Dutch digital inkjet printers, label and packaging solutions manufacturer SCREEN Europe has collaborated with Swiss software-as-a-service company Scantrust to help consumers and brands combat counterfeiting.
The two companies will work together to combine digital printing technology and a patented process for developing secure QR codes.
The integrated technology will allow consumers and brand owners to easily and quickly verify the authenticity of a particular secure code.
Secure QR codes can be scanned using a smartphone camera, similar to any regular QR codes.
As part of this collaboration, Scantrust provided its anti-counterfeiting technology, which uses a secure graphic embedded into a QR Code.
Secure graphic, according to SCREEN, has a high information density and can naturally degrade during any printing or copying attempt.
The companies said that there is additional information loss that can be detected in case of any unauthorised reproductions, as counterfeits depend on a second printing.
This additional loss of information also helps in differentiating copies from originals.
SCREEN Europe marketing director Juan Cano said: “Our partnership with Scantrust is crucial to meet growing demand for connected packaging through the use of unique serialised QR codes for product authentication, brand-to-consumer engagement and supply chain visibility.”
Additionally, SCREEN used its Truepress L350UV SAI digital inkjet technology to provide fine line resolution and required sharpness for printing thousands of unique QR codes onto the labels.
SCREEN further provided its proprietary EQUIOS workflow software.
It helped in handling large amount and size of variable data needed for printing serialised and unique QR codes at scale.
Scantrust CEO and co-founder Nathan J Anderson said: “SCREEN Europe’s Truepress L350 is ideal for printing Scantrust secure QR codes on labels, as it is designed to produce the high-quality prints required for Scantrust’s patented copy detection process.
“In addition, SCREEN Europe’s inkjet label printer does so in a cost-effective way, making it a perfect system for protecting brands and consumers from counterfeit products.”