ruhlamat drives the development of in-house control software for laser systems even further forwards.

Marksuhl, February 2009 – ruhlamat, an internationally operational special machine manufacturing company from Germany, is proud to present the very latest laser technology for use on smart card and passport personalization systems. From equipment technology through to control software, the company offers standard and special solutions in the sector of laser marking and processing.

It was as early as 2005 that ruhlamat started with the development of laser marking systems with the ProVaL series, which is still being constantly pressed ahead. Main focus among the application features is, in particular, on the industrial suitability (quality and speed), energy efficiency, and service-friendliness of the product.

With the constant technological innovations in the mechanical engineering and machine construction sector, so the demands on laser marking systems are changing too. For example, a few years ago ruhlamat was still distinguishing between fibre lasers, which were principally used for simple and rapid vector marking, and laser marking systems for high-quality grey scale marking of, for example, personal identity documents, where the quality of the marking is of particular importance.

Today, ruhlamat can offer a product in the form of the ProVaL 20F laser marking system which combines both these criteria – speed and high quality grey scale –, and so can be put to use in a much more versatile manner. The company has also proved that this can also be done at very high throughput with the development of the high-speed GSM personalization system. The MS350-2 GSM offers the customer a high throughput rate and, at the same time, the unique possibility of marking even grey scale images in high quality.

This smart card personalization system offers not only technological features such as an 80-fold contact tower and a scratch-off label unit, but also the possibility of both-side card marking by means of two fibre lasers (ProVal 20F). With the aid of these resources, with a laser time of 0.5 seconds and a loading time of 40 seconds, a card personalization process of up to 6,000 cards per hour can be achieved on the machine. „This time we have two high speed GSM personalization machines from ruhlamat in our smart card production in the area of telecommunication. Both machines are equipped with fibre lasers. The fibre lasers are very fast and have a very good quality. Even with multiple barcodes the machines work very fast.“ says Mr. Peter Sedlák,  Personalitzation, Giesecke & Devrient Slovakia. This makes the MS350-2 GSM with the current machine configuration the fastest GSM personalization system in the world and ruhlamat acquires a leading role in the development of control software for laser systems.

“With laser marking, the quality which can be achieved is always a question of the right control system. Lasers are often offered by the manufacturers as OEM versions, with the result that the users are responsible themselves for the peripherals, such as the control software”, says Mr. Dr. Marko Bartel, laser expert at ruhlamat. “It is true that some laser manufacturers do offer this, but they often don’t meet the user’s real needs. This is why ruhlamat has developed the universally usable ProMarkEdit (PME) laser software, which can provide all the possibilities from layout production to parameter adjustment, and up to the control of the laser and scanner, as well as interfaces for memory-programmable control systems and Data Management Systems. As well as that, this is a modular structure software package, with every module, as a stand-alone unit, being responsible for controlling a structural group, such as the laser control. This means that with just one software system a vast range of different applications can be controlled, from simple standard marking, through grey scale marking (including, among others, with fibre lasers), and on to the perforation of passbooks with CO2 laser systems.”

As well as the application for chip card personalization, the optimized laser developments from ruhlamat are likewise used in the personalization and perforation of passport documents. It is in this situation in particular that perfect quality really must be guaranteed in order to meet the demands of international corporations and governments. With the company’s own in-house resources of skill and competence, from the development of the hardware and software to the production and installation at the customer’s premises, ruhlamat achieves a high degree of independence from suppliers and their particular conditions. This means for the customer in specific terms that their needs and wishes can be made a reality rapidly and individually, and the value creation chain can be substantially shortened.

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Giesecke & Devrient Slovakia is a subsidiary of the Giesecke & Devrient GmbH in Germany. Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) is a leading supplier of banknote paper, banknote printing, currency automation systems, as well as smart cards and complex system solutions in the fields of telecommunications, electronic payment, health care, identification, transportation and IT security (PKI). For more information please visit www.gi-de.com.

ruhlamat is a traditional machine manufacturing company from Thuringia (Germany), operating in the sectors of smart card and passport processing technologies, as well as in assembly technology. With a staff of more than 350 employees in North America, Asia, and Europe, the company has steadily grown over the past few years, and is now the most successful member of the Mack Holding GmbH. With complete machine solutions and independent in-house planning, development, manufacture, and installation resources, ruhlamat is the partner with the real skills and competence needed in the special machinery construction sector.
To obtain a good overall impression of ruhlamat, visit the homepage at www.ruhlamat.com.
 
Contact:
Nicole Baumann (M. A.)
Assistant Marketing/PR
+49 (0) 36925/929-306
n.baumann@ruhlamat.de