As a counter-measure to the multi-billion dollar problem of currency, document and product forgery, Fuji Xerox Australia has introduced a proprietary anti-counterfeiting system that is different to traditional ink markings, bar codes or holograms.
The new system incorporates chemically encoded microparticles into paper, inks, paper coatings or adhesives.
The company's business development manager in Australia John Sparks said the microparticles function as tags which securely identify an individual, company, government, assembly line, shipment or lot number as the legal owner or source.
He said it is a simple a cost-effective solution to products including currency, passports, tickets, ID cards, CDs, and bulk goods from minerals and chemicals to agricultural products.
"Worldwide governments and business have seen an explosion in the counterfeit problem over the past few years; police blame the influx on the development of high-quality laser printers capable of reproducing the colours and finest details on valuable documents," Sparks said.
"Microparticles allow manufacturers to add security measures thorugh numerous methods including pulp and paper manufacturing, ink or coating processes; not only are these particles durable but they can be layered with as many levels of security as the customer needs."
Because the system produces billions of distinct codes rapidly and economically, Sparks said the products offers unlimited numbers of covert security codes to users.
These codes are then used to authenticate plant origin, time of manufacture, customer destination or lot and batch numbers.
"Codes are registered to pre-qualified customers and recorded in a confidential database. Once a code is manufactured and assigned to a customer that code is taken permanently out of production," he said.
"The microparticles are invisible to the unaided eye but are discernible with common reading devices such as an illuminated magnifier; smaller particles can be produced for added security and can be read with a microscope."