drupa 2016 concluded after 11 days at Messe Dusseldorf, with more than 260,000 attendees walking the 19 halls. As a leader in inkjet technology, Xerox had one of the largest presences at drupa, showing its new Xerox Trivor 2400 Inkjet Press, a continuous feed press, and the Xerox Brenva HD Production Inkjet Press, which processes cut sheets.
 
Xerox had more to show visitors to its stand, as the company also highlighted its new Xerox Printed Memory labels. Xerox licensed the technology from Thin Film Electronics in January 2015, and recently completed the technology transfer. Xerox prints thin circuitry onto a flexible substrate on one of its production lines in Webster, NY. This allows brand owners to add brand protection information, such as serial numbers, lot codes and expiration dates, to the labels.
 
The company reports that key markets for Xerox Printed Memory labels include pharmaceuticals, healthcare, and beauty products, and food and beverage, as well as products that are impacted by grey market sales. Customers can add in optional tamper-evident adhesives and a cryptographic feature such as barcodes or QR codes to strengthen anti-counterfeit measures.
 
“We are targeting many verticals and many geographies at the same time, with clear progress in awareness on all fronts,” Patrick de Jong, marketing manager for Xerox Printed Memory,.
 
Kevin Lewis, Xerox marketing manager of printed electronics, was at the Xerox booth at drupa 2016. Lewis said that attendees were interested in potential applications of Xerox Printed Memory.
 
“At drupa Xerox Printed Memory was showcased in the Digital Packaging Solutions area,” Lewis noted. “We shared and discussed with numerous customers how Xerox Printed Memory can add intelligence to packaging for two use cases – Brand Protection and Smart Consumables/Smart Refill Management. It was clearly viewed as a unique and innovate solution and one that customers clearly saw Xerox’ manufacturing scale given our strong history and capability in coating and electronic grade manufacturing.”
 
The Smart Consumable space is another opportunity for Xerox Printed Memory labels, as the labels can interact with dispensing devices, providing counts, calibrating and other usage information for a unit or refill cartridge. Lewis said that Smart Consumables were a particular area of interest for visitors to the Xerox Printed Memory stand.
 
“The use case that customers saw the most value in was for Smart Consumables/Smart Refill Management,” Lewis reported. “Because Xerox Printed Memory labels can interact with the dispensing device, you are able to authenticate the refill cartridge as well as count, record time, calibrate and provide other usage information for the refill cartridge. Products that have a dispensing unit that accept a refill or consumable can greatly benefit from these solutions. This includes industries like pharmaceuticals, healthcare, high end beauty products, appliances, as well as food and beverage.”
 
de Jong said that market interest in Xerox Printed Memory is growing quickly.
 
“We are making steady progress to create awareness of the capabilities of Xerox Printed Memory,” de Jong concluded. “Specifically for the application of Smart Consumables, this is of vital importance since device designers (device engineering companies, dispensing companies, pharma reading devices, etc.) will need to be aware at the ‘start of their device design’ as to how Xerox Printed Memory could help them with what we call Design Freedom.”