Patents by Inventor Manfred Heim

Manfred Heim has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20110101670
    Abstract: The invention relates to a security element of at least one thin layer element in form of a multi-layer composition, capable of interference. The multi-layer composition, capable of interference, consists of at least one reflecting layer, at least one partially transmitting layer and at least one dielectric layer arranged between these layers. According to the invention the security element comprises in a first region a multitude of gaps in the reflecting layer and in a second region at least one gap or a multitude of gaps in the partially transmitting layer. Herein the second region is arranged at least partially within the first region and the total area of the second region, which is at least partially arranged within the first region, is smaller than the total area of the first region. Therefore the security element displays, when viewed from the partially transmitting layer, a different appearance in top view than in transmission view.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 28, 2009
    Publication date: May 5, 2011
    Applicant: Giesecke & Devrient GmbH
    Inventor: Manfred Heim
  • Publication number: 20110095518
    Abstract: A security element for securing valuable articles comprises an optically variable layer (18) that conveys different color impressions at different viewing angles, and a color-constant layer (17, 24). The optically variable layer (18) and the color-constant layer (17, 24) are stacked in a covering region (20), while at most one of the optically variable layer (18) and the color-constant layer (17, 24) is present outside (22) the covering region. The color impression of the stacked layers (18, 17, 24) in the covering region (20) and the color impression of the one layer (18) outside (22) the covering region are matched with each other when viewed at a predetermined viewing angle. Further, the color-constant layer comprises an ink layer (17) and a metal layer arranged below the ink layer (24).
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 2, 2009
    Publication date: April 28, 2011
    Applicant: GIESECKE & DEVRIENT GMBH
    Inventors: Winfried Hoffmuller, Marius Dichtl, Stefan Bichlmeier, Lars Hoffmann, Manfred Heim
  • Publication number: 20110091665
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a security element composed of at least one light-transmitting substrate on which a substantially opaque, screened layer composed of grid elements is located. According to the present invention, within the substantially opaque, screened layer composed of grid elements, at least one thin, solid, substantially opaque line is arranged that exhibits the form of at least one alphanumeric character, a graphic or a pattern. Such lines have line widths of at least 0.1 mm to 5 mm, preferably of 0.2 mm to 0.7 mm, particularly preferably of about 0.5 mm. Instead of lines, also extensive regions without any gap may be used, such that the alphanumeric character, pattern or graphic formed is perceptible only in transmitted light, but not in reflected light. The security element thus displays, at least when viewed from the side of the substantially opaque, screened layer, in top view, a different appearance than when looked through.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 28, 2009
    Publication date: April 21, 2011
    Applicant: Giesecke & Devrient GmbH
    Inventor: Manfred Heim
  • Patent number: 7929124
    Abstract: The invention relates to an object of value with a security element, which has at least one liquid-crystalline material, the liquid-crystalline material effecting a linear polarization of light.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 12, 2004
    Date of Patent: April 19, 2011
    Assignee: Giesecke & Devrient GmbH
    Inventors: Juergen Schuetzmann, Bernd Wunderer, Manfred Heim
  • Patent number: 7923097
    Abstract: The invention relates to a security element for security papers, documents of value and the like having a thin-layer element (12) with color shift effect, which has a reflection layer (14), an absorber layer (18) and a spacer layer (16) disposed between reflection layer (14) and absorber layer (18). According to the invention the spacer layer (16) is formed by a printed layer having dispersion particles (20) with monomodal or oligomodal size distribution.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 9, 2004
    Date of Patent: April 12, 2011
    Assignee: Giesecke & Devrient GmbH
    Inventors: Manfred Heim, Ralf Liebler, Markus Krombholz
  • Publication number: 20110079997
    Abstract: The invention relates to a security element (22) for securing items of value, with a relief structure (22) on which a thin film element (24) having a color shift effect is superposed in an overlap zone, wherein the thin film element (24) includes an absorber layer (30) with gaps (32), in the zone of which a color shift effect is not visible, and with a semitransparent ink layer (34), which is superposed on the thin film element (24) and the relief structure (22) in the area of the gaps (32) in the absorber layer (30), wherein the color impression of the thin film element (24) is coordinated with at least a partial zone of the semitransparent ink layer (34) when viewed under predefined viewing conditions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 17, 2008
    Publication date: April 7, 2011
    Applicant: GIESECKE & DEVRIENT GMBH
    Inventor: Manfred Heim
  • Publication number: 20110045248
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for producing a micropattern on a substrate (22), in which a substrate (22) is provided with a relief pattern (26, 28) that exhibits elevations (26) and depressions (28), and in which the elevations (26) and/or depressions (26) are arranged in the form of the desired micropattern, and with a printing tool, an imprint material (30; 34) is transferred to the relief pattern (26, 28), the viscosity of the imprint material (30; 34) being chosen such that the imprint material (30; 34) is selectively transferred either substantially only onto the elevations (26) or substantially only into the depressions (28) of the relief pattern.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 17, 2008
    Publication date: February 24, 2011
    Applicant: GIESECKE & DEVRIENT GMBH
    Inventors: Winfried HOFFMULLER, Theodor BURCHARD, Marius DICHTL, Patrick RENNER, Michael RAHM, Manfred HEIM, Lars HOFFMANN, Manfred DOTZLER, Ralf LIEBLER, Mario KELLER
  • Publication number: 20110027538
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for producing, for the depiction of a specified motif, a micro-optical depiction arrangement (30) that exhibits a colored motif grid, composed of a plurality of micromotif elements (50, 52), and a focusing element grid, composed of a plurality of microfocusing elements (40), that reconstructs the specified motif when the micromotif elements (50, 52) are viewed, and in the method, T1) a first substrate foil (32) having opposing main surfaces (34, 36) is provided, and an embossing lacquer (38) is applied on a first main surface (34) of the first substrate foil (32) and is embossed in the form of the focusing element grid composed of an at least locally periodic arrangement of a plurality of microfocusing elements (40), T2) a second substrate foil (42) having opposing main surfaces (44, 46) is provided, and an arrangement of colored micromotif elements (50, 52) is produced in the form of the motif grid on a first main surface (44) of the second substrate foil (42), and
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 1, 2009
    Publication date: February 3, 2011
    Applicant: GIESECKE & DEVRIENT GMBH
    Inventors: Lars Hoffmann, Manfred Dotzler, Manfred Heim, Marius Dichtl, Michael Rahm, Ralf Liebler
  • Publication number: 20110012337
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a security element (20) for securing valuable articles, in which a thin-film element (32) having a color-shift effect and a relief pattern (26) present in an embossing lacquer layer (24) are stacked, the embossing lacquer layer (24) having the relief pattern (26) is metalized (28) in sub-regions, and the relief pattern (26) of the partially metalized embossing lacquer layer (24, 28) is leveled with a transparent lacquer layer (30) whose refractive index substantially corresponds to the refractive index of the embossing lacquer layer (24).
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 17, 2009
    Publication date: January 20, 2011
    Applicant: GIESECKE & DEVRIENT GMBH
    Inventor: Manfred Heim
  • Publication number: 20110007374
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a security element (12) for protecting valuable articles, having a thin-film element (30) that has a color-shift effect and that includes an absorber layer (36) having gaps (38) in the region of which no color-shift effect is perceptible, and a relief pattern (26) that is arranged only in gapped absorber layer regions (38) below the thin-film element (30).
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 3, 2009
    Publication date: January 13, 2011
    Applicant: GIESECKE & DEVRIENT GMBH
    Inventor: Manfred Heim
  • Patent number: 7849993
    Abstract: The invention relates to sheet material having an electrical circuit and to apparatuses and methods for processing said sheet material. The present invention describes sheet material having an electrical circuit as well as apparatuses and methods for processing same, which reduce the effort required for processing the sheet material and/or facilitate processing and/or improve it and/or make it more reliable. For this purpose, the sheet material has at least one electrical circuit, with energy and/or data being transmitted from the apparatus to the electrical circuit and/or from the electrical circuit to the apparatus and at least part of the transmitted data being used for processing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2002
    Date of Patent: December 14, 2010
    Assignee: Giesecke & Devrient GmbH
    Inventors: Klaus Finkenzeller, Thomas Giering, Manfred Heim, Thomas Hildebrandt, Ralf Hobmeier, Lars Hoffmann, Norbert Holl, Wittich Kaule, Friedrich Kretschmar, Markus Krombholz, Ralf Liebler, Thorsten Pillo, Harald Reiner, Walter Schneider, Eckart Schroeder-Bergen, Martin Seysen, Dieter Stein, Alexander Steinkogler, Christian Voellmer, Bernd Wunderer, Fabiola Bellersheim, Marius Dichtl, Juergen Schuetzmann
  • Publication number: 20100308570
    Abstract: The invention relates to a security element (12) for securing value objects, with a thin film element (22) with color shift effect, a semitransparent ink layer (34), which is disposed on top of the thin film element (22) in first zones (30), wherein the color impression of the thin film element (22) is coordinated with the color impression of at least one subzone of the semitransparent ink layer (34) when viewed under predefined viewing conditions, and a transparent phase delay layer (36), which is disposed on top of the thin film element (22) in second zones, and which forms a phase-shifting layer for light in the visible wavelength range.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 17, 2008
    Publication date: December 9, 2010
    Applicant: GIESECKE & DEVRIENT GMBH
    Inventor: Manfred Heim
  • Publication number: 20100307705
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a security element (20) for security papers, value documents and the like, having a feature region (24) that selectively influences incident electromagnetic radiation (30). According to the present invention, it is provided that the feature region (24) includes metallic nanopatterns (28) in which volume or surface plasmons are excited and/or resonance effects are caused by the incident electromagnetic radiation (30).
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 17, 2008
    Publication date: December 9, 2010
    Applicant: GIESECKE & DEVRIENT GMBH
    Inventors: Michael Rahm, Marius Dichtl, Manfred Heim, Hans Lochbihler, Thomas Kampfe, Thomas Pertsch, Jorg Petschulat, Ernst-Bernhard Kley
  • Patent number: 7808605
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a foil material for transfer to a target substrate, and methods for manufacturing such a foil material. In a method according to the present invention, a plastic substrate foil (32) is provided that is suitable for aligning liquid crystal material. To the substrate foil (32) is discontiguously applied a layer (34) comprising a liquid crystal material that is aligned.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 29, 2005
    Date of Patent: October 5, 2010
    Assignee: Giesecke & Devrient GmbH
    Inventors: Winfried Hoffmuller, Theodor Burchard, Thorsten Pillo, Manfred Heim
  • Publication number: 20100219245
    Abstract: The invention relates to a security element for securing documents of value. Along the security element a portion of a magnetic coding with first and second coding elements is arranged. The coding elements are arranged along a predetermined direction, wherein the first coding element continuously has along the predetermined direction a first magnetic region with a first coercive field strength and the second coding element has at least one first gap region and one second magnetic region with a second coercive field strength. At least one of the first magnetic regions is directly adjacent to at least one of the second magnetic regions. The sum of the lengths of the directly adjacent first and second magnetic regions amounts to a maximum of 8 mm.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 3, 2008
    Publication date: September 2, 2010
    Applicant: GIESECKE & DEVRIENT GMBH
    Inventors: Jürgen Schützmann, Wolfgang Rauscher, Manfred Heim, Friedrich Kretschmar, Frank Pitter, Dieter Stein
  • Publication number: 20100207376
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a security element (20) for security papers, value documents and the like, having a substrate (22) and an opaque metallization 24, 26) arranged on the substrate. According to the invention in the security element is provided, that the metallization (24, 26) comprises a first opaque metal layer (24) and a second opaque metal layer (26) arranged above the first metal layer (24), and that the two metal layers (24, 26) have substantially the same tone of color in the visible spectral region.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 8, 2007
    Publication date: August 19, 2010
    Inventors: Manfred Heim, Bernhard Wiedner, Marius Dichtl, Mario Keller
  • Publication number: 20100194091
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a see-through security element (12), for security papers, value documents and the like, having at least one micropattern having a visual appearance that is viewing-angle dependent when looked through (26, 28). According to the present invention, the at least one micropattern is formed from an arrangement of a plurality of pattern elements (24) having a characteristic pattern spacing of 1 ?m or more, and the see-through security element (12) exhibits a total thickness of 50 ?m or less.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 16, 2007
    Publication date: August 5, 2010
    Inventors: Manfred Heim, Marius Dichtl, Michael Rahm
  • Publication number: 20100164217
    Abstract: A method for manufacturing a security feature for a security element, a security paper or a data carrier that exhibits a substrate into which at least one through opening and at least one marking in registration with the through opening are to be introduced.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 19, 2008
    Publication date: July 1, 2010
    Applicant: GIESECKE & DEVRIENT GMBH
    Inventors: André Gregarek, Manfred Heim, Bernhard Wiedner
  • Patent number: 7744129
    Abstract: An areal security element for security papers, documents of value and the like, with at least two different areal security features (20, 22) disposed one above the other, which each are recognizable upon viewing the security element from opposite sides, wherein the first security feature (20) has a thin-layer element (42) provided with an areal diffraction structure (46) with color shift effect, which contains a first reflection layer (40) with a first color effect, the second security feature (22) has a second reflection layer (44) provided with an areal diffraction structure (46) for producing a diffractive image, which shows a second color effect different from the first color effect, and wherein the thin-layer element (42) of the first security feature (20) and the reflection layer (44) of the second security feature (22) are provided with the same areal diffraction structure (46).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2004
    Date of Patent: June 29, 2010
    Assignee: Giesecke & Devrient GmbH
    Inventor: Manfred Heim
  • Patent number: 7699350
    Abstract: A security element 2, 4 for embedding in or application to a security document in such a way that it is visually recognizable from both sides of the security document 1, is structured in a multilayer fashion and includes two interference elements I1, I2 with color shift effect, a metallic reflection layer R located in between as well as, optionally, diffraction structures 8. Depending on the disposition of the layers I1, R, I2 and the optionally present diffraction structures 8 on a transparent substrate S the color shift effect and/or the diffractive effects are perceptible from one or from both sides of the security element 2, 4. The security element is particularly suitable as a two-sided window thread 4 and as a label or transfer element 2 above a hole 3 in the security document 1.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2003
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2010
    Assignee: Giesecke & Devrient GmbH
    Inventor: Manfred Heim