Koenig & Bauer Strengthens Printing Companies With New “protected at print” Initiative

With the strategic “protected at print” initiative, Koenig & Bauer Vision & Protection is giving the printing industry a boost and helping its customers expand their value chain. The initiative aims to enable printing companies to develop from being mere service providers into full-fledged protection partners for their customers. This new positioning provides printing companies with additional sources of income, strengthens customer loyalty and creates a crucial competitive advantage.

Under the umbrella of “protected at print”, Koenig & Bauer Vision & Protection offers technologies that can be applied directly in the printing process, including Stegano, Daktylo and Ovjera. The direct integration of these security solutions not only increases product security but also production efficiency.

As the first product of this initiative, Koenig & Bauer is introducing varnish protect 'aegis'. This innovative varnish protection solution uses Stegano technology to seamlessly integrate hidden information such as codes or images into the varnish layer of printed products. This is done without affecting the product design or existing production processes. A key advantage is that a single varnish plate can be used for different customers and print jobs, which makes product protection highly efficient for printing companies.

“In a world where threats to product and brand security are constantly increasing, Koenig & Bauer Vision & Protection offers important, innovative and reliable solutions,” says Julian Schubert, CEO of Koenig & Bauer Vision & Protection. “Varnish protect 'aegis' embodies our mission to make protection simple, smart and accessible to everyone. We are directly transferring our extensive expertise from high-security printing to provide other products with unparalleled protection.”

Product piracy costs companies billions every year, not only through lost sales but also through declining customer trust and damaged brand reputation. Varnish protect 'aegis' is an effective tool for consolidating brand integrity with cryptographic security and immediate proof of origin, which enables traceability down to the batch level. The tool is ideal for protecting goods in critical markets such as baby food, health products, pharmaceuticals and toys and for ensuring authenticity where it matters most.

To keep implementation as simple and flexible as possible, the Koenig & Bauer Vision & Protection team has ensured that no changes to existing prepress workflows are required. Varnish protect 'aegis' uses ready-to-use varnish plates that can be manually adjusted to the print image and integrated into the flexo coating unit like any standard varnish plate. This ensures that there is no impact on production speed or quality and provides maximum flexibility on different printing presses and technologies. The technology is also compatible with a wide range of varnishes.

Brands that have their products protected with this technology can check the authenticity of the products using the 'a verification app – ava' app. The invisible data can be easily read and verified. The app, a robust multi-technology platform, enables quick offline verification of euro banknotes and activated packaging. Interested customers can obtain sample material from their responsible sales department.