Articles
An engineering spin-out from the University of Leeds has developed a glass security technology that could provide accurate traceability of products as diverse as aircraft windows and high-end perfume bottles.
Ultramatis has invented a process that can imprint an invisible optical fingerprint in the structure of glass that is impossible to copy. The technology uses high-powered, short-pulsed lasers to generate plasma from a unique target material which is then implanted into a bottle. The signature, which can be read with a handheld device, reveals detailed information about where, when and from what batch the bottle was produced, providing a tag of traceability that exists for the life of the product and which cannot be reproduced.
Professor Gin Jose, who led the research team that developed the technique at the University of Leeds school of chemical and process engineering, said: “The lasers put in tremendous amounts of energy, stripping apart atoms and electrons in the material we want to implant. This forms a plasma – a highly-charged energetic gas – that travels at several miles a second into the glass. The resulting material is not just a new surface; it is integrated into the structure of the glass itself, creating a new material with its own properties.”
Dr Matthew Murray, a research fellow at the university, will head up Ultramatis and will be responsible for commercialising the technology. He said: “The main market is high-end alcohol and perfume products that are made in small-batch volumes. We can provide a security measure from the moment the glass bottle is produced, right through to when it reaches the customer’s cupboard. That’s lacking at the minute. It’s a technology that can close sizeable gaps in the supply chain, providing security and assurance.”
Murray said the technology was proven and that the focus now was on assessing approaches to manufacturing. “We are looking at how best to apply it,” he said. “We’d be interested in connecting with perfume and pharmaceutical companies, and with companies who produce windows for aerospace. We want to engage with industry to allow us to learn how to apply it.”
Murray has received the 2015 Royal Academy of Engineering-ERA Foundation Entrepreneurs’ Award, worth a total of £40,000, for the glass security technology.