Chip Card Cavity Sealing to Prevent Metal Filings
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Solution Overview
Problem
The instability of slits in card bodies with metallic cores, caused by metal filings during production, leads to potential electrical short circuits, which can disrupt chip card communication and functionality.
Innovation Solution
A method where excess plastic material from the card body's cavity is left to fill the slit, preventing filings from entering and ensuring proper contact, by milling the cavity to a shallower depth and using this excess material to encase or press out any filings, thereby preventing short circuits.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If the cavity is milled to the metallic core to create a slit, then the chip module can be incorporated into the cavity, but the slit becomes unstable and fills with metal filings causing electrical short circuits
Solution Approach 1:
The slit is sealed with plastic material before the chip module is incorporated into the cavity. This preliminary sealing action prevents metal filings from entering the slit during the subsequent manufacturing and assembly processes, thereby maintaining electrical isolation while allowing the cavity to be properly formed and the chip module to be incorporated.
Solution Approach 2:
Plastic material is introduced as an intermediary substance to seal the slit. This plastic material acts as a barrier between the metallic core regions, preventing direct contact that would cause short circuits, while still allowing the cavity structure to be formed and the chip module to be incorporated.
2Reliability
If the slit is sealed with plastic material, then electrical short circuits are prevented, but the chip module incorporation process becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The slit sealing operation is merged with the cavity formation process. The plastic material is introduced and sealed into the slit during the same manufacturing sequence in which the cavity is milled and prepared, combining multiple functions into a single integrated process step rather than requiring separate operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The plastic material is positioned and sealed in such a way that it automatically seals the slit without requiring additional complex sealing mechanisms or steps. The material itself performs the sealing function through its placement and the existing manufacturing processes, eliminating the need for separate sealing equipment or procedures.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach enhances chip card performance by reducing electrical short circuits, improving communication, and increasing versatility for use in various service points with special electrical requirements.
Implementation Method 1
Heating the plastic material of the excess material makes it flowable or at least easier to deform. This thermal transfer of the excess material into the slit can be effected purely through the heating and acting gravitational and/or capillary forces.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for producing a card body for a chip card, includes the steps of: providing a flat card body having a metallic core, wherein the metallic core is covered at least partly with a plastic layer at least on a main area and wherein the metallic core has a slit running from an outer edge of the main area into this main area; and incorporating a cavity having a bottom area for receiving a chip module into the plastic layer in such a way that the cavity covers the slit at least partly and that at least along the slit an excess material remains with respect to the bottom area.