Security inks

The staff of the Document Security Laboratory have developed and are manufacturing more than 20 kinds of special security inks of different colours:

1. Inks luminescent at long wavelength (365nm)
This is one of the most widely used protective elements, which is easy to verify and provides a high level of protection against photocopying.

Ink fluoresces on long UV wavelenght on a sample card

2. Inks luminescent at short wavelength (254 nm)
These security elements provide a higher level of protection since UV lamps using shorter wavelengths are less common.

3. Bifluorescent inks (365/254 nm)
Bifluorescent inks emit fluorescent light of different colours when exposed to UV light of different wavelengths. These inks are easy to verify and difficult to reproduce.

4. Tri- and quadro-fluorescent inks
Our unique tri-fluorescent ink provides the same security advantages as our bifluorescent inks, but on a higher level. This ink of ours shows blue/violet/green luminescence under 365/313/254 nm illumination.
The quadro fluorescent ink is an even more sophisticated one. It shows an additional anti-Stokes luminescence compared to our tri-fluorescent ink.

5. Anti-Stokes inks
These inks are to be excited with IR irradiation and are able to emit not only green but orange and blue light as well.
They are ideal to place hidden information and also lend themselves to use with mechanical verification systems.

6. Red fluo black ink
This is a special black ink that shows intensive red fluorescence under the influence of ultra-red generation of any wave-length. The ink is absolutely suitable for numbering or the individual visualization of logos.

7. IR/IR fluorescent ink (IF 15)
Prints with this ink emit infra red radiation when irradiated in the near infra red (IR) range. The prints cannot be seen with naked eye or with regular verification equipment.

IF inks can be detected with a special verification device developed for this purpose. Our device called ‘RADIR’ reacts with flashlight and sound to the presence of such inks.

RADIR device