Developing Liquid Crystals for Colour Shifting Anti-Counterfeiting

Idvac Ltd is a private company, based in Manchester Science Park, England, that was founded in 2004 to develop new processes and products for holographic, packaging and solar window films. The company, which has over 25 years’ experience in the holographic and vacuum coating technology markets, is now developing the use of liquid crystals for packaging and security applications.

Liquid crystals are a class of materials that can flow like a liquid but have some degree of order in the arrangement of their molecules – giving them some of the characteristics of a solid. They can be aligned by an applied electric field (amongst other methods) which changes their optical properties.

Over the past few years, there has been an increase in the development of products containing colour shift features for use as a counterfeiting deterrent for brand protection, smart packaging and secure document protection.