Confirmed Speakers - 11th Asian, Middle East and African Security Printing Conference
2010 Conference Review
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Click here to view the programme
On the first day of the conference, November 17, optical document security expert Rudolf van Renesse gave as short course, at which more than 50 people attended, on Securing Banknotes/ Value Documents and Detecting Counterfeit. In this he showed how to use the feature set of a secure document to detect whether it is genuine or fake, analysing the role and function of first, second and third line inspection and how this relates to the security features and presenting a broad gamut of optically variable security devices that change image, contrast and/or colour with the angle of illumination and observation. He concluded by demonbstrating the existing gap in quality between genuine and counterfeit OVDs, supporting his case with detailed analysis of examples.
The main part of the conference, which took place over the following two days, consisted of six sessions, namely
- Regional Developments in Document Security
- AntiCounterfeiting, Document Verification and enforcement
- Currency Production Developments
- Travel and ID Documents
- Printing and Production Technologies
- Security Feature Innovations
The first session on Regional Developments in Document Security opened with Dr Sopee Sa-nguandekul of Bank of Thailand Note Printing Works who spoke about Banknote Design in Alignment with Today’s Technologically Advanced Machinery. Today’s banknotes are designed taking into account the needs of the public, inspectors and machines. Consideration of all the stakeholders is typically a 2-4 year design process.
Ashari bin-Syahronim of Perum Peruri Indonesia spoke about Currency Production Using Multiple Paper Sources. The challenges of producing 6.5 billion notes per year on 7 different production lines with paper from multiple sources were discussed. Dusty paper causes spots on printing and different paper quality can cause variations in ink drying time from 2-7 days. Intaglio plates are made trapezoidal to compensate for mis-register at offset stages. Different paper sources can cause problems at final cutting resulting in different note sizes between batches. Given the problems that the practice of using multiple paper suppliers appear to pose, the presentation did beg the (unasked) question as to why use so many!
Takaharu Kobayashi of National Printing Bureau, Japan addressed the topic of Trends in Desktop Printers and Their Influence on Banknote Security in Japan. Peak counterfeits in 1994 resulted from color copiers. At this peak, inkjet printers were the main counterfeiting tool, with 68% by scanner/printer all-in-one machines. Inkjet printers now have a higher resolution than laser, with the quality of silver halide photography. The average age of counterfeiters is decreasing, and they are typically 15-19 years old. The counterfeits are aimed at people (check out assistants and taxi drivers) rather than machines, and the penalty in Japan for counterfeiting is three years in jail.
Suleyman Khudaykulov of Davlat Belgisi, Uzbekistan spoke about the New Uzbek E-Passport. The 36-page passport with a 12-year lifetime is personalized centrally and sold for $25 to all citizens over 16. Fingerprints and facial biometrics are encoded into the chip and antenna (with the use of the fingerprint intended to deal with the possibility of the facial recognition failing due to cosmetic surgery). Visual security is provided by an OVD Kinegram film, while other features include a three-tone watermark, laser perforation, security window thread and 80KB capacity in chip (with the Kugler machines used to make up the passports upgraded to insert the chips). Up until next year the covers are being purchased ready-made, but after that they will be produced in-house. The finished passport will be introduced at the Pan European High Security Printing Conference next March in Vienna.
The second session on AntiCounterfeiting, Verification and Enforcement was led off by Trevor Alt of The Australian Passport Office with a presentation on Fraud Involving the Australian Passport. Although such fraud is relatively low, it has become more sophisticated especially for people-smuggling purposes. 3M Confirm is used to protect the variable data.
Counterfeit Documents in Malaysia was the subject of the paper by Yennie Kok of Protect Print Malaysia, the first Asian and only Malaysian printer certified by Intergraf. The company has extended its products to include marriage certificates, concert tickets, gift vouchers and cheques, which constitute more than 90% of non-cash transactions and the fraud relating to which formed the basis of the presentation.
Patrice Rullier of Oberthur Cash Protection, France then gave a presentation on the Efficiency of Intelligent Banknote Neutralization Systems in Cash Protection. He described the use of customized SICPA inks to stain notes that are stolen in transit or from ATMs. The aim is to make stolen cash useless. Citing Belgium as an example of a country that has adopted such systems, he noted that there has been no such theft since 1997 when the system was introduced. The European Central Bank has permitted the staining of banknotes in such situation, although many countries still not permit it. As well as talking about different countries’ approaches to the deployment of such systems, M Rullier also covered the impact of such systems on the specification of notes, and the need for alternative inks for polymer notes to ensure that these can also be effectively and permanently stained.
Juerg Hofmann, from Swiss company BEB Industrie-Elektronik, part of Wincor Nixdorf, spoke about Machine Readability: Banknote Security Upgrades - Challenges for Designers and Sensor Manufacturers. BEB is an industry leader in machine verification systems for banking. Mr Hofmann discussed why certain security upgrades on banknotes are useless as far as the sensors on detection equipment are concerned, and the need for specifiers and designers to take the specific requirements for machine-read features into account when devising new series.
The third session of the conference covered Currency Production Developments.
Nicolas Normand of Arjowiggins Security, France was first on, with a new announcement regarding Bioguard® V, the Antiviral Treatment for Banknote Paper. The evolution of banknote paper, he said, is moving from security to durability and, now to hygiene – particualry given recent health scares. Bioguard V is active against bacteria and fungi and now, also, flu viruses, which recent research has shown can last up to 17 days on banknotes. With Bioguard V, 46,000 viruses are reduced to 0 in 24 hours and fungi disappear after 24 hours. This is achieved with no change in the paper’s physical properties. The treatment is added throughout the pulp and, as it is not just a surface treatment, lasts as long as the note itself. Morocco has adopted this paper for banknotes, and Hong Kong for its passport. The new series of a major Asian currency will shortly be issued on Bioguard as well..
Next was Sergey Kravchenko of Goznak, Russia, with a presentation titled New Solutions in Security and Technology for Banknotes of High and Low Denominations. One such solution is VFI (Visual Formed Image), a zigzag-type thread which allows an open window along the whole length of the thread when incorporated into a note. Another thread solution is Skate, which displays different images when viewed from the front and back. An example was shown of the new Russian 1,000 Ruble, in which the VFI thread is positive in reflected light and negative by transmission. Another feature covers, which appears in all Russian banknotes, is MVC (covert moiré pattern) – a combination of blind embossing and offset which displays a rainbow effect at a steep angle. And new version, MVC+, features in the 1,000 Ruble, along with 2D Iris, a new technique developed in conjunction with KBA GIORI.
Kazuhiro Yashiki & Takuya Onuki of Toppan Printing Japan presented The Next Generation OVDs for Banknotes -Asterium and Nanorius. They disclosed two new security techniques aimed at security documents. The first, Asterium, appears optically black until tilted’ at which point the rainbow colored images of the Crystagram appear. This innovative technology received an IHMA Award at the Holo-pack.Holo-print conference earlier in the week in recognition of its novelty in appearance and the manufacturing technique needed to make it. Asterium is aimed at the banknote market as a patch, stripe or window thread whereas the second technology, Nanorius, combines dispersion and printing to produce a strong positive-negative flip which will be directed towards cheques, vouchers and the like. It works by modifying the gloss characteristics of the image and works very well in dim light.
Dr David Menzies of Securency International, Australia completed the afternoon’s line-up with a his presentation on Latitude™ - The Journey. Latitude is a diffractive feature that gives much greater design freedom by allowing large and/or multiple patches in many locations on the note, which can be viewed from the front and back. Securency is producing Latitude in-house. The effect has the appearance of metalised hot stamping foil on a clear window but no foil transfer is involved in the production. Samples should be available soon.
The fourth session, on the second morning, was on Travel and ID Documents.
John Mercer of Kelly Anderson & Associates started of the session with an Update on the Implementation of the ICAO Standard for Travel Documents. With EOI (Evidence of Identity) becoming an increasingly important issue, discussions at the latest ICAO meeting, held in early November in Montreal, concentrated more on the issuance of the e-passport and the connection to the owner, and less on the physical nature of the document. The chip is fundamental to recording the biodata to ensure that the owner really owns the document and this presentation provided a high level view of the potential changes that are in process in a world of machine readable travel documents.
He was followed by Frederick Chan of Datacard Asia Pacific, based in Hong Kong, who made a presentation on Trends in Passport Personalization. In 1998 Malaysia introduced the first contactless chip passport and 120 million e-passports are now issued annually. In this presentation, the 7 threats to ID attack (simulate the entire document, theft of components, cannibalization of a genuine document, change signature or personal data, substitute photo etc) were considered, together with the key personalization technologies now being deployed, which include electro-photographic, inkjet, dye/pigment retransfer and laser engraving.
Stuart James UK-based Tullis Russell Coaters UK spoke about The Impact of Digital Print on the Security Market as Seen by the Substrate Supplier. He concluded that security is about a multiplicity of security features which can be incorporated at various stages throughout the supply chain. Working closely with the paper supplier produces better results when the substrate characteristics are optimized for optimum performance and delivered through a secure supply chain.
Ashokka Agarwal, founder of Anil Printers in India, then spoke about the Sectorial Implementation of RFID. The advantages of RFID and its secondary advantages for inventory control and logistics management were described. A novel application in a mark sheet was described whereby the performance of students are tracked by a chip in sheet connected to a central database. Another application was for blood management where a chip records thermal history of blood.
The fifth session covered Printing and Production Technologies.
Roberto Salgari of Italian based Parvis Systems and Services, Italy gave a presentation on Process Control and Traceability in the Printing Works. He showed a small image which looks like Lincoln but an enlargement showed it to be a painting by Dali. This indicated the need for an intelligent QC system such as the ABACO integrated systems installed on banknote printing lines in Austria, Morocco, Italy, Portugal
Brian Flutter of Komori Currency Technology, Japan provided insights into New Developments in the World of Banknote Printing. The three main production processes of offset, intaglio and numbering are still in use today, with only minor modifications over the last 50 years. But the pressure to reduce costs and increase banknote security have cause Komori to develop a new offset machine available only to bona fide members of security community, and a ground-breaking new 5-colour intaglio press.
Thomas Hendle of KBA Giori, Switzerland, used his speaking slot to talk about Secure Technologies for Secure Products. He showed delegates how to keep their processes secure with platforms and technologies which are only dedicated to these products.
The final session of the conference was on Security Feature Innovations. As an indication of the interest this topic raised, the conference hall remained nearly full, despite this being the end of an intensieve two-day programme.
Matthias Müller of Hueck Folien, Hong Kong spoke about Latest Developments in High Security Features....... a Continuing Evolutionary and Logical Development Process. The focus of the presentation was on copper and bimetallic demetallised threads, threads with encoded magnetic features and a new form of specialized high resolution demetallisation that enables complex images such as portraits to be created in embedded and windowed threads. Müller also presented a new technique developed jointly with RDM Prevention, the technical development arm of the Royal Dutch Mint, that enables security features developed for coins to be used on banknote foils too.
Sean Purdy of PPG Industries, USA made a fascinating announcement regarding Legitica™ Anticounterfeiting Film Technology. PPG, whose product range includes Teslin and photochromic lenses and has an annual turnover of more than $12 billion, is little known in the security world. This hasn’t stopped the company developing Legitica, an optically variable film with an opal-like Bragg structure. The material can be imaged for window threads in currency, laminates and brand protection labels. Once converted into appropriate forms, this technology can be made into optically variable devices with overt and covert security features. They will be targeted towards currency, credentials, pharmaceuticals and documents of value. It was announced that Centro Grafico in Italy had been selected as a marketing partner. The product should be fully commercial by mid-2012.
Steven Ng of Veridoc, Malaysia is the local representative for Swiss company Alpvision, and spoke on the subject of Cryptoglyphs - Preventing Data Leakage for High Security Government Documents. He explained how Cryptoglyphs – in the form of dot encoding into a printed document - survive 50 photocopy generations and yet are invisible to the naked eye. They can be used to prevent original print documents from being tampered with, on existing available office equipment without changing the work flow pattern or involving new hardware. By using encrypted technology to translate the randomized invisible dot information that represents meaningful covert information, and printing this together with the original or personalized document, the technology can embed recipient name or selective sensitive information. Once this document has been encrypted with recipient information, any attempt to reproduce or redistribute such a document can be traced using a simple decryption software and commercial scanner, thereby preventing leakage of highly sensitive information in government documents.
The final presentation of the conference was given by Sam Cape of Crane Micro-Ooptics, USA on The Potential for Micro-Optics in ID Documents. In this he described the Motion™ micro optic technology product based on moiré effects and showed overlaminates with ‘DEEP’, Float, Levitate and Flicker optical effects. Motion is reserved for currency but further applications are being promoted in the ID market where it will be sold under the brand name ‘Unison’.
The conference was accompanied by an exhibition in which 31 companies took part. Given the importance of this exhibition, the programme was shortened on the first afternoon to allow extended exhibition viewing, which proved extremely popular.
As did the conference dinner that followed at the National Museum, where delegates were treated to a tour, an elaborate array of local cuisine and a spectacular stage show of traditional dance and music.
Following the acquisition by Reconnaissance International last year of the Asian High Security Printing Conference, and its sister event the Pan European High Security Printing conference, the conference dinner was also the occasion of a special presentation to former owners Annie and Colin Cross of the Cross Group, and Neville Barns of BSC International. Over the past 18 months, the management of the conference has been transitioned to Reconnaissance, and Kuala Lumpur was the last event of this transition. David Tidmarsh, Reconnaissance Chairman, presented the three with pens and thanked them on behalf of both Reconnaissance and all the participants in both this and previous events for their successful creation and management of the conferences.
The next Pan European High Security Printing Conference will be held in Vienna, Austria from March 8-10, 2011. The next Asian High Security Printing Conference will be held in Delhi, India from December 7-9, 2011.