Toppan Leverages Decorative Printing Technologies to Create New NFC Labels

Toppan Printing has developed NFC1 labels combining high-quality metallic design with maintenance of the communication performance required of NFC tags.

Due to a focus on essential functions, little attention has traditionally been paid to high-quality visual design for RFID tags and QR Code2 labels used for product management and authentication.

However, the ubiquity of smartphones has prompted heightened demand for product experiences provided to consumers via the use of NFC tags. Businesses are therefore considering ways to attach NFC labels in positions that make them easier for consumers to access. The importance of maintaining the quality of the product or package design has created demand for higher quality design for NFC labels themselves.

To meet these needs, Toppan has developed NFC labels with high-quality metallic design. It is now possible to attach NFC labels to packages for high-end items such as wine, spirits, and luxury brand goods without sacrificing design quality. Brand owners can also leverage NFC functions to facilitate product traceability, anti-counterfeiting, CRM, and other customer-focused services driven by digital transformation.

Two types of label are available—a metallic decor type and a metallic surface type.

The metallic decor type label features decorative metallic designs achieved by combining a variety of printing techniques, including metal foil transfer employing digital printing. High-quality designs can be produced at low cost and with short lead times because no printing plates or cylinders are required. The metallic surface type, meanwhile, uses metallizing via vapor deposition to produce a metallic mirror finish. In addition to gold and other metallic colors, matt finishes are also available.

NFC communication performance can be inhibited by metal materials. Toppan has addressed this by leveraging expertise in NFC tag antenna design to ensure communication performance even when metallic decoration techniques are applied.

“We have taken advantage of Toppan’s wealth of decorative techniques and extensive antenna design know-how to develop labels offering excellent visual quality and optimal NFC communication performance,” said Takamitsu Nakabayashi, senior R&D manager in Toppan’s Security business. “They can be applied seamlessly to high-end and luxury product packages to provide all the benefits of NFC-enabled customer engagement and supply chain management, and we plan to add to this series of products in the future.”

Toppan’s new NFC labels will be on show in the Toppan booth at AIPIA Asia Summit 2021 (June 23), the international congress for smart packaging, and Luxe Pack Shanghai 2021 (July 7–8), the premier trade show for luxury packaging.

1. Near-field Communication (NFC) is a set of wireless communication protocols covered by ISO standards. It is compliant with Type A, Type B, and FeliCa communication protocols and can be used for contactless smart cards, reader/writers, and communication between devices.
2. QR Code is a registered trademark of Denso Wave Inc.