CINEMA – From Concept to Completion

Launched in 2020, CCL Secure’s new CINEMA™ security feature is gaining many admirers for its ability to combine 3D style depth with movement in a single feature, says the company. Soon after it became available, the feature received its premiere on Banque du Liban’s 100,000 livres commemorative note, issued last December.

Yet according to CCL Secure, the CINEMA story is one of long years of development that led to its ‘overnight success’.

‘The roots of CINEMA can be traced back to a previous innovation, Soft Emboss Technology (SET)’, says Dr Tim Berridge, CCL Secure’s Director of R&D, Marketing and Design.

SET works by embossing a microstructure into a special resin which is then immediately cured to ensure the precise structure and dimensions of the microstructure are repeatedly reproduced. The SET process is part of the substrate production process and is carried out inline so it is fully integrated into CCL Secure’s GUARDIAN™ substrate.

The first example of the technology in action was LATITUDE™, launched in 2010, creating highly visible effects such as changing colours. In the LATITUDE feature, a highly reflective silver coating is also applied on top of the SET microstructure layer before a final protective layer is applied to protect against contact copying.

Unlike an applied foil patch or stripe, LATITUDE allows for much greater design freedom. It enables the feature to be included anywhere on the note, during the initial gravure printing stage of the GUARDIAN substrate, as many times as the design required.

‘SET is really impressive technology, but we always felt it had more to give’, says Dr Berridge. ‘After many years and a very significant investment of research dollars, we introduced Double Soft Emboss Technology (DSET), which is the basis for CINEMA.’

The new technology means that two perfectly registered SET features are printed on either side of Clarity™ C, the base film for GUARDIAN. Precision is at the micron scale, including precise dimensions, structure and position. As with the original SET innovation, DSET is integrated into the inline production process for the substrate. CINEMA is the first practical application of the new technology.

In developing the DSET know-how behind CINEMA, CCL Secure’s scientists and engineers had to address a number of practical production challenges. To be cost-effective, CINEMA has to be embedded with GUARDIAN at full production speeds across a wide web. In order to function in circulation it also has to be resistant to the full range of chemical and physical stresses a banknote endures.

As part of the development process, CCL Secure worked closely with sister company Innovia Films, who manufacture the Clarity C film used to make GUARDIAN.

‘Without reinventing the wheel, we did need to adapt Clarity C in order to make the most of the opportunities offered by DSET,’ says Dr Berridge. ‘It’s one of the strengths of our team that we can work so closely with the researchers at Innovia Films as part of the overall CCL Industries group. Our combined depth of understanding of the needs of a banknote and the materials expertise of Innovia Films certainly helped us to streamline the development process.’ 

Living up to full potential

Ultimately the CCL Secure and Innovia Films teams recognised that the best solution was to create a special version of Clarity C that works in combination with DSET – and by extension, CINEMA – to live up to its full potential. Part of the security of CINEMA is that it requires unique film technology in combination with DSET to create the strong 3D and movement effects.

By embedding the CINEMA security feature with the specially adapted substrate, designers can incorporate it into any number of locations on the banknote design, using colours, images and icons that complement the overall theme of the design. The CINEMA feature can be integrated into the overall banknote design and work with other security features that the printer may wish to add.

The Banque du Liban’s 100,000 livres design uses CINEMA as part of an image of St John’s Church in Byblos, with design elements appearing to move in 3D as the banknote is tilted.

Much more to come

‘Anyone who’s seen it has had the same reaction – Wow!,’ says Dr Berridge. ‘Which is exactly what we were aiming for. This is extraordinary technology that lives up to its promise. Even better, we’re still exploring the potential. This is the first generation of DSET that we’ve applied. There is much more to come.’ As with the development of any banknote security feature, the impetus behind the research is driven by the need to constantly develop ways to stay ahead of potential counterfeiters, placing high technological barriers in their way.

‘With CINEMA, we’ve created an overt security feature that – quite literally – needs to be seen to believed,’ Dr Berridge concludes. ‘This raises the bar very high indeed. But, we’re not complacent and are already working on new ways to enhance the security of our GUARDIAN substrate even further.’