2404627
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BOOKLET AND METHOD FOR ITS MANUFACTURE
The invention relates to booklets, such as passports, and methods for their manufacture. Since 1980 machine readable passports have been manufactured according to an international standard. The method of constructing the cover of the book utilises a technique mainly used in the manufacture of children's books. The resulting covers have proved vulnerable to fraudulent attack when the data page is on the inside of the cover.
The standard construction of the cover after personalisation and lamination is illustrated in Figure 1.
The cover construction comprises a paper end leaf 1 carrying personal indicia 2 covered with a laminate film 3 to which it is adhered by a heat seal adhesive.
A cover material is adhered to the outside of the paper end leaf 1 using a PVA adhesive 5. The cover material consists of a layer of paper 4 which has been coated on one side with a layer of plastics 6. The paper side 4 is bonded with the PVA adhesive 5 to the end leaf 1. The plastic layer 6, typically with a grained finish, forms the outside of the booklet.
It will readily be seen that the outer layers 3,6 of the "sandwich" are strong plastic materials between which there are two layers 1,4 of relatively weak paper. It is relatively easy to use a scalpel to initiate a weakness in one of the paper layers, usually the end-leaf 1, and then to peel the laminate film 3 with some of the end-leaf 1 away from the plastic cover 6, its backing and the 3 0 remainder of the end-leaf.
A line 7 in Figure 2 shows a typical location of the cohesive failure. When bromide print photographs, sandwiched between the end-leaf and the laminate film, were used, it was possible to remove the photo by cutting round 35 it with a scalpel from behind, softening the laminate's heat seal adhesive with heat and peeling the photo away. A fraudulent photo could then be inserted and the cover
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> reassembled with new adhesive. Since neither the outside of the cover nor the laminate film had been damaged, it was relatively easy to produce a usable document.
To reduce this problem it was proposed that the data 5 page should appear on an inside page rather than on the cover. This has been followed by the EU who have mandated that the data page be on an inside cover for all EU passports. An inside data page typically needs some strengthening so it can withstand the stresses of reading. 10 If an ordinary passport page were to snag at the entrance to a swipe reader, it is likely to crumple and thus become unreadable. Most inside page data pages are therefore strengthened in some way. The paper of the page may be thicker, the page may be protected by a relatively thick 15 laminate, or even by laminates on both sides. This last brings one back very close to the problem cover construction and exhibits a similar degree of security weakness. Some countries have gone to the length of binding a plastic card into the book, partly to make use of 20 laser engraving technology, and partly to permit the inclusion of a contactless chip.
All the inside page solutions thus introduce some level of extra cost. A thicker page has to be printed and processed separately; extra laminate films or bound in 25 cards add significantly to the book cost.
There are a number of arguments in favour of an inside cover data page provided the construction is made resistant to fraud. The cover is relatively thick and potentially strong. This means that it is robust and can withstand the 3 0 stresses that can result from insertion into readers, particularly swipe readers. Being thick, the cover can be used to contain a contactless chip, and there is some justification for arguing that the contactless chip in a passport should ideally be in the same component of the 3 5 book as the data page, thus preventing possible fraud that could result from their separation.
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There is therefore a strong argument for developing a novel cover construction that is secure against fraud and thus capable of carrying the data page while incorporating a contactless chip if required.
5 In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a method of manufacturing a booklet comprises providing a number of leaves secured together along a spine; and injection moulding a layer onto a, preferably outwardly facing, surface of at least one end leaf. 10 In accordance with the second aspect of the present invention, a booklet comprises a number of leaves secured together along a spine, a, preferably outwardly facing, surface of at least one end leaf having a layer which has been injection moulded thereon.
15 The injection moulded material will typically be a plastics or polymer such as PBT or polypropylene.
With this construction, it is much more difficult to tamper with the end leaf and replace any indicia such as personalisation on the inner (or outer) surface of the end 20 leaf.
Additives may be included in the injection moulded layer such as laser marking additives, taggants, fluorescent and phosphorescent materials, thermochromics, iridescent and other colour shift materials. 25 In accordance with a third aspect of the present invention, a method of producing leaves of a passport comprises printing the leaves on a continuous web; and thereafter folding the web to define the spine and leaves of the passport. In this case, the passport may otherwise 30 have a conventional construction although preferably it is constructed according to the first and second aspects of the invention.
The advantages of the invention will become apparent from the description of the following examples with 3 5 reference to the accompanying drawings, in which
Figures 1 and 2 are schematic cross-sections through a known cover structure;
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Figures 3 and 4 are schematic orthogonal cross-sections through an injection mould illustrating a method according to an example of the invention;
Figure 5 is an enlarged cross-section through an 5 example of a cover structure according to the invention;
Figure 6 is a view similar to Figure 3 but of another mould;
Figure 7 is a view similar to Figure 5 but of a cover structure made using the Figure 6 mould; and, 10 Figure 8 is a view similar to Figure 5 but of another example.
Figures 3 and 4 show (not to scale) a passport booklet 10 clamped into an injection moulding tool 11. The booklet consists of a set of interior pages or leaves 12, possibly 15 including bound in laminate film(s), sewn with lockstitch thread, or preferably adhered with a suitable adhesive, along a spine 13. The booklet is oversize, also as normal and the three open edges are clamped between the two halves 11A, 11B of the injection moulding tool 11. 20 Molten plastic is injected into the mould from an aperture 14 behind the spine 13 and the cavity 15 on both sides of the booklet 10 is filled with plastic that then sets, forming the cover. A requirement of the plastics material is that it must be sufficiently flexible to act as 25 a hinge, allowing the book to open readily without stress that could cause it to crack. A suitable material is polypropylene. Typically the plastic will be injected at a temperature of between 150 and 2 50°C. The mould will be at a much lower temperature, perhaps as low as 3 0°C. The 30 precise temperatures are selected so that the plastic will fill the cavities 15 in the mould 11 and then set rapidly. The faces of the mould may have surface embossing or debossing to simulate the grain of a conventional passport book cover and/or to define surface relief microstructures 35 in order to create a holographic effect or provide covert information. After moulding, the booklet, now with a cover may be foil blocked and die-cut to finished size in the
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conventional way. As alternatives to die cutting, a laser or guillotine could be used.
In some cases, plastic could be flowed into contact with the inwardly facing surface of one or both end leaves, 5 using suitable metal dividers (not shown) to prevent the plastic adhering to an inner leaf.
The porosity of the end leaf paper should be selected so as to ensure that the plastic penetrates deep into the paper, thus preventing attempts at delamination as there is 10 now only one piece of paper instead of two.
In practice it may be necessary to insert rigid plates under each end leaf extending at least partly along the length of the end leaf to prevent buckling during the injection moulding process. The plates are subsequently 15 removed.
The technique offers a number of other opportunities. 1. The polymer used may be clear and colourless as illustrated in Figure 5. Thus, Figure 5 illustrates the book cover opened flat with a watermarked end leaf 2 0 on 20 which a clear plastic layer 21 has been injection moulded.
This provides a number of opportunities to enhance the durability and security of the document.
Firstly the end-leaf 20 can use watermarked paper as its substrate as, even with the options mentioned below, 25 the cover will be sufficiently transparent for the watermark to be visible if the cover is held up to the light. Experience elsewhere has shown that a plastic coating applied to watermarked paper enhances the watermark's visibility. Given that the personalisation 22, 30 with an overlay or laminate 23, would be on the inside cover, the transparency would aid detection of any fraud in which part of the structure had been taken apart and replaced.
Secondly, the colour of the cover may be applied by 35 printing, by litho or silk screen the outside of the end-leaf. This is illustrated by the line 24 in Figure 5. The image that is traditionally gold blocked on the outside of
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the cover may also be gold blocked or silk screen (or just possibly litho) printed on top of the printed colour cover. This is shown at 25. It is thought that a silk screen image using a suitable gold ink would, under the clear 5 plastic, yield a quality of finish that closely resembles the traditional gold blocking at a considerable cost saving. The injection moulded plastic layer 21 then protects the gold blocking 25 from wear.
2. The plastic used in the injection moulding process 10 could be opaque white PBT. In this case, the outside of the back cover or end leaf becomes the data page. The blank passport book as delivered to personalisation has a plain white cover both front and back. At the time of personalisation, the cover colour is applied to the front 15 cover and the data page security image and personalisation is applied to the back cover in a single image transfer operation. The normally gold blocked image on the face could then either be applied by gold blocking, or it could be incorporated into the transferred image, though it would 20 be in a selected colour; it could not be metallic. This offers considerable saving in the cost of passport manufacture and personalisation, as well as increased security of the personalization. Furthermore, by providing personalised data on the outside of the outer cover, the 25 book (passport) does not need to be opened for inspection.
It would also be possible to provide in-mould features such as recesses in the mould in which labels, holographic features, paper printed with security ink etc. are provided and which adhere to the plastic.
30 3. The injection moulding process could be adapted so that there are two injections into the same mould. In this case a mould 30 (Figure 7) defines two separate cavities 31,32 between which the book 10 is located. A clear plastic 35 is injected through an aperture 33 into the 35 cavity 31 and onto the front cover area as indicated in 1 above. The outside of the front end leaf would have the cover colour and gold image 25 applied before moulding. An
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opaque white PBT plastic 3 6 is injected through an aperture 34 into the cavity 32 and onto the back cover area. The finished cover is shown in Figure 7. Further printing 37, typically personalised data and security print can be 5 provided simultaneously on the outside of the back cover, for example by a transfer and diffusion process. 4. A contactless chip module 40 (Figure 8) coupled with an aerial 41 on a plastic carrier 42 may be inserted into the construction by affixing the module carrier 42 to the 10 outside of the end leaf 20 prior to injection moulding. A typical contactless module consists of a small sheet of plastic 42 onto which the aerial 41 has been applied by silk screen printing using electrically conducting ink. The aerial 41 may also be formed of etched copper or copper 15 wire or printed metallic silver ink. The chip 40 is attached to the plastic and electrically to the ends of the aerial 41. Alternatively, a flexible chip module could be incorporated.
Careful selection of the plastic carrier of the module 20 will enable the injected plastic 43 to fuse to the module effectively entrapping it and making it resistant to fraudulent attack by replacement.
Clearly if a clear plastic 43 is used for the cover the chip module will be visible. This may be considered 25 undesirable but its visibility will render attempts at substitution much more difficult.
If the chip is to be concealed then an opaque plastic must be used, such as is proposed in 3 above.
The pages of the passport could be manufactured 30 individually but we have developed a novel procedure.
The entire interior pages of the passport, including the endleaf are printed as an oversize two page wide web as shown in Figure 9.
The dotted lines in Figure 9 indicate the cylinder 35 circumference of a typical web printing press. The image printed by each revolution of the cylinder is the same so the image marked "back end leaf" would be identical to that
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printed on page 21. This means that it would not be possible to print the page number within the security print on each page as is often done. However, this could be compensated for by extra printing from the personalisation 5 engine (see below).
A six colour press could print three workings on each side of the web. Alternatively, the press may be modified so that one or two units only print every other impression. This would enable two workings both sides, with an extra 10 two workings being printed every other impression to create a more complex data page.
The resulting reel of base stock would be supplied to a bureau operation for personalisation.
Figure 10 shows the configuration of the first stage 15 of the personalisation and book making line.
The reel of security base stock 50 is fed into a web fed variable data printing press 51. The press must be capable of printing at least four process colours in register with the security printed image. Ideally, the
2 0 press should have additional units to enable special workings to be printed and to have the ability to print on both sides of the web. On the personalisation data page, the press would typically print a colour portrait of the holder of the passport together with a ghost image, at 25 least one invisible fluorescent portrait, the eye readable text and the machine readable text. The press will also print on the visa pages of the passport variable information including the passport number, the page number and miniature visible and invisible portraits of the
3 0 holder. If the press only prints on one side of the paper,
this variable information will only appear on one side of every leaf. If the press prints on both sides, the variable information can appear on every page.
It is then necessary to protect the personalisation on 35 the data page. This is achieved using two flexo applied UV curing varnish layers with a rainbow printing system used to rainbow invisible fluorescent inks. Figure 10 shows
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only a single flexo station 52 with UV dryer 53, in practice there would be two or more. The first would apply an all-over protection layer; any rainbowing of fluorescent materials would ensure that there was no fluorescent 5 material over the invisible fluorescent portrait. The second layer would include latent images and raised text. Further flexo units could apply, for example, optically variable inks.
The third operation carried out by the line is laser 10 perforation/marking 54, which is an optional extra. Every leaf is individually laser perforated, before the book is made up, with information which might include the passport number, the holder's name and even the holder's portrait. Because it is impractical to do so, there would be no 15 attempt to register the perforation between pages. Though the term "perforation" has been used it would be possible to vary the laser power so that some of the image was perforated while the remainder marked the surface of the page only to increase security.
20 The final operation carried out by the first machine is the folding 56 of the book. This is done by a zig-zag folder, which is a standard finishing facility on label or small business forms presses. Prior to folding, a glue applicator 55 applies an appropriate adhesive to the line 2 5 along the web which will become the spine of the book. Glue applicators 55, such as this are available as bolt on units for attachments to folding machines. The adhesive line would not be continuous, enough adhesive would be applied to ensure that every four page unit was firmly 30 affixed to the units immediately above and below it. A key feature of this is the requirement that the adhesive shall not be reversible, i.e. it must not be possible to separate the pages even, for example, with heat.
The product from the first machine is a folded booklet 35 consisting of all the pages of the passport including the endleaves, all leaves bonded down the spine. It would be
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oversize, the dimensions of the finished passport being shown as a dotted line in Figure 4.
Two further operations are required; application of a cover and die cutting to finished shape as previously 5 described.
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