When I was a boy around 10 years old, I overheard my mother discussing
a recent death, and my mom said "He was a young man, just 45!"
I thought to myself, heck that is an old man, what is she talking about?
Now when I hear of someone passing away like the actor Dudley Moore,
I say "He was a young man, just 65!" It's all relative like
Einstein used to say.
Well it's the same with cards. A bank card issuer would be pleased as
punch to have a card last three-plus years, while a drivers license
issuer would say, "That's a young card to
fail so soon."
The US ANSI NCITS B10 Standards Committee (B10) has been working on
card service life issues since 1995. The first phase was to establish
accelerated testing methods for evaluating the durability of various
card features. The first B10 Card Durability Test Method Standard,
NCITS 322 was released in 1998 and a new edition is ready for publication.
B10 now has four card service life projects in place:
1. Capturing field failure data from a college student ID card (now
nearly halfway through a 4-year program).
2. Cooperative program with a major card issuer to capture field failure
data for credit cards.
3. Developing methods for classifying card service life parameters.
4. Application of statistical methods
to evaluate card service life test results.
This year, the International Card Standards Committee, ISO/IEC JTC1
SC17 WG1 (lets call it WG1 for short) has also begun work on establishing
accelerated methods to quantify card service life. At the last meeting
of WG1, Germany presented a sequence of card tests to evaluate the relative
durability of cards. The test sequence is intended to simulate accelerated
aging of cards. The philosophy of the German method is to do an overall
accelerated aging of the card, then evaluate the quality of the card.
The U.S. philosophy has been to develop accelerated aging test methods
of individual card features to simulate accelerated aging, then evaluate
the quality of the feature after the accelerated aging. I think there
is a need for both types of testing.
Most of the German accelerated aging tests use test methods already
available either from the ISO/IEC 10373 card test methods series developed
by WG1 or existing ISO tests. However, one of the promising new tests
uses a standard "dirt" which was developed as means of testing
banknotes. Cards are placed in a laboratory style vibrating machine
along with glass balls and the standard dirt.
France and Japan also had contributions for the first meeting. So now
the International WG1 committee is also moving forward, along with ANSI's
B10 to develop card service life standards.
Several ICMA members from around the world are participating in these
efforts. The results will not be standards in the usual card standard
context, but they will provide a platform for specifying, developing
and evaluating of card service life parameters.
In Appreciation!
John Rodakis has announced his retirement from card standards activities.
Formerly of Polaroid and now of Rodakis & Associates, John was a
key leader in starting work on card service life, serving as the first
chair of ANSI B10's card durability committee in 1995. John, a pioneer
in card industry standards, had many other firsts, including serving
as the first convenor of the ISO/IEC JTC1 SC17 WG10 Committee for International
Drivers Licenses. John will still be active in card development consulting.
Thanks John!
Please note that the opinions expressed here are the author's own
and have no sanctions, positive or negative, from U.S. or international
standards committees of which he is an officer and ICMA whom he represents
on the committees.