Incremental printing of symbolic information – Light or beam marking apparatus or processes – Scan of light
Patent
1996-02-16
1998-06-30
Reinhart, Mark J.
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Light or beam marking apparatus or processes
Scan of light
347264, B41J 245
Patent
active
057741689
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an identity card, especially a credit card, with a picture section that contains a photo of the person to be identified. In this picture section, pixels of various absorptions are introduced point-by-point by a laser beam into a surface layer and/or an intermediate layer located below a transparent surface layer and/or an inlet layer located below a transparent surface layer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
From DE 31 51 407, it is known to produce identity cards of this type. The pixels of an identifying picture are burned into a surface layer that is highly absorbent of the laser beam of an Nd-YAG laser or into an absorption layer located below a transparent lamination and also, as applicable, into an inlet layer. Introduction of the pixels into the layer below the transparent lamination, in particular, provides relatively good protection against counterfeiting the card. Controlling the intensity of the laser as the pixels are scanned makes it possible to attain high-quality gray-level imaging and thus black-and-white or color pictures of good quality. However, controlling the intensity with which the dots are scanned slows down the creation of the image, especially when a high pixel density is to be achieved.
From DE 39 07 415 A1, it is furthermore known to provide identity cards with a picture section that is created by thermal-transfer multi-color printing. However, in this case, a high-quality color picture is applied to the surface of the surface layer and is thus relatively easy to alter or remove and replace.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the invention is to create an identity card having a high-quality color picture section that offers an increased level of security against counterfeiting, as well as a process for producing it.
Pursuant to this object, a monochromatic part and/or a gray or black part of the image is/are introduced into the identity card by use of laser technology and then a colored part of the image, which completes the image and covers the same area, is applied over the laserproduced part.
In another embodiment of the invention the laser part of the image contains the gray and black portion of the image and the color part contains essentially no gray or black portion. In still a further embodiment the laser part of the image contains a first colored portion of the image and the color part of the image contains the colored portions that complete the image, including an overlay of all colors to gray and black. Still another embodiment of the invention has an inlet layer that is white and has a surface with a light absorption property that is alterable by exposure to a laser beam. In yet another embodiment of the invention the surface layer is made of a thermoplastic which when heated can take on sublimation pigments and pigment binders.
Dividing the picture into a laser-produced part and a complementary colored part applied by thermal transfer results in an image with high color intensity, which makes very reliable identification of the person depicted in the picture possible on the basis of skin and hair color, eye color, and so on. Subjecting the card to different processing methods with highly technical equipment makes counterfeiting with widely-used color copiers and color printing techniques more difficult. Preferably, the color printing process uses sublimation inks that bind permanently with and diffuse into a suitable thermoplastic surface of the surface layer of the card. This makes counterfeiting more difficult, because the surface of the colored image remains smooth and undisturbed.
If the surface layer is prepared with material components or pigments that can be altered by laser beam, the laser-produced part of the image can be produced directly in the surface layer.
Preferably, however, the laser-produced part is introduced into an intermediate layer or into the inlet layer, which usually contains white dyestuff, and the laser energy used for this is selected so that an absorpt
REFERENCES:
patent: 4663518 (1987-05-01), Borror et al.
patent: 4735670 (1988-04-01), Maurer
patent: 5298922 (1994-03-01), Merkle et al.
Orga Kartensysteme GmbH
Reinhart Mark J.
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