De La Rue International Limited

Kba-notasys Sa

Lawrence George Commander

Brian William Holmes

Roland Isherwood

Christopher John Eastell

Robert Whiteman

John Godfrey

Martin Palme

Adam Lister

Robert Stierman

Aurélie Berthon

Thomas Kersten

Ana Dimitrijevic

Malcolm Robert Murray Knight

Adam Jeacock

Ian Cornes

John O'Malley

Timothy Edward Berridge

Carole Lesley Foster

Mark Stephen Bundy

There is described a printing press (****) adapted to carry out printing on a sheet-like or web-like substrate (S), in particular for the production of security documents such as banknotes, comprising a printing unit (****) designed to print a first side (I) and/or a second side (II) of the substrate (S). The printing press (****) further comprises an in-line casting device (***) adapted to apply a layer of material acting as an optical medium on a portion of a first side (I, II) of the substrate (S) and to replicate and form a micro-optical structure (L) in the layer of material acting as optical medium. The printing unit (****) is furthermore adapted to print at least one printed pattern on the first or second side (I, II) of the substrate (S) in register with the micro-optical structure (L), wherein the printing unit (****) comprises at least a first printing group () being adapted to print at least one printed pattern on the second side (II) of the substrate (S) in register with the micro-optical structure (L) and wherein the in-line casting device (***) comprises at least one embossing cylinder (), which embossing cylinder () also is acting as counter-pressure cylinder and cooperates with a printing cylinder () of the at least first printing group () and/or whereas the in-line casting device (***) and the at least a first printing group () being arranged at the Substrate transport path such way, that in-line casting of the micro-optical structure, on one side of the sheets S, and printing of the associated pattern, on the other side of the sheets S, are performed in a same step, without this involving any sheet transfer operation.

Printing press with in-line casting device for the replication and formation of a micro-optical structure

A method of manufacturing a security document, including: providing a polymer substrate having first and second surfaces; and: applying an array of focussing elements to the first surface of the polymer substrate across a first region; forming an image array by: providing a die form having a surface including an arrangement of raised areas and recessed areas defining the pattern; applying a first curable material to the surface of the die form so it substantially fills the recessed areas; bringing a pattern support layer in contact with the surface of the die form so it covers the recessed areas; separating the pattern support layer from the surface of the die form so the first curable material in the recessed areas is removed from the recessed areas and retained on the pattern support layer; and at least partly curing the first curable material in one or more curing steps.

Methods of manufacturing security documents and security devices

A security device includes: an elongate focusing structures array, the elongate axes are aligned along a first-direction, the elongate focusing structures parallel to one another periodically along a second-direction is orthogonally to the first-direction, each elongate focusing structure having an optical footprint of different elongate strips will be directed to the viewer in dependence on the viewing angle, the centre line of each optical footprint parallel with the first-direction; image elements-array overlapping the array of elongate focusing structures, the image elements-array representing elongate image slices of at least two respective images, each image slice including one or more image elements, and at least one image slice of each respective image in the optical footprint of each elongate focusing structure. The image elements-array is configured so the distance in the second-direction of each image slice from the centre line of an optical footprint in the image slice changes along the first-direction.

Security device and method of manufacture

Methods of manufacturing security documents and security devices, and corresponding products, provide a lenticular device effect in a first registration zone. Viewing its appearance from two different angles in this way, the relative positioning of the focussing element array and the image array can be judged to a high degree of accuracy. If the two arrays do not have the desired relative position, this will be clearly apparent since the different first and second images will not be captured at the first and second test viewing angles.

A lenticular device includes an array of lenticular focusing elements located over a corresponding array of pairs of image strips such that, in a first viewing direction, a first image strip from each pair is viewed by respective ones of the lenticular focusing elements and, in a second viewing direction, different from the first, a second image strip from each pair is viewed by respective ones of the lenticular focusing elements, One of each pair of image strips has portions defining a first image in a first color and a second image in a second color respectively, and the other of each pair of image strips has portions defining the first image in the second color and the second image in the first color respectively, whereby on tilting the device, a color switch is observed between the first and second images.

Security device

A security device having a lenticular device that includes an array of lenticular focusing elements located over a corresponding array of sets of image strips such that at different viewing directions, a corresponding image strip from each set is viewed via respective ones of the lenticular focusing elements wherein the image strips are defined at least in part by a relief structure.

The present invention relates to improvements in security devices that can be used in varying shapes and sizes for various authenticating or security applications, particularly an optically variable security device utilizing liquid crystal materials. The security device includes a liquid crystal layer (), an at least partially absorbing layer () adjacent at least a part of one side of the liquid crystal layer (), and at least one customizing region () which is adjacent at least a part of an opposite side of the liquid crystal layer () to the absorbing layer () in selected regions. The at least one customizing region () modifies the color shifting properties of the liquid crystal layer () such that at least two contrasting optically variable regions are provided by the regions covered by the at least one customizing region and regions not covered by the at least one customizing region.

Substrates

The present invention relates to improvements in security devices that can be used in varying shapes and sizes for various authenticating or security applications, and in particular to an optically variable security device utilizing colorshift materials. The security device () comprises a first and a second layer (, lib) of a colorshifting material at least partially overlying each other and each having different colorshifting properties. At least partially applied over surface of one of the colorshifting layers is a light control layer () having a surface structure which modifies the angle of reflected light, such that light reflected by the security device is seen at a different viewing angle.

Security devices

A security device comprises a substrate having an array of microlenses on one side and one or more corresponding arrays of microimages on the other side. The microimages are located at a distance from the microlenses substantially equal to the focal length of the microlenses. The substrate is sufficiently transparent to enable light to pass through the microlenses so as to reach the microimages. Each microimage is defined by an anti-reflection structure on the substrate formed by a periodic array of identical structural elements, light passing through a substrate and impinging on the microimages being reflected to a different extent than light which does not impinge on the microimages thereby rendering the microimages visible.

Optically variable devices

A security device comprises at least two regions, each region comprising a prismatic surface structure defining an array of substantially planar facets. Each region forms a reflector due to total internal reflection when viewed at least one first viewing angle and is transparent when viewed at at least one second viewing angle. The said at least one first viewing angle of one region is different from the at least one first viewing angle of the other region.

Security device based on customized microprism film

A security device comprises a substrate () having an array of microlenses () on one side and one or more corresponding arrays of microimages () on the other side. The microimages () are located at a distance from the microlenses () substantially equal to the focal length of the microlenses. The substrate () is sufficiently transparent to enable light to pass through the microlenses () so as to reach the microimages (). Each microimage () is defined by an anti-reflection structure on the substrate () formed by a periodic array of identical structural elements, light passing through the substrate and impinging on the microimages being reflected to a different extent than light which does not impinge on the microimages thereby rendering the microimages visible.

The present invention relates to improvements in methods of manufacture of substrates which can be used in varying shapes and sizes for various authenticating or security applications, which combine the advantages of indicia formed from metallisation or demetallisation of a security element and the colorshift effects of liquid crystal materials. The invention therefore provides a method of manufacturing a substrate comprising the steps of applying a darkly colored resist to at least a part of a metallic layer on one side of a substantially transparent polymeric film, removing metal from areas not covered by the resist to form demetallised regions and applying a polymeric liquid crystal material over the resist and the demetallised regions.

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Reading, United Kingdom

Lawrence George Commander