| Summary: |
Counterfeiting poses a mounting global threat, impacting producers, governments, and consumers alike. Beyond economic losses, counterfeit goods
endanger consumer safety and health.[1, 2] The textile industry, which generates billions in revenue annually and constitutes 10% of Portugal's
exports, is particularly vulnerable, representing 16% of counterfeit products.[3]
Efforts to combat this issue demand unified action, including heightened enforcement, stringent regulation, and enhanced consumer education. By
preserving market integrity and quality standards, we safeguard businesses, economies, and consumer trust.
In the era of digital transformation, the rise of counterfeit products is fight by an additional demand for digital passports. As businesses embrace
digitalization, the need for secure digital authentication becomes paramount. This requires the development of robust digital passport systems to
verify the authenticity of goods and services. Moreover, the integration of a code capable of digitally accessing comprehensive product information,
from the creation of the raw materials to the final assembly, is increasingly imperative for modern societies. This transparency empowers consumers
with vital insights into the product's journey, fostering trust and accountability throughout the supply chain.
Actually, the implemented anti-counterfeiting technologies are mainly based on the attachment of security smart labels to the protected products,
namely QR codes, RFID tags, or holographic labels. However, the technological development for another level of security are imperative.
This is where SafeTex emerges as a pioneering solution, presenting a novel coding system that incorporates a range of multifunctionalities, including
Optical, Magnetic, and Impedance features. The ultimate goal is to integrate these capabilities into textile-based QR code systems, significantly expanding the probability degrees of freedom and exponentially increasing the num  |
Summary
Counterfeiting poses a mounting global threat, impacting producers, governments, and consumers alike. Beyond economic losses, counterfeit goods
endanger consumer safety and health.[1, 2] The textile industry, which generates billions in revenue annually and constitutes 10% of Portugal's
exports, is particularly vulnerable, representing 16% of counterfeit products.[3]
Efforts to combat this issue demand unified action, including heightened enforcement, stringent regulation, and enhanced consumer education. By
preserving market integrity and quality standards, we safeguard businesses, economies, and consumer trust.
In the era of digital transformation, the rise of counterfeit products is fight by an additional demand for digital passports. As businesses embrace
digitalization, the need for secure digital authentication becomes paramount. This requires the development of robust digital passport systems to
verify the authenticity of goods and services. Moreover, the integration of a code capable of digitally accessing comprehensive product information,
from the creation of the raw materials to the final assembly, is increasingly imperative for modern societies. This transparency empowers consumers
with vital insights into the product's journey, fostering trust and accountability throughout the supply chain.
Actually, the implemented anti-counterfeiting technologies are mainly based on the attachment of security smart labels to the protected products,
namely QR codes, RFID tags, or holographic labels. However, the technological development for another level of security are imperative.
This is where SafeTex emerges as a pioneering solution, presenting a novel coding system that incorporates a range of multifunctionalities, including
Optical, Magnetic, and Impedance features. The ultimate goal is to integrate these capabilities into textile-based QR code systems, significantly expanding the probability degrees of freedom and exponentially increasing the number of possible codes, creating a new encoding label called OMZQR.
The development of the SafeTex technology will be based on low-cost procedures and industrially scalable coating methods.
To reach this goal, the SafeTex will take advantage of the optically-active fine-tuned properties (specifically fluorescence) of carbon quantum dots (Cdots),
the excellent magnetic properties of iron-based spinel-type oxides (namely Fe3O4 and MnFe2O4) and of the high-sensitive impedance
response of conductive carbon materials (specifically multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT)). Multifunctional smart labels based on these
materials will be fabricated in textile substrates by developing innovative inks to be used in well-implemented low-cost industrial coating
techniques, such as dip-pad-dry and screen printing. These inks will be also used to print a QR code with the additional optical, magnetic and
electrochemical security levels. By this way, a highly-secure QR code (OMZ-QR) will be obtain, once will combine the protection information reliable
on the own QR code with the additional security information hidden in the multifunctional ink. Due to the QR code pattern, it will be able to be read
by the conventional friendly-user methodologies (smartphone applications).
The development of innovative inks and multifunctional textile smart labels with up to three security levels, based on the combination of different
materials and properties, is not yet explored and have enormous potentiality for other areas of application.
The impact of SafeTex will prevent the production of textiles counterfeiting products, potentiating the economic sustainability of the textile sector
and thus the creation of attractive job positions. Furthermore, it will foment the technological development and innovation of the textile sector and a
more rational and sustainable consumption.
Driven by these challenges, the multidisciplinary young research team of the SafeTex has the transversal requirements and interdisciplinary skills
for the design and fabrication of multifunctional anti-counterfeiting textile smart labels. The team has an extensive background in the development
of functional nanomaterials and flexible sensing devices as well as in the tune of their properties and high-tech inks formulations. The team
members have the expertise and readiness for made this exploratory project easily reach the Level 3 of Technology Readiness Level (TRL), e.g. proofof-
concept. Finally, the team members attended several entrepreneurship programs to boost the technology transfer from the lab to the market,
being that two team members are co-founders of 2 startups. A Portuguese company of the textile sector (SMARTEX) showed interest in the outputs
of the SafeTex project in case of successful OMZ-QR code, namely for the implementation on their products combined with Artificial Intelligence, as
the future steps in this field. |