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De La Rue Currency Knowledge Exchange Case Study

University of Plymouth and De La Rue Currency Case Study
Knowledge Exchange

As the world's largest commercial currency printer and papermaker, De La Rue Currency is involved in the production of more than 150 currencies.

De La Rue Currency provides market-leading banknote paper, printed banknotes and a substantial portfolio of banknote security features, including cylinder mould watermarks, security threads, a wide range of printed features and sophisticated optically-variable devices. De La Rue's banknote design and production facilities are unrivalled in the industry, providing the company with significant business capacity, flexibility and capability.

The company's aim is simple – to make life easier for their customers and more difficult for the counterfeiter.  A Knowledge Exchange project with the University of Plymouth has made a major contribution to improving their ability to achieve this goal.
University staff worked with De La Rue over a period of several months to design a quality assurance system for a specialist security thread used in their banknotes. The University team worked to tight deadlines to meet De La Rue’s production start date for the manufacture of their new technology thread. The project involved a combination of mechanical design, sophisticated magnetic sensor design, electronics, partnership working with another De La Rue subcontractor and installation and commissioning on site.

The patented technology used in the magnetic sensors was invented by University of Plymouth academics and has also been used to provide applied solutions for a number of other companies. The University technology was applied specifically to the De La Rue requirement and has resulted in a completely bespoke system which has now provided quality assurance for over 2 billion banknotes!

De La Rue is delighted with the system and the partnership continues with University of Plymouth provision of technical support and periodic calibration of the magnetic sensors. The company has benefited greatly from the application of the novel technology and the rare academic skills employed to support their mission critical project.


“We have enjoyed an excellent working relationship with the University of Plymouth team whose expertise and technology have produced a tailored and robust solution for our on-line QA process”
Dr. Jim Snelling, Research Manager – Overton Technology Centre, De La Rue International