Toppan Leverages Decorative Printing Technologies to Create NFC Labels with Outstanding Design Quality

Toppan Printing, a worldwide leader in communication, security, packaging, décor materials, and electronics solutions, has developed NFC1 labels with high-quality metallic design with the continuance of the communication achievement required of NFC tags.

Due to a center on essential functions, little attention has traditionally been spent on high-quality visual design for RFID tags and QR Code2 labels used for product management and authentication. Brands have also generally been connected in positions that ensure they are inconspicuous and do not negatively impact the overall design of the commodity or package.

Nevertheless, the ubiquity of smartphones has prompted increased demand for product experiences provided to customers via NFC tags. Businesses are therefore regarding ways to attach NFC labels to make them easier for customers to access. The importance of supporting the quality of the product or package design has created a demand for more excellent quality designs for NFC labels themselves.

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

Two types of the label are available a metallic decor type and a metallic surface type. Excellent design and a premium look have been achieved by combining various decorative printing technologies to build eye-catching designs on high-quality folding cartons.

Toppan’s new NFC labels are available as a metallic decor type (left) or metallic surface type (right).

The metallic decor type label highlights ornamental metallic designs by combining various printing techniques, including metal foil transfer employing digital printing. High-quality designs can be provided at low cost and short lead times because no printing plates or cylinders are required. The metallic surface type, meanwhile, uses metalizing via vapor statement to produce a metallic mirror finish. In addition to gold and other metallic colors, matt endings are also available.

Metal materials can inhibit NFC communication performance. Toppan has approached this by leveraging NFC tag antenna design expertise to ensure communication execution even when metallic decoration techniques are applied.

“We have taken benefit of Toppan’s wealth of decorative techniques and extensive antenna design know-how to develop labels allowing excellent visual quality and optimal NFC communication performance,” said Takamitsu Nakabayashi, senior R&D manager in Toppan’s Security business. “They can be used 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.”

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