Quantum dots join the fight against counterfeit packaging

A new ink aimed at protecting brands from counterfeiting has been released by Swiss company IQDEMY. 

Quantum Dots is the name for a tamper-evident ink solution that is both sustainable and easy for brand owners to use. Available for water-based and UV-LED printing processes, each ink set is tamper-evident and contains a code that can't be broken. 

The anti-counterfeiting, brand protection, and security packaging market is forecast to grow at an annual rate of 5.3 percent, reaching $3.6 billion from 2017 to 2022.

The quantum dots are artificially synthesised nanocrystals which are 2-10nm in size, absorbing energy in the UV spectrum which are invisible under normal circumstances. 

Add to this a bespoke, unique colour code that is achieved by mixing shades, and you receive 4.3 billion variants within the four-color-printing process. The result is a solution that is easily verifiable and whose codes are not even known to the laboratory mixing the ink.
 
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Adaptive custom solutions enable only the brand owner to reproduce the code. Each customer, or even each product, can have its own quantum dots ink whereby each product or brand, depending on the requirements, receives an ink, with a unique Quantum Dots composition.

A printed mark that is or is not visible to the naked eye can contain certain shades as well as marks that can only be made visible and verified by certain equipment and mechanisms whereby applications such as smartphone and mobile digital channels are just one solution to check up on the goods.

Accourding to the company, this cost-effective solution enables the brand protection industry to implement an ink that requires only one mark on the products.
As the composition of Quantum Dots cannot be broken by any digital method, it is the most secure solution in its field up to date.