SPS significantly increases the life span of PVC cards thanks to Premium S-Lam® integrating Lobra adhesive

ROUSSET, France and THAL, Switzerland, June 15, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Financial institutions are in an increasingly competitive situation where they have to diversify their card offer while keeping costs under control. Until now, many banks were restrained in their choices by the limited duration of classical PVC that lead them to have replace payment cards before their nominal 4 or 5 years planned expiry. SPS is now introducing a solution to fit these market demands, developed with Lobra, a Swiss-based expert in adhesives: the Premium S-Lam®, that extends substantially the life span of dual interface PVC credit and debit cards.

Based on the company's longstanding experience in coating and laminating, Lobra understood and took into account the specific requirements of some of the most demanding customers in terms of card durability. In response to this market need Lobra has provided SPS with an innovative product thus ensuring it keeps its performance over many years, preventing card delamination or peeling.

Lobra's innovative product is laminated with the etched antenna to form the SPS Premium S-Lam®, integrating the SPS eBoost PAY® technology. Its exceptional resistance to aging has been qualified by extensive tests performed by Fogra (the Fogra Forschungsinstitut für Medientechnologien – Research Institute for Media Technologies), a German-based industry association specializing in evaluating the reliability and physical qualities of plastic products including plastic cards, ePassports and ID Cards.

SPS has been building upon its expertise in long life cycle documents developed for the identity industry in order to adapt it to the specific requirements of the banking card market. The identity market is not limited to ID cards and ePassports, it also includes a wide variety of PVC cards such as driving licenses, healthcare cards, voting cards, etc. that combine a need for a long life expectancy with a requirement for security features. As a result, the Premium S-Lam® is not only significantly more durable than regular PVC cards, it also remains compatible with all SPS security features for banking cards: colored core cards, colored modules, transparent cards and transparent windows, non-standard card formats, metallic or non-metallic foil, and more.

Andreas Looser, CEO of Lobra AG declares: "Our expertise allows us to develop adhesives that comply with most customer requirements. This innovative product has been designed for extended life duration, we can also deliver custom products that will have a specific resistance to peeling, a long shelf life or a specific visual aspect, on various types of plastic: PVC, PET, PC and ecofriendly materials. Our adhesives, combined with SPS technology, always make us reactive to specific market demands."

Jean-Baptiste Leos, Banking Product Marketing Director at SPS, adds: "With the inception of Premium S-Lam®, we are allowing financial institutions to benefit from technologies initially developed for the identity market. This way banks can issue long lifetime cards with a combination of security features that provide them with a unique brand image representation of the issuing financial institution."

SPS eBoost PAY® inductive coupling technology, which consists in using electromagnetic coupling between the antenna and the module (no physical connection between the chip and the antenna), is easy to integrate for all smart card manufacturers. As there is no physical connection between the small antenna embedded in the micromodule and the large antenna etched inside the card, cards are more durable and reliable. SPS eBoost PAY® micromodules for dual interface cards can be small (Dual6 micromodule) or large (Dual8 micromodule) to adapt easily to the wide variety of artworks designed by financial institutions marketing teams. Moreover, SPS eBoost PAY® supports all chips and all operating systems commonly used in the payment card environment.

About Lobra AG
Lobra AG is a coating company based in Switzerland that specializes in coating solutions for plastic cards and passports. Thanks to our own coating and adhesive development, customer-specific solutions can be optimally adapted to the process and product.

Innovation, flexibility and quality awareness are of highest importance. With a production site and 18 employees, Lobra AG exports its products all over the world. More information at http://www.lobra.ch

About SPS
With the SPS brand, IN Groupe opens its secure components technology to all card and document manufacturers. SPS is specialized in the design, manufacturing and sale of contactless solutions dedicated to ID cards, e-passport and dual interface banking cards. Headquartered in Rousset, France, with a subsidiary in Singapore, SPS employs 200 people. The company specializes in contactless and dual-interface products, with a recognized micro packaging expertise. SPS has filed over 120 patents supporting its exclusive technologies. More information at http://www.s-p-s.com

SPS is part of the IN Groupe.

A partner of the French government for close to 500 years, IN Groupe offers identity solutions and secure digital services, at the leading edge of technology and integrating electronics and biometrics.

From components to services and from documents to interoperable systems, IN Groupe is a global specialist in identity and secure digital services. The institution plays a daily role in facilitating everyone's life: helping states exercise their sovereignty, citizens protect their identity and businesses preserve their integrity.

Whatever the issue, IN Groupe, a company for digital sovereignty, contributes to asserting a fundamental right for everyone: the right to be you.

Based in Paris, the IN Groupe has two production centers and employs more than 1000 employees, of which over a third is dedicated to technology development.

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Contact: IN Groupe
Romain Galesne-Fontaine | +33 1 40 58 30 00     |     [email protected]

SOURCE SPS