Application: Marking of vials and syringes for the pharmaceutical industry

Objective: Mark a code on or inside glass without any micro-crack or additive

Traceability markings are made every day on many types of materials. However on glass, no marking technology has ever been accepted unanimously. Dot peening and electro-chemical markings do not work, inkjet marking disappears quite easily, and traditionnal CO2 laser marking creates micro-cracks on the surface, which could propagate with temperature change or mechanical stress.

Since this observation, Lasea's R&D team has work to provide a solution, mainly to answer to urgent demands coming from the pharmaceutical and luxury industries.

In 2002, Lasea began a European research project called Naginels. We demonstrated a brand new laser marking process with a direct application to traceability. The process is to apply local changes of index of refraction of glass, which do not weaken glass. These changes are invisible to the naked eye, however, their association can be seen with a very high contrast thanks to another optical phenomenon which is the diffraction of light. As this diffraction only occurs in some lighting conditions, Naginels marking is invisible, can be as small as a piece of hair, and is made in depth of glass. Therefore its application naturally extends to anticounterfeiting. 

Moreover, for FDA validation, no additive is applied on or inside glass, therefore no new contamination can occur and no additionnal validation must be performed.

The company TrackInside has been created in 2007 to fully exploit this technology and patents.

Lasea's team efforts will soon lead to the delivery of the first production lines in pharmaceutical environments, where regulation imposes to trace every single vial or syringe.

This technology will also be implemented for decoration in perfumes industries as the diffraction effect provide a decomposition of light such as a rainbow do. 

For more details, go to www.trackinside.com.