SPARK® – the Innovation Journey Continues to FLOW

SPARK® has proved to be one of the most successful and widely used anti-counterfeiting features for banknotes since its launch in 2006. But nothing stands still in security, and SICPA has continued to enhance SPARK, recently unveiling the third generation of the optically variable effect ink technology – SPARK Flow®.

The precursor to SPARK was OVI®, a colour-shifting ink feature developed by SICPA to prevent the counterfeiting of banknotes by colour copiers.

OVI is produced by coating several thin layers of materials onto a carrier film with an exceptional precision by vapour deposition. The resulting multi-layer structure produces colour by the physical phenomenon of interference– the core layer is fully reflective just like a mirror, the layers on either side are identical and partially reflective and are separated from the reflective layer by a transparent material. The thickness of the layers determines the wavelength of light that is selectively reflected towards the observer, and hence the perceived colour.