Development and characterisation of secured traceability tag for textile products by printing process

Product security is one of the major concerns in the textile industry. Every year, fashion brands suffer significant loss due to counterfeit products. Addressing this, the paper introduces a secured tag for traceability and security of textile products. The proposed tag is unclonable, which can be manufactured using conventional screen-printing process. Further, it can be read using a smartphone camera to authenticate the product and trace its history. Consequently, imparting additional functionality to the textile through surface modification. To validate its applicability, the study experimentally investigates the durability and readability of the developed secured tag using three different binders on polyester and cotton textiles substrates. A comparison is presented with an in-depth analysis of surfaces and binders interaction at different stages of the secured tag lifecycle, i.e. before print, after print, after wash and after abrasion cycles. The methodology and findings of the study can also be useful for other manufacturing domains dealing with the printing process.