The recipe is the code
Different crystal recipes designate origin, SKU, factory, brand and year. Readers tell them apart in the field, even when several are combined in one product.
OriginSKUFactoryLineBrandYear
Solutions · Traceability
A chain of custody inside the material.
Embedded signatures persist through processing, distribution and sale. Unlike digital-only track-and-trace they cannot be spoofed, reassigned or lost: each product carries its own provenance, checkable anywhere without relying on database integrity.
Two levels of trace
Batch to item, from one material.
Choose how fine the trace needs to be. Batch codes come from the crystal recipe. Item fingerprints come from where the crystals happen to land.
The pattern is the fingerprint
The crystals in each mark land at random. A camera captures that pattern as a LightMap™, signs it and prints it in the item's own barcode: a unique optical fingerprint per unit, with no database.
How LightMap™ works →1SourceMine, mill or plant adds the crystal
2ProcessSurvives melting, molding, spinning, printing
3DistributeReads at receiving, customs and the warehouse
4SellChecked at the counter by phone or reader
5ReturnRecycled content measured when it comes back
Watch it work
One recipe for the batch. One fingerprint per item.
The recipe goes in once. Every item from that batch answers the reader with the same code: plant, line, SKU and year. Look closer and no two items are alike, because the crystals land at random. That pattern is the item’s own fingerprint.
Batch levelReaders check the recipe: is this our product, from which plant, line and year?
Item levelA camera checks the pattern: is this the exact unit we made, or a copy of it?
Both from one materialNo label to add, nothing to peel off, and no change to the line.
You chose the crystal · here is what one does
One invisible code. Five jobs.
Case study · a global fiber manufacturer
A global fiber manufacturer adds our crystals to one expensive ingredient on its spinning lines. The same invisible code now measures that ingredient live, saves more than $2 million a year, and proves every bale is genuine, from the plant to the border.
5ppmcrystals in the finished fiber
7injection points, each read live
1.5→1.05%ingredient dose, before and after
>$2M/yrsaved on one ingredient
Emitter–
Shell shape–
Glow lifetime–
Antenna–
The operator presses the button. The dials turn and one crystal comes out: a code no one else has.
An invisible code
You can't see it. The reader can.
In daylight the fiber looks and handles exactly the same. Under the reader's laser, the crystals light up with the customer's own colors and timing. Move the reader over the fabric.
Illustration
500 ppmcrystals in the ingredient
× 1%ingredient in the fiber
= 5 ppmcrystals in the fiber: five parts in a million, invisible to the eye
The code is part of the fiber, not a label stuck on afterwards. It can't be peeled off or copied onto a fake.
Follow one fiber · scroll
One code. Five jobs.
The same crystal does every job. It is added once, in one ingredient, and then read wherever the fiber goes: in the plant, at the customer's mill, in another market and at the border.
The code
One crystal, added once.
The fiber maker gets a crystal of its own. It goes into one ingredient at 500 parts per million, and that ingredient goes into the fiber at about 1%. Nothing else on the line changes.
5 ppm
Crystals in the finished fiber: invisible, and the same in every bale.
Job 1 · Operations
Measure the ingredient as it goes in.
The crystal signal tracks the ingredient, so a reader at each of the seven injection points shows the dose live. If the ingredient drops below 1%, the fiber breaks. Without a live reading, the line ran at 1.5% to be safe. Now it runs at 1.05%.
>$2M a year
Saved on one ingredient. Figures reported by the customer.
Job 2 · Counterfeits
Is this our fiber?
We build custom readers that find this customer's crystals at very low concentrations. A bale with the code is genuine. A copy has no code, however good it looks.
Job 3 · Customers' mills
Readers for the customers, too.
Brands buy the fiber, but their garments are knitted at third-party mills. The fiber maker supplies readers to its customers, so a brand can check that each mill it sources from is really using the fiber the brand paid for.
Job 4 · Diversion & warranty
A different crystal for every plant.
Each of the manufacturer's twelve plants around the world gets its own crystal. When fiber turns up somewhere it was never meant to be sold, a reader shows which plant made it and which market it was made for. The same code can go down to the line or the machine, so quality and warranty teams know exactly where an item came from.
Job 5 · Customs
Checked at the border.
Customs agents have readers as well. A shipment declared as genuine fiber can be checked on the spot, before it enters the market.
Next: a phone check for shoppers (below).
Job 1 in detail · operations
From guessing high to dosing right.
The ingredient keeps the fiber from breaking, and it is expensive. Without a way to see it, the only safe choice was to add far too much. With a reader at each injection point, the plant sees the real dose and runs just above the limit.
Ingredient dose at the seven injection points
Average dose1.50%
Set high, because no one could see the real dose.
Ingredient used100%
Going from 1.5% to 1.05% uses 30% less of the ingredient.
Saved per year$0
More than $2 million a year on one ingredient, as reported by the customer.
Three ways one code pays
Operations, protection and marketing.
Most anti-counterfeiting costs money and only pays off when something goes wrong. Here the same crystal pays its way on the line every day, and the protection and marketing come with it.
Operations
Run tighter, waste less
- Live ingredient dose at every injection point
- 1.05% instead of 1.5%: 30% less ingredient, over $2M a year
- Quality and warranty: a returned item tells you the plant, line or machine that made it
Brand protection
Genuine, everywhere it goes
- Counterfeits: custom readers find the crystals at parts per million
- Mills: customers get readers to check their third-party mills
- Diversion: a crystal per plant shows where fiber came from and where it was meant to go
- Customs: border agents carry readers
Marketing
A claim shoppers can check
- "Genuine fiber inside" becomes a claim that can be proven, not just printed on a hangtag
- Shoppers check a garment with a phone Planned
- Tell the story of where the fabric was made Planned
Planned
Check it with a phone.
The same crystals that customs and mills read today will be checkable by the shopper. Hold a phone over the garment and it confirms the fiber is genuine, then tells the story of where it was made.
1
Hold the phone over the fabricNo label to find, no code to type.
2
The crystals answerThe phone reads the fiber's own invisible code.
3
Genuine, and from whereThe plant and the story behind the fabric, straight from the brand.
In development. The consumer reader and app are not yet available; details will be announced.
Your expensive ingredient
Same idea, other lines.
Anywhere one costly ingredient goes into a product at a set ratio, a crystal in that ingredient can show the real dose, and then carry the brand's code for the rest of the product's life. These are ideas we would like to test with partners.
Coatings & paints
Additive and pigment dose
See the let-down on the line, not after a failed batch.
Plastics
Masterbatch ratio
Confirm the additive went in at the right level, part by part.
Lubricants & fuels
Treat rate
Show the additive package is there, and at strength.
Adhesives
Mix ratio
Check that two-part mixes were blended right.
Have an expensive ingredient?
Let the code pay for itself.
Tell us what goes into your product and where it goes after. We will design a crystal, a reader and a plan to measure, protect and trace it. NovaVera Corp. supplies the crystals and readers.
Metals
The crystal goes into the melt.
Stamps wear off, serial numbers get machined away, and everything is lost when metal is melted and recast. So we put the identity in the alloy itself, where it survives casting, rolling, machining and recycling.
Client case · rolled aluminum
One of the world's two largest rolled-aluminum producers.
The producer enriches its alloys with Intelligent Material. When scrap returns, measuring the crystal tells them where the metal came from and how much of it is their own recycled content, and flags dilution or substitution.
Different crystals mark different product lines, so the same check separates structural from non-structural alloys, and lower-carbon from standard metal.
Protecting the optical core
A shell that takes the heat, so the core keeps its light.
Molten metal is hard on a tiny optical crystal. Heat alone isn't the problem; our crystals are thermally stable far above aluminum's melting point. The melt is also chemically aggressive, can pull particles into the dross, and can dim the glow at the crystal's surface.
So for metals the crystal is built in two parts. An optical core carries the code. A protective refractory shell wraps it, taking the contact with the melt while letting the reader's light through in both directions. The core stays readable after casting and remelting.
The reader looks at the glow after its light switches off, so the shine of bare metal and room light don't confuse it.
Defend product integrity.
NovaVera works with central banks, pharmaceutical manufacturers, brand owners and more, from the first sample to full production. Tell us what you need to protect. We reply within two business days.