Digital Security Printing: Enabling Product Tracking and Authentication Using Existing Product Lines

摘要

Many pharmaceutical and other high-value consumer goods are prepared for shipping using relatively simplistic packaging lines. However, their simplicity helps contain overall product costs and provides an excellent opportunity for digital security printing. Digital printing brings variability to pre-printed targets. Authenticating these print targets during the packaging process associates them with a large database, or registry, maintained by the packager. In this way, any desired amount of security can be added to the packages, depending on the number and quality of authenticating devices (optical, electromagnetic, chemical, etc.) added to the packaging line. Importantly, the security print features can be pre-printed with variability, thus reducing their impact on the packaging line. In this paper, we provide examples of how pre-printed variability, combined with in-line authentication and association with a registry, greatly increase product security with a minimal impact on the industrial production line itself.