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New tech embeds mass customised hidden data in credit cards and plastics during manufacture

Professor Gordon Smith. Professor of Polymers within IIPSI at WMGBank card and other plastic product manufacturers will have access to a powerful new technology that will help the fight against counterfeiting of their products and which can provide an additional security feature for credit cards, thanks to new technology devised by researchers at WMG at the University of Warwick.

The technology will allow manufacturers to rapidly embed individual, unique and hidden individual pieces of data in each item made in large production runs of plastic products or credit cards as they are being created by injection moulding.

The researchers, led by WMG Professor Gordon Smith at the University of Warwick have just applied for patents to protect the new technology which uses the influence of a particular external force that exploits the polarity of particles and fluids, to very selectively influence those particles or a polymer fluid as a product is formed by injection moulding.

Professor Smith said: “We are delighted that we have been able to demonstrate that the technology can embed unique pieces of data in each individual product across a live injection moulding production run. The data can either be made visible to the naked eye or hidden so that it can be read by a low cost ‘black box’ scanner.”

“We know this will be of great interest to range of manufacturers seeking to combat counterfeiting in injection moulded products or add security features to credit cards and we will now seek to work with such an interested company to refine the technology and scale it up from our own test runs to full blown industrial production.”

Note for editors

This technology is the subject of a patent application: GB1309138.4 - Methods and apparatuses relating to injection-moulded objects. Any organisation wishing to discuss how that patent and associated intellectual property could be used or taken forward commercially should contact David Calvert, at Warwick Ventures Ltd, Tel: +44 (0) 24 7657 5481 email: d dot j dot calvert at warwick dot ac dot uk

For media enquiries please contact:

Professor Gordon Smith – Tel: +44 (0) 7940589680 ; e-mail: G dot F dot Smith at warwick dot ac dot uk

Lisa Barwick, WMG Communications Manager is available on 024 76 524721 or 07824 540845

L dot Barwick at warwick dot ac dot uk


Professor Gordon Smith – Tel: 07940589680 or G dot F dot Smith at warwick dot ac dot uk

Lisa Barwick, WMG Communications Manager is available on 024 76 524721 or 07824 540845

L dot Barwick at warwick dot ac dot uk