It’s Elementary

Smart packaging takes on many forms and purposes. Some smart packaging communicates to end users via thermochromic inks that change color with temperatures. Other types will remind patients to take their medicine or combine communication with functionality in cases like self-cooling beer kegs or self-heating soups and coffees.

One area where smart or intelligent packaging has practically become a necessity is in the area of brand security/authentication. One way to make packaging for brand protection smart is employing RFID. According to a -NanoMarkets study, “Smart Packaging Markets: 2006-2013,” printable and chip-based RFID tags will be consumed by smart packaging to the tune of $1.1 billion by 2011. In fact, the study further states that “NanoMarkets believes this is a tremendous opportunity for smart packaging, noting that a combination of RFID authentication at point of sale, security inks, and other smart packaging approaches will make a major contribution to combating counterfeiting, especially in the food, beverage, and pharmaceutical sectors.”

In explaining how an intelligent package is an elementary part of an all-in-one brand authentication solution, John Greaves, vice president, Global Strategy, IPICO, says, “In the same way, if you will forgive the brutal analogy, as a brain is essential to the human body to function, an intelligent package is the head of the process. Without this, you are simply a clone.” Michael Gorgi, managing director of IPICO EMEA, adds, “A branded product is only authentic if the product plus packaging plus logistics are all authentic. Otherwise, there is a potential issue with cloning and gray-market goods, [for example].”

RFID makes the package intelligent?

The smart packaging sector comprises active and intelligent packaging; the latter monitors the condition of its contents, and also stores, transmits, and communicates data on packaged products, according to “The Future of Smart Packaging,” a study by IntertechPira (www.piranet.com). This is where RFID comes into the picture.

The study continues, “The introduction of tracking and tracing rules in the pharmaceutical sector will also stimulate demand for intelligent technologies like RFID.” It also states that a recent rise in the amount of counterfeiting of medicines, cosmetics, and clothing has prompted both the regulatory authorities and manufacturers to stipulate intelligent packaging solutions for detecting fake products. RFID provides a start.

According to Greaves, RFID makes a package intelligent “by virtue of the ability to be interactively addressed at any point in the supply chain, to carry supplemental identifiers, and to be either a ‘plain’ tag or include such evidential material as tamper evident, sensor technology for environmental monitoring, or the ability to encrypt changing ID parameters as the product changes ownership.” He adds that, in the context of the brand protection model, it is the application of an RFID carrier that allows the integration of multiple layers of IT-supportive tools that provide for the intelligence which is fundamental to protecting the package. “That ensures it develops an intelligence in terms of its identity and validity,” he says.

The IPICO solution

How packaging becomes intelligent, according to Gorgi, depends on whether it is primary or secondary (shipping level) packaging. For example, he says primary packaging could be identified with a 2D matrix code or an RFID tag. But the IPICO solution, called iTacs, allows for a combination of identifiers to be used with a system backbone that is used to collate the pieces of information along the supply chain. “This ‘data’ gives the authenticity and intelligence,” he says.

According to Gorgi, “iTacs is a corrugated box, RFID-enabled during the packaging manufacturing process, that allows for unique identification through its ‘birth certificate’ and can be customer-designed for specific supply chain applications. The intelligent packaging could also be a combination of RFID-enabled box and flexible packaging having an xD matrix code printed on its surface.” Authentication is based on integrated RFID within the corrugated packaging. Secondary authentication is based on a 2D matrix on item-level packaging (flexible as well as paper).

iTacs makes a package intelligent by having an RFID tag applied to the packaging during manufacture. “This can be hidden for corrugated packaging and therefore protected both physically and mechanically,” says Gorgi. He explains that doing this gives the box a “birth certificate” that is unique to that box and cannot be duplicated. As the box is used or filled, more data is added to the unique identifier (back end database), allowing full visibility of where the packaging was made and by whom, plus product authentication and logistics authentication. This offers, “full track and trace from product up or shipping level down, either way,” according to Gorgi.

The base theory, according to Gorgi, is that brand protection is a combination of the official brand packaging (iTacs concept) and the branded item itself. “It is this combination of data (packaging ID + product ID) that actually gives the brand protection,” he says. If either one of these is compromised, he explains, then the product is compromised. Another issue is controlling products moving through country borders. “iTac packaging, together with electronic documentation (RFID-/2D matrix code-enabled delivery documents) would assist customs in identifying and actually physically checking the goods passing their borders,” Gorgi says. He adds that presently, fewer than 5 percent of all goods are physically checked.

iTacs communicates via radio propagation at the first level to IT architecture modeled to receive message sets appropriate to the packaging owner or chain of custody, according to Greaves. Gorgi adds, “[It] depends on the base technology used as an identifier, but in essence a reader/scanner captures data and sends it to a database layer.”

It’s fundamental

“The Future of Smart Packaging” predicts that during the next few years, “a large proportion of expenditure on smart packaging in the U.S. will be on RFID systems in retail and consumer goods.” It states that this will be mainly because leading chains have already launched large pilot projects, but adds that some of the stimulus for the expenditure on RFID could come from traceability regulations being enforced by agencies like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Although smart packaging comprises only a tiny part of the packaging market, the study finds that it is growing at a much faster pace than the rest of the packaging sector. It predicts that the total smart packaging market will rise 95 percent from $1.9 billion in 2005 to $3.7 billion by the end of the decade. Given the emerging importance of brand security and authentication and intelligent packaging being a component of this, more of your brand owners are going to ask about the solutions you can provide. Of intelligent packaging’s importance to brand protection, Greaves concludes that it is fundamental. “If you do not have it or you do not have a strategy in place to migrate to such a model,” he says, “then your investment strategy going forward is likely to be severely compromised.”

Colbert Packaging provides medication reminder

LAKE FOREST, Ill.—Colbert Packaging Corp., a manufacturer of folding cartons, rigid paper boxes, and paperboard specialty products, introduced a patent-pending compliance package for pharmaceuticals that is “designed to remind” patients to take their medication.

AlertPak™ encourages patient compliance by “popping up” into a branded display package that patients can set on a kitchen or bathroom countertop. The package can be quickly assembled by the patient and is designed to be senior-friendly. The integrated blister pack, which can be customized to accommodate a wide range of blister cavities, is encased in paperboard that can be enhanced with Colbert’s new PharmaGuard™ solution for added security.

“Clinical trials show that a primary cause of patient noncompliance is forgetfulness; they simply get too busy and forget to take their medication,” said Glenn Grosskopf, vice president of product development for Colbert Packaging. “The problem can be compounded if patients simultaneously take multiple missed dosages, which can be life-threatening. New unit dose packaging solutions like AlertPak can remedy the noncompliance problem through tracking and accountability measures that make it easier for patients to remember to take their medication.”

AlertPak replaces standard amber medication bottles and nondescript blister packs that require the patient to keep track of their dosages and remaining quantities. It is primarily paper-based and enables pharmaceutical companies to fully brand the package and print dosage numbers, dates, or other instructions used to serve as a reminder for patients.