EA ON M H IT W N O I T A I C O S S A N I D E H S I L B U P VOLUME 2 / MARCH 2015 World Money Forum - On the Road to Optimized Innovation Everywhere Profitability More and more governments now consider their mints nothing but a profit centre with profit guarantee, and when this fails to happen, mints face closure. The mints’ response is to upgrade production in terms of volumes, speed and quality, which benefits the equipment suppliers. Visitors to the World Money Fair’s Technical Forum were given the chance to see the latest in production, some of which in On 29 January 2015 the 11th Technical 3-in-1 PVD coating terms of performance were amazing. Forum took place in Berlin at this year’s For example, the South African Mint’s Coated dies have a longer life expectancy, World Money Fair. 18 talks were on new packaging system can process without question. The only question the schedule, focusing on the latest 5 million coins every day – an remaining is that of the coating technique. innovations in the minting industry. Mint impressive number. PVD (physical vapour deposition) coating News Quarterly brings you an overview And yet …. mints are resorting to is becoming increasingly popular. In this of the most important developments. dumping prices in their fight for every process, the solid coating material is first order, to avoid idle capacity. Increasing sublimated and then resublimated on the Innovative Measurements automation will only lead to ever more surface of the object. Unlike the more The Austrian Mint has been testing excess capacity. At some point in traditional electroplating, PVD coating is Alicona’s optical 3D micro-coordinate the near future there simply won’t be a relatively clean procedure and subject measurement technique for application in enough work left for all mints. coin production. With promising results. to very little government regulation. Integrating a coating machine into existing Only the largest mints will survive, When trying to locate and eliminate or those who have made good use problematic areas in the manufacturing production requires only moderate additional effort. of their history to convince their process by die measuring, this is currently government and population that it With this in mind, Oerlikon Metaplas has the best technology there is. is a matter of national importance developed a machine that can execute Instead of just giving individual meter to have a national mint – even if it three different PVD coating processes points, the system produces a coherent would be cheaper to relocate coin – a combination that produces not only image of the entire die profile and production offshore. saves it for subsequent analysis and single layers of coating but complex architectural coating structures. A lot of money is currently being spent comparison with other profiles. Even on automation and the marketing of microscopically small irregularities which Inspection and Packaging commemorative coins – to the extent may cause problems during the minting that the cultivation of a mint’s image Mühlbauer has developed a method to process can be detected. as manufacturer of national money improve edge inspection with minimal The system also produces profiles of is considered a minor matter. This, additional effort that is as brilliant as it rimmed edges, as well as data sets however, might be a good strategy for is simple. Relying on an optical effect, needed for the manufacture of dies that smaller mints to ensure their survival. the peripheral mirror image of the coin are used to produce exact replicas of edge can be captured and inspected Ursula Kampmann – Editor existing coins. in one single shot. The edge inspection runs simultaneously with the inspection MINT NEWS QUARTERLY www.currency-news.com InfiniteFocusSL World Money Forum (Continued) InfiniteFocusSL is a cost-effective optic of the obverse and reverse, resulting minting in one step. The end result shows measuring system for the simple, fast in no additional time. The new system a significant overall improvement due and traceable measurement of micro- can inspect up to 3,000 coins a minute to the higher ductility of ring and core patterned surfaces, providing the and can be integrated into all existing before the joining stage. This means less opportunity to measure the form plus Mühlbauer systems. pressure is required for the minting, which the surface roughness of an object with INEA and InduVis, meanwhile, have jointly in turn leads to a longer life expectancy of just one device. developed a machine that combines the dies. Additionally the InfiniteFocusSL produces inspection and packaging. According to In recent years the Mint of Poland has brilliant colour pictures featuring a high the manufacturers, payback for the new been exploring the third dimension in contrast and depth of focus, while the system – RHINO – is just two years. coin production. After having successfully intelligent lighting technology allows it to It has lower energy consumption, minted a cylindrical coin, it went on to be used close to the measured object. fewer rejects, and is very easy to mint a coin shaped as a pyramid. The operate. It can also be upgraded to mint’s latest achievement in this field is the include 3D inspection, EMS checks minting of a spherical coin. and other features. New technologies for commemorative On the packaging front, the South coins also include a photonic coloured African Mint presented a brand new coin produced by the Royal Canadian system, produced by the French Mint. The colours are generated from company Velec. This fully automated, nano-structures created during minting, self-unjamming packaging system can rather than via the application of dyes count and package 5 million coins a day or pigments. And unlike the colour – with no human intervention required. effects generated by holography, they are fixed so do not change according Commemorative Coins to the viewing angle. Even more technological innovations The nanostructures are created by a have sprung up in the commemorative specialised laser technique, and the coin sector. colours themselves are produced through the selection and control of parameters Dr Gerd Wagner from Reischauer such as nano particle size, spacing presented an entirely new type of blank between the particles, or materials – the hd-pro blank. This has significantly characteristics. A patent for the new higher ductility, which means better technology is pending. It is likely to plasticity, and a profile that provides more make its first commercial appearance metal to create higher reliefs at relatively on a commemorative coin, but the RCM low pressure. envisages it being used as a security CCI Edge Inspect In cooperation with the Berlin Mint, Sack feature on circulating coins as well. & Kiesselbach has introduced a feeding Summaries of all the presentations at the CCI Edge Inspect is Mühlbauer’s system for the TMP (Tisch Medaillen Technical Forum can be found at TEMA Vision multi-purpose inspection Presse) which joins the ring and core of module for edge inspection of coins bi-metal blanks and combines this with www.worldmoneyfair.de. (blank edge, lettering, and serration). It is suitable for blanks, circulation coins, collector coins and bullion coins featuring a diameter of 26-36mm. The hardware can be easily changed for other diameters. RHINO – the High Speed CCI Edge Inspect provides high precision inspection combining surface and Blanks Sorting Machine edge inspection in one distortion-free The high speed blanks sorting RHINO can handle up to 3,000 pieces per analysis image. It can be integrated into machine RHINO from Inea and InduVis minute. It measures objects from 9-40mm Mühlbauer’s fully automatic coin inspection incorporates a 2D and 3D scanner, in diameter and 0.75-3.3mm thickness. machine Coin Inspect. It can also be used enabling it to detect and differentiate It detects surface and colour defects as a separate conveyor solution for edge between all known defects on complex starting from 0.12mm². inspection and as a manual laboratory surfaces such as coins, including solution for spot check edge inspection. bubbles and dents. The machine is based on proven mechanical concepts that, say the two companies, provide high reliability, process control and sorting accuracy. The customer can choose between one or more reject stations which allows coins to be sorted to different quality levels or by different kind of defects. The machine can also be configured and used for the inspection of circulation coins and other similar parts. 2 MINT NEWS QUARTERLY VOLUME 2 | MARCH 2015 Royal Australian Mint SAVE Act – Well-Intentioned, Celebrates 50th Anniversary Badly Worded On 22 February 1965, HRH Prince Since its opening, the Royal Australian In January the SAVE Act was Philip officially opened the Royal Mint has produced more than 15 billion introduced by Rep Patrick Murphy in Australian Mint, which had been circulation coins, and is the only to make the US House of Representatives. The built to produce the new Australian Australian circulation coins. While the 60 page bill is intended to cut wasteful decimal currency. Perth Mint, controlled by the Government spending by the US government, with of Western Australia since 1970, mainly the minting of coins also targeted. In 1959, the Australian government refines and strikes gold and silver, the appointed the Decimal Currency The bill proposes that ‘the Secretary may Royal Australian Mint has established Committee to investigate the not mint or issue any coin that costs more its reputation as a centre of excellence introduction of an entirely new decimal to produce than the denomination of the that assists countries in issuing new coin currency. The Committee’s report the coin (including labor, materials, dies, use of series.