The Paspomaat

n the Netherlands official travel documents are produced by the central government while applicants receive their passports at municipal offices issuing them. The Paspomaat system has been developed to safely and efficiently issue travel documents.

Security, service and efficiency improvement, and gaining time are important advantages the Paspomaat has to offer.

The actual core of the system is the stock unit where  documents are safely kept from the moment they come in until the moment they are issued to customers. This stock unit is kept in a safe area.


All travel and identity documents are supplied by SDU (State Publishing and Printing House). They are then checked and registered. Each individual document is scanned by a 'reader' and sealed in a special envelope. Finally the envelopes are transported from the filling station to the stock unit using a special pneumatic dispatch system.

Local software automatically supplies the Paspomaat with all the necessary data. The Paspomaat has no other connection or link at all with any other administrative system within the organisation.

Paspomaat's modular stock unit allows you to determine the number of stock positions  you want. When travel documents are issued, the bar code of each applicant's form is scanned. A hand scanner comes with the system for this purpose. The Paspomaat operating system decodes the scanned information into the instruction to pick up the right document. The system sends the desired document to the concerned service desk  at a speed of about 10 mtrs/s. Generally it will take less than 25 seconds between scanning the form until delivery of the document!