Packaging coding management specialist Claricom has established a “CounterFight” division to market a new, in-house developed mass serialisation software technology that enables printing of unique, non-sequential security codes onto individual items, cases or pallets, (alongside date, lot and barcode information), as an “effective, low-cost” brand protection solution.
The CounterFight printer control software is designed to work in tandem with the central control unit of companies’ existing coding and labelling equipment. Typically printed as simple human-readable codes (barcode and 2D barcode versions can be specified), the random software-generated numbers can be checked and verified “at any time, anywhere” by authorised users via phone, SMS-text message or the Internet. The system can also print relational codes onto different “levels” of packaging, making it “effectively impossible” for would-be counterfeiters to copy.
Claricom adds: “Using existing coding equipment minimises capital investment and changes to production operations and means there is no negative impact on line performance and efficiency.”
The CounterFight system allows code application at up to 1,500 packs/min. Because every number is generated in real-time and unique, Claricom emphasises there is no need to store the codes, which it says means the system “holds 100,000 times less data than competitive systems”. It adds: “As individual codes are neither stored nor transmitted, there is no central security database that can be stolen or compromised.”