Protecting users and providers of online banking services against the theft and fraudulent misuse of passwords and transaction number is one of the most important goals of the financial industry. By adding a supplementary, bi-directional identity check, one-time passwords (OTPs) for online banking transactions or secure authentication to IT networks are one of the easiest means to improve security, and display cards are the most convenient implementation, ending the necessity of a separate authentication token or device.

As an innovative 2-in-1 device, a display card looks and functions exactly like a regular credit, debit or ATM card, but comes with additional features such an embedded display, a touch button as well as other electronic components and sometimes a battery. By pressing the button, the embedded system generates the OTP which then appears on the display that is flexible enough to be compliant to everyone’s wallets.

In recent years, commercial banks have increasingly adopted the use of display cards. The US is leading in terms of market penetration, followed by China and Korea. European banks are expected to increasingly introduce display cards to its customers.

The Taiwan-based AniCa Co., Ltd., is one of the leading suppliers of cold laminated card solutions. They are the key driving force in fast growing Chinese display card market.

AniCa has developed a special cold lamination technique for display card production. As the temperatures are clearly lower than hot lamination, the displays and electronic components are not affected. For the lamination of the two cover foils, AniCa uses (and recommend their solution customers to use) DELO’s adhesives. In view of the relatively high adhesive quantity and the application’s price sensitivity, the adhesive manufacturer suggested using a two-component epoxy resin (2C Epoxy).

DELO fulfills AniCa’s requirements such as transparency and no discoloration after aging as to impair the readability of the display area. AniCa also attached great importance to high flexibility of the product to absorb the peeling and bending stress applied on the card when carried in pants pockets or wallets.

After own in-house tests and various tests in DELO’s labs, in which several pretreatment methods were verified and many peel tests were performed, AniCa chose DELO-DUOPOX AD821. This adhesive achieves a peel resistance of more than 5 N/cm on the PET lamination foil with an adhesive layer thickness of 350 µm, even after storage at +60 °C and 90 % air humidity, simulating harsh environmental influences. In addition, the product’s open time is sufficiently long, which is advantageous when using 2C adhesives for high production volumes. Finally, curing can be accelerated by applying temperatures that the electronic components can withstand.

The adhesive’s function in card cold lamination process is to embody the card by casting all components, bond cover faces. The casting and sheet laminating process can be semi-manual to save initial investment, if production volume is not high in the beginning, it can also be full automatic for real high volume mass production.

By using DELO’s adhesives, AniCa (and their solution customers) could implement a robust, scalable and cost efficient production process for display cards. Thus, the company and their solution customers are well prepared for both and increased market penetration for the cards, and new functions such as e-ink displays.