Embedded Gas Lens Array in Security Composite Body
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing security and value documents are vulnerable to tampering due to easily removable or manipulable surface-based security features, which lack effective protection against damage and manipulation.
Innovation Solution
A composite body is produced with gas inclusions forming lens elements within a transparent plastic material, where the gas inclusions have a bulge on a boundary surface, providing a secure and protected lens array that is difficult to manipulate, as the lens elements are embedded inside the composite body, making them resistant to delamination and alteration.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If security features are placed on the surface of composite bodies, then they are easily accessible and visible, but they become vulnerable to tampering and manipulation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions security features from a two-dimensional surface placement to a three-dimensional embedded structure within the composite body. Lens arrays and information grids are positioned inside the composite body at specific depths, creating a spatial dimension that protects them from surface-level tampering while maintaining optical accessibility through the transparent outer layer.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a nested structure where lens arrays and information grids are embedded within the composite body's internal structure. The transparent outer layer encapsulates the security features, creating a protective container that allows optical access while preventing physical manipulation of the embedded components.
2Reliability
If lens arrays are formed on the surface of composite bodies, then they provide optical security features, but they create uneven surfaces that limit design options
Solution Approach 1:
The patent relocates lens arrays from the surface dimension to the internal volume of the composite body. This dimensional transition allows the outer surface to remain smooth and flat while the optical security features function within the embedded structure at a different spatial level.
3Reliability
If security features are embedded inside composite bodies, then they are protected from tampering, but they become more difficult to produce and manipulate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent incorporates lens arrays and information grids into the composite body during the initial manufacturing process rather than attempting to embed them afterward. This preliminary integration ensures proper positioning and encapsulation while simplifying the overall manufacturing workflow.
Solution Approach 2:
The transparent outer layer serves multiple functions simultaneously: it provides structural integrity to the composite body, acts as a protective encapsulation for embedded security features, and functions as an optical window that allows light transmission for reading information grids through the lens arrays.
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
The embedded lens array significantly enhances the security of the composite body by being nearly impossible to manipulate or remove, providing increased counterfeit protection and allowing for smooth, even surfaces without the need for surface embossing, thus increasing design options for additional security features.
Implementation Method 1
Since a gas and transparent plastic material have different refractive indices, light diffraction takes place on a curved entry and/or exit surface of a gas inclusion, as also occurs on lens surfaces
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to a composite body (101) for a value and/or security document and to a production method which has the steps of providing a transparent planar substrate layer (1) made of a thermoplastic material; introducing a plurality of openings (6) into the transparent planar substrate layer (1); assembling the substrate layer (1) provided with the openings (6) and at least one other transparent thermoplastic substrate layer (2-5) into a substrate layer stack (10) such that the volumes formed by the openings (6) are filled with a gas and are continuously surrounded by a thermoplastic substrate layer material; laminating the substrate layers (1-5) into the composite body (101) in a high-temperature, high-pressure method such that a planar composite body (101) with an upper face (121) and a lower face (122) is produced, and the gas-filled volumes remain in the composite body (101) as inclusions (106) which have a curvature on a boundary surface (111) facing the upper face (121) and/or on a boundary surface (112) facing away from the upper face (122).