Portuguese ePassport success for Mühlbauer

New Portuguese electronic passports, which began rolling out in August this year, are being personalised by technology provided by Mühlbauer.

Mühlbauer says it has collaborated with Portuguese national printing agency, Imprensa Nacional Casa da Moeda (INCM), to provide a system which will personalise the estimated 400,000 new ePassports being issued in Portugal per year.

The supplier’s IDENTIFIER 5400 solution operates at a central location and incorporates laser personalization as well as ePassport chip encoding.

It was reported earlier this year that French smart card manufacturer Axalto – now Gemalto – was selected INCM to provide electronic covers as part of the country’s e-passport roll out. NXP (formerly Philips Semiconductors) is known to be a chip supplier to the project, and the chip is to be found in the ePassport’s back cover.

As well as the Portguese deal, Mühlbauer systems are also being used to help produce electronic passports in Austria, Germany, Hong Kong, Russia, Singapore, Slovenia, Sweden and Thailand, the company claims.