Anti-counterfeit technology to protect the brand

Counterfeiting has penetrated into every area of ​​our daily life. Whether it is daily consumer goods or luxury goods, hardware or software, textiles, sporting goods, automobiles, aircraft accessories, or even pharmaceuticals that affect human lives, there are many counterfeit products, and there is still a tendency to expand in various fields.

From some data, it can be seen that in 2003, the total value of counterfeit products confiscated by German customs increased rapidly, reaching 178 million euros compared with the previous year. According to the statistics of the German Anti-Piracy Association (VBP), counterfeit products have caused as many as 70,000 working days each year to be wasted. With so much Germany alone, what is the world like?

Therefore, it is very urgent to provide effective brand protection measures, especially at the stage of product packaging. Because of this, KBA recently promoted brand protection as the theme of the conference at the MMK seminar in Radebeul.

At the beginning of the conference, Koenig & Bauer company and its partners Epple Druckfarben (ink) company and Terra Lacke (Paint oil) company showed all the current anti-counterfeiting methods for prints, such as holographic anti-counterfeiting, Visual Effects, watermarking, coating and Spot colors and so on.

CIT image hiding technology

This is a very effective new technology provided by StarBoard Technologies of Or Akiva, Israel. This kind of cheap and reliable anti-counterfeit method, it compiles the two-dimensional and three-dimensional images invisible to the naked eye, only a special decoder lens can be identified. These images can be printed using different printing methods, including offset, gravure and flexo. The customer's personal files are first processed with StarBoard Technologies software and then sent to the normal prepress process. Pixels and plots are processed in this way, and information is embedded in images that are invisible to the naked eye. These hidden images can only be decoded or reproduced, otherwise expensive costs and unknown results will have to be considered because the scanner can only recognize visible images and cannot decode them. Another advantage of this technology is that it requires only an optical decoder (decoder lens) to identify the authenticity of the product. The optical decoding lens corresponds to the programmed image one by one, just like a key with a lock. Moreover, the decoding lens does not require a power supply or a special discrimination method, such as a chemical discrimination method.

In order to carry out brand protection throughout the entire process chain (from production to packaging to sales). We can apply multiple hidden images to one and even the same package. And these images can be identified with corresponding single or multiple combined decoding lenses.

Technology hidden in the coating

So far, the CIT technology for screen image data is not yet mature. The coded information cannot be embedded outside the screened element, so the current technology cannot be used in some brand-specific color blocks. Based on this background, at the seminar, the new development proposed by Mr. Jürgen Veil, sales director of KBA's sheetfed offset printing, and his process technology team is undoubtedly a revolution. After countless trials, they successfully developed a technique that uses different optical oil differences to allow CIT images to be placed anywhere on the paper, including non-screening areas, making it impossible for pirates to copy CIT images. People attending the seminar can watch live demonstrations of the Rapida 105.

DNA trademark

Germany has developed two improved anti-counterfeiting methods based on recognition technology. Molecular fingerprinting technology uses a high-precision keyboard coding mechanism to provide basic anti-counterfeiting protection based on synthetic DNA. Between 1012 and 1016, special user code can be generated. Usually these codes are pasted as labels or printed directly on folding cartons and other products. The seminar demonstrated the use of inkjet printing on food packaging for anti-counterfeiting labels. This practical example provides valid evidence for the following three steps.

â–  Determination of related value (single-stranded DNA)
â–  Incorporation into the trademark (Addition of the second DNA strand)
â–  Confirmation of the machine-readable signal It is believed that it is only a matter of time to incorporate this technology into offset printing.

High-security trademarks with nano-optical barcodes are another possible way to distinguish between genuine and defective products. In this case, a label consists of a reflective layer, a barrier film, and a metal layer with nanoparticles. The label is attached as a seal to the product packaging and adds more than 15 parameters of coding information to the label. This tag can also incorporate other additional elements such as company logos and bar codes. The authenticity of this seal is determined by a dedicated portable scanner or high-speed reader.

Live Demo

All technologies proposed during the seminar are based on practical applications. In addition, Epple and Terra Lacke, suppliers of inks and coatings, have also proposed some very simple methods to prevent piracy through the use of specialty inks and coatings. The cardboard used for various demonstrations on KBA Rapida large format, medium format and small format presses is the GC2 and GD3 supplied by Mayr-Melnhof Karton.

These techniques and processes are undoubtedly used on prints that are most in need of anti-counterfeiting (such as modern banknotes), and these prints often have complicated production processes. Hans Jong Hirsch, business manager of brand protection and anti-counterfeit systems at KBA-GIORI.SA, a subsidiary of KBA, said. His words undoubtedly demonstrated KBA's strong competitive advantage in security printing. It is expected that some anti-counterfeiting printing methods will be applied to packaging in a simple and timely manner.

Source: Global Box Industry