Most Disruptive Technologies in Security Printing Revealed by Pira International
17 August 2010
Leatherhead, UK, 17 August 2010. Photopolymer holograms are set to be the most disruptive technology to impact on the security printing industry, according to a new Pira International study.
Ten-Year Forecast of Disruptive Technologies in Security Printing identifies innovations which will have an impact in a way that is discernibly disruptive, as opposed to technologies which simply bring about incremental changes within the security print industry.
Based on extensive primary research and expert feedback from a panel of senior executives across the security industry, the study identifies the top 25 most significant technologies with respect to their disruptive potential and their likely evolution over the next ten years.
The top ten most disruptive technologies are shown in the table below.
Table 1: The top 10 disruptive technologies - full 25 profiles in depth in the study
1 Photopolymer holograms
2 Micro-optical Arrays
3 Moiré OVDs
4 Computer to Intaglio Plate Technology (CTIP)
5 Windows in paper substrates
6 Optically Variable Magnetic Inks (OVMI)
7 High-resolution De-metallization (HRHD)
8 Zero-order diffraction devices
9 Durable Banknote Substrates
10 Laser ablation features
Source: Ten-year Forecast of Disruptive Technologies in Security Printing, Pira International, 2010
Photopolymer Holograms
According to Pira, Photopolymer Holograms are set to become a significant disruptive technology in security printing not only because of the revolutionary advances in substrates and imaging capability but also because they will change the way people look at secure documents.
Looking back, one of the most disruptive technologies in security printing over the past 30 years has been the embossed rainbow hologram, introduced by American Banknote in the early 1980s on credit cards. This new medium became the dominant form of visual authentication for both brands and secure documents by the early 1990s having displaced rival products such as Polaroid's Polaproof.
The introduction of holograms or more correctly Diffractive Optically Variable Image Devices onto banknotes was a more gradual process, having first been introduced in 1989 it was not until the late 1990's that it showed truly disruptive potential, when the number of DOVIDs on banknotes went up 500% from 1997 to 2002. In the same time-frame however the sales of Dot-Matrix systems for making digital holograms which could simulate sophisticated optical devices, such as the Kinegram®, became widespread and within five years the first high-quality counterfeit euro banknotes with Dot-Matrix generated fake DOVIDs appeared. This sparked off a race to develop new Optically Variable Devices (OVDs) that looked entirely different from embossed rainbow holograms.
Photopolymer Holography has undergone some dramatic changes since the original Lippmann type hologram. The principal difference between embossed DOVIDs and holograms recorded in photopolymer is the direction of the interference fringes. In an embossed grating or hologram, minute regular undulations in the surface diffract incident white light into the colours of the rainbow. The surface relief may be in the form of a sinusoidal cross-section, or a triangular 'saw-tooth' or a crenelated 'top-hat' profile, but they all have to be open structures, so that they can be replicated by embossing. Photopolymer holograms and gratings are typically recorded within the body of the material, so that the light-diffracting fringes are parallel to the surface, like pages in a closed book.
Unlike the silver-halide materials that were used in the 1980s and 1990s, which were essentially fine-grain photographic films and required wet chemical development, the new photopolymer materials can be optically exposed with the holographic image and stabilised with an exposure to ultra-violet light with no wet processing. Whereas silver halide film was thick and intractible the new photopolymers can be used in the form of thin transfer foils that can be applied to documents as stripes, threads or patches. Pira sees significant potential for this type of hologram is in banknotes, travel documents and plastic cards.
Defining Disruptive Technology
The term 'Disruptive Technology' was first coined in 1995 by Harvard Business School professor Clayton M. Christensen to describe a new, emerging technology that unexpectedly displaces an established one.
In the context of security printing, as well as success in the marketplace, the term 'disruptive technology' is used to denote innovations which displace other technologies or security features. In banknote printing, such technology successfully competes for a larger share of the 'real-estate' on the surface of the note.
Some new authentication technologies may be 'disruptive' in a social sense: in that they affect the established way of life for consumers, for example, their attitudes to personal privacy and confidentiality, or their trust in a document or person.
An innovative authentication device may be considered 'disruptive' to the status quo if it proves especially effective in stopping counterfeiting. There may be economic consequences that follow as a result of its success, for example, printers having to purchase additional equipment to apply it, paying a premium for material or gaining competitive advantage by having a patent on the process, however, all these economic factors ensue only after the innovation has shown itself to be effective.
In security printing new technologies do not always displace the older ones; some authentication devices such as Intaglio print and watermarks have endured for literally hundreds of years. They often tend to extend the family of authentication features. A recent study by Hans de Heij of the Dutch Central Bank showed that there are typically more than 50 overt public security features. Some of the older features had more public recognition: the watermark attained 76% public recall, for example, followed by the hologram at 55%; for this reason the displacement of existing features is undertaken with great care.
'The identification of disruptive technologies at an early stage of development is inherently risky', explains Adam Page, Head of Editorial at Pira 'but the approach taken was to source key players and experts for anonymous inputs/forecasts then use a Selection Team to grade the subject topics according to various attributes including the likely impact on end-users and security printers and the likelihood of future success. Hundreds of technologies were identified and analysed using an established Pira International methodology'.
The full report contains a ranking and profile of the top 25 most disruptive technologies likely to affect security printing over the next ten years. The study was published in August 2010, and is available for £3,250.
- Pira International is organising the 11th Annual Security Printing Conference in the Eastern European city of Zagreb, Croatia. Join in for a commercial overview of the security printing industry as well as an excellent networking opportunity.