Track-And-Trace

Track-and-trace technology has developed enormously in the last few years. Even though bar codes have been around for nearly half a century, they play a key role today in supply chain management in many different ways—securing and documenting a variety of information from unique product identifier to production location, batch number, and expiration date. Bar codes are also the natural partners for today's product authentication technologies.

The number of levels at which authentication, tamper-evident, and track-and-trace elements can be added to products has grown exponentially. The three major areas of focus are devices for visual authentication (with the naked eye, or with a scanner of some kind); secure tracking systems (creating a continuum through the supply and distribution chain); and technologies that are difficult, or impossible, to replicate, to foil the counterfeiters. Such devices may be overt or covert, to provide the broadest possible umbrella of protection for everything from ethical pharmaceuticals and medical devices to legal documents, designer handbags, prepared foods, and computer software.

It is naturally a product's packaging that provides the substrate of choice for track-and-trace operations in most cases. This makes the whole security print platform an attractive target market for converters active in the package production or label production fields, at all levels.

The ubiquitous bar code

Bar codes are the most ubiquitous track-and-trace technology. They may be one- or two-dimensional, and are readable in a variety of ways. From what was originally a 'professionals only' operation, bar code reading has also become an option for the world's millions of camera cell phone owners, for whom another 'app' is available: the ability to use their phones to read a 2D bar code via a QR (Quick Response) code on product packaging, and connect via WiFi to retrieve product information and traceability.

Variable information print technologies

Bar codes may be applied via a simple label, pre-printed with a logo or other message and subsequently furnished with unique variable information print—including a barcode—by direct thermal, thermal transfer, or inkjet print. The mature direct thermal technology, which creates images using heat on a heat-sensitive substrate, primarily serves the retail market. It offers ease and reliability of use for short-life applications, and delivers relatively low-cost quality bar codes at reasonable print speeds. These characteristics also make direct thermal an obvious choice for transit product identification and tracking labels, e.g., for parcel distribution, as well as outer case and pallet markings.

Thermal transfer, using ink ribbons with a thermal printhead, is one of the most flexible variable information print technologies due to the variety of ribbons and printable receiver materials (many UL approved) available, and its ability to print in color. Image quality and durability can be very high, so thermal transfer has been an ideal choice for industrial label applications such as chemical drum labels and durable component markings.

The advent of flatbed inkjet technology has brought inkjet to the forefront. Its ability to print directly—at a variety of angles and levels onto a package, whether glass, cartonboard, or plastic—removes the need for, and cost of, an additional label. Laser markings are also gaining in popularity, delivering fine detail and high print speeds, though they are not suitable for all substrates.

Of course, it is also possible to add digital print units to modular narrow-web presses to create variable information print. In addition, standalone digital label presses, such as those from HP Indigo and Xeikon, are also options.

Preventing retail pilferage

It is worth mentioning that retail 'inventory shrinkage' also benefits from the bar code in the form of the electro-magnetic and acousto-magnetic tags used in electronic article surveillance systems that alert the security 'gates' at the store exit if they have not passed through the checkout.

RFID

While standard bar codes require line-of-sight 'reading', RFID (radio frequency identification) does not. Indeed, as prices for RFID tags have come down, the technology has been adopted in many key application areas—particularly in the retail environment for item-level stock management, as well as security. RFID is a highly-flexible technology that continues to develop new functionalities.

RFID tags consist of a chip and antenna, and are usually applied to a package or product via pressure-sensitive labels, which offer the option of additional print on the label face. The tags may be passive (generally read-only), or active (tag data can be modified or rewritten, and can be transmitted over a longer distance), and can be read using either a handheld device or via a computer portal. The tags may be overt or covert, according to the needs of the product and brand. System options and tag capabilities are proliferating.

International bar code system standards

Industry-driven international standards for the many available bar code system platforms are now resident within the global GS1 supply chain management standards association. They include EAN/UPC, ITF-14, and GS1 DataBar, and DataMatrix, as well as the EPCglobal standards for RFID implementation.

Overt and covert security devices

Overt entry-level security devices often used on packages are familiar to consumers, and they are a first-line choice as a means of reassurance of brand authenticity and purity. Examples are over-the-cap pressure-sensitive paper 'seals' on jars and bottles, made from papers that tear easily, which provide ready evidence of tampering; and optically-variable devices (OVDs) in the form of holograms, either unique (a specialist converting technique) or generic (created by a patterned substrate).

Other first-level devices include 'hidden word' pressure-sensitive label constructions. Applied as a pack seal (for example to a CD 'jewel case'), they look perfectly ordinary, but when lifted to open the pack, they leave behind a visible message—the word 'void' is standard in the industry, but personalization is possible—which provides strong visual proof of tampering.

Security and track-and-trace solutions are often layered on packaging in customer-unique (and even product-unique) applications, especially for high-value goods. Many of the available options can easily be incorporated into the stock-in-trade of package and label production companies.

Many features can be engineered into a pressure-sensitive label substrate, such as two- or three-dimensional customer-exclusive 'watermarks'; UV- or IR-light-detectable nylon fibers of a specific length or color; metal strips or fragments, polyester security threads, thermochromic threads, and micro-marked fibers—invisible to the naked eye.

In the wider world of packaging, solvent-sensitive papers, which prevent information from being removed with the use of solvent, are available. Iridescent security color stripes, impossible to reproduce by photocopier, offset print, or computer printers, can be added to papers. Near-IR fluorophores, chemical taggants, and microtaggants, including DNA, can also be added to a container or label, detectable only with dedicated scanners.

Track-and-trace global mandate

In the face of alerts around the world concerning the safety of foods and drugs, there are many initiatives in hand that mandate track-and-trace technology as a key element in the protection of consumers. Good examples are the U.S. Food Safety Modernization Act, a number of EU initiatives and, most recently, the Indian Government's decision to require bar coding on all exports of pharmaceutical products (requiring track-and-trace technology at all levels of packaging to ensure that GS1 global standards are met) from July 1, 2011.

This is just one aspect of the requirement for traceability and authentication, and brand owners around the world whose intellectual property—and profits—have been compromised are also actively promoting track-and-trace. Many leading-edge companies are today offering solutions with particular applicability to specific product markets. The fitness for purpose of such solutions, and the continuing drive to add new dimensions, makes them a valuable addition to any packaging printer's business model. By offering 'the complete package' of printed container, label, and track-and-trace and authentication technologies, a converter can offer a service that creates and promotes customer loyalty and can deliver improved profitability. Traceability and authenticity in today's global marketplace are prime concerns for all manufacturers—whatever their product. pP

Author—Dr. William Llewellyn is VP and senior consultant for AWA Alexander Watson Associates, a global market research company. AWA Conferences & Events are the organizers of PABS™11, a conference for product authentication and brand security, taking place in Chicago September 14-15, 2011. For further information, visit www.awa-bv.com.