Inkjet & Digital Printing

Ticket printing with security features at the Xeikon stand during Hunkeler Innovationdays

Monday 28. January 2013 - At the Hunkeler Innovationdays in Lucerne, Switzerland (February 11-15), Xeikon will be highlighting digital security printing features, including the brand new capability of using taggant marked spot color toner. During the exhibition Xeikon will produce tickets that include several security features. They will be printed on the latest Xeikon 8600 roll-fed digital press, with inline dynamic perforation from Hunkeler. Xeikon will exhibit on stand P09.

Taggants are microscopic chemical markers that can be added to the substrate or the toner itself, to allow various forms of verification. They are already used for high security documents such as banknotes, identification documents and value papers. Taggants are invisible to the human eye in print and can only be detected by special readers. They are not removable and they are very difficult to reverse engineer. Xeikon embeds taggants, provided by BrandWatch Technologies, in the toner during the production process. Once the taggant toner is ready, it will only be distributed through BrandWatch Technologies who has expertise in managing security solutions and maintain a strict chain of custody, following ISO 28000 standards. The taggants in the tickets printed at the exhibition will be detectible with a dedicated reader unit developed by BrandWatch Technologies. The taggant toner, which will be applied using the fifth color station of the Xeikon 8600, will be used to print variable information and makes the ticket virtually impossible to duplicate.
Many print service providers – whether in the ticket, document, commercial or packaging printing segments – demand printing solutions that can safeguard them against counterfeiting. In response to customer requests for such security features, Xeikon has incorporated a growing range of options into its hardware and software. With Xeikon digital printing, many techniques for product safety can be realized, such as variable data, barcodes, micro text, guilloche, tactile fonts, fluorescent security papers and security toners to name a few. Many of these features are already applied by Xeikon customers to add value and make documents more trustworthy. Recent examples have included tickets for major European sports events.
“The tickets we will be printing will have attractive design features,” says Danny Mertens, Xeikon’s Director of Segment Marketing & Business Development: “One reason for actually printing tickets is that they are increasingly regarded as collector’s items. People who go to important football matches, or Olympics events, often like to keep their tickets as souvenirs. As a result, ticket printing companies are putting a lot of effort into making them look attractive as well as preventing counterfeiting.”
Xeikon published a 36 page white paper on brand protection that explains the various printed security features available with Xeikon’s toner presses. The white paper can be downloaded from the Xeikon website