Microtagging identifies bona fide compounds
A
RTP Company product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Mar 7, 2003
To ensure that parts are made with the materials or resins specified, RTP Company is offering a traceable, anticounterfeit technology called microtagging.
With the shift of manufacturing to countries outside the USA, counterfeiting of parts has become a serious problem.
To ensure that parts are made with the materials or resins specified, RTP Company is offering a traceable, anticounterfeit technology called microtagging.
Microtagging, or the addition of minute particles called microtags to thermoplastic compounds, provides a means of identification and authentication of genuine product to address issues of counterfeiting and warranty/liability issues.
"The microtag particle is essentially a unique numeric code sequence supplied in a microscopic multicolour layered format", says Stu Swain, Colour Product Manager for RTP Company.
"A specific sequence is produced for each customer or application.
The sequence is certified and registered on a database and will never be used again for any other purpose", Swain added.
Anticounterfeiting methods can be formulated to be seen by the naked eye, or to be invisible.
"In the case of Microtags, a simple nondestructive test involving ultraviolet light and a 100x magnifying glass is all that is needed", says Swain, "for a customer to test the parts and find out if they contain the correct resin, compound, or alloy have been counterfeited".
Depending on the customers' needs, RTP Company can also add features such as fluorescent, magnetic, or other qualities during compounding that are detectable by scanners and electronic sensors.
Microtags can be added to resins during compounding or supplied in concentrate form for use at the moulding press.
They are available in a variety of sizes to meet the specific requirements associated with the customers intended use or application.
"They can be the approximate size of ground pepper or almost completely invisible to the naked eye", says Swain.
Standard particle size ranges from 600 microns down to 20 microns.
Microtags were originally developed for the explosives industry to avert and track terrorism but have recently found applications in high counterfeiting markets such as sporting goods, entertainment, and electronics as well as high warranty markets such as electronics, automotive, and aircraft.
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