Security at its Best

Using a combination of security strategies, suppliers, converters, and retailers are working together to decrease theft.

ACCORDING TO THE 2001 National Retail Security Study, total inventory shrinkage cost U.S. retailers $32.2 billion, up from $29 billion the year before. In a trend driven largely by merchants and brand owners, today's industry suppliers are working hand-in-hand with converters to develop the most secure packaging.

Depending on the application, there are many options available. Ink suppliers are steadily pumping out new types of specialty formulations, many of which showed improved usage rates in this year's packagePRINTING Annual Ink Usage Survey. (See the January 2003 issue for more details.) Substrate suppliers have expanded their product lines to include more polyester, polypropylene, and polyethylene films, which offer high tear resistance, with additional security/anti-counterfeiting possibilities. Finally, there is the span of foils, holograms, and lenticulars, which not only double as anti-counterfeiting devices, but can greatly brighten a package's shelf appeal.

An unquestionable need

There's no doubt that security packaging is vital to today's retail market. Brand owners are working hard ensure that their products are not only effective, but that they are safe from counterfeiting. And as the daunting shoplifting numbers continue to grow, retail chains are forced to find alternate methods of curbing theft. "One line of security is no longer enough," says James Kipp, Crown Roll Leaf's security products manager. "The risk of exposure is too great, every industry is going to multiple methods of security."

Kipp believes the most effective packages combine a number of security features into their design. "The hologram's popularity has sky-rocketed over the last several years, and since they require very specialized equipment to manufacture, they are difficult to repeat. However, when used in conjunction with features such as microprinting, image customization, or specialty inks, the amount of security provided just continues to multiply."

Protecting the brand

In addition to Flint Ink's focus on growing its already-wide selection of specialty inks, the company is honing in on the brand-protection market. Flint's Director of New Business Development Leonard Walle stresses the importance of brand protection, citing the current global economy and the emergence of the World Wide Web as main driving forces in the importance of protecting brands. "Internet sales have really brought the magnitude of brand protection to a new high," begins Walle. "With Internet purchases of products such as pharmaceuticals, where the consumer must simply trust that they are buying the real thing, product identification and verification are of utmost—sometimes life and death—importance."

He explains that companies are using both covert and overt methods to ensure the consumer is getting their money's worth. "Brand owners lose millions of dollars each year to the sale of 'knock-offs,' which they can then be liable for. This becomes an issue, for instance, where warranties are involved." Another potential problem for brand owners is that products are being diverted from an authorized supply chain and sold into a market they were not intended for. Walle's example: Pharmaceuticals not making it to your local drug store and being sold on the black market; or those manufactured specifically for one country but sold in another. "The use of an ID taggant on the package can trace where that product originated, which, in turn, can help eliminate the problem for the brand owner."

Subtle substrate security

Besides working with retailers to protect brand identity, suppliers are throwing their two cents into the fight against theft, pilfering, and the increase of stronger child-resistant flexible packaging. Rich Witmer, marketing communications manager at Valéron Strength Films, has seen an increase in requests for tear-resistant substrates in retail and retail's supply chain to deter pilfering.

Witmer explains that pilfering (opening a package and removing the product, as opposed to shoplifting, where the entire package is taken) is a growing problem: "High-value products sold in small folding cartons (such as film, razor blade refills, batteries, and pregnancy tests) are the most pilfered. We are addressing this need by laminating Valéron film to what will be the inside of a paperboard package, giving it exponentially greater tear strength," he says. "It gives the box that extra bit of 'umph,' making it that much more difficult to rip open, deterring theft and allowing retailers greater freedom of display."

Valéron has also taken the pilfering challenge to another level by not only using the film/paperboard combo box, but adding a second layer of defense in a hard-to-open flexible package inside the box (like ink jet cartridge packages). The FDA has also caught onto this method of packaging and has declared it "FDA approved" for child-resistant packaging for products such as toilet bowl cleaning tablets.

Holograms: Clear security beyond the silver rainbow

Eye-catching holograms are one trend that blurs the line between decorative and security packaging. Today they can be found on everything from toothpaste boxes, to snazzy computer games, and bottles of car oil to bottles of beer. Eric Bartholomay, product development manager at Toray Plastics (manufacturers of polypropylene and directly-embossed polyester films), states that holograms such as these (decorative) are usually embossed into film, which is then metallized—leaving it with the shiny silver look. However, in security applications the hologram is instead coated with a high-refractive index (HRI) coating (typically a zinc-sulfide), allowing the printer to further process the embossed hologram and still see it, and any printing underneath.

HRI coatings are not as commonly available as aluminum metallization, so one possibility is combining zinc-sulfide with a directly-embossable polyester film. Instead of putting the coating on the film after the hologram is embossed, currently, Toray is experimenting with a process that embosses through the HRI coating, basically creating an on-demand security hologram. However, this process has received some criticism because it could prove bad if in the wrong hands. Toray is proceeding cautiously to ensure this does not occur.

Oliver Moesgen, sales and marketing manager of Kurz's Security Products Division, has seen a definite rise in the amount of optically-variable devices being used in security applications. However, he says Kurz's philosophy is that security should benefit not only the brand owner, but also the consumer. "Security features should be easy to verify and easy to communicate," Moesgen begins. "We provide features that flip, move, or morph so the consumer feels good about the interacts with the security feature on the product. Interaction will actually help the consumer to recognize and authenticate the security feature next time he has to validate it. We also give buyers supply 'first-open guarantee,' labels which are becoming popular in not only folding carton applications, but also the liquor market. People want to be able to trust their instincts, and we allow them that freedom."

Moving into lenticular security

Printing lenticular is not the closed and highly-specialized market reserved only for offset printers anymore. Gordon MacGee, technical services director at Orasee, believes thinner lens materials lend themselves to the narrow-web industry, "Eight and 10 mil—soon to go to 5-mil substrates—are just begging for high-speed label applications. Presses manufactured today can hold and maintain the register that is required for lenticular printing."

According to MacGee, the software needed to run lenticular applications is becoming easier to use. He believes that most narrow-web printers with good graphic artists in their in-house prepress departments can use the Orasee software to compliment and upgrade their client's labels. "The graphics department can actually proof a 3D or motion piece to show their clients before going to press.

"In today's worldwide climate, security of all kinds is increasingly being put into place," MacGee continues. "Product authentification is becoming huge—CD/DVDs, designer clothes, electronic equipment, liquor—there are dozens of commercial products that need to be made extremely difficult, and not worth the effort to counterfeit. Propriety lenses with the appropriate software would be impossible for the bad guys to get their hands on."

Projects in the works

A current project Bartholomay described is a patterned HRI coating. He explains that one of holography's restraints is the cost of creating new embossing cylinders, so Toray is customizing the HRI coating instead of the actual hologram. A prime usage example is in pharmaceutical packaging applications; in particularly for large companies where the brand owner holds trademarks on many products under one umbrella company.

"Most Pfizers of the world already use holograms for authenticity purposes," Bartholomay says. "This new technology, would allow a standard company-wide hologram to be embossed onto the product's package. We would then work with them to develop individual, customized HRI coatings for each of their separate drugs. This could virtually eliminate the costs involved in the purchase and upkeep of all the the cylinders needed for each of those separate packages." Bartholomay hopes to see this technology available by year's end.

MeadWestvaco is tying up the loose ends on a new poly-laminated paperboard that according to Mohan Sasthav, the company's packaging segment manager, will be four to five times stronger than standard bleach board. "This product will combine poly's tear-resistant characteristics with paperboard's stiffness and printability, delivering the sharp, sturdy package retailers expect from folding cartons." He says that MeadWestvaco hopes this type of package will be an alternative to the small folding carton held within a PVC clamshell model seen today.

"Many small electronics and software packages are being 'double-wrapped' in this manner to deter pilferage," Sasthav says. "However, this not only requires an extra filling step, but also additional materials. And even if the inside folding carton is eliminated, converters cannot print directly on the PVC, which means a p-s label or insert card will need to be printed and applied … more steps equal more time."

According to Sasthav, converters should see MeadWestvaco's 100 percent recyclable and repulpable paperboard in the market within the next few months.

-by Kate Tomlinson, Associate Editor