Tamper-Evident Label Protects Brands

Securikett Ulrich & Horn GmbH (Austria) offers brand protection via complex labeling solutions aimed to fight counterfeiting. In June, Securikett won First Prize in the “Security” category at the international FINAT awards for its Sumitomo Void label, a tamper-evident seal for plastic bottles with high-ranking authentication features. The label was designed to protect Japan-based Sumitomo’s agricultural medicines in plastic bottles against tampering, refill, and counterfeiting in Turkey.

“They are just using this label for Turkey,” says Werner Horn, general manager, Securikett. “It was a decision by the Turkish management because they are facing counterfeiting and they really solved problems with this label.”

The void label’s various levels of security include liquid-crystal ink and reverse, flexo, and screen-printing techniques, which makes it difficult to replicate. Authenticity can be identified at the point of sale without removing

Securikett designed a tamper-evident seal for plastic bottles using a voiding feature for Japan-based SumitomoÍs agricultural medicines.

the label or cap by checking for the presence of three security inks and checking if the void effect has not been activated.

The label displays a distinct void effect on removal that is customized and in register to the label design and shape. In the lower area of the label, where it will be placed on top of a product label, the void is semi-transparent to leave the text beneath readable.

The label’s void effect uses the turquoise color of the company’s logo. To be 100% safe against tampering, the label has break cuts that are done in a separate die-cutting station to enable independent contour adjustment.

Industry alternatives for protection may feature a seal underneath the cap, special caps that break on opening, or shrink sleeves protecting the cap, but these options do not offer the added security of Sumitomo’s void label. Although void-label technology is common, the Sumitomo Void label is unique in that the void effect can be attached on a low-energy PET bottle substrate surface, where simpler void labels cannot. This is similar to varnished boxes in the pharmaceutical industry, which are also low-energy surfaces.

Securikett integrated liquid-crystal ink from SICPA Holding S.A. (Switzerland), which has two effects: a color shift and a polarization effect. In addition, two-wave luminescent ink, with short and long wavelengths, displays two different colors. The Sumitomo Void label used flexo and screen-printing techniques.

“The big advantage of the flexo print is to have better variety to handle the amount of ink you have to use,” Horn says. “This ink coverage is limited with offset printing, which is very low, and the ink coverage on flexo is high.”

Liquid crystals were printed in screen owing to the size of pigments and the amount that is applied. In addition, the void effect is achieved by the combination of adhesion to the main substrate, ink coverage, and adhesive. When the label is pulled, some part of the ink will remain on the substrate while other remains on the label, which is why it has to be done in reverse printing.

Counterfeiting is becoming more advanced and pervasive in developing countries globally, but the decision to invest in advanced anticounterfeiting technologies remains a cost-driven one with some clients willing to accept higher risk in order to reduce costs.

Horn says companies do worry about the cost, but local subsidiaries of multinational companies in high-risk regions with weak drug-regulation control and enforcement —like Turkey, Italy, China, and African countries— have a much greater tendency to invest in and use such labels.

“They fear the costs that are involved in such a solution, but in the long run this can be good investment of money,” Horn says.