Card – picture – or sign exhibiting – Check – label – or tag – Permanent identification device
Patent
1983-04-17
1985-05-28
Mancene, Gene
Card, picture, or sign exhibiting
Check, label, or tag
Permanent identification device
40626, 428203, 428204, 428209, 283109, 283904, G09F 302
Patent
active
045191557
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention is an identification card or other security document wherein it is desired to prevent access to markings on the document to protect them from erasure and changes. The invention also includes a method of making such a document.
Lee et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,247,318 proposes to make a security document by assembling two unbonded polyethylene film-fibril sheets with security material such as threads between them, and then bonding the sheets to form a laminated document in which the security material is protected. Although Lee et al suggest the use of "printing on an inner plane of the paper" as a possible security material, the unbonded sheets proposed by Lee et al. do not accept printing well.
According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, a bonded polyethylene film-fibril sheet is used as the base sheet. Such a bonded sheet accepts printing with conventional inks on one or both sides, and is in fact receptive to all common recording materials, including pencil and xerographic toners. After the base sheet is marked, by printing or otherwise, it is covered, preferably on both sides, by the application of a protective sheet of Mylar (polyethylene terephthalate) coated on its side nearest the base sheet with a layer of polyethylene film. The assembly is then fused together, for example by the application of heat and pressure in a pair of calender rolls. This fuses the bonded polyethylene of the base sheet with the polyethylene film, forming a matrix which encloses the printing or other indicia that have been deposited on the base sheet. This matrix is less subject to delamination than is the base sheet itself, whose internal structure between the bonded surfaces comprise fibers which are bonded together only at spaced intervals. Attempts to delaminate a card or document constructed in accordance with the present invention will result in a splitting of the base sheet, while the printing or other markings contained within the fused matrix remain intact.
The manufacture of nonwoven film-fibril sheets is disclosed in detail in the U.S. Patents to Steuber, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,169,899 and David, 3,442,740, both of which are incorporated herein by reference.
As described in the David patent #3,442,740, such sheets consist of randomly overlapping continuous strands, each strand being a three-dimensional network of film-fibrils interconnected at random intervals along and across the strand, said film-fibrils at the surfaces of the sheet being well fused and of high density, while the film-fibrils in the internal structure of the sheet are partially fused and of lower density. If the film-fibril sheet is so constructed, any attempt to delaminate the document results in a destruction of the base sheet without allowing access to the printing or other markings.
Although the presently preferred embodiment of the invention employs a polyethylene film-fibril sheet as the base sheet and a polyethylene film as the material which covers the marked base sheet, it is not necessary that the materials for those sheets be polyethylene, nor that the base sheet be a film-fibril sheet. It is necessary that the base sheet be of a material which will accept a marking, and that the base sheet and the covering sheet be thermoplastic and compatible and that they have melting temperature ranges which overlap so that the covering sheet can fuse with the surface of the base sheet to form a matrix enclosing the marking. The two materials need not be the same.
While the preferred material for the protective sheet is Mylar, other suitable strong and abrasion resistant materials may be employed.
DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view, on an enlarged scale, of a base sheet with printing thereon in accordance with a first step of the method according to the invention.
FIG. 2 is a similar cross-sectional view showing protective sheets brought into position adjacent the base sheet of FIG. 1.
FIG. 3 is a similar cross-sectional view of a complete document after the compression and fusion of
REFERENCES:
patent: 3442740 (1969-05-01), David
patent: 3716439 (1973-02-01), Maeda
patent: 3725184 (1973-04-01), Scopp
patent: 3902262 (1975-09-01), Colegrove et al.
patent: 4133926 (1979-01-01), Vorrier et al.
patent: 4158079 (1979-06-01), Severus-Laubenfeld
patent: 4247318 (1981-01-01), Lee et al.
patent: 4343851 (1982-10-01), Sheptak
Gallagher Terence J.
LaCapria Anthony
American Bank Note Company
Hakomaki James
Mancene Gene
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