Product Identity And Counterfeiting Fight Boost

Sherwood Technology has unveiled the latest application for its Digivu range of products for a number of brand protection applications.

Sherwood Technology has unveiled the latest application for its Digivu range of products for a number of brand protection applications.

The Digivu chemistry is claimed to enable manufacturers to digitally create ultra high definition micro-images on or within a product that are virtually impossible to reproduce by existing methods, providing a weapon in the continuous fight against counterfeiting.

Digivu uses laser responsive materials to provide authentication of products and brands.

In Sherwood's opinion, as the counterfeiting market continues to grow (it is now estimated to be worth 10 per cent of world trade), tools that can protect brands are gaining in value.

Digivu provides the industry with its first safe and effective way of preventing counterfeiting.

As Digivu can be applied to any substrate, including plastic, glass, edible products and cardboard, all brands can be protected from the threat of counterfeiting.

The combination of proprietary chemistry, a variable, tunable laser source and individual control system, can form a series of overt, semi-covert and covert features.

Digivu provides three levels of protection, enabling manufacturers to mark their products with images that are recognisable to the human eye, only visible through a microscope or totally unnoticeable until activated by a low power laser source, said Sherwood.

By applying Digivu to the substrate during the converting stage, the image can become embedded in to the product material, making it virtually impossible for counterfeiters to reproduce the product.

The ability to form images directly between the layers of a clear laminate film, or self-adhesive label, whilst retaining the integrity of the uppermost layer, is a critically important aspect of the technology, added the company.

Absolute image permanence and resistance to abrasion are guaranteed, which Sherwood believes provides an advantage over more traditional surface printing methods.

In particular, the embedding of the laser responsive chemistry within a laminate construction can bestow a number of overt and covert security features as valuable brand protection devices.

In addition to the ability to embed in the substrate of a product or within laminate films surrounding it, Digivu can also be applied to the surface of the product.

That provides a manufacturer with the ability to apply different levels of protection to its brands using one single product, said the company.

Andrew Jackson, applications marketing manager at Sherwood, commented: "Recent years have seen a dramatic rise in incidents of counterfeiting.

Brands attacked by counterfeiters don't just lose revenue, they also lose credibility within the market.

By applying the innovative chemistry to such a problem area, we hope that Digivu will reduce the threat and ultimately result in a global decline of counterfeiting.".

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