Raw Materials used for Smart Card Manufacturing

by Bhupendra Singh 1

INGREDIE ENTS FOR A CARD MANUFACT M TURER

There are e various mat terial options available for r card constru uction e.g. Pa aper, Plastics such as PVC, , ABS, PETG, PC C, PLA and others. o The material sel lection for card c depends on various s factors suc ch as performance requirem ments, machin ne requirements and cost consideration ns.

Figure 1 A Smart Card Common nly used Card Materials Paper: During in nitial days of o card indu ustries; pap per was used as one of o the preferred materi ial of construct tion, but today plastics have almos st made the em obsolete e. Papers can n be seen in n use and throw kind of ap pplications or o very lowend e applicati ions where cost c of the cards c needs to be ow as possib ble. kept as lo Paper PVC A ABS PETG PC Teslin H Holographic Foil F Biopolymers: PLA and nds PVC ABS Blen

PVC: PVC (Polyvinyl Chlor ride) is an amorphous a thermoplas stic polymer r with excellent mechanical, thermal and chemi ical propert ties. PVC is s produced by polymerization of f Vinyl Chloride monome er.

VCM

PVC

Diagram 1 Polymerizat tion of Vinyl Chloride mo onomer PVC card d film is the e most common and pr referred ma aterial for ca ard construc ction for va arious reasons. PVC films for cards are e 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 temperatur re for PVC card d film ranges s from 65 to 100 deg C.

PVC card d films have e inherent surface ene ergy of mor re than 36 dynes/cm, which make es its surface a very good receptor fo or the printin ng inks. Post t treatments s may also be b carried out o to improve further prin ntability on the t surface. Corona Disc charge Treat tment (CDT) is carried out on PVC card d film to incr rease the surface energy y of the film m. The surfac ce energy of f the treated d film decrease es over a period of time e and the rate of degrad dation depends on the material and d the storage condition. c It is advisable e to check the surface energy e by us sing Dyne te esters before the PVC card d films are pr rinted to che eck the surfa ace energy of o the film.

PVC cont tains 57 % by b mass Chlo orine (a halo ogen) which h imparts fire extinguish h property to o the PVC. The e PVC rigid sheets gener rally pass UL L94; V0 rating / or AST TM D635 no orms, which is an advantag ge over othe er material of o constructi ion. PVC hom mopolymer has VICAT so oftening poi int of around 75 7 deg C. In order to inc crease the VICAT V soften ning point ce ertain additi ives are required to be add ded which in n turn increa ase the cost of the film.

PETG: g based d PET. Generally cyclohe exane dimet thanol (CHD DM) is added d to the polymer PETG is glycol backbone e in place of ethylene e glycol. Glycol modifiers are inc corporated to t minimize e the brittleness and premature age eing of the polymer, which w occurs in unmo odified PET. This molecule e is much la arger in size e (6 addition nal carbon atoms) a than n the ethyle ene glycol unit it replaces, , it does not t fit in prope erly with the e neighboring chains the e way an eth hylene glycol unit would. This T interfer res with cry ystallization and reduce es the crysta allinity of th he polymer thus lowering the polyme er's melting temperatur re. 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 comes s in direct co ontact with the environment hence when PETG is s 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 properties s. This material exhibits s better property PETG exh with resp pect to clari ity and transparency. It t also exhibi its very high h surface glo oss and has very good printable surfa ace. It is rec cyclable and d has got go ood die cut tting and pu unching property hence is a preferred d material fo or the const truction of the t cards. PETG is now widely acce epted material for card production p b plastic card majors worldwide. by . PETG base ed cards ex xhibit standard d card life span of 57 ye ears. PETG is s cost effecti ive as compared to Poly ycarbonates (PC). High tem mperature resistance r of PETG mak kes it ideal choice in dye d sublima ation printin ng. It exhibits lesser l heat distortion d du uring the lam mination pro ocess.

ABS: ABS (Acry ylonitrile Bu utadiene Styrene) is generally used for f making monolayer m c cards by inje ection molding process. AB BS is easy to t process material m by injection molding. m ABS S exhibits better b mechanic cal property y as well as higher h therm mal resistanc ce. Injection molded ABS S card subst trates are used for making g SIM cards. Benefits of using inject tionmolded d cards are that t it elimin nates
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the millin ng process thereby simp plifying the process p of ca ard making. ABS is a cop polymer mad de by polymeri izing styrene e and acrylon nitrile in the e presence of polybutadi iene.

Diagram 3 Acrylonitrile, A , Butadiene & Styrene Molecule M

ing point; he ence it is ma any times blended with h PVC to imp prove ABS has very high VICAT softeni the VICAT softening point of the e PVC. ABS does d not fulfill the nonflammability requiremen nts as per ISO standard. s

PLA: PLA (Poly Lactic Acid) is made e from Corn n or other natural sources, which is a renew wable . Thus PLA has h lower Ca arbon Footpr rint when co ompared to the other materials m use ed for material. card making (e.g. PVC, PC, and d PETG etc.). Many com mpanies hav ve launched d the PLA based b materials s and com mpounds for r making the t cards. PLA is syn nthesized by b ring ope ening polymeri ization of lac ctide, which is a cyclic di imer of lactic acid.

Diag gram 4 Polym merization of o Lactic Acid d

perties of PL LA are quite e similar to that of the PVC but ad dvantage of f PLA is that t it is The prop biobased d and biodeg gradable and d do not pro oduce any to oxic fumes when w recycle ed or inciner rated. The life of o PLA base ed cards is similar s to that of PVC. The T printing g property of o the PLA is s also good due e to high sur rface energy y exhibited by b this mater rial, which is s similar to PET. P PLA has some s limitat tions 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 mat terial. This can be overcome by blen nding the mate erial 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; it t has potential to make bi ig impact in future due to greater environment e tal awarenes ss among pe eople and implementation of strict gov vernment legislation in various v coun ntries. PC: The need d for greater r security has resulted in n use of vario ous technolo ogy intensive e features on the card subs strate. This has h resulted d in increase in the cost of o the cards. Due to high h cost assoc ciated with the manufacturing of the cards there is a need to t make car rds more du urable. Thus card manufacturers need to deliver more m secure e and highly durable car rds. This has s resulted in shift rmal PVC ma aterial to hig gh quality Po olycarbonate e (PC) material. PC is a polymer with h very from nor high dura ability which h can be com mbined with high securit ty features to o make high hly secure ca ards.

Diagram m 5 Polycarb bonate Mole ecular Struct ture Propertie es of PC: High tempera H ature resista ant polymer V Very low shrinkage G Good printab ble surface V Very good op ptical proper rties Li ife span of more m than 10 0 years La aser engrave eable securit ty features (e.g. ( CLI/MLI I) can be incorporated Conventional l printing tec chniques can n be used for printing on n the substra ates These films are available in Clear, Op paque and sp pecial colors
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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 contact, contactless, dual interface and hybrid cards. This material is preferred worldwide for making Machine Readable Travel Documents (MRTD) as per ICAO specifications. e Passports 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 Passport 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.

S Blend: PVC/ABS PVC hom mopolymer based card films have VICAT softening temp perature of 76 +/ 2 de eg C. Applications such as GSM cards and Pay TV cards requir re high VICA AT softening temperatur re. To increase the VICAT so oftening tem mperature of PVC it is ge enerally blen nded with AB BS. This resu ults in increase in the VICA AT softening g temperatu ure to 91 +/ / 2 deg C. The higher VICAT softe ening temperat ture makes it possible to use these e materials in card app plications wh hich require high heat resistance. Generally PVC/A ABS blend is preferred fo or making GS SM cards an nd Pay TV cards.

Comparison of Raw Materials: A compa arative char rt is given below b for easy e referen nce of the properties of the poly ymers common nly used in ca ard manufac cturing. st; = Bes PVC Heat Stab bility Flex Resistance UV Resist tance Chemical Resistanc ce Resistanc ce against delamina ation Compatib bility with Con ntact Chip Compatib bility with cont tactless chip Biodegra adability Price ABS PETG = Go ood; TESLIN = Average PC PLA

Table 1: Comparison C of Raw Mat terials used in Card Films

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

Email: info@gracetech.in Web: www.gracetech.in