ANTICOUNTERFEITING | TECHNOLOGY Tags keep tabs on plastics
Microscopic markers allow traceability of plastic materials as an anticounterfeiting solution but also present a potential means to sort and authenticate recycled plastics. Jennifer Markarian learns more
Counterfeit products are a serious and growing problem. They can certainly cause economic losses, but they can also damage a brand’s reputation and even harm the end-user if the counterfeited item doesn’t perform as expected. “Globally, we have seen an increase in unauthor-
ised production (excess production of genuine product sold outside approved retail chains), illegitimate production (fake/sub-standard prod- uct), and diversion (movement of genuine product between markets/customers to avail of arbitrage opportunities),” says Barry McDonogh, Senior Vice President of Sales and Business Development at US-headquartered TruTag Technologies. The surge in demand for medical devices and personal protective equipment (PPE) over the past year — and the global shortages that resulted —pre- sented a huge opportunity for producers of counterfeit goods, putting users at risk and posing liability issues for brands. Anticounterfeiting solutions for marking legitimate products are seen by many as part of the solution to this problem. A range of techniques are used to uniquely identify a brand’s product and prevent copying, including
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visible methods such as laser-marking with the brand’s text or images, use of holograms, or use of certain colours associated with the brand. “With laser marking, you can make a product
unique, providing useful technical information (from series numbers to QR codes) as well as consumer-related information such as designs and texts to make your brand stronger,” explains Diego Karpeles, Corporate Brand Manager at Austrian masterbatch maker Gabriel-Chemie, which offers additive masterbatches that enable laser marking. Because overt markings are at risk of counter-
feiting, however, they may be used in combination with — or replaced by — covert markings that are invisible to the eye but detected by a device that scans the product to look for the mark. This might be a printed image detectable only under ultravio- let (UV) light or a phosphor particle that emits visible light under infrared (IR) light. Luminescent phosphors in a variety of forms, including powder and masterbatch, are available from Microtrace but the company cautions that this solution provides a relatively low level of anticounterfeiting security because it can be
Main image: Markers such as ValiDotz are invisible to the naked eye and can be
embedded in plastics during processing to provide secure product or package authentication
December 2020 | COMPOUNDING WORLD 51
IMAGE: DOTZ
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