At the LUXE PACK Monaco trade fair (September 28–30, Grimaldi Forum), Bosch Secure Authentication and Koenig & Bauer Vision & Protection are presenting a new collaboration. Under the name ava, the two companies are combining solutions for product authentication, brand protection, and traceability into a single application. The joint booth AB13 is designed as an open space where visitors can test the technology hands-on with real products.

The product protection market is, according to the partners, still highly fragmented. Manufacturers often have to choose between individual, isolated technologies. With ava, the partners aim to create a shared platform on which specific solutions can be selected depending on product, packaging, and production process.

Bosch provides the software for visual authentication and digital identification of physical products, while Koenig & Bauer contributes its expertise in security and banknote printing. The platform is aimed primarily at companies in the luxury goods, watches, jewelry, spirits, and premium consumer goods sectors.

At the fair, the partners are showcasing three specific applications. Ovjera is a marking-free authentication that captures individual surface structures via an image and compares them with a previously stored reference – without a QR code, serial number, or design change. Atheneum and Aegis use steganography to embed invisible codes or logos directly into the print image or the varnish layer of a package.

In the medium term, ava is to consolidate all digital protection mechanisms into a single app. Oliver Steinbis, technical CEO of Bosch Secure Authentication, sees this as a way out of market fragmentation. Marc Hunsänger, Director of Protection Technologies at Koenig & Bauer, stresses that the security features can be integrated into the printing process without altering the packaging design.

kb