JPH08142555A - Noncontact type ic card and production thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To produce a noncontact type IC card having a novel structure wherein an IC card element is embedded in a card in such a state that the entire surface thereof is fixed by a simplified and industrially advantageous method embedding the IC card element embedded in an electric insulating fiber material in the integrally molded card. CONSTITUTION: A notch part is provided to an intermediate layer 2 composed of an electric insulating fiber material at the almost central part thereof and an IC card element 4 is fitted in the notch part and surface layers 1, 2 composed of an electric insulating fiber material are superposed on both surfaces of the intermediate layer 2 to form a laminate of the electric insulating fiber material layers having the IC card element 4 embedded therein. This laminate is fitted in the cavity 21 of a lower mold 20 in a close contact state and an upper mold 10 is clamped to perform injection molding. Since the IC card element 4 is embedded in the electric insulating material, a problem such as the disconnection between the parts constituting the IC card element 4 is eliminated though an IC card is produced by injection molding and a bonding process for a plurality of the parts of the IC card element 4 becomes also unnecessary.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a contactless IC card and a method of manufacturing the same, and more particularly to a contactless IC card having a novel structure and an industrially advantageous contactless IC card.
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a C card.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A non-contact type IC card is a card for reading and writing data by radio wave communication such as medium wave band and microwave band without being physically inserted into a machine or the like. Such an IC card is a type that receives radio waves from an oscillator and stores the information inside the card.
It is categorized as a type that receives radio waves from an oscillator and transmits the information held by the card from the card to the receiver.

The non-contact type IC card, which is of any of the above types, usually has a structure in which an IC card element composed of an IC circuit, a battery, a memory, an antenna, a computer and the like is embedded in the card. And conventionally,
The non-contact type IC card is manufactured by a housing assembling method or a sheet laminating method.

The above-mentioned housing assembling method is a method of manufacturing a non-contact type IC card having at least two housing structures. For example, two housings having a concave portion at the center are formed by injection molding, An IC card element is placed in the concave portion, adhered and fixed, and the housings are bonded together.

The above-mentioned sheet laminating method is a method for producing a non-contact type IC card having at least a three-layer structure of surface layer / intermediate layer / surface layer. For example, the sheet is formed by extrusion molding, and the intermediate layer sheet is formed. Punching out the central part of the sheet, laminating the intermediate layer sheet on one surface layer sheet, arranging the IC card element in the concave portion of the intermediate layer sheet and adhesively fixing it, and then placing it on the intermediate layer sheet. The step of laminating the other surface layer sheet is performed.

[0006]

However, in any of the above-mentioned manufacturing methods, it is difficult to form a recess that matches the shape of the IC card element, and therefore, if the adhesion is insufficient, it tends to be broken due to movement. There is a drawback to say. on the other hand,
An extremely complicated work is required in order to perform complete bonding for each component of the IC card element.

Moreover, the housing assembling method requires an IC card element adhering step and a housing adhering step in addition to the housing forming step, and the sheet stacking method has a sheet punching step in addition to the sheet forming step. Since the IC card element bonding process and the sheet bonding process are required, there is a drawback that the number of processes is large and the manufacturing cost is high. In particular, bonding an IC card element composed of a plurality of parts is troublesome and hinders mass production.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is a non-contact type I having a novel structure in which the entire surface of an IC card element is fixed and is embedded in the card.
An object of the present invention is to provide an industrially advantageous non-contact type IC card manufacturing method in which a C card and a manufacturing process are simplified.

[0009]

That is, the first aspect of the present invention
The present invention resides in a non-contact type IC card characterized in that an IC card element embedded in an electrically insulating fiber material is embedded inside an integrally molded card.

A second aspect of the present invention is to fix an IC card element by embedding an electrically insulating fiber material in a cavity of a divided structure mold, and then close the mold to perform injection molding. After that, a method of manufacturing a non-contact type IC card is characterized in that the mold is opened and the mold is removed.

The present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of steps of the manufacturing method of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a mold used in a reaction injection molding method.

For convenience of explanation, the manufacturing method of the present invention will be described first. First, in the manufacturing method of the present invention,
The IC card element is fixed by embedding an electrically insulating fiber material in the cavity of the divided structure mold.

As the electrically insulating fiber material, non-contact type I
A material having good adhesion with the constituent resin of the C card is preferably used. Specific examples thereof include glass fiber, aromatic polyamide fiber, polyester fiber and the like, but glass fiber is preferable. The electrically insulating fiber material may be in any form such as a mat, a sheet, a woven fabric or a non-woven fabric.

The IC card element may be any combination of elements as long as it can form a non-contact type IC card, and its constituent parts and shapes are not limited.
An ordinary IC card element is composed of an IC circuit, a battery, a memory, an antenna, a computer, etc., and these components are mounted on a substrate as needed.

Further, the IC card element is subjected to a surface coating treatment, if necessary, in order to prevent the influence (for example, foaming) of water adhering to the IC card element at the time of injection molding (particularly reaction injection molding) described later. It can also be used. A known coating resin can be appropriately selected and used as the coating treatment agent.

The IC card element can be fixed in the cavity by the method illustrated in FIG. FIG. 1 shows a fixing method shown by taking a mold of a reaction injection molding method described later as an example. According to this fixing method, a notch is provided at a substantially central portion of the intermediate layer (2) of the electrically insulating fiber material, the IC card element (4) is fitted in the notch, and both surfaces of the electrically insulating fiber material Superposing the surface layer (1) and the surface layer (3), I
A laminated body of electrically insulating fiber material in which the C card element (4) is embedded is formed, and the laminated body is closely fitted into the cavity (21) of the lower die (20) to clamp the upper die (10). Is the way to do it. In the figure, the IC card element (4) is schematically shown.

In the above method, it is important to embed the IC card element inside the laminated body (intermediate layer), and the arrangement order in the cavity is arbitrary, and for example, the lower die (20). The surface layer (1) may be closely fitted in the cavity (21) and the intermediate layer (2) may be superposed on the surface layer (1).

From the viewpoint of bulk density, a random mat (particularly made of glass fiber) is suitable as the electrically insulating fiber material used for the intermediate layer (2), and specifically, CSM (Continuous Strand Mat). Is preferred. The FAW (fiber aerial weight) of CSM is preferably in the range of 100 to 300 g / m ² . On the other hand, as the electrically insulating fiber material used for the surface layer (1) and the surface layer (3), a punched plain woven cloth or a scream sheet (particularly made of glass fiber) is suitable.
AW is preferably in the range of 50 g / m ² or less.

The method of fixing the IC card element by embedding the electrically insulating fiber material in the cavity is not limited to the above-mentioned method. For example, a relatively large amount of electrically insulative fiber material is used to fill the cavity. In the case of bulky filling, the intermediate layer (2) may be omitted and the IC card element may be arranged and fixed between the surface layers (1) and (3).

Further, an atypical electrically insulating fiber material (for example, long fibers or short fibers) layered with a constant thickness may be used instead of the intermediate layer (2). And
In any case, the natural height of the electrically insulating fiber material (for example, the above-mentioned laminated body) in which the IC card element is embedded is preferably selected from the range of 1.5 to 3 times the depth of the cavity.

In the manufacturing method of the present invention, the injection molding method is used to embed the IC card element embedded in the electrically insulating fiber material and fixed in the cavity in the resin to form a card. The injection molding method may be either a normal injection molding method or a reaction injection molding method.

As is well known, the usual injection molding method is a molding method mainly utilizing a melt extruder and a split structure die. In the present invention, the split structure die is usually a stationary side and a movable side. A two piece mold is used which is divided into side and side.

As the raw material resin, general-purpose resins such as polystyrene, polyethylene, polypropylene and ABS, general-purpose engineering plastics such as polyamide, polycarbonate, polyacetal, polybutyne terephthalate and modified polyphenylene oxide, polyarylate, polyphenylene sulfide, polysulfone, polyether sulfone Special engineering plastics such as polyetheretherketone, polyamideimide, and polyetherimide are appropriately selected and used.

The reaction injection molding method is a special form of injection molding method, in which two or more kinds of liquid resin raw materials which undergo rapid reaction curing are introduced into a mixing chamber under pressure and violently violently mixed, and then a sealed metal is used. It is a method of injecting into a mold to complete curing in a mold in a short time and molding.

The divided structure mold used in the reaction injection molding method usually has the structure shown in FIGS. 2 (a) to 2 (c). 2 (a) is the upper mold parting surface side, FIG. 1 (b)
Shows the parting surface side of the lower mold, and FIG. 2 (c) shows the assembled mold.

A runner forming part (11) and a gate forming part (12) are provided at one end of the upper mold (10), and a liquid storage space forming part (13) is provided at the other end. on the other hand,
A mixing head (30) having a liquid resin material discharge port (31) is disposed on a side surface of the lower mold (20), and the lower mold (2
A cavity forming part (21) is provided in the central part of 0), and a liquid storage space forming part (22) is provided at the other end on the side where the mixing head (30) is not arranged.

The upper mold (10) and the lower mold (20) are shown in FIG.
As shown in (c), the mold is clamped by the parting surface to form a mold (40). Reference numeral (41) in FIG. 2 (c) represents a cavity, and reference numeral (42) represents a liquid storage space.
Two or more kinds of liquid resin raw materials that have been collision-mixed by the mixing head (30) are injected into the cavity (41) from the liquid resin raw material discharge port (31).

Examples of the liquid resin raw material include various thermosetting or thermoplastic resin raw materials which can be molded by reaction injection molding. These liquid resin raw materials are usually two-liquid or three-liquid, and can be easily injected into the cavity for molding.

Suitable thermosetting resins obtained by the reaction injection molding method include epoxy resins, vinyl ester resins, unsaturated polyester resins, phenol resins, bismaleimide resins, urethane resins, polyurea resins, polyisocyanurate resins, silicones. Resin etc. are mentioned. Further, a thermosetting resin obtained by polymerizing a monomer having an allyl, vinyl, acryl or methacryl type carbon-carbon double bond and a norbornene type polymerizable monomer or oligomer is also suitable. On the other hand, examples of the thermoplastic resin include polyamide resin and polycarbonate resin.
These are injected into the cavity in the state of a monomer, a prepolymer or the like. A reactive diluent, a catalyst, an internal mold release agent and the like may be appropriately added to the monomers and the like used.

Further, in the reaction injection molding method, short fibers can be dispersed in the liquid resin raw material in order to increase the strength of the non-contact type card to be molded. As the short fibers, for example, short fibers having an electrical insulating property are used so as not to impair the function of the non-contact type IC card intended by the present invention. For example, glass fiber, aromatic polyamide fiber, polyester fiber and the like can be mentioned.

As described above, the reaction injection molding method is a method of injecting a liquid resin raw material into the cavity, and the liquid resin raw material usually has a lower viscosity than the resin produced therefrom. Therefore, as will be described later, in the present invention in which an IC card element tightly packed in the cavity is arranged and injection molding is performed, as compared with a normal injection molding method in which a molten resin is injected into the cavity, The reaction injection molding method of injecting the liquid resin raw material is advantageous in that a large force is not applied to the IC card element arranged in the cavity.

Next, in the present invention, after the mold is closed and injection molding is performed, the mold is opened and the mold is removed. In the reaction injection molding method, the viscosity of the liquid resin raw material depends on the temperature of the mold, the mixing ratio of the liquid resin raw material components, etc., but it is preferable that the viscosity is lower until the time of injection into the mold after mixing. Specifically, it is preferably 100 cp or less. The curing speed is
It is preferable to adjust so that the mold is filled slowly and the curing reaction is completed quickly after the filling is completed. Specifically, the curing time may be adjusted to 10 minutes or less, preferably 5 minutes or less, and more preferably 3 minutes or less. The mold temperature is appropriately determined depending on the curing temperature of the liquid resin raw material used.

In the case of the reaction injection molding method, the inside of the cavity is pressurized by the pressurized gas between the completion of the injection of the liquid resin material and the gelation of the liquid resin material until the curing is completed. It is preferable to maintain the pressurized state.

That is, in the reaction injection molding, bubbles are contained in the non-contact type card to be molded due to bubbles contained in the liquid resin raw material, vapor of the liquid resin raw material, air in the mold and the like. Sometimes. Therefore, in order to manufacture a non-contact type IC card without hole defects such as bubbles,
It is preferable to reduce air bubbles contained in the card before curing (liquid resin raw material in the cavity) by the above-mentioned pressurized state. The reason why bubbles are reduced depending on the pressure is
Although it is not always clear, crushing destruction, volume contraction, dissolution in the liquid resin raw material, etc. due to the pressure action are considered.

The pressurized gas is not particularly limited as long as it is an inert gas that does not chemically react with the liquid resin raw material.
Normally, nitrogen, argon or the like is used. As a method of applying a pressure to the inside of the cavity, for example, a runner,
A method of introducing an inert gas from a gate, a liquid storage space or the like can be mentioned. In particular, a method of introducing an inert gas from the liquid storage space is suitable.

The larger the degree of pressurization, the better, but in reality,
Due to equipment restrictions such as the injection pressure of the liquid resin material injection machine and the mold clamping force of the mold clamping machine, it is usually 1 to 20 kg / cm.
² G, preferably ^{2 to 10} kg / cm ² G, and more preferably 3 to 7 kg / cm ² G.

The start time of pressurization is not particularly limited as long as it is between the completion of the injection of the liquid resin raw material and the gelation of the liquid resin raw material. It is preferable to start the pressurization. Pressurization may be started at the start of or during the injection of the liquid resin raw material, but in this case, the pressure due to the flow pressure loss of the resin is added in the vicinity of the gate in the molding die in addition to the pressure applied. Therefore, it is necessary to leave room for injection pressure and mold clamping force. The gas partially dissolved in the liquid resin raw material or trapped in the bubbles due to the above pressurized state is gradually diffused after the mold is removed. Therefore, the residual stress of the molded non-contact type card can be ignored.

In the manufacturing method of the present invention, the non-contact type I
A large number of C cards can be easily manufactured.
In this case, a laminated body of electrically insulating fiber material in which a large number of IC card elements are embedded can be easily obtained by, for example, the following method. That is, a plurality of cutouts are provided in the intermediate layer (2) of the electrically insulating fiber material described above, the IC card elements (4) are fitted into these cutouts, and the surface layer of the electrically insulating fiber material ( 1) and the surface layer (3) are stacked to form a laminate. In the above-mentioned multiple production, if necessary,
It is also possible to use a lower mold in which recesses for fitting IC card elements are provided at predetermined intervals in the cavity forming portion.

In particular, when a large number of the above-mentioned products are manufactured by the reaction injection molding method, a movable mold is used, and the so-called mold tilt is performed in which the liquid storage space is tilted upward and the gate is positioned below. preferable. Due to such mold inclination, air bubbles gather upward as in the above. Moreover, the effect of reducing bubbles by the above-mentioned pressurized gas is enhanced. The angle of mold inclination can be appropriately selected from the range of 15 to 90 °.

According to the manufacturing method of the present invention, since the injection molding method is used, the card itself is integrally molded, unlike the conventional manufacturing method of a non-contact type IC card (housing assembly method or sheet laminating method). In addition, the IC card element embedded in the electrically insulating fiber material is integrally embedded with the card.

Therefore, according to the present invention, a non-contact type IC card having a novel structure characterized in that the IC card element embedded in the electrically insulating fiber material is embedded inside the integrally molded card. Will be provided. In the non-contact type IC card having such a structure, since the IC card element is embedded with the electrically insulating fiber material, the IC card element is manufactured by the injection molding method. There are no problems such as disconnection. The non-contact type IC card of the present invention is usually a so-called laminated decorative film,
Used by beautifying the surface by painting, printing, etc.

[0042]

EXAMPLES The present invention will be described in more detail with reference to examples below, but the present invention is not limited to the following examples as long as the gist thereof is not exceeded. In the following examples, a reaction injection molding method was adopted, and a mold and raw material having the following specifications were used.

(1) The mold is composed of an upper mold and a lower mold, and has a depth of 1.6 mm (or 0.7 mm) and a long side of 8 mm.
With a cavity of 5.7 mm and short side 54.0 mm,
A mold having a liquid storage space on the tip side was used.

(2) The following A and B were used as the liquid resin raw material. A: Product "Neopol" manufactured by Japan Yupica (mixture of epoxy acrylate-based polyol and styrene monomer) B: Product "ISONATE 11" manufactured by Mitsubishi Kasei Dow
2 "(carbodiimide-modified diphenylmethane diisocyanate (MDI) -based prepolymer) and a product" Perhexa 3M "(radical polymerization initiator) manufactured by NOF CORPORATION

Example 1 A glass fiber random mat (continuous strand mat) having a thickness of 3.0 mm and a FAW of about 300 g / m ² , and a thickness of 0.05 mm and a FAW of about 5
A 0 g / m ² glass fiber blanked plain woven fabric was cut to obtain one glass fiber random mat and ^two glass fiber blanked plain woven fabrics having substantially the same size as the cavity.

The glass fiber random mat is provided with a notch at a substantially central portion thereof, and the notch has an IC circuit, a battery,
It mainly consists of memory, antenna, and computer, and the maximum thickness of the flat shape is 1.2mm, and the height is about 30.
An IC card element having a size of 50 mm and a width of about 50 mm was fitted, and a glass fiber punched plain woven cloth was laid on both sides of the IC card element to form a laminate in which the IC card element was embedded.

Next, the above-mentioned laminated body was closely fitted into the cavity forming portion of the lower mold of the mold having a cavity depth of 1.6 mm, and the upper mold and the lower mold were clamped with a mold clamping force of about 20 tons. . The mold temperature was maintained at 120 ° C. for both the upper mold and the lower mold.
Then, the liquid resin raw materials A and B were collided and mixed by a mixing head so as to have a weight ratio of 70/30 and immediately injected into the cavity. After the curing of the liquid resin raw material was completed, the mold was opened and the non-contact type IC card card molded was released. The obtained card was embedded in the approximate center of the card without exposing all the components of the IC card element.

Example 2 In Example 1, a mold having a cavity depth of 0.7 mm was used, which mainly consisted of an IC circuit, a battery, a memory, an antenna, and a computer, and the maximum thickness of the flat shape was 0. 0.5mm, length about 30mm, width about 50m
m IC card element, thickness 1.5mm, FA
Except that W is using a glass fiber made random mat of about 100g / m ² (continuance strand mat), a thickness of 0.03mm, FAW has been using a glass fiber made Menuki plain weave cloth of about 25g / m ² Was subjected to reaction injection molding in the same manner as in Example 1 to manufacture a non-contact type IC card. Although the obtained card is very thin,
All of the components of the IC card element were buried in the approximate center of the card without being exposed.

[0049]

According to the present invention described above, a non-contact type IC card having a novel structure in which the entire surface of the IC card element is fixed and embedded in the card, and an industrial process in which the manufacturing process is simplified. An advantageous non-contact IC card manufacturing method is provided. In particular, the manufacturing method of the present invention has an advantage that it does not require a step of adhering a plurality of parts of an IC card element and can manufacture a thin contactless IC card without defects such as disconnection. .

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of steps of a manufacturing method of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing an example of a mold used in a reaction injection molding method.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1: Surface layer of electrically insulating fiber material 2: Intermediate layer of electrically insulating fiber material 3: Surface layer of electrically insulating fiber material 4: IC card element 10: Upper mold 11: Runner forming part 12: Gate forming part 13: Liquid Storing space forming part 20: Lower mold 21: Cavity forming part 22: Liquid collecting space forming part 30: Mixing head 31: Liquid resin raw material discharge port 40: Mold 41: Cavity 42: Liquid collecting space

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Internal reference number FI Technical display location G06K 19/077 // B29C 45/00 8823-4F (72) Inventor Manabu Fujitani Aoba, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa 1000 Kamoshida-cho, ward, Yokohama Research Institute, Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A non-contact type IC card, characterized in that an IC card element embedded in an electrically insulating fiber material is embedded inside an integrally molded card. 2. An IC card element is fixed by embedding an electrically insulating fiber material in the cavity of a split structure mold, and then the mold is closed and injection molding is performed, and then the mold is opened and removed. A method for manufacturing a non-contact type IC card, which comprises molding. 3. The injection molding is reaction injection molding.
The manufacturing method described in.