Securing business beyond labels

Mike Fairley visits Pitkit in Israel to see how the company has developed a global reputation for high quality, specialized labels and unique security printing solutions

The label industry is changing fast. No longer just about printing labels, it’s much more to do with providing new solutions, products and services.

Take Pitkit Printing Enterprises in Israel for example. One of the largest and oldest label manufacturers in the country, it not only manufactures high quality labels, in-mold labels and shrink sleeves for a wide range of industries – nationally and internationally – but has also become a global specialist in re-sealable labels, in anti-counterfeiting and brand protection solutions, in the development of secure, tamper-evident tape for sealing cartons and packages, in the manufacture and personalization of e-ID Cards, and even producing self-adhesive postage stamps for the Israeli government.

More recently, they have been moving into small-run folding cartons, writing software for security label viewing and authentication, and producing wine bottle capsules incorporating track & trace capabilities. They have even developed their own inkjet inks for authentication purposes incorporating special optical taggants.

Not unsurprisingly, Pitkit has invested a tremendous amount of effort and resources into research and development, particularly in secure printing technologies, in the process of gaining a reputation as one of the worldwide leaders in this field. It also aims to do everything in-house, from a talented graphic department, through quality pre-production, and on to the latest top-of-the-line printing equipment – which today includes Gallus presses, a HP Indigo WS6000, a manroland 500 dry offset, ABG finishing systems, AVT inspection equipment and DCM slitting and sleeving machines. All pretty impressive.

Formerly a public company that traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Market, it decided to move back to a private-ownership – it is now 100 percent owned by the joint managing directors Gideon Fishman and Zeev Blajwajs – in 2011. This decision was partly due to the ‘high on-going cost of complying with growing corporate legislation’.

Today the company employs some 90 people in a two-storey 4,000 sq meter factory in the Caesarea Industrial Park. The factory is certified to ISO 9002 (since 1992), and in compliance with UL, HAACP and BRC (ISA) standards.

The production of high quality labels using letterpress, screen, flexo, hot stamping or digital for cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, wines and beverages is the main core of the company’s business. Fishman explains,  ‘We also aim at adding value wherever possible, using the abilities we have developed and built-up over the years to print on the label adhesive or backing paper, the ability to neutralize part of the adhesive, to be able to provide added-value tamper-evident solutions, or for the printing of state-of-the-art security features. Pharmaceutical labels also pass through a computerized optical control system to provide 100 percent precision flawless printing.’

Interestingly, it also offers a unique technology to produce exquisite labels combining 3D with superb color effects for sales promotion, advertizing and security. This technology is based on an exclusive knowledge-sharing agreement with Dufex Technologies, a UK manufacturer of labels and tags, to produce colorful 3D images for a variety of applications.

However, it is in security printing that Pitkit has built an international reputation for incorporating state-of-the-art security features for brand protection, prevention of product diversion and brand counterfeiting, as well as ID theft and document counterfeiting.

One subsidiary, Bsecure, develops new security printing technologies and a further subsidiary, SecuSystem, has developed a revolutionary type of ink recognized by a special small optical handheld authentication reader developed exclusively for the purpose.

For brand protection – for pharmaceuticals, medical devices, machine and electronic parts, cosmetics, sports goods, consumer electronics, apparel, tobacco and cigarettes, wines and spirits, DVDs, CDs and videos, computer equipment, etc – the security ink can be printed as part of a security label or tag, or directly on the item or its packaging. Both inexpensive and convenient, the SecuSystem is said to be the only machine-readable system to provide real counterfeit protection for large quantities of essentially identical items. The hand-held authenticator provides visual and audio notification and is powered by a standard battery.

The system has been used to guard government documents, famous brand name products, and transportation tickets for more than a decade. All SecuSystem applications are designed together with the customer to provide custom-made solutions. For track & trace applications hidden barcodes or other covert codes can be used to determine where the product was initially delivered by the manufacturer. This latter application requires digital printing.

For the apparel market using woven labels, SecuSystem dyes can be used to dye yarn, which is then incorporated into the weaving process. The resulting woven security labels retain the identifying graphics of the former, unsecured labels, while providing counterfeit protection. The authenticators can be calibrated to authenticate the labels and protect the brand against counterfeiting.

The inks can also be printed on cloth using the heat transfer process. They are first printed on heat transfer paper, and then transferred to the garment by heat transfer without any additional steps. The size, shape and color of the security features are determined by the required graphics. Minimum feature size is six mm in diameter. The existence of the SecuSystems signature is then checked with an authenticator.

Another recent innovation by Pitkit is the development of a revolutionary line of tamper-evident products, with the first three products in the family consisting of a tamper-evident security sealing tape, tamper-evident stickers, and stickers for verifying suitcases and carry-on bags. The latter are used by security staff of airlines in Israel and around the world for placing on bags that have undergone various stages of security clearance.

The tamper-evident sealing tape was designed with a proprietary technology to ensure the secure sealing of cartons and varying types of packages. Once the package has been opened it becomes immediately apparent, being impossible to re-seal without it being obvious that it has been tampered with. A company logo can be printed on the tape, and it can be produced in relatively small quantities.

Pitkit has also developed tamper-evident stickers to guarantee the security of envelopes containing such things as legal or medical documents.

A further part of the company, Pitkit Smartech – jointly-owned by Pitkit Printing Enterprises and Belgium-based Zetes, developers of registration and enrolment systems – produces custom electronic smart cards based on highly durable polycarbonate. All production is performed in a specially designated high security area using high resolution printing as well as technologies and automated processes developed by the company.  The resulting electronic smart cards are exceptionally rugged and integrate a wide range of overt and covert security elements, as well as proprietary level 3 security features that make them virtually impossible to replicate or alter. Both contact and contactless options can be provided.

In the e-ID card production process Pitkit incorporates state-of-the-art security features, such as Fortuna security software, micro-text printing, printing with Optically Variable Inks (OVIs), holograms, invisible inks and counterfeit-resistant security inks, Changeable Laser Images (CLI) and additional security means which can be authenticated only by using a dedicated device.

To guarantee the security of the system, every card owner will have a certified secret numeric code. The certificates for these codes are issued at every transaction and only the holder of the appropriate certificate will have access to the information which, as an extra security measure, will be encrypted before it is transmitted.

As can be seen, Pitkit is a quite unusual and enterprising company – even unique – not just for high quality label production (at which it excels) but for a range of high-tech security and specialized solutions that have gained a worldwide reputation. The message on all its promotional material is ‘Technologically Advanced Printing for perfect results’. A message it certainly seems to live up to.

Pictured: Mike Fairley with Gideon Fishman, joint managing director Pitkit

This article was published in L&L issue 5, 2012