Lake Image Systems automate tax stamp print inspection at Ramón chozas – delivering impressive productivity gains
Lake Image Systems Inc. is pleased to announce it has implemented an automated solution at Ramón Chozas, based in Buenos Aires, Argentina for inspecting and authenticating the ScanTrust secure QR code technology on Tax Stamps for a national agricultural agency.
Traditional authentication technologies such as special inks, dyes, taggants and holograms on stamps, would have substantially increased production costs. Ramón Chozas implemented the ScanTrust secure QR code technology as it offered the superior levels of protection and traceability required by the agency. More importantly, this technology required standard printing techniques, which meant that they were able to offer a highly cost-effective, competitive solution.
ScanTrust’s technology involves printing a variable QR code, containing a unique secure graphic that cannot be copied and can be easily verified using a mobile app. The high-level of print quality (800 DPI) necessary to print the secure QR codes, required careful monitoring. The existing manual inspection process involved slowing down the label press in order to take QA samples of the Tax Stamps, which were then verified and authenticated using the ScanTrust mobile app. This was labor-intensive and prone to human error which impacted Ramón Chozas’ operational performance.
Lake Image Systems and ScanTrust SA collaborated to develop ScanTrust’s RAILS (Real-time In-Line Verification System), an integrated code verification and authentication program that interfaced with Lake Image’s DISCOVERY Multiscan3 on an MS Windows platform.
Lake Image Systems installed its latest 16K Line-scan camera, capable of capturing high resolution images of the ScanTrust secure graphic, QR Code and the variable information printed on the Tax Stamp, immediately after the printing process. These images were then processed by DISCOVERY Multiscan3 to read, decode and validate both the QR code and the serialized numbers against a database. DISCOVERY Multiscan3 also extracted the secure image, and through the integration, interrogated the ScanTrust RAILS system to authenticate every Tax Stamp, in real-time and at full press speeds.
The Lake Image solution and its integration with ScanTrust’s RAILS system have given Ramón Chosaz the assurance that the ScanTrust codes are visible, readable, validated and authenticated in order to deliver a highly effective, traceable, and low-cost secure Tax Stamp production service.
We are producing over 10 million Tax Stamps a year for this important client. As we don’t have to slow down our presses when taking QA samples, we have seen at least a 15% increase in productivity with 100% reassurance that our printing processes are good,” declared Pedro Etchemaite, Production Manager at Ramón Chozas. “We are now fully confident and ready to deliver a reliable, cost-effective and quality anti-counterfeit solution, not only for this client, but also for other clients within the security printing industry to protect brands and revenue, with full traceability throughout the supply chain.”
This renewed confidence has opened up a new market for Ramón Chozas and has allowed them to fully exploit the business opportunities afforded by the ScanTrust technology. They are working to close two new secure label printing opportunities in Chile with another one in Brazil.
Click here to read the full case study.
About Ramón Chozas
Established in 1909, Ramón Chozas is one of Latin America’s leading commercial and security printers, specializing in the production of high-quality documents and labels, and a key player in the commercial stationery distribution market through its brands Húsares and Capitolio. They have a wide range of clients including government & security agencies, corporates, retail, travel & gaming and their 11,000 sq. meters production site houses cutting-edge flexographic and digital printing, label converting, plastic card personalization and Direct Mail production equipment. Find out more: http://www.ramonchozas.com.ar/en/
About ScanTrust SA:
ScanTrust provides a cloud-based, Internet-of-Packaging platform for product authentication and supply chain visibility. By combining our patent-protected, secure unique identifiers (QR and 2D barcodes) and our business intelligence software, ScanTrust helps brand owners protect against counterfeit, monitor unit-level traceability of products, and drive end-user engagement. ScanTrust has offices in Lausanne, Shanghai, Singapore and Amsterdam. “We enable transparency to create trust between brands and consumers worldwide”. Find out more: www.scantrust.com
About Lake Image Systems
Lake Image Systems is a world leader in variable data integrity and print quality inspection for the packaging, labels, and commercial print industries. By reading and processing the variable data now commonplace on many printed items, our solutions inspect, verify, track and report on billions of documents, labels, plastic cards and packages daily using codes such as OCR, barcodes, 2D codes, QR codes and many more to detect print errors, identify & track items, secure products and protect brands and consumers. With over 4,000 systems worldwide we automate print inspection processes, in order to increase throughput and productivity, minimize waste and mitigate business risks for our clients. www.lakeimage.com