Abstract:
Ultraviolet light-curable deposits are printed onto a substrate in a predetermined pattern to make tactile marks (e.g.Braille-like resin dots) for use by people with impaired vision to, for example, recognize the denominations of banknotes. The deposit demonstrates high adhesion due to: (1) presence of 20 - 80% (wt.) of a low viscosity acrylate component to provide a substrate-penetrating property; and, (2) 2-30% (wt.) of an adhesion-promoting acid acrylate. The deposit material further includes 1-30% (wt.) of urethane acrylate, 1-30% by weight of reactive diluent, photoinitiator and 1-10% (wt.) of rheological adsorbing additive. Optimally, the adhesion promoter is added after the other components have been mixed with the rheological additive. The printing step may be followed by heating before the curing step to increase penetration of the ink into the substrate. The deposit may comprise a taggant for use as a security feature.
Abstract:
Curable ink deposits are printed onto a substrate in a predetermined pattern (e.g. screen printed). The curable ink comprises one or more monofunctional and/or multifunctional curable acrylates, wherein the individual monofunctional and/or multifunctional curable acrylates contributing up to 80% by weight of the ink have viscosities below 10,000 cP at 25°C, a low viscosity acrylate contributing to at least 10% by weight of the curable ink and a rheological additive. The curable ink deposits are then heated (optional) and cured (e.g. by exposing them to ultraviolet light, for UV-curable ink deposits). Preferably, intaglio calendering/printing is then applied to the substrate sheet, whereby a high pressure is applied to press the cured ink deposits into the substrate, creating protrusions of the substrate on the opposite side of the ink deposits. The ink may comprise a taggant for use as a security feature.
Abstract:
Improved ultraviolet light-curable compositions are provided for printing onto a security document substrate in a predetermined pattern to make tactile features for use by people with impaired vision to, for example, recognize the denominations of banknotes. The improved compositions substantially comprise an acidic trifunctional acrylate ester, preferably in an amount of 60-80 wt%, and include urethane acrylate and effective amounts of flexibilizer (e.g. low viscosity aromatic monoacrylate having an elongation parameter of about 200), photoinitiator and a rheological additive (e.g. silica). The composition unexpectedly provides flexibility and is particular useful for printing tactile features in the form of relatively large continuous graphical patterns.
Abstract:
A method of encoding a hidden image in high frequency spatial frequencies of a line pattern of a host image. A set of host image spatial frequencies is generated based on a predefined mapping of a domain of a set of representative scalar values of the hidden image and a domain of the host image spatial frequencies. The line pattern of the host image is generated based on the set of host image spatial frequencies. The host image may be composed of tiles containing parallel line segments, with each tile encoding a corresponding one of the scalar values. The host image may be composed of a stochastic line pattern generated from a white noise image convolved with a space variable kernel based on the predefined domain mapping. The hidden image may be decoded algorithmically or optically in a single step.