WINDSOR — Cardxx Inc., a Windsor-based manufacturer of contacted and contactless smartcards, has merged with International Interchange Corp. and launched itself as a public company.

Cardxx is a 3-year-old company spun off from Icon Industries Inc. Icon, also based in Windsor, incubates new companies and takes their products to market. Cardxx and Icon share space at their Windsor facility, and Icon CEO Harry Tiffany and Chief Operating Officer James Anderson serve as director of operations and chief operating officer of Cardxx respectively. Frank Leo is chairman and CEO.

The company has developed a patented process to manufacture plastic cards that store silicon microprocessors and antennae that hold and transmit information about the card user.

Cardxx merged with International Interchange Corp. in order to go public and take the company to the next level, Tiffany said.

International Interchange was a Nevada corporation — an inactive shell company with public status, explained Phillip Worack president of LKS Communications, the Denver public-relations company promoting the deal. Cardxx performed a reverse merger acquisition into that existing public company in order to achieve public status without filing an initial public offering.

The merger came as part of an aggressive growth plan to occur over the next 12 months, Tiffany said. The plan includes marketing the Cardxx technology and changing the card industry from laminated manufacture to molding.

The merger has yet to affect the company directly, but within the next few months, a dramatic change will occur, Tiffany said.

He expects production of Cardxx products to double in the next year. To accommodate for increased production, the company will double its staff, which currently stands at 22.

“The potential growth for Cardxx is huge,” he said.

While smartcards are prevalent in Europe, many areas of the world have yet to adopt the concept. The company¹s patented System T-9 process creates a card with a life span that is four to five times greater than traditional laminated cards. Smartcards are produced using a low-pressure, low-temperature, cold flow technique that immerses the electronics (the chip and antennae) in the card during the manufacture process so the information cannot be removed without destroying it.

The process produces a highly secure card with greater physical flexibility and durability than laminated cards, and cards are produced at a faster rate: 9,000 smartcards produced per hour, compared with 3,000 laminated cards produced per hour, according to company statements.

Cardxx has received an order for 1.6 million cards from Westinghouse Electric Corp., and the company also supplies licenses and technology to other card manufacturers, issuers and system integrators.

Tiffany hopes that within the next 12 to 24 months, Cardxx will be on the Nasdaq stock exchange. A Nasdaq listing would increase company exposure dramatically and give the company more credibility, he said. Currently, Cardxx shares are being traded on the Over-the-Counter bulletin board at about $5.50 per share, under the symbol CXCX.