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Counterfeit goods coming from offshore manufacturers continue to be a huge problem, as OEMs look for ways to thwart the counterfeiters. It’s big business! Just ask Monster, a leading manufacturer of cables, headphones and consumer electronics accessories based in Brisbane, California. Monster’s products are some of the most widely counterfeited in the world. In 2011, Monster, in conjunction with a member group of the United Kingdom Trading Standards Service made one of the largest seizures ever of counterfeit Monster products in the U.K. A PR Newswire report quoted David Tognotti, Monster
Read More...In September, Plastics Color Corporation was invited to the Global Secure Summit in Amsterdam, where the topic of discussion was the problem with counterfeiting and how OEMs and brand owners can be more proactive in preventing counterfeiting. Typically companies have been “reactive” to counterfeiting. Many fake products and products with off-spec raw materials in them such as in the case of many plastic products, are often not identified until they’ve reached U.S. customs inspectors or worse yet, until a consumer has had a major problem with the product. Such consumer problems result
Read More...The number one concern today for most manufacturers is how to secure their supply chain to ensure that their products are genuine and made to specification. That’s especially critical in the pharmaceutical industry where products such as prefilled syringes and inhalers are becoming more common. Some anti-counterfeiting measures that are being employed include holographic in-mold labels, molded into the syringe or inhaler device that can only be read under black light, and RFID (radio frequency identification) tags on the packaging. However, one effective key to securing and authenticating
Read More...Vehicle components, both the original and the after-market replacement parts, are expensive, which is the reason we want the real deal when it comes to our vehicles. In a recent study conducted by Brady Corp., an international manufacturer and marketer of solutions that identify and protect premises, products and people, 39% of firms encounter counterfeit components. Counterfeit component incidents have increased 241% over the past three years. Cost of recalls in the automotive industry alone average $9 billion annually, according to Brady Corp. So how do you know if the parts on your new car
Read More...One of the biggest and costliest problems that many manufacturers have is ensuring that the plastic components they purchase from their various molded parts suppliers are the real deal. There is a huge need to ensure that molded parts are both safe and meet all OEM standards before they get into consumer hands. The material from which the parts are molded must actually be the polymer specified for the parts. In the recent case of luxury automaker Aston Martin, an accelerator-pedal arm wasn’t manufactured as specified. The material was “counterfeit” -- it wasn’t the material that Ast
Read More...Counterfeit plastic materials can be can be extremely costly, as Aston Martin recently found out when it discovered that the accelerator pedals on its cars, were being made from a fake DuPont material. That was just the latest story to come out about the increasing fraud in manufacturing, particularly from unscrupulous suppliers that use cheaper materials in the products they mold for OEMs. Efforts to stay a step ahead of these material counterfeiters have proven effective with new anti-counterfeiting technologies being developed. There are a number of technologies available including tagga
Read More...Is it live or is it Memorex? So read the popular 1970s TV spot for audio recording tape. And ever since, bad guys have been trying to make better illegal copies of products in virtually every category. With the global marketplace in full swing and products coming from nearly every country, counterfeiting has become a huge problem. Everything is susceptible to counterfeiting from watches, electrical products and automotive after-market parts, to medical devices and even safety labels such as UL certifications. More and more companies are taking innovative measures to ensure that their p
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