The present invention relates to a security device (and method for its production) for use for example on security documents and documents of value such as banknotes, cheques, bonds, certificates, fiscal stamps, tax stamps, vouchers, and brand protection.
It is well known within security printing to use luminescent materials to produce security features. Luminescent materials are known to those skilled in the art to include materials having fluorescent or phosphorescent properties. It is also well known to use other materials that respond visibly to invisible radiation such as photochromic materials and thermochromic materials.
An example of a luminescent feature utilised within security printing can be found in EP-A-253543. This case describes a lustrous metallic ink having differing appearances in visible and UV light. Such metallic fluorescent inks have proved very successful and are widely used on security documents. They provide a metallic ink clearly visible to the public with the additional security that fluorescence provides. The ink is typically printed in a discreet area and has a single colour under UV illumination.
A different type of feature is described in GB-A-1407065, which makes use of metamerism. The case describes the use of metameric pairs of inks appearing essentially the same under a first illuminant, such as natural sunlight, but different under a second illuminant having a different spectral energy distribution, for example produced by a tungsten filament lamp. The embodiments described within the patent are all designed to display metameric properties under differing visible light conditions.
WO-A-9840223 describes a method of printing an image that is invisible under normal lighting conditions but visible under UV illumination. The image visible under UV illumination comprises at least two different colours. The image visible under UV illumination may be the same as another image visible elsewhere on the document under normal lighting condition e.g. a portrait or photograph. It is a requirement of this case that the image viewable under UV illumination is not visible under normal lighting conditions, indeed the inks used are said to be invisible.
WO-A-0078556 describes a security document having both visible and invisible information characterised in that the invisible information is personalised. Particular examples are cited as printing invisible bar codes onto driving licences, passports and other documents intended to confirm a persons identity.
EP-A-1179807 describes an anti-fraud device for documents consisting of a support and at least two printed motifs affixed to the said support, distinguished in that one of the motifs contains an ink that responds to a given wavelength by emitting a specific colour and one other motif contains an ink that reacts to the same wavelength by emitting the same colour but also reacts to a second wavelength by emitting another colour.
EP-A-1179808 describes an anti-fraud device for documents consisting of a support and at least two printed motifs affixed to the said support, distinguished in that one of the motifs contains a first ink that responds to ultraviolet radiation of a given wavelength by emitting a specific colour and one other motif contains a second ink that responds to ultraviolet radiation of the same wavelength by emitting the same colour as the first ink, and the two inks, when subjected to ultraviolet radiation of a second wavelength, emit different colours from each other.
There is a continuing need to develop security devices whose presence is difficult to ascertain but which, when inspected by someone who knows where to look, are simple to examine, and at the same time are difficult to replicate.
In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention, a security device comprising two or more regions, each region containing a material or combination of materials wherein the two or more regions exhibit substantially the same visible colour under first viewing conditions as hereinbefore defined and different visible colours under second viewing conditions, the second viewing conditions comprising a combination of
a) visible light and
b) light of substantially any UV wavelength.
In accordance with a second aspect of the present invention, a security device comprising two or more regions, each region containing a material or combination of materials wherein the two or more regions exhibit different visible colours under first viewing conditions as hereinbefore defined and substantially the same visible colours under second viewing conditions, the second viewing conditions comprising a combination of
a) visible light and
b) light of substantially any UV wavelength.
In accordance with a third aspect a method of providing a security device, the method comprising printing materials on to two or more regions of a substrate, each region containing a material or combination of materials wherein the two or more regions exhibit substantially the same visible colour under first viewing conditions as hereinbefore defined and different visible colours under second viewing conditions, the second viewing conditions comprising a combination of
a) visible light and
b) light of substantially any UV wavelength.
In accordance with a fourth aspect of the present invention, a method of providing a security device, the method comprising printing materials on to two or more regions of a substrate, each region containing a material or combination of materials wherein the two or more regions exhibit different visible colours under first viewing conditions as hereinbefore defined and substantially the same visible colour under second viewing conditions, the second viewing conditions comprising a combination of
a) visible light and
b) light of substantially any UV wavelength.
In accordance with a fifth aspect of the present invention, a security device comprising two or more regions, each region containing a material or combination of materials wherein the two or more regions exhibit substantially the same visible colour under first viewing conditions as hereinbefore defined and different visible colours under second viewing conditions, the second viewing conditions comprising a combination of
a) visible light and
b) infra-red radiation.
In accordance with a sixth aspect of the present invention, a security device comprising two or more regions, each region containing a material or combination of materials wherein the two or more regions exhibit different visible colours under first viewing conditions as hereinbefore defined and substantially the same visible colour under second viewing conditions, the second viewing conditions comprising a combination of
a) visible light and
b) infra-red radiation.
In accordance with a seventh aspect of the present invention, a method of providing a security device, the method comprising printing materials on to two or more regions of a substrate, each region containing a material or combination of materials wherein the two or more regions exhibit substantially the same visible colour under first viewing conditions as hereinbefore defined and different visible colours under second viewing conditions, the second viewing conditions comprising a combination of
a) visible light and
b) infra-red radiation.
In accordance with an eighth aspect of the present invention, a method of providing a security device, the method comprising printing materials on to two or more regions of a substrate, each region containing a material or combination of materials wherein the two or more regions exhibit different visible colours under first viewing conditions as hereinbefore defined and substantially the same visible colour under second viewing conditions, the second viewing conditions comprising a combination of
a) visible light and
b) infra-red radiation.
In this specification, the term “first viewing conditions” means viewing under visible light. Visible light is preferably but not essentially white light which typically includes any of at least north sky light, general indoor light, tungsten light, fluorescent tube light or tri-band fluorescent tube light.
In this specification, the term “region” typically means a region of solid colour or a region made out of elements which are all of the same colour under the appropriate viewing conditions. However, one or more of the regions could be defined by elements such as lines or dots of more than one colour with colour matching under the appropriate viewing conditions being achieved between certain elements of one region and certain elements (or the solid colour) of another region. This will depend upon the extent to which the element within the region can be discerned as presenting a particular colour and in some cases, the region may present an overall solid colour made up of a combination of elements and a background.
By the “same visible colour” we mean that the two regions have the same colour (either as a solid colour or with elements of a particular colour as outlined above) when viewed under the appropriate viewing conditions and with the naked eye.
With this invention, we have developed a new type of security device in which the security property cannot be readily detected because of the need to use invisible UV and/or IR irradiation in connection with one of the viewing conditions but in which the regions exhibit visible colours under both viewing conditions, i.e. colours which are visible to the naked eye. Importantly, in the case of UV, any UV wavelength can be used thus avoiding the problems of the prior art when a narrow band exciting radiation was required.
In this specification, “substantially any UV wavelength” refers to wavelengths between at least 235-380 nm, preferably 200-400 nm. In the case of IR, we envisage wavelengths in the range 750 nm-1 mm.
It should be understood that when viewing under UV or IR, there will be visible light present so that colours visible under visible light also contribute to the overall appearance of each region. Also, in use, only a small is range of UV or IR wavelengths will be used even though, in the case of the UV based materials the region responds to all UV wavelengths.
In some cases, one of the regions will contain a material or materials which exhibit the same visible colour under both sets of viewing conditions. In other, more sophisticated examples, each region will contain a material or materials which exhibit different colours under the different viewing conditions. A particular advantage of the present invention is that it is difficult to determine combinations of materials which provide the required responses since under both sets of illuminating conditions, both the materials within a region will typically influence the resulting colour. Materials envisaged include pigments which are visible, luminescent, thermochromic and/or photochromic.
Typically, the two or more regions are provided on the same side of a substrate such as paper or plastics and are viewed in reflection. However, in a further embodiment of the invention, the regions can be viewed in transmission if the UV or IR source is placed behind the substrate with respect to the observer. If some other complementary visible regions are provided on the front of the substrate with respect to the viewer, both sets of regions will be viewed simultaneously in transmission and reflection respectively. The substrate can be transparent or translucent.
The regions may be spaced apart in different parts of a document, although preferably by no more than 5 mm, or they may abut or even partially overlap.
This leads to a number of further benefits over the existing prior art. There is an increasing-tendency to reduce the size of banknotes and other security documents. This problem has been most notable for security labels and revenue stamps where space for security features is extremely limited. As such, having a feature that requires both an invisible print and visible print to be printed in separate areas is not desirable. The preferred embodiments of the invention in which the regions at least abut overcomes this problem by combining both the visible and invisible elements into a single feature.
An additional benefit was found by using two rainbow printed inks which appear differently coloured in visible light. Sometimes it can be difficult to achieve a perfect colour match between two or more inks. By having an overlap region between the inks the slight difference in visual appearance is reduced to the point where the two inks appear colour matched. Such an effect can also be achieved by suitable use of half-tone or stochastic screens and indeed may employ multiple print processes.
A similar benefit is achieved by rainbow printing inks which appear differently coloured under the second viewing conditions.
The regions may be provided by offset lithography or any other known printing technique such as letterpress, intaglio, screen, digital printing, inkjet etc. Preferably, the regions are printed in a single pass although they could be printed in more than one pass or by a combination of two (or more) processes.
In one example, it has been found that both regions of solid print and/or regions of line work achieve the desired effect when produced in an interlocking type design.
In the current invention it is important to control the mixture of inks/pigments to achieve a correct balance between the desired colour in the visible spectrum and the correct colour under combined visible and invisible illumination.
In some examples, a photochromic material may be used in combination with luminescent materials. A first ink would contain only a fluorescent component whereas a second ink would contain both fluorescent and photochromic components. Here two colours would appear in visible illumination and this would remain the case under combined visible and UV illumination for a short period. As the photochromic material begins to react to the UV light in the second ink the background colour of the second ink changes and alters the fluorescent colour to the point where the two fluorescent colours appear matched.
A similar effect could be achieved using ink containing photochromic and thermochromic components. Here the two inks would appear different colours under UV illumination until the thermochromic ink is activated with heat. Once the thermochromic is activated the two colours would appear matched. Both the thermochromic and the photochromic could be reversible or irreversible. This idea could be taken further by adding photochromic and/or thermochromic components to both inks in combination with the fluorescent pigments. This would allow a wide variety of effects to created where different inks can be cycled through a number of colours before finally being coloured matched.
In some examples, the ink(s) may include a thermochromic component and no UV responsive component.
A number of options are possible when using photochromic and/or thermochromic material. Examples include:
Where photochromic and/or thermochromic materials are not used then a luminescent material (phosphorescent or fluorescent) can be provided in one region or at least two different luminescent materials can be provided in the at least two regions.
In all cases, the choice of materials must be made such that the resultant colours satisfy the above stated requirements of one of the inventive concepts.
The regions may comprise simple geometrical shapes such as squares, rectangles and the like but preferably consists of one or more of graphical patterns, indicia such as alphanumerics, security patterns and images. This reduces the area required for the device since it can be included within the overall pattern of a substrate on which it is provided. The regions may be solid or discontinuous, for example made up of dots, lines etc.
One method of attempting to replicate one embodiment of the feature would be to print background print in non-luminescent inks and then overprint with a single coloured luminescent print. This would not work as the visible pigments would interfere with the colour replay of luminescent pigments and give the effect of two different colours. Similarly an attempt to replicate an embodiment by printing a background in luminescent inks and overprint with a non-luminescent ink would not work.
Security devices according to the invention can be used in a wide variety of applications but are particularly suitable on security documents and documents of value as mentioned above.
The security devices could be provided directly on documents or in the form of transferable labels.
Examples of security devices according to the present invention will now be described in more detail by reference to the following Figures.
When the above print is then viewed under a combination of visible light and invisible, UV, radiation only a single colour, e.g. yellow, is visible to the human eye 4. In order to achieve this a number of factors must be taken into account. For example visible pigments affect the emission colour of the luminescent pigment in invisible radiation and the pigment body colour of the luminescent pigments may affect the colour of the visible pigments under visible light. As a result care must be taken when preparing the inks to ensure the desired effect can be achieved.
Similar care must be taken when implementing the second embodiment illustrated in
These embodiments make it easy for the viewer by locating both the invisible and visible information in the same place.
A similar effect can be created by substituting the photochromic with a thermochromic. Here the second colour change is effected by heating the document. The heat may come from an external source of IR radiation or by the viewers hand, breath etc. In this case, UV irradiation is also continued.
Although the regions 31 are unprinted in this example, they may be filled in with a further print working or as a further alternative the device may be printed onto a background visible within the regions 31.
Under visible light, the printed regions 30,32 have the same visible appearance. Under combined visible light and UV irradiation (
In all the previous examples, a luminescent material has been included in at least one of the regions. It would be possible instead to use only a photochromic or only a thermochromic material with no luminescent material.
Some examples of suitable ink formulae for use in these embodiments are described below although some adjustments may be necessary as will be readily understood by a person skilled in the art to achieve an acceptable colour match:
An example of a photochromic ink is set out below.
The following formulae provide inks which are purple and red under visible light while the red ink turns purple when exposed to combined visible and UV light, the “purple” ink being unchanged in appearance under combined visible and UV light. The purple colours will then match.
The following ink formulae will allow an ink which is red under visible light to turn purple when exposed to visible and UV light and match another ink which is purple under visible light and unchanged under visible and UV light. Initially, the fluorescent colours will not match. As the photochromic material changes colour, the fluorescent emission colours will match. When the UV light is removed, the visible colours will match for a period until the photochromic materials start to change back.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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0228303.4 | Dec 2002 | GB | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/GB03/04795 | 11/6/2003 | WO | 00 | 6/14/2005 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2004/050376 | 6/17/2004 | WO | A |
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