Hot embossing of diffractive optically variable images in biaxially-oriented polypropylene

The hot embossing of grating-based optically variable devices has been demonstrated in biaxially-oriented polypropylene (BOPP). Embossing of the grating structures was examined over a range of temperatures (80–155 °C) at 135 kN force. However, only at temperatures above the glass transition temperature, Tg, was high quality replication achieved over a full embossing area of 80 × 80 mm. The embossing of several different types of optically variable device has been examined including portrait, non-portrait and 3-dimensional images. The images embossed into BOPP have displayed an optically variable effect when viewed in transmitted light.