To prevent the counterfeit of products, Polysecure GmbH and plastics manufacturer Röchling Industrial are working together to launch the SmartMarker marker tech for plastic products.

The SmartMarker will enable manufacturers to authenticate, identify and sort products using a distinctive identifier composed of small, invisible marker particles incorporated into the product.

To authenticate a product, components featuring the SmartMarker technology can be scanned with a Polysecure BRANDPROOF pocket detector, which can detect the marker particles to prove the product’s manufacturer.

Source: Polysecure GmbH

Additionally, the unique pattern of the marker particles can also serve as an identifier for a component and the particles can also be used for tracer-based sorting wherein plastic products feature marker particles that can be used to sort plastic waste into various recycling categories.

In addition to authenticating a product’s origins, the SmartMarker technology can also be used to create a so-called digital material passport wherein the particle fingerprint could contain digitized product information — such as customer information, batch numbers and material properties, for instance — that can be stored in a database.