

The means for crosslinking the ink at the end of printing include an ultra violet radiation lamp. Another object of the invention relates to a method of graphical printing of a storage medium mainly characterized in that the printing is carried out by ink jet. According to another characteristic, the method comprises a step of freezing the surface of the drop of ink just after the impact of the drop on the support and in particular before switching to a new ink jet head for the following printing. The gel is made by UV radiation.

According to another characteristic, the printing is carried out as a function of geometric and / or positioning parameters taken beforehand from each medium to be printed. Although described for the card application, the method of printing support with sampling of geometric parameters and / or positioning can be applied to any support to be printed.

According to another, inkjet heads of the piezoelectric type are used.

According to another characteristic, the method comprises a varnishing step carried out by ink jet.

Another object of the invention relates to a card-type storage medium comprising a graphic print produced by ink jet.

In a variant, the card-type storage medium comprises a varnish produced by ink jet.

Other features and advantages of the invention will appear on reading the description given below which is given by way of illustrative but non-limiting example and with reference to the drawings in which:

- Figure 1 shows a general diagram of a printing machine according to the invention; - Figure 2 shows schematically an inkjet printing machine according to a first embodiment of one invention;

- Figure 3 shows schematically a printing machine according to a second embodiment of one invention;

In Figure 1, there is shown the case where the machine comprises several ink jet print heads in particular, a head Tq for writing for example text and the other heads T _] _, T2 for making color printing. Each of the heads corresponds to a particular color, the inks used in this example are UV crosslinking inks.

Better results can be obtained by improving certain characteristics of the UV ink such as the adhesion, the speed of crosslinking, the viscosity as a function of the nature of the support. The print heads are controlled by a control unit 40, which can be connected as has been said to a card reader 20 in the case where the card is a smart card and that it contains information relating to the pattern to print. The control unit 40 is produced by means of a microcomputer responsible for a printing program P4 capable of controlling the heads T _] _-Tq for printing, either in a single pass or in several passages, cards in front of said heads. To this end, the unit also controls the movements of the support element 60.

At the input of the printing line, a large capacity 10A charger of the distribution hopper type was placed to distribute the Cp cards. successively on the carpet at the desired rate. Distribution is controlled by unit 40.

The reader 20 is placed just after this exit from the distribution hopper and makes it possible to read the content L of the information present in the card whether the card is a smart card or a contactless card or a magnetic stripe card. The information L from this reading is transmitted to the control unit 40 of the machine which converts this electrical information into printable data for the heads.

After this operation, the card is then routed under a computer-aided vision device 40-30. This device comprises, in addition to the video camera 30, a program P3 loaded in the control unit 40 for example, for interpreting the images from the video camera 30.

Program P ₃ measures the external dimensions of the card as well as the size and position of the elements on the surface of the card which should not be printed.

The computer-aided vision device makes it possible for example to measure the location of the electronic micromodule which comprises a chip for a smart card, the magnetic strip for a magnetic card, etc.

One or more heads Tτ_-Tq are arranged above the successive Cp cards on the support 60. The ink jet heads are aligned along the axis of movement of the cards above said cards.

To improve the speeds of printing machines for plastic card-type supports while ensuring good quality in printing, it is also proposed to use an optical fiber FI-Fq after each printhead to apply radiation from an SL source capable of starting the crosslinking, that is to say transforming the ink drops into a gel and thus preventing the osmosis of the colored inks, the crosslinking taking place at the end of the printing chain by a radiation device, for example UV, providing more powerful radiation than that of fibers.

The use of fibers as has just been described also makes it possible to control the size of the drops because by freezing them (transformation into gel), their spreading is stopped.

The printing machine comprises a second camera 50 so as to carry out by the computer-aided vision system a quality control of the printing which has been carried out on the cards. To this end, the unit 40 includes a program P ₅ for analyzing the images A taken by the camera 50. This program is capable of analyzing the colors, ink marks, possible scratches and controlling the ejection of the cards considered as bad and / or to modify the inkjet printing parameters in order to correct any colorimetric drift for example.

And finally, the radiation device 70, preferably a UV radiation lamp (ultraviolet) for the ink used for printing on plastic, makes it possible to crosslink the ink, that is to say to cause a rapid transformation from liquid or gel state to solid state. The cards then fall into a recovery hopper 80.

In the case of double-sided printing, the machine is equipped with a device for turning over the cards 90. This device comprises for example a hatch in the recovery hopper 80, the opening of which is controlled by the unit 40 which sends a control signal R for this purpose. It further includes a card reversing mechanism with recovery in a second distribution hopper 10B.

Printing can be done in one or more passes depending on the types of inkjet heads used. When the cards are printed, they can undergo a varnishing which consists in depositing by ink jet a layer of finishing material (varnish) which can have a protective and / or aesthetic function. The varnishing can be carried out by a head reserved for this purpose for example.

Thanks to the invention, it is possible to deposit and quickly crosslink drops of varnish selectively on a printed surface. If necessary, the printed surface can be leveled by depositing exactly the number of drops of varnish necessary insofar as the treatment is digital.

FIG. 2 illustrates in non-detailed and non-complete manner a machine for printing by and ink according to a first embodiment. According to this first embodiment, the element 60 supporting cards comes in the form of a conveyor belt 61 which scrolls the Pc cards that are placed on the carpet before several heads ¹ print. This embodiment illustrates a case where the machine has 8 ink jet heads. According to the example illustrated, the machine has heads corresponding to the 4 fundamental colors and other colors such as orange, light cyan, or varnishes of specific color (spot color in English terminology). These printheads allow the printing of photographic or colored images. The machine also has a monochrome (black) head for printing, for example, texts, bar codes or the like.

These are heads with a resolution of 600 Dpi with 1,536 jets per head, using UV crosslinking inks. The control unit (not shown) is capable of controlling the entire chain so as to obtain 20,000 cards (faces) printed per hour. The carpet has a length, for example between 4 and 5 meters. Printing is done in one pass.

Figure 3 illustrates in non-detailed and not complete a printing machine according to a second embodiment, particularly suitable for printing in several passes. In this embodiment, the support 60 consists of a drum 62 which can rotate around its axis X. The cards are arranged on the surface of the drum. A suction device 63 will be provided inside the drum 62 to hold the Cp cards pressed against the surface of the drum, said surface being perforated to allow suction under the cards.

For example, the drum is one meter twenty in diameter, you can arrange 36 cards and print them each in 6 turns. 8 heads are used with 256 jets per head using UV crosslinking inks and having a resolution of 600 Dpi. It is possible with this solution to print 6,000 cards per hour. Thanks to the invention, it is possible to obtain graphic prints having a density of points, greater than 400 Dpi and preferably greater than or equal to 600 Dpi.

The printing of each card in several passes can be done either by moving the drum relative to the heads or by moving the heads relative to the drum.

The main function of the control unit 40 is to manage the monochrome or color inkjet heads in order to reproduce the pattern or patterns to be printed taking account of the information coming from the electrical reading of the card (if there is location), non-printable areas (card edge, micromodule, magnetic stripe) and colorimetric corrections of the inks used. There can also be provided at the input of the chain a system which makes it possible to clean the cards, an air jet for example which would blow air over the cards which will thus be ready to be printed.

To freeze the ink on the surface without cross-linking in depth, it is preferably acted on a modulation of UV wavelength. This gives a superficial skin on the ink or a surface crosslinking. In particular, it is possible to use means for emitting UVC type radiation. To crosslink non-cationic inks in depth at the end of printing, UVA type radiation is used.

Among the printing defects or drifts controlled by the invention are, for example, lines that are not printed or printed with colors different from the original. The diagnosis carried out by the analysis program can for example be a nozzle problem which must then be purged or cleaned automatically. There can also be coloπmétπques drifts compared to a prerecorded control model. The analysis program may include a definition of a signal acceptance model resulting from an image analysis which is compared at regular intervals to a received signal corresponding to a determined analysis. The printing machine can include means capable of implementing several types of analyzes requiring algorithms known to those skilled in the art and corresponding to subroutines of a main analysis program. The various analyzes can be performed alternately or simultaneously and incidentally implemented by means of input and processing in parallel or multitasking associated with VAO devices.

We can analyze for example, the absence or presence of printing at given points, the rate of pixels printed or correlation rate between a theoretical model and the model actually printed, the presence of scratches by detection of a continuous quantity of unprinted dots, colorimetric drift. The main program can trigger signals acting in particular on print parameters of the head such as the time or the excitation voltage, the operating temperature (influencing the viscosity of the ink), the pixel distribution.

The geometry of the cards, the magnetic tracks, the modules being variable due to the manufacturing tolerances and the tolerance admitted in particular by the ISO 7810 and 7811 standards, or their position on the conveyor system, we understand the advantage of 1 ' invention to present a geometrical map tracking system by a VAO system comprising one or more video cameras. So, we avoids, for example, printing in unwanted places such as the module, the conveyor system, etc.

The advantage of inkjet heads of the piezoelectric type is to be able to accept inks of high viscosity, of different natures and to operate at a high frequency.

Thanks to the invention, it is possible to carry out a precise varnishing with a layer of finishing material on all or part of the surface of the support. The finishing material can extend to the edges of the support and without encroaching on the support conveyor system or even without overflowing on the edge of the support.

Claims

1. Graphic printing machine for a support comprising at least one ink jet head (Tl-Tq) and control means (40) of said head for carrying out ink jet printing on said support, characterized in that it comprises means for dynamic measurement of geometric parameters and/or positioning of the support to communicate this measurement information to the control means (40).

2. Graphic printing machine for a support comprising at least one ink jet head (Tl-Tq) and control means (40) of said head for carrying out ink jet printing on said support, characterized in that it comprises printing quality control means (50) capable of modifying the inkjet printing parameters and arranged after the print head(s).

3. Printing machine according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises means for controlling the quality of the printing (50), arranged after the print head(s) and capable of modifying the parameters of inkjet printing.

4. Printing machine according to claim 2, characterized in that it comprises means for dynamically measuring geometric parameters and/or positioning of the support to communicate this measurement information to the control means (40).

5. Printing machine according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the supports to be printed (Cn) are plastic cards or cardboard or paper cards.

6. Printing machine according to claim 5, characterized in that in the case of cards plastics, the ink or inks used are radiation crosslinking inks.

7. Printing machine according to claim 6, characterized in that the radiation used for crosslinking is ultraviolet radiation.

8. Printing machine according to claim 5, characterized in that in the case of cardboard or paper cards, the ink or inks used are aqueous or phase change ink or solvent-based.

9. Printing machine according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that in the case of storage cards, said machine comprises a reader (L) capable of reading information contained in said storage cards, in particular useful information to the control means (40) and capable of communicating said information read to said control means.

10. Printing machine according to claim 9, characterized in that the information read useful to the control means corresponds to the information that is desired to be printed on the storage medium.

11. Printing machine according to any one of claims 1, 3 to 10, characterized in that the measuring means comprise a computer-assisted vision device comprising one or more video cameras.

12. Printing machine according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it comprises a support element (60) for receiving a plurality of card-type supports to be printed continuously, said supports to be printed being arranged on 1 ' support element so that the head(s) of the machine see the supports to be printed pass by.

13. Printing machine according to claim 12, characterized in that the support element is a flat conveyor belt (61).

14. Printing machine according to claim 12, characterized in that the support element is a drum (62).

15. Printing machine according to any one of claims 12 to 14, characterized in that it comprises a suction device (63), the support element being perforated, so as to maintain the supports to be printed on the support element during its movement.

16. Printing machine according to any one of claims 12 to 15, characterized in that it comprises a system for turning over (90) the supports to be printed for double-sided printing.

17. Printing machine according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it comprises one or more print heads (Tl-Tq) and in that these print heads are aligned according to the direction of movement of the support element and opposite the latter.

18. Printing machine according to claim 17, characterized in that it comprises one or more color print heads for printing images of the photographic type or colored, and monochrome for marking.

19. Printing machine according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it comprises means (Fl-Fq, SL) for transforming the ink into gel during printing by length modulation wave.

20. Printing machine according to claim 19, characterized in that means for operating a transformation of ink into gel include an optical fiber placed after each print head, connected to a source of light radiation.

21. Printing machine according to claim, characterized in that said means (Fl-Fq, SL) for effecting a transformation of the ink into gel by wavelength modulation comprise means for emitting UVC radiation.

22. Printing machine according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it comprises means (70) for crosslinking the ink at the end of printing.

23. Printing machine according to claim 22, characterized in that said means (70) for crosslinking the ink at the end of printing comprises an ultraviolet radiation lamp.

2. Process for graphic printing of support by inkjet, characterized in that the printing is carried out according to geometric and/or positioning parameters taken beforehand from each support to be printed.

25. Process for graphic printing of media by ink jet, characterized in that it comprises a varnishing step carried out by ink jet.

26. Process for graphic printing of media by ink jet according to claim 24, characterized in that it comprises a varnishing step carried out by ink jet.

27. Process for graphic printing of media by ink jet according to claim 25, characterized in that the printing is carried out according to geometric and/or positioning parameters taken beforehand from each medium to be printed.

28. Method according to one of claims 24 to 27, characterized in that it comprises a step of freezing the surface of the drop of ink just after the impact of the drop on the support and in particular before moving on to a new inkjet head for the next print.

29. Method according to claim 28, characterized in that the gel is carried out by UVC radiation.

30. Method according to any one of claims 22 to 27, characterized in that piezoelectric type ink jet heads are used.

31. Method according to any one of claims 24 to 30, characterized in that it comprises a step consisting of depositing a finishing material produced by ink jet.

32. Method according to the preceding claim, characterized in that said finishing material is selectively deposited on a printed surface.

33. Method according to the preceding claim, characterized in that it comprises a step consisting of leveling the printed surface using the finishing material.

34. Support comprising a layer of finishing material produced by inkjet.

35. Support according to claims 34, characterized in that the finishing material is a varnish.

36. Storage medium according to one of claims 34 or 35, characterized in that the finishing material extends to the edges of the support.

37. Storage medium according to any one of claims 34 to 36, comprising a printed surface, characterized in that said printed surface is exactly leveled using said layer of finishing material.

38. Storage medium according to one of claims 34 to 37, characterized in that it comprises a graphic print comprising a dot density greater than 400 Dpi.

39. Support according to one of claims 34 to 38, characterized in that it constitutes a card-type storage medium.