Schreiner ProTech has introduced an anti-counterfeiting solution featuring the application of a customised microfont on colour laser film (CLF) nameplates.
Unlike many anti-counterfeiting solutions, the microfont system incurs no additional costs because all required infrastructure, namely the film and the laser equipment, is already available on customers‘ standard laser printing line operations.
Nearly indiscernible with the naked eye, the microfont can be read only under a microscope at 40-fold magnification. Its exceedingly tiny size is made possible by an extremely thin (less than 1 micron) laser-sensitive film layer; by comparison, conventional laser films have a layer thickness of 50 microns. This minimised coating thickness makes it possible to maximise font resolution, resulting in enhanced microscopic delicacy.
Product piracy continues to be pervasive worldwide. Just in Schreiner ProTech’s home country of Germany alone, counterfeiting causes annual losses of €54 billion ($58 billion), according to a survey by the private-sector Cologne Institute for Economic Research (IW) commissioned by the Initiative New Social Market Economy (INSM). “One in ten companies in Germany has been the victim of product and brand piracy at least once in the past five years,” said IW expert Oliver Koppel.
Unfortunately, product protection solutions often involve additional costs and are at risk of being faked themselves. Schreiner ProTech’s microfont solution solves for both of these issues by employing a combination of existing infrastructure and difficulty of duplication.
Even if the microfont is detected – itself an unlikelihood with the unaided eye – counterfeiters would be hard-pressed to copy it because they lack a key component of the variable marking system: Colour Laser Film, which is not freely accessible. In addition, its complementary Nd:YAG (neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet) laser system is difficult to obtain by counterfeiters.
Based in the Munich area of Germany, Schreiner ProTech is a global leader in the development and manufacture of innovative functional labels with value-added benefits that continue to set the standard for engineering-based industries. Schreiner ProTech is a certified development partner and system supplier to the automotive, electronics, and mechanical engineering industries, producing innovative product solutions for industrial marking purposes and authenticity protection.
Its film-based functional components help make processes leaner and optimise costs. For more than 65 years, the family-owned Schreiner Group has been providing specialty labels and label printing services to a variety of industries, and today services customers in more than 20 countries.
