Koenig & Bauer’s Vision & Protection team has recently launched a new initiative – ‘protected at print’ – which make security technologies that can be integrated into the printing process, more accessible to a wider range of printers.
Marc Hunsänger, Director Protection Technologies at Koenig & Bauer Vision & Protection, uses an app to quickly verify printed products
Julian Schubert, CEO of Koenig & Bauer Vision & Protection, says: “In a world where threats to product and brand security are constantly increasing, we are offering important, innovative and reliable solutions. We are directly transferring our extensive expertise from high-security printing to provide other products with unparalleled protection.”
Under the umbrella of ‘protected at print’, Koenig & Bauer Vision & Protection offers technologies that can be applied directly in the printing process, including Stegano, Daktylo and Ovjera. The direct integration of these security solutions not only increases product security but also production efficiency. The first product of this initiative is varnish protect 'aegis', an innovative varnish protection solution based on Stegano technology, which seamlessly integrates hidden information such as codes or images into the varnish layer of printed products. This is achieved without affecting the product design or existing production processes. A key advantage is that a single varnish plate can be used for different customers and print jobs, which makes product protection highly efficient for printing companies.
Schubert continues: “Product piracy costs companies billions every year, not only through lost sales but also through declining customer trust and damaged brand reputation. Varnish protect 'aegis' is an effective tool for consolidating brand integrity with cryptographic security and immediate proof of origin, which enables traceability down to the batch level. The tool is ideal for protecting goods in critical markets such as baby food, health products, pharmaceuticals and toys and for ensuring authenticity where it matters most.”
To keep implementation as simple and flexible as possible, the Koenig & Bauer Vision & Protection team has ensured that no changes to existing prepress workflows are required. Varnish protect 'aegis' uses ready-to-use varnish plates that can be manually adjusted to the print image and integrated into the flexo coating unit like any standard varnish plate. This ensures that there is no impact on production speed or quality and provides maximum flexibility on different printing presses and technologies. The technology is also compatible with a wide range of varnishes.
Customers that have their products protected with this technology can also check the authenticity of the products using a simple verification app (ava), which reads and verifies the invisible data, enabling quick offline verification of euro banknotes and activated packaging.
