NEWS: New Heat-Activated, Tamper-Evident Ink Improves Detection
22-09-2017Chromatic Technologies Inc (CTI) announced the introduction of Tamper Alert, a new irreversible, heat-activated ink technology to identify tamper evidence in labels and packaging for chemicals, pharmaceuticals, food, electronics and other products targeted for theft and counterfeiting.
The ink is irreversible and is used to show a product has been tampered with or has undergone temperature changes that will impact on the quality of the product. It is available in target activation temperatures of 50° C (122° F), 60° C (140° F), 70° C (158° F) and 80° C (176° F).
The company claims this new technology is a breakthrough in tamper-evidence, providing customers with a tight activation window where the alert transitions from colourless to full colour within a range of 10° C. Traditional irreversible technologies require a transition window between 30° to 50° C (86° F. to 122° F.). This can result in weak colour activation and detection at lower temperatures.
“For much of our history, CTI has produced inks that change ‘back and forth’ based on temperature or sunlight. This was demonstrated in our ink used recently for the US Postal Service 2017 solar eclipse stamp,” said Lyle Small, CTI’s founder and chief executive officer. “Now, we’ve perfected an ink that goes only one-way.”
The Tamper Alert invention also incorporates CTI’s Turbo colour technology creating the strongest color alert in tamper evidence in blue, green, black and red. At present, it is available only in water-based applications.
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