Lumino

The issue of product security is of increasing importance worldwide. Until now, the development of chemical markers has been carried out independently, without the development of associated detection technology. Thus, fluorescent materials have typically been checked visually. Optimal-Optik Kft. and Luminochem Kft. have jointly submitted a research and development proposal to create a new product security system through the combined development of chemical markers and detectors suitable for their identification. The broad possibilities inherent in instrumental detection expand the potential repertoire of chemical markers, resulting in the expected development of many new chemical markers. Through this development, the range of products that can be protected by origin will also significantly expand, greatly enhancing product security and making counterfeiting more difficult.

Objective

Counterfeiting is a global issue that threatens public health, the food industry, leads to tax evasion, and increases public spending as well as the costs of legitimate manufacturers.

In the case of banknotes, documents, and valuable items, origin protection has significant importance and will continue to do so in the future. However, in areas such as transportation tickets, the advancement of digital security solutions is evident. Based on our market experience, we believe that various anti-counterfeiting and origin protection solutions will not disappear but will be complemented by security solutions directly placed on product packaging. For example, in some countries, the marking of excise products is not done with a tax stamp or a separate label but printed directly on the surface of bottles, flasks, and tubes, which includes a unique "chemical" origin protection identifier in addition to the digital code, ensuring it cannot be copied by unauthorized individuals.

Our project aims to develop solutions that form a unified system capable of marking certain products or product groups with unique chemical signals for origin protection purposes and creating prototypes of detectors that read and decode these chemical signals, allowing for the direct identification of the products. In solving the tasks, we also pay attention to the fact that unlike banknotes and documents, these need to be applied on non-flat surfaces (e.g., bottles, flasks, tubes). The reading and decoding must take place on-site even on such poorly defined surfaces.

Most current "chemical" origin markers are based on the use of UV-fluorescent materials. Magnetic and other materials with special optical properties are used to a lesser extent, but the most common are the UV-light detectable markings known from banknotes. These markings are examined with a separate device (UV lamp), but the evaluation of the results is mostly visual, with a high subjective factor. This should be supplemented or replaced in the future by markings that rely on instrumental analysis results rather than human visual subjectivity. We aim to implement such development in our project: developing chemical markers that give unique optical-spectral signals and closely related custom-developed decoding instruments, fluorimeters, which match the unique optical-spectral signals.

Project Information

• Project ID: 2020-1.1.2-PIACI-KFI-2020-00155
• Support Amount: 291,624,542 HUF
• Support Intensity Rate: 67.95%
• Project Completion Date: 2022.12.31.

Funding Scheme

The program 2020-1.1.2-PIACI-KFI-2020-00155 is based on the research background of Luminochem Kft. Luminochem Kft. is a company with significant international experience, leading R&D projects in chemical and materials science, and developing and manufacturing unique chemical security solutions for the security printing industry and several other origin protection fields. Optimal-Optik Kft. provides optical design, research, and development services for its clients. The sustainability of the application is ensured by the expertise, appropriate financial background of the consortium members, and the sale of the developed products. Luminochem Kft. is a globally recognized market leader in the development and manufacture of security markers, ensuring the sale of the new products developed during the project.

Fields of Science

• Engineering and Technology
• Materials Engineering
• Chemical Engineering
• Optical Engineering

Participants

• Luminochem Kft.
• Optimal-Optik Kft.

Publications