International Standards

Recognising the importance of international standards in facilitating quality products and international trade, the IHMA has been active in the International Organisation for Standards (ISO) since 2008.

The Association has also participated in standards development with the European Federation of Graphics Associations (Intergraf) and the North American Security Products Organisation.

Through these organisations, the IHMA has contributed to the drafting of several standards.

ISO 14298: Management of security printing and security foil production processes. A standard applied by Intergraf and used by security printers and holograms manufacturers around the world, for which the IHMA wrote the Security Hologram Addendum so that hologram companies can become certified as security producers.

The standard specifies the steps that security printers and hologram manufacturers should follow to ensure that their processes are secure. Intergraf and NASPO both have certification auditors for this standard which require that, as a part of their risk reduction processes, hologram producers should use a hologram register to check the availability of proposed designs and to register their holograms.

At present this means the IHMA’s HIR as there is no other hologram register operating.

ISO 12931: Performance criteria for authentication solutions used in the field of material goods, which is obviously important to hologram producers who supply holograms for product and brand protection.

ISO 17901-1: Methods of measuring diffraction efficiency and associated optical characteristics of holograms.

ISO 17901-2: Methods for measurement of hologram recording characteristics.

These two parts of ISO 17901 give detailed methods for the measurement of key characteristics of holograms.

The IHMA also actively cooperates with the Authentication Solution Provider’s Association (ASPA) in India and Secure Identification Union (SIU) in China to further promote the use of HIR and ensure the highest professional, security and quality standards are maintained.