HSP Latin America Builds Back Better

After two years of COVID inflicted disruptions, Reconnaissance International was able to restart the acclaimed series of High Security Printing Conferences with a fiesta feel in Mexico City (14-16 March) with seminars, presentations, key notes, an exhibition and prizes… lots of prizes!

One can never quite be sure how a conference will ‘go’, particularly when it is nearly three years since the last HSP Latin America. But with over 300 delegates from 140 organisations and 40 countries (a record number for the event), it appears that people were keen to meet and had a lot to say. The conference was sold out and had a welcome and refreshing buzz and business to it.

The conference started with a seminar on sustainability followed by one on digital security printing. We heard from and about suppliers across the entire cash cycle, alongside familiar names such as CCL Secure, Hunkeler, Landqart and Oberthur. We also heard from the Royal Mint at the start through to Prosegur and Cash InfraPro talking about cash management. The central banks of Costa Rica and Mexico spoke and then took part in a panel discussion about the role of central banks in sustainability, with Mexico laying out a highly structured long term programme of activity.

The workshop on the design and production of security documents through digital printing generated significant interest both in terms of attendance and participation. Presentations from HP, Jura, Komori, Luminescence Sun Chemical and Orell Füssli gave hard information about production and security options, and this led into a robust discussion. The consensus appeared to be acceptance that digital printing is coming, but ambiguity about in what form.

Focus on Latin America

In the opening session Alejandro Alegre and Alberto Torfer gave overviews of the cash cycle and cash production in Mexico during the pandemic respectively. These set the scene and also tied in nicely to the visit to the Banka’s new print works in Guadalajara later in the week.

The Casa da Moneda Chile took the opportunity to showcase a house note it had produced on CCL Secure’s polymer substrate. A good demonstration of its ability to work with partners to bring out the best of polymer and a partner printer, and a demonstration of its ability to produce banknotes for other countries.

Canadian Banknote explained how they had worked with the Central Bank of the Bahamas on the $$ 50 and 100 denominations. Both used Landqart’s Durasafe® product. The $50 used Crane’s RAPID® thread and the first use of SICPA’s SPARK® feature with a diagonal effect. The 36mm window length is also the longest attempted to date. The $100 is the first use of Crane’s MOTION SURFACE® with Durasafe.

New security features

With the scene set by the US Secret Service, the substrate and features session saw Oberthur’s Bioguard™, G+D’s Rolling Star i+, Surys’s Moov™, KURZ’s KINEGRAM® Dynamic® and an overview of De La Rue’s security philosophy with its range of thread, stripe and paper features.

While Bioguard addresses the risk from viruses, the emphasis of the other new products was predominantly on movement and depth, usually with colour.

Design and production

Komori and Giesecke+Devrient respectively gave overviews of production and designing for security in the round, their end-to-end philosophies and approaches.

Note Printing Australia (NPA) has the longest history of printing on polymer substrate and spoke about their approach to polymer design.

IQ Structures presented their nano-engineered Optical Security Features. They produced the smallest ever 3D model of the Great Mosque of Mecca for the Dubai 2020 Expo and nobody in the room will forget its stunning detail. Or the wide ranging samples of their products supplied to all.

Sustainability

The sustainability session heard CCL Secure set the context for why sustainability is such a key topic today. It then gave a rounded view of the cash cycle benefits of moving to polymer, as well as specific information on how they approach recycling.

Luminescence presented a specific project undertaken at one of its plants to reduce their environmental impact by moving to laundering cleaning rags rather than using them once before disposing of them. It also showed ‘vox pop’ street videos of the view of the public about cash at the moment. The interviews were both entertaining but worrying, given that the majority of those on film said they use cash rarely or never these days.

WTG Water Treatment explained clearly, even to the non-scientific, how wastewater from banknote printworks can be handled in an environmentally appropriate way, and Hunkeler described how waste from paper, polymer and mixed substrate countries can be handled. In the autumn Hunkeler will publish a paper reviewing options for how to dispose of banknotes.

Securing currency and payments

In final session of the conference, Orell Füssli explained their concept for bridging the gap between central bank digital currencies and banknotes. Holomex and Nanografix (Mexico) presented their instant and variable ‘on-demand’ security optical images, which they described as a ‘gamechanger’, and SICPA talked about their latest SPARK iteration, SPARK Flow®.

Finally, PWPW – one of the most prolific producers of commemorative banknotes and which uses these to test new features and printing techniques – gave a history of these notes, along with their latest housenote, which is on CCL Secure’s polymer substrate and printed by Perum Peruri in Indonesia. An interesting example of design with partners in different parts of the world.

Final word

If the Currency Research conference in Washington in February had the warm glow of a return to ‘normality’, HSP Latin America was much more a return to ‘business as usual’.

Seminars, presentations, exhibition stands and evening drinks, dinners and even a return to conference football courtesy of Hueck Folien. Good conversations were had, learning and information were given and received. Business is back.