Plastics News Europe - November/December 2019 - 14

decoration & surface treatment

morphotonix hits the sweet
spot between sustainability
and brand security

"We combine decoration and
traceability with authenticity and
brand security," said Veronica Savu,
of Switzerland-based Morphotonix,
during an interview with Plastics
News Europe at the recent K fair in
Düsseldorf. By Karen Laird

o additives, no labels - zero
consumables." Wholly unique,
a Morphotonix marking is unable to be copied, providing protection
against counterfeiting and adding
decoration at the same time. The technology, which is seamlessly integrated
into the production process, offers a
solution that is being embraced in sectors ranging from the automotive and
pharma industry to the military and
even Swiss watch dials. Increasingly,
the technology is also finding application in the plastic caps and closures
market as well, as it is completely safe
for food and beverage packaging.
Taking a cue from nature, Morphotonix creates patterns and designs by taking advantage of structural colouration - colour caused by light
wave diffraction, rather than by using
pigments. It is the same phenomenon
that gives the Morpho butterfly, primarily native to South America and
part of the inspiration for the company's name, its brilliant blue wings. The
technology developed by Morphoto-

An example of what
Morphotonix can do

nix, in other words, based on the
physics of light at the nanoscale, is a
case of biomimicry in its purest form.

How does it work?
Basically, the technology consists of
superficial features - original designs
or codes - that are engraved in the
mould. The surface structure interacts with the light to create the desired design. The technology makes
use of engraving at nanoscale, specifically, with a precision of 130,000
dots per inch. "The size? It is on the
order of a virus," said Savu, to put
this into context. The engraved features are so small that they split the
light and look like holograms in the
steel. The hologram effect is transferred and replicated in the plastic
product. Each product that comes
out of the mould therefore bears an
uncopiable security feature from the
very moment it is made.
Veronica Savu: "The problem we
are addressing is counterfeiting, and
we can protect anything in plastic.
We have a patented technology platform, but we started with some basic
effects. Clients send us their designs
- a logo or whatever they want. Using a lithographic machine, we take
these designs and nano-engrave
these on flat or free-form metal parts
- like moulds. We don't make anything in metal, as our customers simply send us their cavities, we create

the specific features requested on the
lithography machine, we engrave the
cavities and send them back. They
plug them into their production and
it's ready to go."
She added that in some cases, depending on the additives used, customers may find it necessary to tweak the
processing parameters. In other cases,
it's truly a simple matter of plug and
play. It is a highly sustainable brand security solution that requires no
post-processing, no extra energy and is
easily customisable, yet compatible
with large-scale production. Another
question that is often asked is how robust the designs are. The company has
come up with a solution to protect the
engraved surfaces from becoming
scratched during transport as well as
during production, said Savu.

Building the business
It sounds like a simple idea, but when
Savu started out in 2014 with her
business partner Vaida Auzelyte, they
were nowhere near having the fully
developed product they produce today. The two, each with twenty years
of experience in academia, working
in nanotechnoloy and physics, looked
at the market to see what they could
do with the technology.
Savu: "Of the various options,
brand protection seemed like the
one with the best potential. We
sought to develop a way to achieve

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Plastics News Europe - November/December 2019

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