Product category:
Printing Presses and Machinery (New and Used, Service and Repair)
News Release from: KBA | Subject: Rapida 105
Edited by the Printingtalk Editorial
Team on 29 November 2004
Print Technologies To Combat Brands
Forgeries
The subject of brand piracy today permeates practically every sphere of daily life.
The subject of brand piracy today permeates practically every sphere of daily life Whether consumer goods, spare parts for aircraft, or even sensitive pharmaceuticals, the spectrum of fake products is growing continuously
This article was originally published on Printingtalk on 24 Mar 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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To place a figure on the development, the value of fake brand products confiscated by just the German customs in 2003 rocketed by 134 per cent compared to the previous year to reach 178m Euros, said German press manufacturer KBA.
According to the calculations of the German Anti-Piracy Association (VBP), such forgeries wipe out up to 70,000 jobs each year in Germany alone and hundreds of thousands worldwide.
That illustrates the necessity to implement effective measures for brand protection also at the stage of packaging production.
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When KBA unveiled a new Rapida 105 at Drupa, a similar press had already been put through its paces for several months at the pharmaceutical centre run by the Rob Leunis and Chapman Group (RLC).
The subject was prominent on the agenda of this year's Mayr-Melnhof Karton (MMK) Symposium at the KBA facility in Radebeul (Germany).
KBA and its partners from Epple Druckfarben (inks) and Terra Lacke (varnishes) gave an overview of currently known options for security markings on printed products, such as holograms, visual effects, watermarks, coatings, special tints and others.
One new alternative was offered by Starboard Technologies in Israel.
As a supplier of Concealed Image Technologies (CIT), Starboard has developed whatis claiemd to be an inexpensive and reliable method of security marking using encrypted 2D and 3D images that remain invisible to the naked eye and can only be recognised under a special decoding lens.
Those images can be applied with a variety of printing techniques, including offset, gravure and flexo.
The customer's individual files are processed ahead of the normal pre-press using the Starboard software, whereby the pixels and line segments are manipulated in such a way that the information implanted in the image remains hidden to the eye.
The 'hidden images' can only be decoded or reproduced, if at all, with considerable outlay and with questionable results, as scanners capture only the visible image, not the coding said KBA.
A further advantage is that the method requires only an optical decoder (decoding lens) for verification.
The decoding lens, which matches a programmed image in the same way that a key matches a lock, requires neither a power supply nor special chemical or forensic methods it is claimed.
To uphold brand protection over the whole process chain from the manufacturer to the packaging on the shop shelf, it is also possible to apply several hidden images to one and the same package, whereby images can then be verified, either individually or in combination using the corresponding decoding lenses.
To date, it has only been possible to use CIT in connection with screened image data.
There is no way to implant the coding outside the screened elements and so the present technology cannot be applied to solids of special brand colours.
Against that background, the new development presented at the MMK Symposium by Jurgen Veil, head of KBA sheetfed offset marketing and his process technology team, could be termed a revolutionary advance beleives KBA.
Over the course of tests, KBA said it succeeded in developing a technique that uses contrast between different transparent varnishes to permit a CIT image to be placed at any chosen position on the sheet - for instance in non-screen areas.
With that technique it was then impossible to reproduce the CIT image claimed KBA.
The participants at the symposium were able to check the results for themselves during live print demonstrations on a Rapida 105 press.
Two further methods of forgery-proofing are available from German company Identif Technologies.
Molecular fingerprints are based on synthetic DNA and offer protection against forgery thanks to the key-coding mechanism.
Between 1,012 and 1,016 customer-specific codes can be generated and either attached as a label or else printed directly onto folding cartons and other products.
During a symposium demonstration, a food package was marked in this way with an inkjet system.
With that practical example, evidence was provided for the effectively immediate realisation of the three steps - reference value measurement (single-string DNA) - integration of the marking (the addition of a second DNA string) - verification with a machine-readable signal added KBA.
In KBA's opinion, it is almost certain that process integration into the offset press is only a matter of time.
High-security marking with nano-optical codes is another possibility to distinguish genuine and fake packaging.
In this case, a label comprising a reflective layer, a spacer film and a metal layer with nanoparticles is attached to packaging as a closure seal.
The label, whose security information is encrypted with more than 15 parameters, can also incorporate additional elements such as a company logo and bar codes, for instance.
The authenticity of the seal is verified with a special portable scanner, or high-speed reader unit.
In addition, ink and varnish suppliers Epple and Terra Lacke also showed methods by which products can be finished and protected against piracy, for instancethrough the application of special inks and coatings, such as Brightsign, Thermochrom and hybrid coatings.
The various demonstrations on KBA's Rapida half-format, medium-format and large-format presses were performed with GC2 and GD3 boards supplied by Mayr-Melnhof Karton. Request a free brochure from KBA ...
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