The Innovation Keeps Flowing

As described in the Banknote of the Month feature in the February issue of Currency News™, Kazakhstan’s new 20,000 tenge is memorable on a number of fronts – not least because the use of the Durasafe® substrate enabled the first ever application of a stripe in a vertical orientation, but also because it is the world’s first circulating note to incorporate SICPA’s new SPARK Flow® feature.

SPARK Flow® is the latest generation of SPARK®, and is available in three versions – PRIME, DIMENSION and CONFLUENCE.

The Banknote Factory (BNF) of the National Bank of Kazakhstan decided to upgrade its NotaScreen II screen press from Koenig & Bauer Banknote Solutions to benefit from the advantages of this optical technology, through the retrofitting of the new SPARK Inline UV Dryer II and both modules for SPARK Flow PRIME and DIMENSION.

‘Our close collaboration with BNF enabled them to have all the tools in their hands to start printing trials and banknote production in less than a month’, said Koenig & Bauer. ‘With our support, the retrofit of the SPARK Inline UV Dryer II and the devices for SPARK Flow features lasted only three weeks.’ Commissioning and acceptance tests were successfully implemented in a week. Operator training and production support were also carried out.

In addition to the issue of the new 20,000 tenge, the BNF has also trialled the feature on two specimen notes. The first note – Gold Fish -was printed on SAFEGUARD™ polymer and the second – Romeo and Juliet – on paper. Both versions, along with the circulating note, utilised the DIMENSION version which, as its name implies, appears three dimensional but is flat to the touch.

SPARK Flow features can be printed on all different types of substrates: cotton-based, polymer-based, and hybrids such as Durasafe®, as used in the 20,000 tenge.

SPARK Flow DIMENSON on the Gold Fish specimen note (above) and the Romeo and Juliet note (below).