WO2013124698A2

WO2013124698A2 - Double sided printable partially transparent and/or translucent base card and method for producing such a base card

Info

Publication number: WO2013124698A2
Application number: PCT/HU2013/000017
Authority: WO
Inventors: Roland Szabolcs SZABOLCSI
Original assignee: SZABOLCSI, Mónika
Priority date: 2012-02-20
Filing date: 2013-02-20
Publication date: 2013-08-29
Also published as: WO2013124698A3; HUP1200106A2; EP2817159A2

Abstract

The invention relates to a double sided printable partially transparent and/or translucent base card (10) for application in a card operation device having an optical sensor, characterised by comprising a partially transparent and/or translucent card body (11), which card body (11) comprises at least one transparent and/or translucent core material layer (12) that has opposing face surfaces (22, 22a, 22b), and at least one face surface (22, 22a, 22b) of the at least one core material layer (12) is provided with a substantially non-transparent coating (20) at a detection region (18) of an optical sensor of at least one type of card operation device. The invention further relates to a method for manufacturing a double sided printable partially transparent and/or translucent base card (10) suitable for application in a card operation device having an optical sensor, characterised by defining the detection region (18) of the optical sensor of at least one type of card operation device on a transparent and/or translucent card body (11), which card body (11) comprises at least one transparent and/or translucent core material layer (12) that has opposing face surfaces (22, 22a, 22b), and applying a substantially non-transparent coating (20) on at least one face surface (22, 22a, 22b) of at least one core material layer at the defined location.

Description

Double sided printable partially transparent and/or translucent base card and method for producing such a base card

The present invention relates to a double sided printable transparent and/or translucent base card for use in a card operation device provided with an optical sensor.

Nowadays plastic cards are more and more common information carriers that are used in various fields. The most significant application relates to the plastic cards having bank card format. These are plastic cards having a size corresponding to the ID1 (CR80) card size according to the MSZ-ISO 7810 standard, and are commonly applied as bank cards but fulfil identification purposes (e.g. certificates, identification cards) as well, and also have important commercial use: loyalty cards, VIP cards, club membership cards, sale reduction cards, etc. The former is associated with a relatively concentrated group of customers ordering in large numbers and requiring particular security elements and special impersonation (e.g. portrait, signature, magnetic stripe, chip coding), while the latter is used by a much larger group of issuers who order substantially varying quantities (from a couple of hundreds up to hundred thousands of cards) and require more simple impersonation (e.g. serial number only).

In a simplified approach two main kinds of card manufacturing technologies exist:

- bulk manufacture using sheet technology that is mostly suited for the parallel production of thousands of pieces (bank cards, important identification cards, and large quantities of business cards) having the advantage of lower piece-price but having the disadvantage that this technology requires a minimum quantity of a couple of hundred pieces, and the production time may vary between 2-3 weeks depending on the availability of the factory,

- office/desktop card printers for smaller quantities, which are used to print the external surface of pre-fabricated non-transparent, usually white base cards by heat transfer method (typically business cards are manufactured this way): the advantage is that it allows for very short manufacturing time, and a sample card can be given before the whole quantity is produced, but the disadvantage is that the piece-price is higher due to higher production costs, furthermore the creative design of the cards are limited (for example the direct colours of the Pantone scale are not available, metal colours in the form of metal granules/particles are not available, and the printed colours may vary substantially from the colours set in the graphic design).

For the issuers of cards - especially of business cards - short manufacturing time is often more important than quality and financial aspects, hence lately desktop card printing has obtained a substantial share of the card printing market. Typically cards are manufactured in this way in a quantity ranging from a couple of pieces to 1-2 thousand pieces, mostly owing to the more flexible manufacturing conditions (shorter manufacturing times, with the possibility of manufacturing in accordance with the actual consumption, at a plurality of occasions).

There are basically two types of desktop card printing:

- DTC (direct to card) printing: printing directly on the surface of the card, however the colours and sharpness of the print is not always satisfactory, and the printable area is less than the full surface (meaning that there is a narrow unprinted frame);

- HDP (high definition printing): in a first step a full surface print is produced on an intermediary foil, which is laminated on the card surface in a second step: the print quality is excellent, the colours are agleam.

Since both methods include heat transfer the cards having mono-side graphic design tend to bend: in the case of DTC printing only slightly, but in the case of HDP more visibly. Some less wide spread HDP type printers offer solutions to this problem. Both methods are extremely sensitive to the surface quality of the base card, the ideal being a glossy (highly burnished) surface free of any surface imperfections (scratches) and impurities (even fine dust), otherwise the print will have discontinuity faults.

In the course of printing there are two ways of transferring the ink onto the card (DTC printing) or to the intermediary carrier foil (HDP) from the ink ribbon:

- heat transfer: in this case monochrome graphic image can be printed (a pixel of the image either contains the ink transferred from the ink ribbon or it does not) and the colour is selected from a substantially limited palette (in the case of HDP only black, in the case of DTC printing black, white, gold, silver, one type of red, blue and green may be used), whereby this technology is mostly suited for printing texts or very simple line drawings. Out of the available colours black, silver and gold cover nicely, while the other colours have a medium transparency.

It is an important aspect for card issuers that their card should stand out from the multitude of existing cards of other issuers. Earlier it was possible to differ from the average cards in two ways:

- the card is provided with even more outstanding colours (fluorescent or shiny metal colours),

- the card has a dark base colour and is provided with a very clear and simple graphical content, optionally with a mat finish.

The most recent possibility is a card that comprises transparent and/or translucent graphic elements. However, transparent surface is only rarely used as a graphic element for attracting attention, mainly because the transparent portion of the card cannot be detected by an optical sensor. This renders both the manufacture of the card (above all, printing with a desktop card printer or impersonation of a card with a dedicated device) and the use of the card in card reading devices non-trivial.

Printing of transparent cards is mainly a problem with desktop card printers which are preferred in the case of business cards, because such printers typically detect the presence of the card via optical sensors. Various technical solutions have been provided for creating cards comprising transparent and/or translucent graphic elements, which solutions allow detection of such cards with optical sensors.

In the case of bank cards a special ink layer or foil (e.g. 3M Vikuiti Clear Card filter) that is transparent to visible light but blocks infra red light is incorporated in the core material or placed thereon, thus such cards can be used in automated teller machines (ATMs). Such technology is disclosed for example in patent document No. US 2003/047615 A1. These type of technologies have the disadvantage that the special ink layer or foil increases the cost of the base card substantially.

In order to suit the sensors of the desktop card printers transparent base cards have been put on the market that are provided with narrow self- adhesive stripes and which are several times more expensive than white base cards. This solution has for disadvantage that after having printed one side of the base card the adhesive stripes have to be removed manually, which is on the one hand cumbersome and, on the other hand, significantly increases the manufacturing time and costs in case of high serial numbers. A further disadvantage of the solution is that printing is only possible as long as the adhesive stripe is present on the base card, however, this way only one side of the card is printable. This deprives the issuer from the freedom of placing data, information, aesthetic elements, commercial signs (e.g. logo, trade mark), merchandise identifiers (e.g. bar code) or other graphics on both sides, furthermore if HDP method is employed the single sided printing results in the bending of the card, which is detrimental to the attractiveness of the card.

Printing of purely transparent cards has a further disadvantage: regardless of the applied technology if no non-transparent base is available then the single sided printing will give poor quality (faint result) due to the insufficient covering capacity of the ink. Although applying a translucent, opalesque base material (in practice the application of mat surface finish) improves the quality of the print, but decreases transparency.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a transparent and/or translucent base card, which overcomes the problems associated with the prior art. In particular, it is an object of the invention to provide a transparent and/or translucent base card that can be applied in card operation devices (e.g. desktop card printers), which detect the presence of a base card via an optical sensor, however, the base card does not comprise a special ink or foil transparent to visible light but blocking infra red light which would substantially increase its costs, or any layer to be removed in the course of application that would hinder double sided printing.

In the context of the present invention the term "transparent and/or translucent base card" (or material) refers to a base card (or material) that comprises a portion which is partly or wholly transparent to visible light. A portion/area of the base card (or a material) is said to be transparent if it allows visible light to pass entirely or substantially entirely (e.g. filtering out a couple of spectral components) and no or only little light scattering occurs. As opposed to this, the translucent portion/area filters out most of the visible light (e.g. being transparent for only a couple of spectral components) or scatters light substantially (e.g. mat surface finish). The common transparent or translucent materials (especially plastic materials) that are transparent to visible light are also wholly or substantially transparent to infra red light as well. Since the present invention is directed to overcoming problems associated with this property, hence in the context of the present invention the terms "transparent base card" and "translucent base card" refer to base cards wherein the transparent or translucent portions/areas thereof do not block infra red light, i.e. these portions/areas are wholly or substantially transparent to infra red light, hence the presence of such portions/areas would not be detectable by an optical sensor of a card operation device.

It has been recognised that most of the card operation devices, especially of desktop card printers have optical sensors that are directed to a given area of the core material. This allows for manufacturing in large quantities special double sided printable base cards having a surface of which even more than 90% may be transparent and/or translucent, while the surface portion corresponding to the detection (sensing) region of the optical sensor of a given kind of card operation device (e.g. desktop card printer, card reader, card impersonating device) is non-transparent, whereby the base card is useable (e.g. readable, printable) with the given type of card operation device without any difficulty. Although the non-transparent surface area somewhat limits the designer freedom of the card designer, but in exchange a mainly transparent and/or translucent base card can be provided that is double sided printable in most available desktop card printers.

In light of the above recognition the object of the invention is achieved by a double sided printable partially transparent and/or translucent base card for application in a card operation device having an optical sensor, characterised by comprising a partially transparent and/or translucent card body, which card body comprises at least one transparent and/or translucent core material layer that has opposing face surfaces, and at least one face surface of the at least one core material layer is provided with a substantially non-transparent coating at a detection region of an optical sensor of at least one type of card operation device.

The object of the invention is further achieved by a method for manufacturing a double sided printable partially transparent and/or translucent base card suitable for application in a card operation device having an optical sensor, characterised by:

- defining the detection region of the optical sensor of at least one type of card operation device on a transparent and/or translucent card body, which card body comprises at least one transparent and/or translucent core material layer that has opposing face surfaces, and

- applying a substantially non-transparent coating on at least one face surface of at least one core material layer at the defined location.

Further advantageous embodiments of the invention are defined in the attached dependent claims.

Further details of the invention will be explained by way of exemplary embodiments with reference to the figure.

Fig. 1a is a schematic top view of a preferred embodiment of a double sided printable partially transparent and/or translucent base card according to the invention. Fig. 1b is a schematic sectional view of the base card taken along line A-A of Fig. 1a.

Fig. 2a is a schematic top view of another preferred embodiment of a double sided printable partially transparent and/or translucent base card according to the invention.

Fig. 2b is a schematic sectional view of the base card taken along line B-B of Fig. 2a.

Fig. 3 is a schematic sectional view of a further preferred embodiment of the base card.

Fig. 4 is a schematic sectional view of a further preferred embodiment of the base card.

Fig. 5 is a schematic exploded sectional view of a further preferred embodiment of the base card.

Fig. 6 is a schematic exploded sectional view of a further preferred embodiment of the base card.

Fig. 7a - 7g are schematic top views of further preferred embodiments of the base card.

Fig. 8 is a schematic exploded sectional view illustrating the position of printed core material sheets in the course of collating the sheets.

Fig. 9 is a schematic sectional view of a laminate of the core material sheets according to Fig. 8.

Fig. 10 is a schematic partial top view of the laminate according to Fig.

9.

Fig. 1a is a top view of a preferred embodiment of a double sided printable partially transparent and/or translucent base card 0 according to the invention that is designed for application in a card operation device that detects the insertion and/or presence of a card by an optical sensor. As regards the application of the base card 10 the most important kind of card operation devices are card printers, especially desktop card printers, hence for the sake of simplicity the following part of the description will mainly refer to desktop card printers instead of card operation devices, however, it should be appreciated that instead of printing other applications with other kind of card operation devices are also conceivable, e.g. reading by a card reader, impersonation in card impersonating devices other than printers.

Nevertheless, above all, the base card 10 preferably serves the purpose of allowing the card issuer (or a person acting for the card issuer) to be able to easily and conveniently print the card with a desktop card printer, in order to place graphics or other information content (in the following collectively referred to as: graphics). In the context of the present invention the term "base card" 10 refers to the product according to the invention, while the base card 10 that has been later on printed or impersonated by the issuer or other person using the desktop card printer is referred to as "card". It should be noted that in many cases impersonation can be regarded as a special case of printing because the issuer simply prints impersonating data or graphics on the base card 10 with the help of a desktop card printer. Accordingly, most impersonating devices can be regarded as special kinds of desktop card printers.

In case of the embodiment illustrated in Figs. 1a and 1b the body 11 of the base card 10 has a mono layer structure comprising a single core material layer 12. The base card comprises a first area 13 that is transparent and/or translucent from a top view, and a second non-transparent area 14. As can be seen the areas 13 and 14 are not necessarily continuous; in the present case the non-transparent area 14 consists of two parts 14a, 14b along the two longitudinal sides 16a, 16b of the base card 10.

The non-transparent area 14, from the point of view of the invention? it can be regarded as being substantially non-transparent, because its light permeability is chosen so as to block infra red light used in the optical sensor of the desktop printer (or other card operation device) to at least such an extent that allows the optical sensor to detect the presence of the base card 10. Preferably the non-transparent area 14 is also non-transparent for visible light (including the possibility of being substantially non-transparent according to the above definition). This, on the one hand improves the quality of the finished card, since the non-transparent areas 14 of e.g. white or pearl white colour or of white colour with metal particles (glitter silver/glitter gold) provides a base colour when printing the base card 10, which ensures adequate colour saturation and colour fidelity for the graphics printed thereon by the issuer. The other advantage of the area 14 that is non-transparent to visible light as well, is the lower manufacturing costs since it can be accomplished by common printing technologies and printing ink, as will be explained later on. A further advantage of the area 14 that is non-transparent to visible light as well, is that it allows for double sided printing because any graphics and/or information printed on this area 14 of the base card 10 will not be visible from the other side.

The non-transparent area 14 is provided such as to cover a detection region 18 (indicated with dashed lines) of at least one given type of card operation device (typically a desktop card printer). Thus, the detection region 18 of the base card 10 is the part of the base card 10 that is scanned by the optical sensor when the base card 10 is displaced within the desktop card printer. The desktop card printers (and other card operation devices provided with an optical sensor) typically detect the insertion of the base card 10 such, that its body 11 blocks the infra red ray of one or more optical sensor, whereby the optical sensor detects the interruption of the signal. In this case the desktop printers start to pull in the base card 10 and to print it. The process continues as long as the card body 11 blocks the infra red ray. When the base card 10 (more precisely the finished printed card) has passed over the optical sensor it ceases to block the infra red ray, thus the optical sensor senses the signal again whereby the end of the card body 11 is detected by the desktop card printer. In the context of the present invention the detection region 18 designates the trajectory of the infra red ray of the optical sensor along the base card 10 (although it is clear that in reality it is typically the base card 10 that moves with respect to the infra red ray along the longitudinal axis of the base card 10 or transversal thereto within the card operation device).

The base card 10 may be designed specifically for a certain type of card operation device, for example a certain type of desktop card printer, or more than one types of card operation devices, e.g. for a group of desktop card printers, meaning that the non-transparent area 14 covers the detection regions 18 of two or more types of desktop card printers. The base card 10 can be rendered suitable for use in any other kind of card operation device that detects the presence of the base card 10 (or already finished card provided with graphics by the issuer) via an optical sensor. Such card operation device is for example a card reader or a specific card impersonating device. In this case the non-transparent area 14 also covers the detection region 18 of the optical sensors of the other card operation devices. Although the location of the non- transparent area 14 is chosen for one or more types of desktop card printers and/or other card operation device, however, the location of the detection region 18 of such card printers and devices with respect to the inserted base card 10 (or card) is relatively uniform, whereby for example the base card 10 illustrated in Fig. 1a can be used in most desktop card printers and other card operation devices equipped with optical sensors (it can be used in the ones where the base card 0 is displaced along its longitudinal axis).

For the sake of simplicity in the following part of the description reference will generally be made to an optical sensor of a desktop card printer, however, it is clear that the detection region 18 of an optical sensor of other kinds of card operation devices could be taken into account as well in the case of the illustrated embodiments.

It can be seen in the embodiment depicted in Figs. 1a and 1b that the non-transparent area 14 does not only cover the detection region 18 of the optical sensor. The first part 14a of the non-transparent area 14 covers the detection region 18 running in the proximity of a longitudinal side 16a of the base card 10, while the second part 14b is provided along the other longitudinal side 16b of the base card 10 symmetrically with the first part 14a. This has for advantage that the user need not pay attention to the positioning of the base card 10 when inserting it into the desktop card printer for the purpose of printing.

The non-transparent area 14 is preferably created by a non-transparent coating 20, which, in the present example, is provided on both face surfaces 22a of the single core material layer 12. It should be appreciated that non- transparent, including substantially non-transparent coating 20 designates a coating that can be regarded as substantially non-transparent from the point of view that it blocks infra red light used in the optical sensor of a desktop card printer (or other card operation device) to at least such an extent that allows detection of the presence of the base card 10 by the optical sensor. In practice the non-transparent coating 20 (just as the area 14) is also non-transparent to visible light (including the possibility of being substantially non-transparent according to the above definition).

It is clear that the non-transparent coating 20 may be provided on only one face surface 22a since the coating 20 on one face surface 22a is sufficient for blocking the infra red ray of the optical sensor (in a given case after having traversed the card body 11), however, from the point of view of creating a graphics design it is more advantageous to provide the non-transparent coating 20 on both face surfaces 22a. Otherwise if the graphics is printed via the desktop card printer on the face surface 22a that is not provided with the coating 20, then the graphics is spaced apart from the non-transparent coating 20 provided on the other face surface 22a, which serves as a background, whereby light enters between the design and the background coating 20 through the transparent and/or translucent core material layer 12, which may have a disturbing effect, furthermore it deteriorates the contrast, colour saturation and colour fidelity. For the same reason preferably the non- transparent coatings 20 provided on opposite face surfaces 22a of the base card 10 preferably overlap each other as shown in Fig. 1b. However, other applications and designs can be envisaged where it is an expressed object not to provide one of the face surfaces 22a with the coating 20 or to have it extend over a smaller/greater or different shaped area 14.

It should be noted that for the sake of better illustration the Figures do not show scaled drawings, thus for example both the core material layer 12 and the non-transparent coating 20 provided thereon have been depicted as being substantially thicker, meaning that the Figures should be regarded as purely schematic illustrations and do not provide information as to the dimensions of the base card 10 according to the invention.

The non-transparent coating 20 is preferably made up of one or more layers of ink produced by offset printing and/or screen printing. Preferably ink of high covering capacity (extra opacity ink) is used in order to minimise the light permeability of the coating 20 with even one ink layer. The preferred ways of application of the ink will be explained in more detail in connection with the manufacture of the base card 10.

Figs. 2a and 2b depict a preferred embodiment of the base card 10 according to the invention, wherein the card body 11 comprises two core material layers 12. Both core material layers 12 have two face surfaces 22 from which preferably the external face surfaces 22a forming the faces of the card body 11 are provided with the non-transparent coating 20, while the inner face surfaces 22b of the core material layers 12 remain bare and are in direct contact with each other in case of the present embodiment. Preferably, the coatings 20 provided on the two external face surfaces 22a overlap each other in the present case as well, however, other embodiments can be envisaged wherein one of the external face surfaces 22a of the base card 10 comprising two core material layers 12 is not provided with the coating 20 or the coating 20 extends over a smaller/greater or different shaped area 14 than on the other face surface 22a. The core material layers 12 are preferably laminated together as will be explained later on.

In the case of the monolayer base card 10 the external face surfaces 22a of the card body 11 coincide with the face surfaces 22a of the single core material layer 12. In the case of a base card 10 comprising multiple core material layers 12 the external face surfaces 22a of the outer core material layers 12 provide the external face surfaces 22a of the card body 11. It is conceivable both in the case of monolayer and multilayer base cards 10 that one or both outer surfaces 22a of the card body 11 are covered by a protective foil 23, the possibility of which is indicated by dashed lines. The protective foil 23 is preferably also affixed to the external face surface 22a of the card body 11 by lamination as will be explained later on. The protective foil 23 may comprise a pre-applied magnetic stripe as well.

Fig. 3 illustrates an embodiment of the base card 10 according to the invention, wherein the body 11 comprises three transparent and/or translucent core material layers 12: two outer core material layers 12a and an intermediate core material layer 12b. This may be necessary for example if a thicker, stronger base card 10 is to be provided, in this case a further intermediate core material layer 12b is interposed between the two outer core material layers 2a. In this embodiment a single intermediate core material layer 12b is depicted, however, it is clear that the application of more intermediate core material Iayers12b is not excluded. By providing the intermediate core material layer 12b other advantages can be achieved apart from increasing the card thickness. For example various security elements 24 (e.g. micro writing, guilloche lines, iris print) may be provided on the intermediate core material layer 12b by printing or other known technologies at a location corresponding to the transparent and/or translucent area 13 of the card body 11 , which thereby remains visible after lamination of the core material layers 12 but which cannot be removed by the user or other non-authorised person due to the outer core material layer 12 laminated therover. It is clear that the security elements 24 can be created on one or both face surfaces 22b of the intermediate core material layer 12b, or even within the material of the intermediate core mater layer 12b by other technologies (e.g. laser engraving).

A further possibility is to provide on one or both inner face surfaces 22b of one or more intermediate core material layers 12 such a coating 20 that creates from a clear transparent core material layer 12b one that only partially transmits light (or scatters light). The base card 10 comprising such a core material layer 12b is of course light permeable itself (translucent and not transparent). The transparent and the translucent areas 13 can also be combined.

Fig. 4 demonstrates an embodiment wherein one of the face surfaces 22b of the intermediate core material layer 12b is also provided with a non- transparent coating 20 in order to further decrease the light permeability of the non-transparent area 14 of the whole of the card body 11. In this way three layers of coating 20 are provided at both parts 14a, 14b of the non-transparent area 14. Further decrease can be achieved in the light permeability if the coating 20 of the face surface 22b of the intermediate core material layer 12 is created from a material that has smaller light permeability than the coating 20 on the face surface 22a of the outer core material layers 12a. For example white ink (paint) is used on the external face surface 22a of the outer core material layer 12a, while black ink (paint) is applied on one or both face surfaces 22b of the intermediate core material layer 12b as the coating 20. By decreasing the light permeability of the non-transparent area 14 it can be achieved that even if the finished card is placed between a light source and an observer no dark toned graphics printed on the opposite side will show through, which ensures a more aesthetic appearance for the finished card.

In the case of the embodiment shown in Fig. 5 and having two core material layers 12 the light permeability of the non-transparent area 14 is decreased by applying a coating 20 on both the external face surfaces 22a and the inner face surfaces 22b of the core material layers 12. Advantageously, a material (e.g. black ink) of lower light permeability may be used on the inner face surfaces 22b in this case as well.

The exploded view of Fig. 6 illustrates an embodiment wherein the card body 11 comprises two outer core material layers 12a and one intermediate core material layer 12b and all the external and inner face surfaces 22a, 22b of all the core material layers 2a, 12b are provided with a non-transparent coating 20. It may be advantageous in this case as well to provide the inner face surfaces 22b with a coating of lower light permeability.

When making the base card 10 according to the invention in practice it is an important aspect to help the creation of aesthetic graphical designs, for this reason preferably:

- the non-transparent coating 20 on the external face surface 22a of the card body 11 is created by a white base colour, whereby even photo quality double sided CMY sublimation printing is possible on the white base,

- a set of different base cards 10 are offered which may have a non- transparent area 14 far greater than what is required for the application in desktop card printers, but are thus better adapted to aesthetic quality requirements (e.g. golden section), the symmetric versions are mainly recommended for portrait format designs, while the golden section ratio designs are recommended rather for the landscape format designs. Figs. 7a - 7g depict the top views of further exemplary embodiments of the base card 10 according to the invention with various ratio and arrangement of the transparent and/or translucent area 13 and the non-transparent area 14. In case of the embodiments depicted in Figs. 7a - 7c the detection region 18 of the optical sensor is located at the same position as in case of the embodiment shown in Fig. 1a, however, the shape and location of the non-transparent area 14 is different. In case of Fig. 7a the area 14 is only provided along one of the longitudinal sides 16a, but a narrow stripe of transparent and/or translucent area 13 is left between the non-transparent area 14 and the longitudinal side 16a of the card body 11. In Fig. 7b the area 14 is made up of a single continuous area as well, however, the area 14 is substantially wider (taking up approx. 50% of the base card 10). In the case of Fig. 7c the also single, continuous area 14 has a wave shaped contour. The base card 10 according to Fig. 7d has been designed for a desktop card printer or other card operation device, which has a detection region 18 located along the middle of the base card 10. The base card 10 illustrated in Fig. 7e can be used together with a desktop card printer or other card operation device envisaged for the embodiment according to Fig. 1a and a desktop card printer or other card operation device envisaged for the embodiment according to Fig. 7d. The base card 10 according to Fig. 7f has been designed for a desktop card printer or other card operation device wherein the optical sensors detect the presence of the base card 10 (or finished card) in the detection region 18 along the two transversal (shorter) sides 17a, 17b of the card body 11. The non-transparent area 14 of the base card 10 of Fig. 7g is provided along its perimeter, i.e. along both the longitudinal sides 16a, 16b and the transversal sides 17a, 17b whereby the base card 10 can be used in desktop card printers or other card operation devices that scan the base card 10 either along the longitudinal side 16a and/or 16b, or along the transversal side 17a and/or 17b.

The designer's freedom can be increased by decreasing the ratio of the non-transparent area 14 and the whole of the base card 10. The non- transparent area 14 is preferably not more than 50% of the base card, more preferably not more than 25%, most preferably not more than 10%. If the non-transparent area 14 covers at least 75% of the whole area of the base card 10 then this can be regarded as a security application. In this case the transparent and/or translucent area 13 can function in practice as a security element that is visible to the human eye (without any instrument).

In the following part the manufacture of the monolayer or multilayer base card 10 of the invention will be described.

The base cards 10 are preferably manufactured using sheet card manufacturing technology and the coating is preferably also applied by sheet printing. The sheet card manufacture has for advantage that it allows for mass production of cards (while satisfying the requirements of industrial manufacture), at a relatively low piece cost.

When manufacturing the base cards 10 in the form of a sheet basically the traditional technological order is followed. At the start the one or more layers of transparent core material layers 12 - having the size of the card body 11 - of the base cards 10 under production are provided on one or more common core material sheets 30 as it is illustrated in Fig. 8 (e.g. the sheet size of 310 x 500 mm commonly used in Hungary contains 3 x 8 card pieces, meaning 12 front face and 12 back face designs, but there are smaller and greater sheet sizes as well). In the case of multilayer base cards 10 the thickness of the core material sheet 30 is not as great as that of the finished product, i.e. the base card 10. The thinner core material sheet 30 has for advantage that it is more easy to handle for example in the offset printing machines most commonly used for printing the sheets.

The core material sheets 30 are made of transparent and/or translucent (in a given case pre-coloured) plastic (typically PVC) material corresponding to the material of the base card 10. The plastic base material, the sheet size, the thickness can be manifold, the more so, because the customers sometimes do not wish to have finished cards of regular thickness, with an already high tolerance (0.76 mm +/- 0.08 mm), instead, depending on the application, they ask for thinner cards (if flexibility is important or simply in order to decrease the price by economising on the material) or thicker cards (e.g. in order to be able to include radiofrequency electric units). Sometimes there is a demand for custom card dimensions or shape, in which case the base cards 10 can be cut out by custom cutting tools.

The one or more transparent and/or translucent core material sheets 30 are provided with non-transparent coating 20 in order to create the desired non- transparent areas 14. As explained earlier the coating 20 can be applied on the external face surfaces 22a of the outer core material layers 12a (as illustrated in Fig. 8) only and/or on one or more inner face surface 22b of one or more intermediate core material layers 12b (see e.g. Fig. 6). The coating 20 is preferably created by offset printing or screen printing.

Apart from the coating 20, preferably also auxiliary marks 32 for further processing of the sheets 30, such as cutting marks or lay marks used for printing and collating, are also provided on at least one external face surface 22a of the core material sheet 30. Naturally, the auxiliary marks 32 can be provided outside of the coating 20 as well.

The offset printing is mainly suited for the printing of coloured pictures and fine drawings, by building a thin ink layer. This technology has been originally developed for absorbent print carriers (paper), but can be made suitable for printing the plastic core material layer of the base cards 10 by using ultraviolet curing ink and by assembling a row of UV lamps directly at the output of the printing machine: in this case the printed core material sheet 30 having passed under the row of UV lamps is ready for further processing straight away. Since the offset printing creates a thin layer of ink, hence in order to create the appropriately non-transparent coating 20, the ink is preferably printed in multiple layers on the core material layer 30.

The other common printing mode is screen printing (screen technology), which has been developed for non-absorbent print carriers, creates a thick ink layer and is more suitable for printing larger, continuous graphic elements, for which reason it is especially well suited for creating the non- transparent coating 20. Another advantage of screen printing is that there are no constraints as regards the thickness of the print carrier, hence even a core material sheet 30 comprising a relatively thick single core material layer 2 of a monolayer base card 10 can be printed easily. Another advantage is that it is well suited for printing colours comprising metal particles as well. The ink printed on the core material sheets 30 printed with screen technology needs time to dry/cure, thus the sheets 30 are first placed on supports and are only ready for further processing once the drying time has passed.

Offset printing and screen printing may be combined as well, for example the coating 20 of greater surface area may be created by screen technology, while in a given case a security element 24 for a core material layer 12 of the base card 10, or even micro scripts or ornamental design for an external face surface 22a may be applied by offset printing that could not be carried out later on the base card 10 by a desktop card printer due to the colours or the finishing of the security element 14 or micro scripts or ornamental design. In the case of special purpose base cards 10 other markings may be printed on any face surface 22 by either offset printing or screen printing that excludes other application (e.g. the sign "student ID card" is printed thereon).

The core material sheets 30 can be printed on one side only, as illustrated in Fig. 8, or on both sides for example in case of manufacturing the base card 10 according to Figs. 5-6.

After having printed the core material sheets 30 these are collated. Preferably the coatings 20 are printed on one or more face surfaces 22 of the core material sheets 30 such that when collating the core material sheets 30 the non-transparent coatings 20 printed thereon overlap each other. Fig. 8 shows an embodiment wherein two core material sheets 30 are collated, however, if for example very thin core material sheets 30 were used for printing, then a further core material sheet 30 may be arranged between the two printed core material sheets 30 for achieving the desired thickness. Of course, in case of manufacturing other embodiments (e.g. the embodiments depicted in Figs. 4 or 6) another printed core material sheet 30 is placed between the two outer core material sheets 30.

After collation of the core material sheets 30 optionally transparent and/or translucent protective foil 23 may be provided on the two external face surfaces 22a which protects the print (i.e. the coating 20 on the face surface 22a, and in certain cases the security element 24 and other graphics) from external effects such as mechanical forces or slight chemical effects (e.g. sweaty hands). The collated core material sheets 30 and optionally one or two protective foils 23 are fed into a sheet laminating machine, where these are laminated together between highly burnished or custom textured metal plates under high pressure and temperature (e.g. for a material having a softening temperature of 70-80 °C at a temperature of about 120-140 °C) which results in a homogeneous product that assumes the surface texture of the metal plates. Depending on the machines a couple of collated core material sheets 30 or even tens or hundreds of core material sheets 30 can be heat pressed simultaneously. This process usually takes several tens of minutes and produces a card sheet 34 that is laminated from the core material sheets 30 and optionally the protective foils 24 (see Fig. 9). After this the card sheet 34 comprising the laminated core material sheets 30 and optionally one or more covering protective foil 23 is cooled back either in the same machine or in a separate apparatus. The cooled card sheets 34 are separated from the metal plates, which is followed by cutting the cards from the card sheet 34 with special tools along the dashed lines indicated in Fig. 0 in order to produce the card body 11 sized base cards 10.

The commonly used automated card cutting tools detect the auxiliary marks 32 that were also printed on the card sheet 34 together with the coatings 20 and thereby automatically position the card sheets 34 so as to be able to cut them via the cutting tool along the dashed lines shown in Fig. 10 (preferably with rounded corners). Following this the base cards 10 that are cut to size undergo quality examination (visual, optionally size examination) and are then ready for further use (e.g. for printing or impersonation by the issuer).

The protective foil 23 that is optionally provided on the base card 10 may be applied without an adhesive layer: this may be used if there is no printing on the external face surface 22a of the outer core material sheet 30 (for example because the coating 20 is to be provided on an inner face surface 22b of the base card 10), or the coating 20 (ink layer) applied on the outside is made of plastic material, which is homogeneously laminated together with the also plastic core material sheet 30, hence it is less prone to damage in the future. Such plastic based inks can be applied by screen printing.

The protective foil 23 does not adhere sufficiently on a coating 20 that is created by offset printing without an adhesive layer, especially in case of dark tones (high ink load), hence in such cases the inner side of the protective foil 23 is preferably provided with an adhesive layer before placing the protective foil 23 on one or both external face surfaces 22a of the collated core material sheets 30 before lamination. The adhesive layer creates a strong bond with the ink layer forming the coating 20, whereby the protective foil 23 does not become detached from the base card 10 (or the finished card) during use. Preferably thin protective foil 23 is applied as it is more resistant against possible removal.

The external face surfaces 22a of the base card 10 do not necessarily need to be provided with the protective foil 23, moreover, in case of certain embodiments it can be particularly advantageous to omit the protective foil 23.

The protective foil 23 is definitely a disadvantage from the point of view of the future printing because the print is then produced on the external surface of the protective foil 23 when printing the base card 10 with a desktop card printer, because when printing above the non-transparent coating 20 the background of the print (i.e. the surface of the coating 20) and the print are spaced apart from each other by at least a distance corresponding to the thickness of the protective foil 23, which on the one hand renders the print edgeless (blurred) and on the other hand the bias lighting may be disturbing (the light entering on the side of the card body 11 and the light passing through the print and being reflected back from the coating 20). Naturally, if the coating 20 is not created on the external face surface 22a of the card body 11 , then this effect occurs even without the presence of the protective foil 23. At the same time this effect increases the colour saturation in case of the older DTC technology, therefore the base card 10 comprising the protective foil 23 or bearing the coating 20 on an inner face surface 22b thereof can be recommended for this technology (in exchange of the less sharp print, more saturated colours can be obtained). However, in case of the more recent HDP technology, as described earlier, the print is created on a foil, hence there is a further foil on the print, whereby the base card 10 provided with the protective foil 23 is more disadvantageous as compared to the base card 10 without any protective foil 23, hence for this technology it is rather the base card 10 without the protective foil 23 that can be recommended, since a HDP image printed on a base card 10 provided with a protective foil 23 is visible less sharp and the colours are more blurred (unless this is exactly how the issuer wishes to obtain a novel graphical effect).

A plastic based, covering white colour coating 20 produced by screen printing on the external face surfaces 22a of a water clear core material layers 12, and laminated without a protective foil 23 accomplishes a rather attractive appearance: it is as if the non-transparent area 14 of the base card 10 was made of white plastic, while the transparent area 13 is made of water clear plastic. As explained earlier the effect can be enhanced by printing a coating 20 on the inner face surfaces 22b that has a lower light permeability (e.g. a coating 20 in black or other colour of good covering capacity), such that the coating 20 of the inner face surface 22b and the coating 20 of the external face surface 22a overlap.

Preferably the external face surface 22a of the card body 11 is also provided with the protective foil 23 if a base ink comprising metal particles is used as the coating 20, because in this case the protective foil 23 is not only destined to protect the base card 10 but also to protect the card operation devices (e.g. desktop card printers), in which the base card 10 (or finished card) is to be used later on. The use of the protective foil 23 is also advantageous in the case of a coating 20 produced by offset printing, since in this case the ink layer provided on the external face surface 22 does not become homogeneous with the rest of the laminate during lamination, moreover, in order to provide better covering capacity preferably more layers of ink are applied, which is then particularly prone to damage.

The monolayer base card 10 is manufactured as describe above with the difference that in this case a single core material sheet 30 is used, hence the step of collating the core material sheets 30 is left out and in certain cases lamination is unnecessary as well (if no minute surface/dead smooth surface is required for the application). However, even in this case the core material sheet 30 is preferably laminated if the coating 20 has been created by screen printing using plastic based ink, because in this situation the core material sheet 30 and the coating 20 becomes homogeneous during lamination so as to create a smooth external face surface 22a on the body 11 of the base card 10. In case of applying the protective foil 23 the latter is preferably also laminated to the core material sheet 30.

The core material sheet 30 of the monolayer base card 0 is thicker (in practice corresponding to the thickness of the finished base card 10), hence the core material sheet 30 is preferably printed by screen technology because the thickness of the core material sheet 30 may cause problems in the traditional offset printers.

The monolayer base card 10 has for advantage that the manufacture thereof is substantially simplified, moreover the possibility of errors is also reduced: since there is no need to collate separate core material sheets 30, hence there can be no error resulting from the misalignment of the prints (the coating 20, and in certain cases other security elements or graphical elements) on the separate core material sheets 30 with respect to each other. The lamination process is also faster and requires lower temperature since here only the surface carrying the coating 20 is smoothened or given a mirror finish (rendered dead smooth), however a plurality of core material sheets 30 need not be rendered homogeneous at a distance from the laminating surfaces.

An advantage of the base card 10 according to the invention is that it can be manufacture at low cost, while ensuring high freedom of design for the designer due to the transparent and/or translucent area 3 of the card body 11. Owing to the non-transparent area 14 the base card 10 can be printed with desktop card printers and used in other card operation devices having optical sensors. Furthermore, the non-transparent areas 14 provide appropriate back ground for double sided printing.

Various modifications to the above disclosed embodiments will be apparent to a person skilled in the art without departing from the scope of protection determined by the attached claims.

Claims

1. Double sided printable partially transparent and/or translucent base card for application in a card operation device having an optical sensor, characterised by comprising a partially transparent and/or translucent card body (11), which card body (11) comprises at least one transparent and/or translucent core material layer (12) that has opposing face surfaces (22, 22a, 22b), and at least one face surface (22, 22a, 22b) of the at least one core material layer (12) is provided with a substantially non-transparent coating (20) at a detection region (18) of an optical sensor of at least one type of card operation device.

2. The base card according to claim 1 , characterised by that the substantially non-transparent coating (20) is provided at least on one external face surface (22a) of the card body (11).

3. The base card according to claim 1 , characterised by that the substantially non-transparent coating (20) is provided at least on the two external face surfaces (22a) of the card body (1 ) such that the non-transparent coatings (20) provided on the two external face surfaces (22a) of the card body (11) substantially overlap.

4. The base card according to claim 1 , characterised by that the core material comprises more than one core material layers (12), and the substantially non-transparent coating (20) is provided at least on one face surface (22, 22a, 22b) of each core material layer (12) preferably such that the substantially non-transparent coatings (20) overlap.

5. The base card according to any of claims 1 to 4, characterised by that the location of the substantially non-transparent coating (20) is chosen to correspond to the detection region (18) of the optical sensor of one or more types of desktop card printers.

6. The base card according to any of claims 1 to 5, characterised by that a face surface (22, 22a, 22b) of at least one core material layer (12) is provided with the substantially non-transparent coating (20) at the detection regions (18) of the optical sensors of at least two types of card operation devices, and the card operation device is preferably a desktop card printer, card reader and/or card impersonating device.

7. The base card according to any of claims 1 to 6, characterised by that at least one external face surface (22a) of the card body (11) - possibly provided with the substantially non-transparent coating (20) - is covered by a protective foil (23).

8. The base card according to any of claims 1 to 7, characterised by that the substantially non-transparent coating (20) applied on at least one face surface (22, 22a, 22b) renders not more than 50%, preferably not more than 25% of the base card ( 0) non-transparent, or in case of security application renders at least 75% of the base card (10) non-transparent.

9. The base card according to any of claims 1 to 8, characterised by that the substantially non-transparent coating (20) is created along one or both longitudinal sides (16a, 16b) of the card body (11) and/or along one or both transversal sides (17a, 17b) of the card body (11).

10. The base card according to any of claims 1 to 9, characterised by that the substantially non-transparent coating (20) is formed by one or more layers of non-transparent ink, preferably of high covering capacity (extra opaque ink) applied by offset printing and/or screen printing.

11. The base card according to claim 10, characterised by that the card body (11) comprises more than one core material layers (12) and the substantially non-transparent coating (20) is created on at least one face surface (22, 22a, 22b) of more than one core material layers (12) such that the substantially non-transparent coatings (20) overlap, and the substantially non- transparent coating (20) on the two outer surfaces (22a) of the card body ( 1) is formed by ink having a first light permeability in the visible light spectrum, while the substantially non-transparent coating (20) on the other face surfaces (22, 22b) of the core material layers (12) is formed by an ink having a second light permeability in the visible light spectrum, which second light permeability is smaller than the first light permeability.

12. Method for manufacturing a double sided printable partially transparent and/or translucent base card suitable for application in a card operation device having an optical sensor, characterised by:

13. The method according to claim 12, characterised by providing the substantially non-transparent coating at least on one external face surface of the card body.

14. The method according to claim 12, characterised by providing the substantially non-transparent coating at least on the two external face surfaces of the card body such that the non-transparent coatings provided on the two external face surfaces of the card body substantially overlap.

15. The method according to claim 12, characterised by that the core material comprises more than one core material layers, and providing the substantially non-transparent coating at least on one face surface of each core material layer, preferably such that the substantially non-transparent coatings overlap.

16. The method according to any of claims 12 to 15, characterised by choosing the location of the substantially non-transparent coating such as to correspond to the detection region of the optical sensor of one or more types of desktop card printers.

17. The method according to any of claims 12 to 16, characterised by providing the face surface of at least one core material layer with the substantially non-transparent coating at the detection regions of the optical sensors of at least two types of card operation devices, and the card operation device is preferably a desktop card printer, card reader and/or card impersonating device.

18. The method according to any of claims 12 to 17, characterised by covering at least one external face surface of the card body - that is possibly provided with the substantially non-transparent coating - with a protective foil.

19. The method according to any of claims 12 to 18, characterised by applying the substantially non-transparent coating on at least one face surface such as to render not more than 50%, preferably not more than 25% of the base card non-transparent, or in case of security application to render at least 75% of the base card non-transparent.

20. The method according to any of claims 12 to 19, characterised by creating the substantially non-transparent coating along one or both longitudinal sides of the card body and/or along one or both transversal sides of the card body.

21. The method according to any of claims 12 to 20, characterised by forming the substantially non-transparent coating by one or more layers of non- transparent ink, preferably of high covering capacity (extra opaque ink) applied by offset printing and/or screen printing.

22. The method according to claim 21 , characterised by that the card body comprises more than one core material layers and creating the substantially non-transparent coating on at least one face surface of more than one core material layers such that the substantially non-transparent coatings overlap, and forming the substantially non-transparent coating on the two outer surfaces of the card body by ink having a first light permeability in the visible light spectrum, and forming the substantially non-transparent coating on the other face surfaces of the core material layers by an ink having a second light permeability in the visible light spectrum, which second light permeability is smaller than the first light permeability.

23. The method according to claim 21 or 22, characterised by creating the substantially non-transparent coating on the face surface of the core material layer by sheet printing technology printing on a core material sheet comprising the core material layer, and cutting the card body sized core material layer from the core material sheet.

24. The method according to claim 23, characterised by arranging a substantially transparent protective foil on at least the printed surface of the core material sheet before cutting out the card body sized core material layer, and laminating the core material sheet and the one or two protective foils together in a sheet laminating apparatus such as to create a laminated card sheet, and cutting the card body sized core material layer from the laminated card sheet.

25. The method according to claim 21 or 22, characterised by that the card body comprises more than one core material layers, and:

- creating the substantially non-transparent coating on the one or more faces surfaces of the core material layers by sheet printing technology, and

- collating the core material sheets such that the substantially non- transparent coatings overlap,

- laminating the collated core material sheets in a sheet laminating apparatus, thereby creating a laminated card sheet, and

- cutting the card body sized core material layer from the laminated card sheet.

26. The method according to claim 25, characterised by using as outer core material sheets in the collating step sheets that are provided with a coating, and arranging them such that two coating carrying surfaces form the external faces.

27. The method according to claim 26, characterised by arranging an intermediate core material sheets between the two outer core material sheets provided with the coating, and laminating them together in the laminating apparatus, and thereby producing a laminated card sheet comprising at least three layers.

28. The method according to claim 27, characterised by using core material sheets provided with coating as intermediate core material sheets.

29. The method according to claim 28, characterised by applying an ink having a first light permeability in the visible light spectrum for creating the substantially non-transparent coating on the external face surfaces of the core material sheets, and creating the other non-transparent coatings by applying an ink having a second light permeability in the visible light spectrum, which second light permeability is smaller than the first light permeability.

30. The method according to any of claims 25 to 29, characterised by arranging on the external face surfaces of the outer core material sheets a substantially transparent protective foil, and laminating them together in the laminating apparatus, and thereby producing a laminated card sheet provided with protective foil.

31. The method according to claim 30, characterised by attaching the protective foils on the external face surfaces of the outer core material sheets by an adhesive layer.

32. The method according to any of claims 24 to 31 , characterised by printing cutting marks as well when printing the substantially non-transparent coating, and cutting the cards from the laminated card sheets with an automated card cutting apparatus with the help of the cutting signs.