DE102022001344A1 - Box-shaped data carrier and method for producing the same - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed are a card-shaped data carrier, for example a chip card in ID1 format, and a method for producing it, comprising a card body with a metal insert (3) which consists entirely or at least predominantly of metal and has an outer circumferential contour which is smaller than the outer circumferential contour (11) of the card body, the outer circumferential contour of the metal insert being surrounded all around by a metal (7) defining the outer circumferential contour (11) of the card body, which is softer than the metal of the metal insert (3), or by one of the outer circumferential contours of the card body Plastic (7) defining the card body, which contains metal particles or has a metallic shine.

Description

The invention generally relates to the field of card-shaped data carriers, namely cards with metal inserts, in particular smart cards and chip cards in ID1 format, such as credit and debit cards.

Card-shaped data carriers are often used, with or without electronic components, for example as ID cards, credit cards or debit cards. The most common format is the standardized ID1 format. For some time now, such data carriers with metal inserts, so-called metal cards, have become more and more fashionable. The greater weight of the metal compared to the commonly used plastic gives the card a certain value that is immediately noticeable to the user when they pick up the card. Accordingly, metal cards are used in connection with exclusive cards, especially credit cards. Although this justifies the higher costs associated with the production of metal cards. Nevertheless, as everywhere, there is of course an interest in keeping manufacturing costs as low as possible.

A particular problem in the manufacture of metal cards exists for contactless cards and dual interface cards, which rely on an antenna integrated into the card to transmit data between the card and an external device. The metal core of the card can significantly impair data transmission, for example due to eddy currents generated in the metal card core. This problem is addressed, for example, by slotting the metal core and/or using a ferrite layer to shield the metal core from the antenna.

Another problem with metal cards is that as the thickness of the metal core layer increases, the usual punching out of the card bodies from a multi-use sheet leads to poor results, especially when the metal core is thicker than 400 µm. Therefore, the card bodies of metal cards are usually milled out of the multi-use sheets, which is costly.

The object of the present invention is therefore to propose metal cards, i.e. cards with metal inserts, whose production is comparatively inexpensive.

According to a first aspect of the present disclosure, a card-shaped data carrier is therefore proposed, which can but does not have to contain electronic components, for example a smart card or chip card in ID 1 format or in another format, the data carrier comprising a card body with a metal insert . The metal insert does not necessarily have to be made entirely of metal, but is preferably made predominantly of metal. The metal insert has an outer peripheral contour that is smaller than the outer peripheral contour of the card body. To do this, the metal insert is first manufactured separately. Only in a second step is material added around the metal insert, which then defines the outer peripheral contour of the card body. This means that this attached material surrounds the metal insert all around. The special thing is that this surrounding material is, on the one hand, softer than the metal of the metal insert and, on the other hand, gives a viewer a metallic impression, so that when looking at the circumferential outside of the card-shaped data carrier, the viewer has the impression that the metallic core of the metal card is through extends across the entire map to the edge of the map. The advantage achieved with this is that the metallic card core is actually only inside the card and the softer edge of the card is easy to punch. As a result, the card body of the card-shaped data carrier can be punched out from a sheet, in particular from a larger multi-use sheet, in a punching process despite the metallic core, so that the complex milling step can be omitted.

The metallic impression of the card body edge is achieved in that the edge region of the card body surrounding the metal insert is made from a metal that is softer than the metal of the metal insert, in particular from a soft metal, or from a plastic that contains metal particles or at least metallic shines.

The metal particles in the plastic can in turn preferably be a soft metal. Soft metals are all metals that are softer than iron or iron alloys, especially aluminum, lead, gold, copper, silver, platinum, zinc and tin. Because of their high price, gold, silver and platinum are less likely to be considered, at best for highly exclusive cards. Soft metals such as lead, zinc and tin are particularly suitable for the purposes of the present disclosure.

As said, the particular advantage of the card-shaped data carrier disclosed here is that the associated card body can be punched out of a multi-use sheet, for example, in a punching process. If the material forming the metal insert does not consist entirely of metal, but rather of a plastic containing metal particles, the metal particles are present preferably so soft that they smear during the punching process, which means that the punching surface that is visible to the outside gives a particularly effective metallic impression. Metal particles made of lead, zinc and tin are particularly suitable in this respect.

The metal insert is preferably part of a core layer of the card body, which is coated at least on one side and preferably on both sides with at least one cover layer made of plastic, preferably a plastic film, which is glued to the card core layer, for example using a suitable adhesive, or laminated under the influence of pressure and temperature . This is particularly important if the boundary between the metal insert and the softer material surrounding the metal insert is conspicuous and should be hidden, for example if the material surrounding the metal insert is a plastic containing metal particles or if the soft material surrounding the metal insert is a metal with strikingly different appearance is used.

According to a special embodiment, the metal insert is not made entirely of metal, but rather has a plastic frame, which then defines the outer circumferential contour of the metal insert. An antenna, in particular an antenna coil with one or more turns, can advantageously be embedded in this plastic frame. The antenna is therefore not covered by the metal of the metal insert, but rather the metal forms, so to speak, a central core inside the antenna coil. This eliminates the need for an additional ferrite layer to shield the antenna from the metal insert or to slit the metal insert to avoid eddy currents. Of course, the card-shaped data carrier can have an electronic chip, for example in the form of a chip module inserted into the card body. If it is a contactless communicating card or a dual interface card, this chip can be connected to a suitable antenna, such as the above-described antenna coil embedded in the plastic frame.

The card body of the card-shaped data carrier described above can be advantageously punched out of a sheet, in particular a multi-use sheet, in various ways. According to a first method variant, a sheet with at least one recess, preferably several recesses, is first provided, each of which has an inner circumferential contour that is larger than an outer circumferential contour of the data carrier to be produced. The metal insert described above, which has been prefabricated separately and which consists entirely or preferably at least predominantly of metal, is then provided with an outer peripheral contour that is smaller than the outer peripheral contour of the data carrier to be produced. These metal inserts are then inserted into the recesses of the sheet in such a way that a gap remains all around between the inner peripheral contour of the respective recess and the outer peripheral contour of the respective metal insert. Next, this gap is filled with the aforementioned “soft” material, namely either with a metal that is softer than the metal of the metal insert, or - for example in the screen printing process - with a plastic that either contains metal particles or at least has a metallic sheen. A firm connection between the metal inserts inserted into the recesses and the soft material filled into the respective gap is created due to physical and/or chemical forces between the adjacent materials. The connection can be supported mechanically by providing projections and/or depressions on the circumferential contour of the metal insert, which particularly preferably run in the circumferential direction. Finally, the card bodies of the data carrier to be produced are then punched out of the multi-use sheet, whereby it is important that the corresponding punching line or punching lines run exclusively within the space filled with the soft material. Accordingly, only the soft material is punched through.

According to one embodiment of this first method variant, several of the aforementioned metal inserts can be placed together in a recess at a distance from one another, so that no material of the multi-use sheet is present between the relevant metal inserts. Rather, the gap into which the soft material is then filled extends continuously between the relevant metal inserts. The result of this is that in this embodiment of the first method variant, only one punching line instead of two punching lines has to be punched between metal inserts lying adjacently in a recess when the card body is separated from the multi-use sheet.

According to a second method variant, the sheet from which the card body of the card-shaped data carrier to be produced is punched out is itself made of shiny metallic plastic or contains metal particles, in particular those of the aforementioned type. In this case, the inner circumferential contour of the recess in the sheet and the outer circumferential contour the metal insert is designed accordingly, so that the metal insert fits exactly into the associated recess of the sheet, which in turn is preferably a multi-use sheet. This circumferential contour is smaller than an outer circumferential contour of the data carrier to be produced, so that the punching line when punching out the card body runs exclusively through the (comparatively soft) plastic material of the sheet.

While a multiple-use sheet according to the aforementioned embodiment of the first method variant already requires less material and is accordingly smaller than a multiple-use sheet according to the first method variant, a multiple-use sheet according to the second method variant can be made even smaller and accordingly requires even less material if the card bodies are not made individually are punched out on the multi-use sheet, but rather when neighboring card bodies share punching lines.

• 1 A einen Mehrnutzenbogen gemäß einer ersten Ausführungsvariante, aus dem mehrere Kartenkörper zur Herstellung entsprechender kartenförmiger Kartenträger ausgestanzt werden können,
• 1B einen Ausschnitt des Mehrnutzenbogens gemäß 1A mit einem aus dem Mehrnutzenbogen auszustanzenden Kartenkörper,
• 1C den Ausschnitt des Mehrnutzenbogens gemäß 1B im Querschnitt,
• 2 einen gegenüber dem Mehrnutzenbogen aus 1A abgewandelten Mehrnutzenbogen,
• 3 einen Mehrnutzenbogen gemäß einer zweiten Ausführungsvariante, und
• 4 einen gegenüber dem Mehrnutzenbogen aus 3 angewandelten Mehrnutzenbogen.

Further advantages, features and details emerge from the following description of preferred embodiments and from the drawings. Show:

• 1A a multi-use sheet according to a first embodiment variant, from which several card bodies can be punched out to produce corresponding card-shaped card carriers,
• 1B a section of the multi-use sheet according to 1A with a card body to be punched out of the multi-use sheet,
• 1C according to the section of the multi-use sheet 1B in cross section,
• 2 one compared to the multi-use sheet 1A modified multi-use sheet,
• 3 a multi-use sheet according to a second embodiment variant, and
• 4 one compared to the multi-use sheet 3 adapted multi-use sheet.

1 shows a multi-use sheet 1 according to a first embodiment variant, from which a large number of card bodies can be punched out to produce card-shaped data carriers. The multi-use sheet 1 includes a number of recesses 2 corresponding to the number of card bodies. In the exemplary embodiment, these are 4x6 = 24 recesses in four lines and six rows. More or fewer recesses can also be provided in a different arrangement. A metal insert 3 is inserted into each recess 2 in such a way that the outer peripheral contour of the metal insert 3 is spaced from the inner peripheral contour of the recess 2. There is therefore a gap 4 between the recesses 2 and the metal inserts 3 inserted therein.

A section of the multi-use sheet 1 is in 1B shown and includes the area of one of the card bodies to be punched out of the multi-use sheet 1. In this specific exemplary embodiment, the metal insert 3 comprises a metal core 3A and a plastic frame 3B that completely encloses the outer peripheral contour of the metal core 3A. The plastic frame 3B defines the outer peripheral contour of the metal insert 3. An antenna 5 designed as a coil is embedded in the plastic frame 3B, which is shown here with one turn, but can usually have several turns. The antenna 5 is connected in a known manner to an electronic chip 6, which is designed here in the form of a chip module integrated in the card body for contact-based data and/or energy transmission.

1C shows a cross section through the in 1B shown area of the multi-use sheet 1. On the one hand it can be seen that the gap 4 is filled with a material 7. The material 7 is comparatively soft compared to the metal of the metal core 3A and visually gives an observer a metallic impression when the card body is also in the 1B and 1C punching lines 10 shown have been punched out of the multi-use sheet 1. The punch lines 10 define the circumferential contour 11 of the card body and thus the circumferential contour of the card-shaped data carrier to be produced. The soft material 7 filled into the spaces 4 is, as mentioned, preferably a soft metal, for example aluminum, lead, gold, copper, silver, platinum, zinc or tin, particularly preferably lead, zinc or tin. Alternatively, the soft material can be a shiny metallic plastic or a plastic containing metal particles. In the event that it is a plastic containing metal particles, such a soft metal is chosen for the metal particles, for example lead, zinc or tin, that the metal particles located on the punching interface smear over the punching surface when the card bodies are punched out of the multi-use sheet 1 and in this way give the surface a particularly effective metallic shine.

1C also shows a lower cover layer 8 and an upper cover layer 9, which are preferably already part of the multi-use sheet 1 when the card bodies are punched out of the multi-use sheet 1. Alternatively, the lower cover layer 8 and in particular the upper cover layer 9 can only be applied subsequently to the punched out card body, for example, glued on or laminated using pressure and temperature. Ideally, however, only the lower cover layer 8 is first connected to the multi-use sheet 1, then the metal insert 3 is inserted into the recesses 2 of the multi-use sheet 1 and then the gap 4 is filled with the soft material 7 before the upper cover layer 9 is connected to the multi-use sheet 1 . The chip module with the electronic chip 6 is only then introduced into the card body, preferably before the card body is punched out of the multi-use sheet 1. This is done, for example, by milling a cavity into the upper cover layer 9 and the plastic frame 3B of the metal insert 3 until it reaches the antenna 5 and then inserting the chip module into this cavity and connecting it to the antenna 5 in an electrically conductive manner. Alternatively, the electronic chip 6 can already be part of the metal insert 3 provided, for example embedded in it, especially if it is a purely contactless communicating card.

2 shows a modification of the embodiment variant described above. Here too, the multi-use sheet 1 has several recesses 2 for receiving metal inserts 3 in such a way that a gap 4 remains between the metal inserts 3 and the recesses 2. However, in this embodiment variant, several metal inserts 3 are provided together in one of the recesses 2. The result of this is that some of the card bodies to be punched out of the multi-use sheet 1 share punching lines 10A, namely those card bodies whose metal inserts 3 lie adjacent to one another within a recess 2.

3 shows a multi-use sheet 1 according to a second embodiment variant for producing card-shaped data carriers. In this case, the circumferential contours of the recesses 2 and the metal inserts 3 match exactly, so that the metal inserts 3 can be fitted exactly into the recesses 2 and can be permanently connected to them, for example using an adhesive. Alternatively, the connection can be made by welding, for example ultrasonic welding or thermal welding. The card bodies are then punched out of the multi-use sheet 1 again as in relation to 1A until 1C explained along the punch lines 10.

In this case, the multi-use sheet 1 consists of a plastic which - in order to create the desired, visually striking metallic effect - contains the metal particles already mentioned or at least has a metallic shine. Alternatively, the multi-use sheet 1 can consist of a soft metal that is softer than the metal of the metal insert 3, i.e. in particular one of the aforementioned soft metals.

In the embodiment variant according to 3 After the card bodies have been punched out of the multi-use sheet 1, a punched grid remains, which is usually waste and which is why the use of a purely metallic sheet can be uneconomical. In contrast, an optimized modification of a multi-use sheet 1 is in 4 shown. Here, the card bodies of the card-shaped data carriers to be produced that are to be punched out of the multi-use sheet 1 border directly on one another. Accordingly, all card bodies to be punched out share punch lines 10A with neighboring card bodies. There is therefore no punched grid left behind as waste, except for the outer edge of the multi-use sheet 1 surrounding the large number of card bodies to be punched out. This exemplary embodiment is therefore particularly suitable if the multi-use sheet 1 is made of metal that is softer than the metal of the metal insert 3. Then even less of the soft metal is needed than in the exemplary embodiment 2 .

The circumferential contour 11 of the card bodies to be punched out of the multi-use sheets 1 according to the embodiment variants described above corresponds to those of the ID1 format, as is typically the case with chip cards and other types of smart cards. However, card-shaped data carriers of any format can be produced in a corresponding manner in the manner described, including data carriers which do not have any electronic components, but possibly only a magnetic stripe or not even a magnetic stripe, but, for example, at most a magnetic stripe or not even that.

Claims (15)

Method for producing a card-shaped data carrier, for example a smart card or chip card in ID1 format, comprising the steps: - Providing a sheet (1) with at least one recess (2) which has an inner circumferential contour which is larger than an outer circumferential contour (11) of the data carrier to be produced, - providing at least one metal insert (3) which consists entirely or at least predominantly of metal and has an outer circumferential contour which is smaller than the outer circumferential contour (11) of the data carrier to be produced, - inserting the at least one metal insert (3) into the at least one recess (2) of the sheet (1) in such a way that there is a gap (4) all around between the inner circumferential contour of the at least a recess (2) and the outer peripheral contour of the at least one metal insert (3) remains, - filling the intermediate space (4) with a metal that is softer than the metal of the at least one metal insert (3), or with a metal particle-containing or metallic shiny plastic, and - punching out a card body of the data carrier to be produced from the sheet (1) along one or more punching lines (10) which run exclusively within the space (4). Procedure according to Claim 1 , wherein in the step of inserting the at least one metal insert (3) into the at least one recess (2) of the sheet (1), several metal inserts (3) are placed at a distance from one another in a recess (2). Procedure according to Claim 1 or 2 , wherein the metal is a soft metal, preferably from the group comprising aluminum, lead, gold, copper, silver, platinum, zinc and tin. Method for producing a card-shaped data carrier, for example a chip card, comprising the steps: - Providing a sheet (1) with at least one recess (2) which has an inner circumferential contour which is smaller than an outer circumferential contour (11) of the data carrier to be produced, - Providing at least one metal insert (3), which consists entirely or at least predominantly of metal and has an outer circumferential contour which corresponds to the inner circumferential contour of the at least one recess, - Inserting the at least one metal insert (3) into the at least one recess (2) of the arch, and - Punching out a card body of the data carrier to be produced from the sheet (1) along one or more punching lines (10), which run exclusively through a plastic of the sheet (1) that contains metal particles or has a metallic shine, the sheet (1) being made of metal is softer than the metal of the at least one metal insert (3), or a plastic containing metal particles or with a shiny metallic finish. Procedure according to one of the Claims 1 until 4 , wherein the sheet (1) is a multi-use sheet which comprises several of the recesses (2) mentioned, several of the metal inserts (3) mentioned are provided and several of the card bodies mentioned are punched out of the sheet (1). Procedure according to Claim 5 , with adjacent card bodies sharing a punch line (10A). Procedure according to one of the Claims 1 until 6 , wherein each of the at least one metal insert (3) has a plastic frame (3b) which defines the outer peripheral contour of the metal insert (3) and in which an antenna (4) is embedded. Procedure according to one of the Claims 1 until 7 , wherein an electronic chip is inserted or has already been inserted into each of the at least one metal insert (3). Procedure according to one of the Claims 1 until 8th , comprising the further step: - applying at least one plastic layer (8, 9) to one main side or to opposite main sides of the card body before the step of punching out the card body from the sheet (1). Card-shaped data carrier, for example a smart card or chip card in ID 1 format, comprising a card body with a metal insert (3) which consists entirely or at least predominantly of metal and has an outer circumferential contour which is smaller than the outer circumferential contour (11) of the Card body, the outer peripheral contour of the metal insert (3) being surrounded all around by a metal defining the outer peripheral contour (11) of the card body, which is softer than the metal of the metal insert (3), or by one of the outer peripheral contour (11) of the card body defining plastic that contains metal particles or has a metallic shine. Card-shaped data carrier Claim 10 , wherein the metal is a soft metal, preferably from the group comprising aluminum, lead, gold, copper, silver, platinum, zinc and tin. Card-shaped data carrier Claim 10 or 11 , wherein the data carrier has an electronic chip (6). Card-shaped data carrier according to one of the Claims 10 until 12 , wherein the metal insert (3) has a plastic frame (3B) which defines the outer peripheral contour of the metal insert (3) and in which an antenna (4) is embedded. Card-shaped data carrier according to one of the Claims 10 until 13 , comprising at least one plastic layer applied to one main side or to opposite main sides of the card body. Method for producing a card-shaped data carrier according to one of Claims 1 until 9 or card-shaped data carrier according to one of the Claims 10 until 14 , where the card-shaped data carrier is a smart card or chip card in ID1 format.

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