ID cards put to the test

Challenge Card Design, a leading manufacturer of ID cards is using a MultiTest 1-i computer-controlled product testing system for peel testing its laminated covered identity cards.

The adhesive bonding the laminate and identity card together has to be strong enough to withstand a high rate of day-to-day usage. The MultiTest 1-i, together with a 50N loadcell, small wedge grip and special floating peel jig is used to test the strength of the adhesion, to identify the minimum force required to separate the laminate from the identity card. This test complies with ISO standard, ISO/IEC 10373-1.

To perform the test, the laminate is cut into 4 equally-sized strips (10 mm width) with not less than 2mm space left uncut around the edge of the card. The floating peel jig enables the card to move smoothly under the rollers whilst the wedge grip performs the delamination at 300 mm/min. Emperor analysis software is used to plot a graph showing force in newtons against displacement values. This user-friendly software is pre-programmed to exclude the first and last 5mm and produce a final report on the findings of the test showing the minimum peel strength value over the region tested.