Tag Archives: anti-counterfeiting

Pashmina fabrics saturated with nanotechnology-enabled anti-counterfeiting labels

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A byword for luxury and elegance, Pashmina shawls are hugely expensive, highly coveted fashionwear consequently they present an opportunity for counterfeiters. Ishfaq-ul-Hassan’s Feb. 26, 2013 article for DNAIndia.com describes a nanotechnology-enabled anti-counterfeiting measure being undertaken,

You’ve got to hand it to technology. It is now proving handy in preserving the exclusivity of the famed handmade Kashmiri Pashmina shawls across the globe.

The exquisite Pashmina shawls will carry a secure fusion label (SFL) with an identity (ID) number that can be used by a buyer to check its genuineness anywhere in the world.

Robin Pagnamenta takes  a slightly different approach to the subject in a Feb. 27, 2013 article for The Times Asia,

It is among the most exquisite and expensive fabrics on earth, hand-spun from a few precious combs of wool collected in spring from the soft underbelly of the Himalayan mountain goat.

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Only about 50,000 genuine pashminas are made in Kashmir every year. In stores in London and New York they can cost thousands of pounds each — making the potential rewards for dealing in counterfeits made from ordinary wool or cheap synthetic fibres highly lucrative.

The new tags, known as secure fusion labels, cannot be replicated or removed. The technology can withstand repeated washing and can only be read using a special pen.

Unfortunately neither article offers any technical details or information about the company or agency that has developed this nanotechnology-enabled anti-counterfeiting measure.

UK team works on anti-counterfeiting using Morpho butterfly and jewel beetles as inspiration

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The Morpho butterfly, peacock feather, and beetle shells exert a fascination for scientists these days. What they have in common is iridescence and that optical property is being pursued with single-minded passion. A research team from Sheffield University in the UK is the latest to come up with a prototype film which exploits the nanostructures making iridescent colour possible. From the May 18, 2011 news item on Nanowerk,

Scientists from the University of Sheffield have developed pigment-free, intensely coloured polymer materials, which could provide new, anti-counterfeit devices on passports or banknotes due to their difficulty to copy (“Continuously tuneable optical filters from self-assembled block copolymer blends”).

The polymers do not use pigments but instead exhibit intense colour due to their structure, similar to the way nature creates colour for beetle shells and butterfly wings.

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Dr Andrew Parnell, from the University of Sheffield’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, said: “Our aim was to mimic the wonderful and funky coloured patterns found in nature, such as Peacock feathers. We now have a painter’s palette of colours that we can choose from using just two polymers to do this. We think that these materials have huge potential to be used commercially.”

Here’s a video of the work (there’s no explanation of what you’re seeing; the silence is total),

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-GgpxdNrc4

A minute and half of shiny stuff, I love the zen quality. Although I don’t really understand it, I do enjoy not knowing, just seeing.

There are two teams in Canada working along the same lines, Opalux (a spin-off company from the University of Toronto) about which I posted on Jan. 21, 2011 and Nanotech Security Corporation (a spin-off company from Simon Fraser University) about which I posted on Jan. 17, 2011. Both companies are also working to create films useful in anti-counterfeiting strategies.