A new magnetic tag created by researchers at Texas A&M could help protect manufacturers from their goods being replaced with fakes.

Elizabeth Montalbano

January 25, 2023

3 Min Read
magnetic tag counterfeit online.jpg
Daniel Salas demonstrates how the hidden magnetic tag embedded into a nonmagnetic steel part using additive manufacturing can store a cache of information within an item.Image courtesy of Texas A&M Engineering

Replacing legitimate manufactured goods and components with counterfeit ones is a real concern for the multi-billion dollar manufacturing industry in the United States. Now researchers have used additive manufacturing to devise a more secure and accurate way to identify products as authentic to help mitigate this issue, they said. Scientists at Texas A&M University have developed a method for imprinting a hidden magnetic tag during the fabrication process of hardware to ensure its authenticity, they said. The tags can serve as more permanent and also unique identifiers than a system of physical tags—including bar codes and quick response (QR) codes—that is currently used, researchers said.

The solution solves a very relevant issue for the multi-billion-dollar manufacturing industry in the United States, noted Ibrahim Karaman, head of Texas A&M's Department of Materials Science and Engineering and one of the lead researchers on the project. “The issue is that when I come up with an idea, device, or part, it is very easy for others to copy and even fabricate it much more cheaply—though may be at a lower quality,” he said in a press statement. “Sometimes they even put the same brand name, so how do you make sure that item isn’t yours?"

Related:Dangers of Counterfeit Semi Chips

The embedded magnetic tag devised by the team through the project, called “Embedded Information in Additively Manufactured Metals via Composition Gradients for Anti-Counterfeiting and Supply Chain Traceability,” can help protect manufacturers from counterfeiting, he said. In addition to Karaman, the project includes other researchers from Texas A&M's Department of Materials Science and Engineering as well as the university's J. Mike Walker ’66 Department of Mechanical Engineering.

How the Magnetic Tag Works

So far the magnetic tags developed by researchers work only with nonmagnetic steel hardware products. They can be embedded below their surface using 3D printing without compromising performance or longevity of the parts themselves, researchers said.

In addition to providing proof of product authenticity, the tags also can be used to verify quality or trace products, depending on the industry, researchers said.

To map the magnetic reading of the part, researchers created a custom three-axis magnetic sensor that can map the surface and reveal the location of where it can access the embedded magnetic tag, they said. Anyone who needs to verify the authenticity of a product would use a magnetic sensor device—such as a smartphone—to read the embedded tags in a way that's relatively user-friendly given existing applications for such verification, noted Daniel Salas Mula, a researcher with the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station.

“Different approaches have been used to try to locally change the properties of the metals during the manufacturing process to be able to codify information within the part,” he said. “This is the first time that magnetic properties of the material are being used in this way to introduce information within a nonmagnetic part, specifically for the 3D printing of metals.”

Researchers published a paper on their work in the journal Additive Manufacturing.

Though the system is more secure than a physical tag or code located on a product or part's exterior, there is still much room for improvement, Karaman said. To that end, researchers plan to continue their work by developing a more-secure method to read the data.

One possibility for further development is to implement a physical “dual-authentication” that requires the user to apply a specific treatment or stimulus to unlock access to the magnetic tag, he said.

About the Author(s)

Elizabeth Montalbano

Elizabeth Montalbano has been a professional journalist covering the telecommunications, technology and business sectors since 1998. Prior to her work at Design News, she has previously written news, features and opinion articles for Phone+, CRN (now ChannelWeb), the IDG News Service, Informationweek and CNNMoney, among other publications. Born and raised in Philadelphia, she also has lived and worked in Phoenix, Arizona; San Francisco and New York City. She currently resides in Lagos, Portugal. Montalbano has a bachelor's degree in English/Communications from De Sales University and a master's degree from Arizona State University in creative writing.

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