Raw Material For Smart Card Manufacturing 4v411j

Raw Materials used for Smart Card Manufacturing

by ‐ Bhupendra Singh 1

INGREDIEENTS FOR A CARD MANUFACT M TURER There aree various matterial options available forr card constru uction e.g. Paaper, Plastics such as PVC,, ABS, PETG, PC C, PLA and others. o The material sellection for card c depends on variouss factors succh as performance requirem ments, machin ne requirements and cost consideration ns.

Figure 1 A Smart Card Common nly used Card Materials • • • • • • • • •

Paper PVC A ABS PETG PC Teslin® H Holographic Foil F Biopolymers: PLA and nds PVC ABS Blen

Paper: During in nitial days of o card indu ustries; pap per was used as one of o the preferred materiial of constructtion, but today plastics have almosst made theem obsoletee. Papers can n be seen in n use and throw kind of ap pplications or o very low‐eend applicatiions where cost c of the cards c needs to be ow as possib ble. kept as lo

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PVC: PVC (Polyvinyl Chlorride) is an amorphous a thermoplasstic polymerr with excellent mechanical, thermal and chemiical propertties. PVC iss produced by polymerization off Vinyl Chloride monomeer.

VCM

PVC

Diagram 1 Polymerizattion of Vinyl Chloride mo onomer PVC card d film is the e most common and prreferred maaterial for caard construcction for vaarious reasons. PVC films for cards aree manufactu ured by calendaring pro ocess. PVC films used in card 3 applicatio ons have de ensity range from 1.3 to o 1.4 gm/cm m . The VICA AT softening temperaturre for PVC card d film rangess from 65 to 100 deg C.

PVC card d films have e inherent surface eneergy of morre than 36 dynes/cm, which makees its surface a very good receptor fo or the printin ng inks. Postt treatmentss may also be b carried out o to improve further prin ntability on the t surface. Corona Disccharge Treattment (CDT) is carried out on PVC card d film to incrrease the surface energyy of the film m. The surfacce energy off the treated d film decreasees over a period of timee and the rate of degrad dation depends on the material and d the storage condition. c It is advisablee to check the surface energy e by ussing Dyne teesters before the PVC card d films are prrinted to cheeck the surfaace energy of o the film.

PVC conttains 57 % by b mass Chlo orine (a halo ogen) which h imparts fire extinguish h property to o the PVC. Thee PVC rigid sheets generrally ULL‐94; V‐0 rating / or ASTTM D‐635 no orms, which is an advantagge over othe er material of o constructiion. PVC hom mopolymer has VICAT so oftening poiint of around 75 7 deg C. In order to inccrease the VICAT V soften ning point ceertain additiives are required to be add ded which in n turn increaase the cost of the film.

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PETG: g based d PET. Generally cycloheexane dimetthanol (CHD DM) is added d to the polymer PETG is glycol backbonee in place of ethylenee glycol. Glycol modifiers are inccorporated to t minimizee the brittleness and premature ageeing of the polymer, which w occurs in unmo odified PET. This moleculee is much laarger in sizee (6 addition nal carbon atoms) a than n the ethyleene glycol unit it replaces,, it does nott fit in propeerly with thee neighboring chains thee way an eth hylene glycol unit would. This T interferres with cryystallization and reducees the crystaallinity of th he polymer thus lowering the polyme er's melting temperaturre. PETG exh hibits high mechanical m s stiffness and d is a very goo od material for lamination. PETG material m is used u as the overlay material on PV VC as sandwich h layer. Since the outer layer of the card comess in direct co ontact with the environment hence when PETG iss used as th he overlay outer o material in the co onstruction of the cards the standard d card life is enhanced. e

Diagram 2 CHDM Molecule hibits high mechanical m and flexural propertiess. This material exhibitss better property PETG exh with resp pect to clariity and transparency. Itt also exhibiits very high h surface glo oss and has very good printable surfaace. It is reccyclable and d has got go ood die cuttting and pu unching property hence is a preferred d material fo or the consttruction of the t cards. PETG is now widely acceepted material for card production p b plastic card majors worldwide.. PETG baseed cards exxhibit by standard d card life span of 5‐7 yeears. PETG iss cost effectiive as compared to Polyycarbonates (PC). High tem mperature resistance r of PETG makkes it ideal choice in dye d sublimaation printin ng. It exhibits lesser l heat distortion d du uring the lam mination pro ocess.

ABS: ABS (Acryylonitrile Bu utadiene Styrene) is generally used for f making monolayer m c cards by injeection molding process. AB BS is easy to t process material m by injection molding. m ABSS exhibits better b mechaniccal propertyy as well as higher h therm mal resistancce. Injection molded ABSS card substtrates are used for makingg SIM cards. Benefits of using injecttion‐molded d cards are that t it elimin nates 4

the millin ng process thereby simp plifying the process p of caard making. ABS is a cop polymer mad de by polymeriizing styrene e and acrylon nitrile in thee presence of polybutadiiene.

Diagram 3 Acrylonitrile, A , Butadiene & Styrene Molecule M

h PVC to imp prove ABS has very high VICAT softeniing point; heence it is maany times blended with the VICAT softening point of thee PVC. ABS does d not fulfill the non‐flammability requiremen nts as per ISO standard. s

PLA: PLA (Poly Lactic Acid) is madee from Corn n or other natural sources, which is a renew wable h lower Caarbon Footprrint when co ompared to the other materials m useed for material.. Thus PLA has card making (e.g. PVC, PC, and d PETG etc.). Many com mpanies havve launched d the PLA based b materialss and com mpounds forr making the t cards. PLA is syn nthesized by b ring opeening polymeriization of lacctide, which is a cyclic diimer of lactic acid.

Diaggram 4 Polym merization of o Lactic Acid d

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perties of PLLA are quitee similar to that of the PVC but ad dvantage off PLA is thatt it is The prop biobased d and biodeggradable and d do not pro oduce any to oxic fumes when w recycleed or incinerrated. The life of o PLA base ed cards is similar s to that of PVC. The T printingg property of o the PLA iss also good duee to high surrface energyy exhibited by b this materrial, which iss similar to PET. P PLA has some s limitattions due to o poor heat resistance offered o by th he material which w may result r in warpage or twistin ng of the cards made from this matterial. This can be overcome by blen nding the mateerial with oth her suitable polymer. Even tho ough this material m is in n its initial stages s of in ntroduction in the card industry; itt has potential to make biig impact in future due to greater environment e tal awarenesss among peeople and implementation of strict govvernment legislation in various v coun ntries. PC: The need d for greaterr security has resulted in n use of vario ous technolo ogy intensivee features on the card subsstrate. This has h resulted d in increase in the cost of o the cards. Due to high h cost assocciated with the manufacturing of the cards there is a need to t make carrds more du urable. Thus card manufacturers need to deliver more m securee and highly durable carrds. This hass resulted in shift olycarbonatee (PC) material. PC is a polymer with h very from norrmal PVC maaterial to higgh quality Po high duraability which h can be com mbined with high securitty features to o make high hly secure caards.

Diagram m 5 Polycarb bonate Moleecular Structture Propertie es of PC: • • • • • • • •

High temperaature resistaant polymer H V Very low shrinkage G Good printab ble surface V Very good op ptical properrties Liife span of more m than 10 0 years Laaser engrave eable securitty features (e.g. ( CLI/MLII) can be incorporated Conventionall printing tecchniques can n be used for printing on n the substraates These films are available in Clear, Op paque and sp pecial colors 6

Due to its high durability, life expectancy and stability towards environment; it has gained importance among more and more card companies. These films are produced and stored in clean environment and are generally available from 50 microns to 650 microns thickness range. Card manufacturers can guarantee 10 years service life for cards made completely from PC card films.

The other advantage of using all PC card is that it does not require any adhesive for lamination bonding. During lamination the PC molecules fuse together to form very strong bonds which cannot be delaminated. The PC cards are personalized using temper proof laser personalization technique which does not require any consumables.

PC card films can be used for making , less, dual interface and hybrid cards. This material is preferred worldwide for making Machine Readable Travel Documents (MRTD) as per ICAO specifications. e ports and national ID cards which has stringent requirements of very high durability and security features have been implemented using PC films in various countries worldwide. ®

TESLIN : Teslin® is a proprietary composition offered by PPG industries; USA. It is widely accepted material in card industry worldwide. It is a polyolefin based (with 60 % of its weight comprised of non abrasive filler) micro porous synthetic material which has soft to touch substrate and is used in various Smart Card related applications such as e ‐ port inlays, financial Cards, National ID cards, Health insurance cards, Drivers License etc. ®

Characteristics of Teslin • • • • •

High resistance to cracking and delamination. Teslin® can be printed by any conventional printing techniques as well as digital printing techniques. Due to its microporous structure Teslin® substrates are highly absorptive to inks. The durability of the cards made from Teslin® is improved. Teslin® is suitable for various card manufacturing related processes such as perforating, punching, folding, sewing, grommeting, foil stamping and embossing.

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PVC/ABSS Blend: PVC hom mopolymer based card films have VICAT softening temp perature of 76 +/‐ 2 deeg C. Applications such as GSM cards and Pay TV cards requirre high VICA AT softening temperaturre. To increase the VICAT so oftening tem mperature of PVC it is geenerally blen nded with AB BS. This resu ults in increase in the VICA AT softeningg temperatu ure to 91 +//‐ 2 deg C. The higher VICAT softeening temperatture makes it possible to use thesee materials in card app plications wh hich require high heat resistance. Generally PVC/A ABS blend is preferred fo or making GSSM cards an nd Pay TV cards.

Comparison of Raw Materials: A compaarative charrt is given below b for easy e referen nce of the properties of the polyymers common nly used in caard manufaccturing. = Besst; PVC

ABS

PETG

= Go ood; TESLIN®

= Average PC

PLA

Heat Stab bility Flex Resistance UV Resisttance Chemical Resistancce Resistancce against delaminaation Compatib bility with Con ntact Chip Compatib bility with conttactless chip Biodegraadability Price

Table 1: Comparison C of Raw Matterials used in Card Films

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About the Author: The author Mr. Bhupendra Singh is Managing Partner of GRACE TECHNOLOGIES; India For further details:

Email: [email protected] Web: www.gracetech.in

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