Methods and systems of actively cooling a card while the card is within a card processing machine are described. One or more cooling stations are provided within the card processing machine to actively cool the card prior to performing a processing operation, during a processing operation, and/or after a processing operation on the card in order to reduce a temperature of the surface of the card.

Methods and systems of actively cooling a card while the card is within a card processing machine are described. One or more cooling stations are provided within the card processing machine to actively cool the card prior to performing a processing operation, during a processing operation, and/or after a processing operation on the card in order to reduce a temperature of the surface of the card.

The invention relates to a method for separating and categorizing at least one substrate (02; 03) that originates from a sheet source (47) or is transported in the form of a material web (02) to a cross-cutting apparatus and is separated into a multiplicity of sheets (03) there, wherein the respective sheets (03) are inspected in respective inspection operations with regard to at least one property that the substrate (02; 03) already had before the particular separating operation or severing operation, and wherein the sheets (03) are each assigned to one of at least three categories in an assigning operation on the basis of the result of the inspection carried out in the particular inspection operation, and wherein each of the sheets (03) is deposited on a delivery pile (06; 07; 08) corresponding to its category, and to a substrate categorizing machine (01), which has a sheet source (47) or a material-web source (09) and a cross-cutting device (11), wherein the substrate categorizing machine (01) has, downstream of the sheet source (47) or downstream of the cross-cutting device (11), a sheet transport device (12) having a gripper system (13), and an inspection device (14; 16; 17; 18), and, downstream of the inspection device (14; 16; 17; 18), a delivery apparatus (19), which has at least three depositing stations (21; 22; 23).

A transaction card includes at least one metal layer having one or more apertures therein. A light guide is disposed beneath the metal layer. The light guide has a light output and a light input. The light output is positioned to transmit light through at least the one or more apertures of the metal layer. At least one LED is positioned to transmit light into the light guide light input.

A thin hinged laminated body and a layout sheet for the hinged laminated body are provided. A hinged laminated body, equipped with: an IC module having an IC chip capable of performing contactless communication; a hinge layer having a hinge section which can be bound into a booklet; a non-hinge layer which is laminated onto the hinge layer and does not have a hinge part, wherein the hinge layer is disposed over the entire surface of the laminated body having the hinge, the hinge layer and the non-hinge layer have a housing hole penetrating across the two layers, and the IC module is housed and held inside the housing hole.

A thin hinged laminated body and a layout sheet for the hinged laminated body are provided. A hinged laminated body, equipped with: an IC module having an IC chip capable of performing contactless communication; a hinge layer having a hinge section which can be bound into a booklet; a non-hinge layer which is laminated onto the hinge layer and does not have a hinge part, wherein the hinge layer is disposed over the entire surface of the laminated body having the hinge, the hinge layer and the non-hinge layer have a housing hole penetrating across the two layers, and the IC module is housed and held inside the housing hole.

A printing intaglio (100A), (100B) is a printing intaglio for use in intaglio printing, the printing intaglio having a surface which has a plurality of first recessed portions (12) that form a pattern to be printed, wherein at least one of the plurality of first recessed portions has a plurality of minute recessed portions (16p) inside the first recessed portion, and when viewed in a direction normal to the surface of the printing intaglio, a two-dimensional size of the plurality of minute recessed portions is not less than 10 nm and less than 500 nm.

A printing intaglio (100A), (100B) is a printing intaglio for use in intaglio printing, the printing intaglio having a surface which has a plurality of first recessed portions (12) that form a pattern to be printed, wherein at least one of the plurality of first recessed portions has a plurality of minute recessed portions (16p) inside the first recessed portion, and when viewed in a direction normal to the surface of the printing intaglio, a two-dimensional size of the plurality of minute recessed portions is not less than 10 nm and less than 500 nm.

A method for producing flakes of a resin thin film including: a step (1) of forming a resin thin film on a substrate film to obtain a multilayer film; a step (2) of pressing the multilayer film by a member having a concavo-convex shape to form cracks in the resin thin film; and a step (3) of stripping the resin thin film from the substrate film to obtain flakes. The step (2) is preferably performed with a pressing pressure of 100 MPa or less. The resin thin film is preferably formed of a cured product of a photocurable liquid crystal composition. The resin thin film is preferably a cholesteric resin layer.

A method of forming an array of microimage elements that vary in their material composition is provided. The method comprises: applying a first region of a layer of a first material to a surface of a first material carrier; applying a second region of a layer of a second material, different from the first material, to a surface of a second material carrier; blending together the first and second regions of the layers of first and second material such that a blended region of the layers of first and second material exhibits a gradual change in relative concentration of the first and second materials along a first direction, the step of blending together the first and second regions of the layers of first and second material comprising bringing a first blending surface into contact with the first material on the surface of the first material carrier and moving the first blending surface relative to the surface of the first material carrier along a direction corresponding to the first direction to spread the layer of first material along the direction corresponding to the first direction, and bringing a second blending surface into contact with the second material on the second material carrier and moving the second blending surface relative to the surface of the second material carrier along a direction corresponding to the first direction to spread the layer of second material along the direction corresponding to the first direction; bringing the blended layers of first and second material in the blended region into contact with a patterned material carrier, the surface of the patterned material carrier defining a pattern corresponding to the array of microimage elements, the patterned material carrier selectively removing the first and second material in at least the blended region in accordance with the pattern; and transferring the blended layers of first and second material defining the array of microimage elements on to a support layer.