Printing Partner - General Knowledge - Guideline: Printing Scantrust Secure QR Codes

The following document outlines the potential impact on the operations of a printing company that wishes to integrate Scantrust Secure QR Codes. While Scantrust authentication technology is arguably one of the simplest and most cost-effective to integrate in industrial production environments,  there are a certain number of requirements that need to be respected to ensure it is used with the best security level achievable.

Quality control device requirement:

• The quality control is managed with the Android Scantrust Printer App which must be downloaded on a compatible phone.
• The compatible phone must be fitted with an optic and a case which need to be acquired to complete the Calibration and Production QA process
• The Device can be acquired in two ways:
  • Leased or Purchased through Scantrust
  • Purchased directly by the Printing Partner
    • Compatible phone models 
    • Optic Lens
    • Case make sure to buy the case which matches the phone model 
• As an option an inline system can be integrated to a given printing or finishing line (see here for more information. The cost is approximately USD 50’000 and Scantrust can provide contact information of the inline system supplier if requested.

Equipment Requirement:

• Flexo / Offset
  • Plate native resolution of 2,400ppi or higher
  • Flexo anilox with 900lpi or higher
• Variable / Digital Printing:
  • Minimum 600dpi
  • Models which have been previously approved listed below for easy reference.  Most current list HERE.

IMPORTANT: Scantrust validates the COMBINATION of printing press + substrate.  So even if the Printing Partner has one of these models or meets the Flexo / Offset requirement, the Calibration process must be followed as outlined below

Calibration is done once per unique  combination of printing equipment and substrate:

• Every single printing equipment<>substrate combination needs to be calibrated. Substrate includes the label material and any finishing or gloss that will be applied to the final label. Calibration is needed to ensure the printing equipment can deliver the required quality level for high security.
• Calibration involves printing one proof sheet (A4 size) with Scantrust Secure QR Codes, which is scanned using the Scantrust Printer App for analysis. For offset, flexo gravure and rotogravure, a new calibration is made for each printing machine for a given platemaking machine.   When a platemaking machine is changed a new calibration is required to be conducted.
• An equipment shall be validated by printing 1,000 codes if it has not been validated previously. 
  • Part of the label printed during the “validation/sample labels/1st production” shall be requested to ship 50 codes to ST Swiss office.  Reason:  This will serve to collect scan data in conditions that are representative of the authentication conditions and eventually make some optimizations to the authentication algorithm for the specific application conditions.
    • Shipping Address:
      • Attn: Justin Picard
      • SCANTRUST SA
      • EPFL Innovation Park, PSE-D
      • CH-1015 Lausanne
      • Switzerland
      • Mobile: +41.78.689.8695
• The test printing run may be done with only one calibrated printing equipment, unless there are significantly different equipments involved 

Work Order Creation:

For some projects, the printing partner may be required to create work orders for corresponding purchase orders from the brand owner. Work order creation process can be done through Scantrust portal, or through a command line application, and requires to set the number of requested codes, the purchase order identifier  and product SKU. Only once a work order is created can the codes be downloaded by the prepress department. 

Production, for every customer order:

• In prepress:
  • Every production requires accessing the Scantrust system and downloading codes. 
  • The printing machine + substrate need to be specified at the time of code downloading. It is not possible to change it later  
  • For hybrid printing, the QR Code data will need to be imported into the digital printer
  • For flexogravure or offset, a plate with the secure graphic needs to be prepared. This plate is unique to the production and shall not be reused 
• QA during production:
  • Using the compatible phone with optics, the printing operator will need to make approximately 20 scans at the beginning of production for Make Ready and having Reference scans
  • Periodic scans should be made during production to ensure quality is maintained
  • At least 20 finishing scans are required after production (and overlay if applicable).
  • Note the supported range of dimensions of the printed QR code is 8mm x 8mm to 12mm x 12mm.

• After production:
  • Destroy the plates with Scantrust secure graphics
  • Delete the files downloaded from Scantrust system after use