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Category: Innovation Bonds

Breathing Down the Necks of Counterfeiters

A technology developed by a team at the University of Michigan, along with research partners in South Korea, has used polyurethane as part of a label that cannot be easily copied. 

 An array of tiny pillars on the top of a surface — comparable to a sub-microscopic toothbrush, says the team — hides the image beneath. When moisture from a breath gets between the minute polyurethane pillars, the image is revealed.

These labels could be produced and inserted into a variety of consumer goods and packaging including, pharmaceuticals, clothes, sneakers, and handbags. The durability of polyurethane ensures that the labels and the images they hide will outlast a counterfeiter’s plan.

For more, see this article in Plastics News and this one from The University of Michigan.

Read more about polyurethane:

BASF’s polyurethane chemistry gives runners and Adidas help with their ‘Boost’

Making a Real Life Terminator