Three tricks to prevent counterfeiting of plastic products

1. Pigment and dye additives Another way to identify whether plastic parts are genuine is to mix plastic parts with pigments or dyes. Electronic product shell processing factories use spectrometers to analyze the exposed parts and ultraviolet areas. Those pigments or dyes will show unique patterns. Even if counterfeiters use extremely similar colors on their plastic products, they cannot obtain the same spectrum as the real ones. One of the recently invented anti-counterfeiting technologies uses “color-changing” pigments. These additives contain multiple layers of polymerized light-reflecting coatings, which are applied around a reflective aluminum chip to make the color of the plastic change with different viewing angles. The change in color, such as from red to green, is caused by the interference of light waves reflected from different pigment layers by the angle. Color-changing pigments give plastic consumer products a significant aesthetic effect, and because these effects are not easy to clone, they also have anti-counterfeiting functions. Color-changing pigments can be mixed into a variety of resins, such as PC, PP, HDPE, PET, ABS, thermoplastic PU, cellulose acetate and PA12. The weight ratio of color-changing pigments in the resin is usually between 0.2% and 0.4%, and can be processed by standard processes such as injection molding, extrusion blow molding, thermoforming, calendering, extruded film and in-mold decoration. RFID tags that are only a few microns in size can be used to track the true source of food, medicine and other items in plastic containers that come through various supply channels. Encode the shipping date and shipping port of each batch of goods and other information of the packaging materials into the label. After the goods arrive at the destination port, the information in the label can be read by an instrument. Any goods in the plastic packaging box that do not have any labels or no information on the labels may be counterfeit goods.

2. Microparticle identification The purpose of developing microscopic identification was to help track the source of explosives in the event of quality incidents, but now it is widely used to track and identify the authenticity of plastic products. The most typical microparticle identification is those with color strip patterns with specific resolution functions or polymer particles with special chemical components, which can be pre-mixed with thermoplastics before molding. The diameter of the particles varies from less than 50 microns (equivalent to the size of bacteria) to about 600 microns (equivalent to the size of salt grains). These particles are inert substances, usually do not react chemically, and can withstand the high temperatures during molding without damage. By changing the number, model and color combination on each particle or changing the chemical properties of the particle surface, millions of different unique coded mixtures can be produced. Because the resin contains coded particles, special code reading instruments can identify the manufacturer and product information. The marked particles are often pre-mixed with plastic powder so that they can be used for molding or concentrated, and diluted during processing before molding. The color strip micro-markers on injection molded, extruded or rotationally molded plastic parts can be clearly identified by scanning with a microscope or pattern resolution instrument. Some manufacturers make the logo fluorescent or magnetic, so that the authenticity can be easily identified by ultraviolet irradiation or magnetic scanner.

3. Radio frequency resolution/RFID tags These signals containing the coded information of plastic parts are received by radio receivers and forwarded to the relevant computers. Radio frequency identification tag technology uses a micro transmitter (radio transmitter) installed on a semiconductor chip to store data. Most tags have both reading and inputting functions. When the tag is powered on, it will be induced by the electromagnetic field emitted by the radio receiver antenna, and the receiver can read the data information on the tag. RFID tags are often attached to plastic parts in the form of adhesive labels. However, these tags are easy to peel off over time. The latest RFID tags are embedded in plastic parts during the injection molding process. The most common practice is to pre-embed these tags in plastic boxes and pallets. They are not easy to detach even if they are washed, bumped or rubbed.