Download Annual Report 2006 - Mühlbauer Group

06 COMPANY PROFILEA changing world is forever making new demands. Smart Cards and electronic passportsare replacing conventional ID. Mühlbauer and its staff are blazing the trail for those companiesthat enable and push ahead this development – in a dialogue between experience andinnovation.Cards & TECURITY ®Try to imagine life without Smart Cards. We use them on a daily basis, as a means of payment,for information and for the purpose of identification. The idea behind Smart Cards evolved as aresult of our modern society that increasingly requires machine-readable data media of thesize of a credit card. The first cards featured magnetic strips. To minimize manipulation, however,intelligence has, so to speak, since been integrated into the chip card. The incorporationof micro-electronic circuits gave birth to our modern Smart Card.These days the Smart Card has become a mass product, although it often still remains unique:as inimitable and distinctive as its holder. It is a long way from a silicon chip to a personalized,machine-readable ID card – and no one knows this better than the Mühlbauer Group. SmartCards are high performers: they must be hard to forge and easy to test for authenticity. Authorizedbodies want to read and compare the data quickly. Chip cards need to be robust and durable,as well as flexible. Sophisticated production technologies are required for all this to becomepossible. And this is precisely where Mühlbauer’s core business lies. Mühlbauer offerscomplete solutions for all feasible applications – from planning to technology transfer to productionsupport. Experience, exceptional expertise and an indefatigable will to perform have madethe Mühlbauer technology group the market leader for this segment.In recent years, Smart Card’s function as proof of identity, in particular, hasgained importance. A total of 27 countries already participate in theVisa Waiver program, which enables entry into the USA without avisa and requires machine-readable ID. A market with tremendouspotential has evolved around ePassports. Other applications, however,such as electronic driver’s licenses or health cards have alsoboosted demand. Mühlbauer's reaction towards this developmentis innovative personalization, data recording and product managementsystems. After all, we are always open to our customers’ requests.In the UK, we provide the technology for theproduction of the electronic driver’s license. Spain purchasespersonalization solutions for the world’s first decentralizedID card project from Mühlbauer. In Portugaland eight further countries we are involved in the productionof the biometric ePassport.We are permanently expanding our international presence and pushing ahead our innovativestrength, the momentum and the unconditional motivation required to not only remain the leaderin our core business Cards & TECURITY ® , but to constantly further extend our market position.