Application of anti counterfeiting ink technology in printing and packaging

Anti counterfeiting technology is an interdisciplinary subject involving optics, chemistry, physics, electromagnetism, computer technology, spectrum technology, printing technology, digital technology, packaging technology and many other fields. Commonly used anti counterfeiting technologies include Anti Counterfeiting Ink, anti counterfeiting paper, anti counterfeiting adhesive, miniature text printing, special anti counterfeiting printing of bills, security thread, encryption technology, laser holographic paper transfer technology, positioning hot stamping, telephone code anti counterfeiting, nuclear dual-card anti counterfeiting technology (nuclear track), texture anti counterfeiting identification technology, packaging printing plate-making anti counterfeiting technology and hand-carved gravure printing.

With the introduction of high technology and the increasing demand of social development, anti counterfeiting ink technology at home and abroad has been further developed. Anti counterfeiting ink technology is a traditional anti counterfeiting printing technology. Generally speaking, it is a technology to add materials with anti counterfeiting function to the ink binder, make ink through a special process, and print with ink to achieve anti counterfeiting purpose. It forms the foundation of modern anti counterfeiting printing technology with paper anti counterfeiting technology,plate-making anti counterfeiting technology and printing anti counterfeiting technology. Anti counterfeiting ink technology is widely used in the field of anti counterfeiting printing because of its strong adaptability, high technical level and low cost.

Common anti counterfeiting ink in the field of packaging and printing include long-wave and short-wave ultraviolet fluorescent ink, temperature changing ink and pearlescent ink. This year, some inks with high technical level and strong anti counterfeiting ability, such as magnetic ink, optical color changing ink, infrared fluorescent ink, water sensitive ink, metallic ink and reversible ink, have appeared. In order to achieve good results in packaging printing, many factors must be considered, including the nature of ink, printing methods, printing materials and so on.

With the development of market economy and the improvement of commodity economy. Enterprises engaged in the production of various products strive to create their own brands, which makes the market become active. However, all kinds of fake and shoddy products are flooding the market rapidly, causing serious economic losses and casualties. Therefore, anti counterfeiting technology came into being.

What is anti counterfeiting technology? In short, it is a technology to prevent counterfeiting and forgery. At first, anti counterfeiting technology was only used for banknotes, checks, valuable securities, etc., and now it is also widely used in the fields of trademarks and packaging and printing.

Anti counterfeiting ink technology is one of the important branches of anti-counterfeiting printing, which involves many disciplines, such as optics, chemistry, electromagnetism, computer technology, spectroscopy technology, printing technology, etc., and belongs to an interdisciplinary subject. Among them, chemical anti counterfeiting materials and technologies are the basic technologies of anti counterfeiting ink, which occupy a very important position in research and application. Ink anti counterfeiting technology is a very practical technology in the fields of bill anti counterfeiting, securities and trademark packaging, which can not only meet the requirements of public first-line anti counterfeiting identification, but also meet the requirements of second-line and third-line senior experts and management departments for identification and supervision.

Anti counterfeiting ink, also known as insurance ink and security ink, is the earliest special ink used in the anti counterfeiting field.Anti counterfeiting ink is mainly designed to deal with criminals who alter bills with decoloring spirit, etc. It is used to print the shading of invoices and all valuable securities. When confronted with chemicals such as decoloring spirit, these shading disappears or changes color, so as to find traces of alteration.

The fading mechanism of anti counterfeiting ink mainly has two aspects. One is to use pigments that can fade when encountering fading spirit, such as some basic dyes, and the other is to use binders that can change color when encountering fading spirit or other chemicals, such as diphenol. Both methods can get satisfactory results. Adding fluorescent materials to the anti counterfeiting ink will have a better anti counterfeiting packaging effect. By applying different external conditions, mainly in the form of illumination, heating and spectral detection, the color changes of ink samples are observed to achieve the purpose of anti counterfeiting.

1.Reasons for the appearance of counterfeit products

At present, fake and shoddy goods flood the market. A large part is that the packaging anti counterfeiting ability is not strong enough. A recent survey shows that many commodities in China's market are counterfeit, such as fake cigarettes, fake wine, fake cosmetics, fake medicines, fake foods, fake fertilizers, fake seeds, fake pesticides, and so on. Their counterfeiting is fundamentally based on their packaging, using fake packaging and fake trademarks to make and sell fakes. Counterfeiters and sellers use fake packaging and trademarks to deceive consumers and make huge profits, which seriously disrupts the market. As a result, China's annual economic losses are about 20 billion yuan. Nowadays, counterfeiters' imitation methods are becoming more and more "clever", which is enough to achieve the goal of confusing the fake with the real.

Counterfeit and counterfeit packaging (or trademarks) means that criminals imitate or forge the colors, shapes, materials and functions of commodity packaging (or trademarks and labels) that sell well in the market and have a good reputation among consumers in order to deceive consumers. To prevent counterfeiting,Manufacturers have taken many anti counterfeiting measures. The packaging and scheme design are complicated, and special anti counterfeiting identification steganography is made on the packaging or trademark. Special paper (packaging material) and special oil tank are used, and special printing technology is adopted. At present, laser holographic anti counterfeiting marks have been widely used. In spite of this, we failed to protect our products well. The main reasons are as follows:

(1)Difficulty in identification of anti-counterfeiting packaging

At present, as a commodity manufacturer, in the aspect of anti counterfeiting packaging, it only emphasizes what registered trademark and anti counterfeiting technology have been adopted in the packaging of its products, but does not publicize the ways and methods of identifying authenticity (in packaging text description and advertising), so that consumers can't distinguish authenticity. Take the laser holographic anti counterfeiting logo as an example. Generally speaking, its logo has its own special measures and identification methods. For example, the patterns, colors, three-dimensional effects and levels seen at different angles and different positions are different. As a consumer with certain scientific knowledge, it is very clear about this, but it is not known from what angle and where to observe or illuminate, and what effect different observation methods have. Moreover, more consumers in China are ordinary people, which is even more difficult to identify. It makes people think that the products with holographic anti counterfeiting are genuine as long as they have the same holographic logo in size and shape. This gives counterfeiters an opportunity.

(2)Improper use of anti-counterfeiting packaging and technology

Many of our manufacturers with anti counterfeiting awareness, or enterprises that have suffered from counterfeiting, have a certain concept of anti counterfeiting packaging and constantly adopt anti counterfeiting technology to protect their products. However, it is not appropriate for many manufacturers to design or use anti counterfeiting packaging technology. On the contrary, many manufacturers are keen to adopt advanced and popular anti counterfeiting packaging technology, such as gravure printing, anti counterfeiting ink, and laser holographic anti counterfeiting logo. These make the manufacturing cost very expensive, but it can't really achieve the anti-counterfeiting function. At present, the laser holographic logo is widely used. When it is applied to many products, the anti counterfeiting holographic logo is not damaged (some are attached to the packaging box, bottle, cover, etc.) after the built-in items are opened or used, which provides the existing packaging for counterfeiters to shoddy.

In addition, in many of our products with anti counterfeiting packaging, consumers don't know whether the anti-counterfeiting marks are different or changed before and after the use of the products.

(3) The well-known and advanced anti counterfeiting technology can no longer provide anti counterfeiting for its own products.

Take laser holographic anti counterfeiting technology as an example. Laser holographic image is a high-tech that first emerged in the United States in the 1980s. The anti counterfeiting logo made of it is not easy to copy, and the image will be deformed if it is torn off and reused, which is a one-time use. Therefore, the laser holographic image was praised as the most effective anti counterfeiting measure. The laser holographic image is a three-dimensional photo taken by a laser-generated light source. After special production, it can be viewed in sunlight or light, and different patterns appear when viewed in different directions. The image is colorful and layered. If the technology and equipment are unique to only a few enterprises, it will well curb fake and shoddy goods, and there will not be so many fake products on the market today.

(4) Lack of research on anti counterfeiting packaging technology and measures.

At present, many enterprises focus on sales and production in production and operation, but rarely focus on packaging, especially anti counterfeiting packaging. Even if some factory directors and managers pay attention to technology, they seldom pay attention to the anti counterfeiting packaging technology of products. Therefore, it is inevitable to entrust other manufacturers with their own anti counterfeiting packaging, which will leave future troubles for their own products to be counterfeited. In addition, some business leaders realize the importance of anti counterfeiting packaging and technology, and only entrust those manufacturers with advanced equipment, complex technology and great technical difficulty to make their own anti counterfeiting packaging and logo. As a result, the initiative of anti counterfeiting of their products can not be in their own hands. Many commodity manufacturers do not have special anti counterfeiting packaging research ability or their own exclusive (proprietary) anti counterfeiting packaging technology, which makes their products repeatedly counterfeit.

Therefore, many anti counterfeiting measures have been applied and developed, among which anti counterfeiting ink technology is a very common and important anti counterfeiting technology.

2.Anti counterfeiting ink

(1)Current situation of anti counterfeiting ink

China's anti counterfeiting ink technology is most commonly used in two aspects: one is the ticket managed by the government, and the other is the trademark and packaging used by the society.
On the principle of giving consideration to both public identification and expert identification, anti counterfeiting ink technology should have the following characteristics: high technology, low cost, easy identification and arbitrability.
Anti counterfeiting refers to measures to prevent imitation or copying without the owner's permission for the purpose of deception. Anti counterfeiting ink refers to ink with anti counterfeiting function, that is, special Printing Ink made by adding anti counterfeiting materials with special properties into ink binders and processing them through special processes.
(2)Classification of Anti counterfeiting Ink

With the continuous development of science and technology and society, the field of packaging and printing has also made great progress. In order to meet the needs of different uses, there are many kinds of anti counterfeiting ink, and their types are different according to different classification methods. Common classifications are as follows:

Classification by anti counterfeiting function

A.Ultraviolet excited fluorescent ink

B.Sunlight-excited color-changing ink

C.Heat-sensitive anti counterfeiting ink

D.Chemically reactive color-changing ink

E.Intelligent machine reads anti counterfeiting ink

F.Multifunctional comprehensive anti counterfeiting ink

G.Other special anti counterfeiting ink (such as OVI optically variable ink)

Classification by substrate

A.Iron printing ink

B.News ink

C.Plastic Ink

Classification by different printing methods

A.Letterpress printing ink

B.Gravure ink

C.Screen Printing Ink

D.Offset Printing Ink

E.Water based flexographic ink

Anti counterfeiting ink plays an indispensable role in our daily life, but there are many kinds of it, but the most common ones are as follows:

(1) Temperature change anti counterfeiting ink
The color of temperature change ink will change after heating, and it can be divided into invertible ink and non-invertible ink according to different properties. Invertable ink is color invertible when the temperature increases or decreases, so that it can be repeatedly identified; The color of irreversible ink changes when the temperature rises, and the color will not return to its original state when the temperature decreases, so it can only be identified once. The identification methods of the two inks are very simple, and no other instruments are needed. Temperature-change anti counterfeiting ink is widely used in food packaging and tobacco and alcohol packaging.
Nowadays, temperature change inks have been widely used, so only inks with unique temperature change colors can be used as anti counterfeiting materials, and they generally have unique or multiple color-changing effects. If some inks are red at 34 ~ 40 degrees, but not at other temperatures, some special inks can be presented in different colors at different temperatures.

(2) Water sensitive ink
Water sensitive ink is a kind of ink that changes its color when it appears black on the substrate and returns to its original state after drying. This kind of ink does not need other tools, just water, and it is very special and can be operated without special training, which has been widely praised and recognized by people.
(3) Optical color-changing ink
Optical color-changing ink is a kind of ink which can present different metallic colors from different angles under natural light conditions without any instruments. According to the anti-counterfeiting mechanism, optical color-changing inks can be divided into two categories: the first category is color-changing inks made of liquid crystal materials; One is the color-changing ink of multilayer coating materials. Different kinds of inks have their own unique optical characteristics, so they have anti counterfeiting function. The color-changing effect of materials produced by different production processes is also very different, and it is difficult to be copied, so its anti counterfeiting function is particularly powerful, and it is conceivable that optical color-changing ink will shine brilliantly.
(4) metallic ink
Metallic ink is suitable for anti counterfeiting printing of various logos and trademarks. This colored or colorless metallic ink can be printed on a specific position, and the authenticity can be distinguished by painting it with metals containing lead and copper.
(5) Magnetic ink
Magnetic ink is a high-tech ink made of special magnetic materials. Commonly used magnetic materials are ferric oxide and ferroferric oxide, the former is brown and the latter is black, and both of them have high residual magnetism. The binder is generally alkyd resin, and other pigments can be added to the magnetic ink to obtain inks of various colors. The ink has good anti counterfeiting function, and was first applied to the printing of banknotes, invoices, checks, credit card codes, etc. With the development and application of computer and its interface technology, various magnetic cards came into being, such as meal cards for students, daily shopping cards, and current shareholder cards and bank cards, which provided a broad development space and market space for magnetic ink. However, this ink needs to be tested by special instruments to display its contained information or signals and check its authenticity. Therefore, it also has a certain anti counterfeiting function.
(6) Fluorescent ink and phosphorescent ink
Fluorescent ink is made by dissolving fluorescent materials in corresponding resins. The pigment particles of fluorescent ink are generally coarse, and there are many kinds of binders. Different binders will produce different fluorescent effects. Fluorescent ink will fluoresce under visible light and ultraviolet light.
Because different fluorescent ink formulations can get different fluorescent effects, it is best to prepare them yourself when using fluorescent ink to print anti counterfeiting, so that others are not easy to forge, and the printed products have the best anti counterfeiting effect.

Phosphorescent ink can absorb the light incident on it and emit it at a certain wavelength within a certain period of time. His pigment is zinc sulfide, and the binder is generally neutral and transparent. Phosphorescent ink is mainly used for printing advertisements and signs. If phosphorescent ink is mixed with fluorescent ink, it can play a good anti counterfeiting effect.

(7)DNA anti counterfeiting ink
DNA anti counterfeiting ink technology has almost unrepeatable uniqueness, so it has ideal anti counterfeiting function. This kind of ink identification technology is complex, professional, less identification equipment and longer identification period. Therefore, this ink anti counterfeiting technology has only been applied in some professional fields, but it has not been widely used.
(8) Anti counterfeiting ink
Anti counterfeiting ink, also known as insurance ink and security ink, is the earliest special ink used in the field of anti counterfeiting printing. His main function is to print the background of securities and prevent criminals from using the fading spirit to fade and alter some important securities, so as not to bring great losses to society and people.
The mechanism of anti counterfeiting ink has two aspects: one is that salt-based fuels fade when they fade; The second is the connecting material that will change color when it meets the fading spirit. If fluorescent materials are added to the ink, the anti counterfeiting packaging effect will be better.
Generally speaking, different substrates have different requirements for printing ink. Due to the ever-changing packaging materials, there are inks that meet different printing needs. Ink should have the following characteristics:

(1) The basic requirements of packaging for ink
A.Good liquidity
B.The color is correct, and it is not easy to fade.
C.It can be dried quickly after being printed on the substrate, with strong adhesion, and should not be erased.
(2) Special requirements of packaging for ink
A.the diversity of colors. Good decoration can attract consumers, so color diversification is essential. At present, most of the inks used in packaging and printing are organic pigments, which are easy to fade. Therefore, in order to keep the packaging as bright as possible, try to use indelible ink for printing.
B.Special drying requirements. The drying speed of different materials ink is also different. Surfaces such as glass, ceramics and plastics are relatively smooth, and ink should not be dried and attached on them, so quick-drying inks, such as ultraviolet drying ink and pulse drying ink, should be used.

C.Special process requirements. Different processes use different inks. Take printing ink for example, when heating is needed in the process, high-temperature cooking-resistant ink is needed to avoid the change of ink properties and affect the decoration effect; If heating is not needed in the process, ordinary iron printing ink can be used instead.

D.Special hygiene requirements. When printing food packaging, we should pay special attention to the penetration of ink to avoid polluting food.

Application and development trend of ink technology in packaging

Application of ink anti counterfeiting technology
Ink technology is a main aspect of printing technology in anti counterfeiting packaging. The anti counterfeiting characteristics of ink technology are realized by changing the formula of ink or adding some special materials, such as photosensitive materials, thermosensitive materials and magnetic materials. Each ink has its own unique characteristics, and consumers can identify the authenticity of goods according to different characteristics.
With the continuous development of productive forces, many new anti counterfeiting inks are constantly emerging, which also makes the application of anti- counterfeiting inks more and more extensive.
A. the composite use of anti counterfeiting ink
With the passage of time, each ink will lose its novelty, but if we use other methods, we can extend its service life, such as composite use. There are two main ways to combine anti counterfeiting inks. One is to print graphics or characters with two or more anti counterfeiting inks. For example, when printing bar codes, magnetic materials can be used to print the line parts of the bar codes, and thermal ink can be used to print the blank areas of the bar codes. The second is to combine the characteristics of two or more anti-counterfeiting inks to form a new anti counterfeiting ink. Obviously, this can improve the technical content of anti counterfeiting ink.
B.Online use of anti counterfeiting ink
At present, the use of anti counterfeiting ink mostly appears in the form of trademarks. Printing enterprises print the trademarks and hand them over to the users, who then paste the trademarks on the goods or packaging boxes. The disadvantage of this method is that the user does not know the specific formula of anti counterfeiting ink, but the printing enterprise knows the formula, so it is easy to leak the formula.
In order to overcome this drawback, enterprises can directly connect the printing machinery with the packaging line, and the anti counterfeiting ink can be prepared according to the needs and dates, thus preventing the possibility of formula leakage. Many large enterprises in the world use this method to prevent counterfeiting, such as the well-known Jianlibao and Coca-Cola. If the composite method is used online, the effect is better.

Development of Anti-counterfeiting Ink
Generally speaking, the development of anti counterfeiting ink mainly includes the following aspects:
(1) widely used technology is replaced by high-tech products.
Such as laser holographic anti counterfeiting packaging and fluorescent ink, magnetic ink, anti-tampering ink, etc., because they have become well-known and available technologies and raw materials in the market. Therefore, they will be replaced by new and higher-tech technologies.
(2) The formula of anti counterfeiting ink will be excessive from printing enterprises to commodity production enterprises.
Just like the packaging and formula of Coca-Cola Company, in fact, the unique technology and formula of any product itself is an anti counterfeiting measure. The same is true of anti counterfeiting ink, which has anti counterfeiting function only when its own formula is unique and only when it is mastered by itself. Therefore, the formula of anti counterfeiting ink will be excessive to commodity production enterprises.
(3) Anti counterfeiting ink technology will develop in the direction of combining first-line anti-counterfeiting with second-line anti-counterfeiting.
First-line anti-counterfeiting means that consumers can distinguish authenticity by simple methods or visual inspection. Second-line anti counterfeiting means that professionals or special instruments or materials are used to identify the authenticity of goods. For example, the colorless fluorescent ink of RMB fluoresces under an ultraviolet lamp, but it cannot be recognized by the naked eye.
Combining the first-line anti counterfeiting with the second-line anti counterfeiting can increase the difficulty of counterfeiting, and then it is convenient for consumers to identify, and at the same time it can be scientifically judged and verified by instruments.