- The integration of sophisticated protection technologies directly into the printing process ensures safety and brand protection
- Embeds invisible data directly into the printed image – without changing the design
- Safeguards brands from counterfeiting, boosting customer loyalty, and ensuring transparent supply chains
© Koenig & Bauer
As it continues to drive innovation and shape the ever-evolving packaging industry, Koenig & Bauer (US/CA) is proud to announce that the ‘protected at print’ technology Stegano, an exciting new vision and protection solution, is completing its testing in North America and ready to be launched.
“The packaging industry is being transformed before our very eyes and is moving far beyond just protecting products,” says Julian Schubert, CEO Koenig & Bauer Vision & Protection. “Now it's evolved into a smart asset, safeguarding brands from counterfeiting, boosting customer loyalty, and ensuring transparent supply chains. ‘protected at print’ is an important revolutionary key to the industry, offering authentication, connectivity, and traceability directly within a brand’s packaging. This is about product safety; it's about unlocking new business models for printing companies and strengthening brands with invaluable insights.”
So what is Stegano? It is an amazing new method that invisibly conceals data within the artwork or varnish during the prepress stage. Each folding carton can receive a hidden code, image, or logo. Even under strong magnification, these codes remain hidden to the naked eye and do not affect the original design. This data can be decoded offline via a smartphone app, which optically analyzes the printed image and extracts the hidden information. Anyone, whether end user, reseller, or manufacturer, can call up and decode the information using a simple mobile application. This makes it much easier to verify the authenticity of a product and ensure that it is an original. This simple process not only helps printers to avoid counterfeiting, but also increases the trust of a printer’s customers.
“On the outside, all cartons look identical – but inside, each one is unique,” says Marc Hunsänger, Director Protection Technologies. “This information is invisible to the naked eye but can be easily read with Stegano technology. It allows a brand to securely and discreetly mark each product for authentication or traceability purposes. It also provides an opportunity for the customer to interact with a brand’s products. By integrating Stegano Technology into a Brand-App you may create one single point of contact for your customer.”
With the introduction of 'protected at print’, printing companies of all sizes will realize a number of profitable advantages. They will have the ability to transform an inconspicuous package into an intelligent asset, tap into new revenue streams, offer value-added security, and differentiate themselves in a competitive environment. By incorporating Stegano-powered protection into their offerings, they’ll take their business model to a new level utilizing a versatile tool that safeguards brands against counterfeiting, strengthens customer loyalty, and enables a transparent supply chain.