Coding and marking technologies to elevate your brand

Packaging is used to inform the consumer about the purpose and contents of a product, its expiry date and production series. With new technologies on the market, this range of information can be vastly extended. TracePack provides solutions for different coding, identification and traceability needs, bringing together the most appropriate technologies for beauty packaging.

With the Internet of Things (IoT) on the rise worldwide, cosmetics and beauty brands could benefit from smart packaging. However, the concept remains a unique niche in these categories, leaving a gap in the market for designers to create some highly innovative and fun packaging.

Smart packaging and connected packaging are two different things. Smart packaging uses technology to become more than just a container, for example to provide brand content or in-depth product info to consumers. Connected packaging finds applications in almost all retail product categories, including cosmetics. How it works is a QR code is printed on the packaging which consumers can scan using a mobile device to access layers and layers of informative content.

The characteristics of a container, such as this deodorant can, determine the most appropriate technology to use for coding and marking

NEXT-LEVEL LASER MARKING

Laser technology can be used to apply QR codes on a wide range of materials such as plastics, cardboard, glass, etc. using a clean and safe process that ensures great legibility, permanence and low maintenance costs. However, the most appropriate marking and coding technology is determined by the characteristics of the container, which could be a glass jar, deodorant can, hard plastic makeup palette, glass perfume bottle or PETbody butter tub, for example.

According to TracePack, its latest laser system is the fastest and most complete solution on the market for packaging digitisation. It operates at a speed of 1000m/minute providing high-definition marking without loss of quality. It is also said to be the world’s only laser marker system that can continuously mark more than 100 unique QR codes per second and provides item-level traceability information to producers, distributors and consumers.

Laser technology is used to apply a QR code on a wide range of packaging materials, including plastics

AVOID DIFFICULTIES IN VISUAL INSPECTION

When it comes to makeup and colour cosmetics, packaging formats have evolved significantly in line with trends and consumer preferences. Kits and palettes are increasingly customisable with each design differing in the selection and placement of a product’s contents. This has resulted in complexities when visually inspecting makeup kits for completeness and correctness.

Growth in colour combinations and texture ranges have also made it difficult to programme conventional machine vision systems to identify missing components or incorrect palette combinations. Not detecting these small errors in a product’s contents may pose several risks to the manufacturer, including a loss of reputation and sales.

COMPLY WITH TRACEABILITY REQUIREMENTS

Printed text on every container must be confirmed, specifically the date/lot information, product line ID, and other information relating to the traceability of a product. Although conventional optical character recognition(OCR) with a fixed-mount vision system can accurately read characters on containers at high speeds, once the distance and orientation of the packages are determined, any change of scale, angle, colour or background pattern requires significant adjustment or even system reprogramming, making it difficult to produce and track smaller runs of various products.

Regulatory compliance increasingly demands full product traceability, with penalties for traceability failures. As a result, the accurate determination of product text without slowing production is essential in cosmetics manufacturing.TracePack’s deep learning solution can be used on a production line to accurately read challenging OCR codes on packaging.

Whatever the material used, the wide range of solutions from TracePackguarantee the clear, permanent and secure marking of batch numbers and QR codes on all cosmetics packaging, be it makeup, sunscreens, fragrances or haircare products. •

TracePack – www.tracepack.co.za