Agfa Specialty Products and LCsys Systèmes Industriels announce the launch of ABSOLUT-ID, their solution for the integrated production of high security ID cards, resulting from a collaboration partnership between the companies that includes the solution's development and sales. Whereas Agfa supplies the technology and consumables for the printing of personalisation data, LCsys provides process engineering and equipment manufacturing. The two partners will unveil ABSOLUT-ID to the global ID card industry on a joint exhibition booth at Trustech 2016, November 29 to December 1 in Cannes, France.

ID security reinvented
Agfa's print technology allows positioning the personalisation image and data on ABSOLUT-ID cards underneath the traditional guilloche printing instead of on-top. This considerably facilitates the visual detection of tampering and increases the reliability thereof because the smallest flaw or interruption of a single guilloche line will indeed instantly reveal fraud. Additionally, since the personalisation data of each individual card are generated in a half tone resolution without pixels or screen dots, ABSOLUT-ID cards are considered virtually impossible to counterfeit or even to manipulate.

One-step integrated production process
The production of ABSOLUT-ID cards, using consumables on roll, is a web-based process that integrates all the customary stages of card production: printing of the personalisation image and data, lamination, die cutting and chipping. This continuous process offers tremendous time and cost efficiency as well as security benefits compared to the conventional approach of sequential and often geographically distributed steps. And because the process starts with the personalisation stage, the ABSOLUT-ID concept eliminates the cost of laborious card preparations before a single card can be issued. It also avoids the storage of semi-finished cards that have high value only in terms of immobilised cash and represent a high risk of security breach in case of theft; a risk that can only be countered by increasing the cost even more with security infrastructure investments or surveillance.

"In today's globalised world, more than ever, reliable ID security is of great importance to society and to all of us individually." comments Marc Van Damme, VP Marketing and Sales Agfa Specialty Products. "Agfa is pleased to contribute to more reliable and affordable security with state-of-the-art technology that builds on our long-standing expertise in imaging and shows at its best when quality is at stake to make a real difference."

"LCsys is pleased to work with Agfa on what may become a new paradigm in ID card production. Thanks to our vast experience and know-how in the engineering and constructing of equipment ABSOLUT-ID can take ID card production to new levels of convenience, cost and reliability." said Sabine Larue, Director Marketing & Sales at LCsys.