Helping citizens travel the world, gain access to public services and hold a trusted identity document that is highly secure. We also help protect a wide range of high security documents – from vital record documents (births, deaths and marriages) through to education and ownership certificates. The traditional craftmanship of our designers and engineers is fused with advanced technology to produce highly detailed watermark paper that’s instantly recognisable.
Every year we produce enough paper to make over 70 million passports
Largest supplier of cylinder mould passport paper in the world
Accredited to supply the security industry
Immediately recognisable security
Recommended by Interpol, cylinder mould made paper is recognised as being the most secure paper type available and despite developments in counterfeiting technology the three dimensional multi-tonal watermark remains virtually impossible to simulate.
The watermark will often depict portraits, national crests and emblems, but also pattern work and contemporary designs.
Multi-tonal security
With growing access to computers, digital imaging software and scanners, photocopiers and high quality printers, the levels of threat to secure documents is increasing. A high quality cylinder mould watermark remains virtually impossible to simulate because of use and expertise of non commercially available equipment to produce the multi tonal, three dimensional effect.
Personalised Design
Bespoke designs make every watermark unique and ownable. Portals have produced many world class designs and this is due to of the way we work with our customers to understand the context in which the watermark will be used combined with an intrinsic knowledge of the paper manufacturing process.
Customisable security
Cylinder mould made watermarks can be further enhanced with electrotypes - creating more depth, highlighting specific elements and building counterfeit resilience. Traditional counterfeiting techniques struggle with replicating the effect of the electrotype watermark because it appears lighter and brighter than its surrounding area.
Advanced counterfeiting protection
Textmark™ is an innovative watermark feature that delivers a combinational effect of positive
and negative (light and dark) text, numbers and characters within the watermark.
Unique
Each individual Textmark™ design is entirely bespoke to the customer and complementary with the substrate and print process
Impossible to replicate
The Textmark feature is achieved by introducing positive and negative variations of text within the watermark design and is manufactured by combining watermarking technologies together. This complex addition to the mould made watermarking feature is highly effective against the threat of counterfeit and fraudulent alteration.
Easy to understand
The beauty of Textmark is how easy it is to understand and to explain to both the general public and trained officials, like border control personnel.
Prevent splitting, curling, folding, creasing & tearing
Two of the most common causes of failure for security document substrate are curling / folded corners and tears along the edges of the security document. Through the use of patented technologies, specialist watermarks can be included during the paper manufacturing process to reinforce areas vulnerable to the additional wear and tear typically endured by the bio-data and observations pages as a
result of frequent checking, reading and scanning at border control and other authorities.
Corner protection
Cornerstone® reduces instances of paper corner curling and folding via the addition of high density watermark rods that add structural rigidity to the paper.
Edge
Edgestone™ helps to prevent edges from tearing by strategically increasing the thickness of the paper along the edges of the document pages.
Design Integration
The design of the Cornerstone™ feature can be developed and adapted and incorporated with the watermark design
Tamper evidence
Skylight™ is a complex and unique tamper proof feature where small areas of the paper are specially engineered to be lighter
and thinner than the surrounding area and background sheet.
Tamper Evidence
In a document that has been personalised, Skylight™ prevents the paper from being split or the lifting of the laminate and reassembling with fraudulent data. In fact, when attempts are made to split the page, Skylight™ immediately causes the sheet to rupture around the interface of the layer making it unusable for any further activity.
Protect the entire passport
Ideal for use as a passport end-page, bio-data page or observation page defence. The security of a passport can be further enhanced through combining Skylight™ with a Continuous Bio-data Page™ and by using Skylight™ on the end page, acting as a deterrent to tamper with or access the stitching and/or chip in the cover.
Chemical abrasion protection
If a chemical substance is used to attempt to alter the information printed on the sheet, the specific area of attack will react to that chemical and show up as a coloured staining, the colour of which indicating the type of chemical being used.
Permanent reaction
Any alteration or attempt at removal of data via chemical abrason results in an immmediate and obvious colour reaction that is permanent.
Protection against a range of chemicals
Portals can add a range of sensitisation agents depending on the needs and threats to the document. These include sensitisation agents that react to Ethanol, Cellosolve, Methanol, Acetone, Bleach, Pet Ether, Isopropanol, Sulphuric Acid and Sodium Hydroxide
Embedded security
Security threads enable the security and aesthetic design of the document to be taken to another level – they are easy to verify and recognise and are obvious if absent or altered in any way.
Embedded Security
Via the manufacturing process, the paper fibres assemble around the thread making it integral to the structure. This makes it impossible to remove the thread without affecting the integrity and visual appearance of the document.
Innovative Design Options
Threads can be embedded or windowed in the paper. They can be clear or coloured, incorporate colourshift, invisible fluorescence and patterns, text and numbers. This makes them easy to verify and recognise and obvious if absent or altered in any way. Their designs can also be personalised to your requirement
Highly Durable
Security threads have a long history within banknotes - and so have proven themselves to be highly durable and resilient to the pressures put on a passport book or other high security document once issued.
Integrated and random security
The random nature of the fibre and planchette dispersion within the paper means no two sheets or pages are ever the same making counterfeiters attempts to use repetition of layout ineffective.
Integrated
Fibres and planchettes are combined at the very beginning of the manufacturing process into the furnish blend, meaning they are evenly and consistently visible through both sides of the paper and intrinsic in the formation.
Choice
Fibre inclusions are available in any combination of a variety of colours (including multi-coloured), visible or invisible and with long or short wave frequency. Planchettes are small, shaped inclusions that are incorporated randomly into the sheet or in bands. These inclusions can be of a standard or bespoke shape and available in a variety of colour options. You can have a mix of different fibres and planchettes within a single sheet
Random distribution
The fibres and planchettes will usually appear in a random distribution within the sheet. The random nature of the fibre dispersion means no two pages are ever the same; counterfeiters often repeat patterns making repetition of layout a strong indicator for concern. Alternatively, inclusions can be distributed at an agreed density or banded to register in controlled areas on the sheet
We pride ourselves in our ability to be reliable and responsive, always enabling our customers to get the very most from working with us.
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