Inabata and Toyo to launch anti-counterfeit blister foil

A blister foil with anti-counterfeit features developed by Japan's Toyo Aluminium will be launched at Pharma Expo next month.

The blister foil technology features colour-shifting inks that can be complemented by additional semi-overt and covert features and - according to US distributor Inabata - are much cheaper than holograms or other colour-shifting ink technologies.

"Our ink is high quality but with a much cheaper price," the Inabata spokesman told SecuringIndustry.com. "Because it is cost competitive - with no similar grade in the market - and no one can copy our products vivid colour, we believe there are many advantages for consumers and pharma companies."

Toyo Aluminium has been manufacturing aluminium foil since 1978 and their products are widely used in pharmaceutical and other flexible packaging applications.  They have been manufacturing aluminium pastes for industrial coatings since 1957.

The colour-shifting ink for anti-counterfeiting applications is derived from the firm's aluminium pigment business and has not yet been formally launched, although some pharma companies have been road-testing the technology.

The spokesman company is able to provide the colour-shifting inks at a low price as it can leverage its position as one of the largest manufacturer of aluminium paste and pigments in the world, and Japan's biggest producer of aluminium foil for blister packs.

"As far as we know, there are no companies which combine both aluminium pigment and blister foil businesses in the world," said the spokesman. Moreover, Toyo's has perfected a new method of manufacturing colour-shifting pigments, he added.

"The prevailing method of manufacturing colour shifting pigment in other companies is vaporization. This method is not good at mass production and its quality is not stable."

That means other ink producers can get only small amount of colour shifting pigment for security use by one production, while Toyo's manufacturing method is totally different and allows "mass production with better consistency."

In addition to being cheaper to produce, the inks are highly resistant to duplication thanks to Toyo's "unique technology of treating their aluminium flake with inorganics to enhance light interference for shifting of colour."

The combination of aluminium with other inorganic materials at precisely controlled quantities makes the product very distinctive and means it can easily be traced to the origin with microscopic examination, said the spokesman.

Meanwhile, it is also Toyo's ability to provide the pigment, printing and converting technologies under one roof that makes the technology "impossible to duplicate by any other method," he concluded.

The blister foil will be showcased to potential customers for the first time at the Pharma Expo 2015 in Las Vegas later this year.