Industrial materials
Plastics, inks, fibers and coatings that carry their own batch and plant signature. The same identity that protects the brand also runs the plant: dosing, line traceability, failure analysis and recycling.
Industrial materials change hands many times between the plant and the finished product. Quality claims, recycled-content claims and chain-of-custody records depend on paperwork, and expensive additives are often overdosed because nobody can measure them in the finished material.
Crystals are compounded into masterbatch, mixed into ink or varnish, or added with a fiber process ingredient, at parts-per-million loadings on your existing lines. Readers measure how much is there, which plant and line made it, and whether it is genuine.
Practical applications
Plastics
Crystals are compounded into a masterbatch, the concentrated pellets molders already use for color and additives. Let the masterbatch down on a normal molding or extrusion line and every part carries the code from the first shot. Nothing is printed, attached or peeled off.
Illustration. Signal strength scales with the amount of crystal, so the same reader that says "genuine" can also say "how much".
Also in inks, varnishes, waxes, coatings, fibers and metals. Typical loadings are around 1 part per million in a bottle or label varnish.
Inks and varnishes
The crystals are sub-micron and chemically inert, so they disperse into the inks and coatings a printer already runs, at very low loadings. The artwork, the press and the speed stay the same. Pick a process to see where the crystal rides.
NovaVera can supply Intelligent Material in almost any commercial ink or varnish, for any printing process, and compounded into standard plastic pellets. Printers and molders keep working with the products and suppliers they know; the crystal arrives already inside.
Also flexographic and pad printing, the method used for marks on eyewear frames.
You chose the crystal · here is what one does
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.
An invisible code
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.
Follow one fiber · scroll
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 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.
Crystals in the finished fiber: invisible, and the same in every bale.
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%.
Saved on one ingredient. Figures reported by the customer.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
Set high, because no one could see the real dose.
Going from 1.5% to 1.05% uses 30% less of the ingredient.
More than $2 million a year on one ingredient, as reported by the customer.
Three ways one code pays
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.
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.
Hold the phone over the fabricNo label to find, no code to type.
The crystals answerThe phone reads the fiber's own invisible code.
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
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.
See the let-down on the line, not after a failed batch.
Confirm the additive went in at the right level, part by part.
Show the additive package is there, and at strength.
Check that two-part mixes were blended right.
Have an expensive ingredient?
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.
Related industries
Ready to evaluate NovaVera for Materials Manufacturing? We work directly with technical evaluators and procurement teams, from the first sample to full production.
Tell us what you need to protect in materials manufacturing, where it is made and who needs to check it. We reply within two business days.