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Marking, coding and personalisation
Marking, coding and personalisation have been the core business of the Atlantic Zeiser Group for more than 50 years. The group is a world leader in industrial, high-security personalisation and encoding technologies. The company has years of experience in high-security print applications, especially banknote printing. Atlantic Zeiser is a leading innovator in the integration of inkjet technologies in the industrial environment and in high-performance systems for the personalisation of plastic cards. Atlantic Zeiser’s customers include security printers producing banknotes, passports and ID documents, card manufacturers producing phone cards, charge cards and gift cards, label and packaging printers and manufacturers of high-quality branded goods.
Today, Atlantic Zeiser employs around 400 employees all over the world; approximately 270 are based at the company headquarters in Emmingen while the rest work across nine subsidiaries in Europe, America and Asia. In addition, the company has sales and support offices in some 50 countries. In 2006 the company generated an annual turnover of 70 million in three main business areas: Card Systems, Document & Product Identity and Impact Numbering. Atlantic Zeiser is the world leader in the impact numbering sector. 95% of the world’s banknotes were individualised using Atlantic Zeiser technology.
From mechanics to electronic chips
The company was established in 1956 and rapidly evolved into a leading manufacturer of mechanical numbering equipment. In 1991, Zeiser merged with American company Atlantic Force Control Systems Inc. to create Atlantic Zeiser, becoming the world leader in numbering technologies. In the early 1990s, Atlantic Zeiser introduced industrial inkjet printing into the graphics industry, which gradually replaced mechanical numbering in the commercial print industry. With CardLine, a modular high-speed system for personalising cards, Atlantic Zeiser entered the booming plastic cards market and in just a few years became the world leader in high-speed card personalisation systems. In 2002, Swiss company Orell Füssli Holding acquired a majority share in Atlantic Zeiser. Two years later, Atlantic Zeiser delivered the first e-passport personalisation systems for programming biometric data. In parallel to this, product identification and tracking systems were developed and marketed.
Company founder Alois Zeiser managed the business until 1991, but since July 2006 – the year of the 50th company anniversary – Oliver C. Mehler has been running the company. Mr. Mehler has acquired many years of international management experience in the automotive and investment industry. He has earned a reputation for continuity, competence and honest collaboration with customers. Olivier Mehler is supported by the following management team: Claus Dick, responsible for finance and administration, Dr. Kurt Greinwald, in charge of technology, Georg Schillinger, who manages sales, and Dr. Hans Wyssmann for marketing.
Orell Füssli Holding, as the main shareholder in Atlantic Zeiser, is active in high-security print, the book trade, publishing and business information services.
Protecting values and promoting confidence
“Lots of the things you carry with you on a daily basis are manufactured with the assistance of Atlantic Zeiser: banknotes, plastic cards, passports, even mobile phone cards and RFID travel tickets for public transport”, explains Oliver Mehler. Efficient personalisation and individualisation of series and branded products is the company’s philosophy. As a systems integrator, Atlantic Zeiser works closely with customers around the world taking into account their individual needs to develop custom solutions for the application of all kinds of variable data on a wide variety of media. And this is achieved at the highest productivity levels and low direct costs – yet more benefits and competitive advantages provided by Atlantic Zeiser products.
Confidence, reliability and quality – this is why governments and industrial customers in print, plastic cards, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, banking, packaging, labels and cosmetics continue to request system solutions from this group of companies. At the same time, Atlantic Zeiser products ensure complete data and process integrity during processing of sensitive, variable customer data.
A wide range of technologies
Atlantic Zeiser works with the customer to develop specific solutions from a wide variety of modular components and scalable software platforms. Atlantic Zeiser uses the technologies most suited to meet the customer’s requirements. High-speed digital printing using inkjet technology, with special proprietary inks, is used for inscribing plastics, coated papers and film. Other technologies used include mechatronic numbering for long-run print goods, programming contactless smart chips (RFID), laser engraving on metal, plastic, glass and paper, magnetic strip encoding, labelling, real-time verification using special cameras and modular software platforms for product transport, product tracking and data verification.
