As the counterfeiting of tobacco products continues to pose a serious problem plaguing the tobacco industry, Chinese tobacco manufacturers, particularly high-grade cigarette producers, are adopting multiple approaches and technologies to fight rampant counterfeiting in the country.

Cigarette counterfeiting in China is so serious that in 2009 alone Chinese tobacco monopoly administrative authorities seized 6.14 billion cigarettes in anti-counterfeiting operations nationwide.

How to fight this scourge effectively and how to prevent infringement of the legitimate rights and interests of both tobacco manufacturers and consumers are the core imperatives underscoring the adoption of new measures.

Some tobacco manufacturers have done their utmost to prevent the counterfeiting of their high-grade cigarette products, adopting over a dozen anti-counterfeiting measures on a single product.

For example, Wuhan Tobacco Group (WTG) in central China’s Hubei province applies six coatings of flexographic ink on the cartons and packets of its Yellow Crane Tower 1916 cigarettes, incorporating specialized brownish pearl luster, spcialized yellow and medium yellow colors, fluorescent color and DNA printing ink. The words “Yellow Crane Tower” on the front of the cartons and packets are printed with the same fluorescent ink anti-counterfeiting technology used by China’s central bank to print its banknotes. The figure ‘1916’ is printed using a special two-layer anti-counterfeiting technology – one layer providing generic identification while the other layer allows testing by specialized apparatus. WTG applies this, the world’s most advanced DNA anti-counterfeiting technology, to ensure that every packet of its Yellow Crane Tower 1916 cigarettes bears a unique identification code.

Hongta Group in southwest China’s tobacco-producing Yunnan province has never lagged behind in fighting counterfeiting in producing its Jingjie-Yuxi cigarettes. Specifically, Hongta Group applies a three-fold approach. The first incorporates printing technologies, including text miniaturization, the use of orange ink, multiple temperature sensitive inks, sympathetic ink, laser ink, holographic foil stamping and so on to thwart photocopying. It also includes triple enquiry cards into cigarette packets and prints two-track graphics on the packaging to show different images when viewed from different angles.

Seen from a normal perspective, the graphics show the Hongta trademark against a gray scale image of horses. But when the cigarette packet is turned by 90º, the background changes into a design incorporating dragons.

Chinese tobacco manufacturers mainly apply the following categories of anti-counterfeiting technologies in printing their cigarette cartons and packets:

Previously, manufacturers manually engraved gravure lines as an anti-counterfeiting measure. 

Today, they are instead applying anti-counterfeiting computer software to engrave programmable custom gravure lines. These technologies often applied by Chinese tobacco manufacturers in printing their cigarette cartons and packets principally include rainbow shading, embossed shading, gradual shading, star-shaped medallion forms, lacing, line width changing and text miniaturization. 

These are typically printed on the lid or other parts of the cigarette packet. When printed with special inks, the gravure lines, signs or designs generate tactile and optical effects, similar to anti-counterfeiting lines printed on banknotes. 

Hongta Group applies text miniaturization in printing the phrase “When the climber reaches the top of a high mountain he becomes the new peak” on the packets of its Jingye-Yuxi cigarettes. Chengdu Cigarette Factory in southwest China’s Sichuan province uses a similar approach on its in soft-pack Blue Pride cigarettes as does Kunming Cigarette Factory for its Yunyan cigarettes.

Presently, manufacturers apply multiple sophisticated technologies in combination on the cartons and packets of their products, including offset printing, screen printing, flexographic printing and imprinting, in order to make duplication harder, thereby making it more difficult for illegal producers to imitate them. Cartons and packets of most high-grade cigarettes in China are printed using several sophisticated solutions in combination. Large tobacco manufacturers such as Baisha Group, Hongta Group, Changde Cigarette Factory and General Group all use this approach on the cartons and packets of their cigarette products.

The production of anti-counterfeiting consumables plays a very great role in fighting of tobacco product counterfeiters. Paper and ink are the principal components used in manufacturing cigarette cartons and packets. 

The production of anti-counterfeiting components used in cigarette packaging packs is intended to enhance anti-counterfeiting efforts. Paper-based technologies applied include producing colored fiber paper. 

The finished component may include red and blue fiber, or colored flakes or dots which are added into the paper pulp or spread onto the surface of the paper sheets before they are dry, so that there will be colored fiber in the finished paper products creating a product that is different from the original paper base. Illuminated under ultraviolet light, such paper will fluoresce. 

For example, the overall packaging of Yunyan (84 Impression) cigarettes of the Hongyun-Honghe Tobacco Group in Yunnan incorporates brown as its main color, backed by laser film black cardboard. The packs of some cigarette products, including One Pen of Qingdao Cigarette Factory and Liqun of Hangzhou Cigarette Factory, have full space holographic laser designs or sectional laser designs on them.

Some Chinese tobacco manufacturers apply watermark technology, used to produce cigarette packs bearing words with light or dark lines made through change of the density of fiber in the paper pulp in the papermaking process. Guiyang Cigarette Factory in southwest China’s Guizhou province applies this technology to produce its gold medal Orange Tree cigarettes, with the pack incorporating a gold medal design containing watermarked dark lines.

Ink-based technologies mainly include the production of special types of printing inks through the addition of substances with special anti-counterfeiting functions, including florescent printing ink, multiple temperature sensitive ink, chemical reaction ink, laser ink and multiple sympathetic ink. These are designed to attain the goal of anti-counterfeiting through changes of ink colors. For example, the color of the Chinese characters for ‘Yuxi’ on packs of Yuxi brand cigarettes change when heated, turning from dark red into red and then into light red, finally disappearing altogether as the background color emerges. When not heated, the characters will only appear in the original printed color. 

Other technologies adopted by manufacturers include water sensitive measures and some special types of anti-counterfeiting printing inks, including the pearl luster series and the gold sands series.

Post-printing technologies mainly include laser holography. Widespread application of this technology has contributed to creating a balance between anti-counterfeiting requirements and aesthetically pleasing pack design. Laser holography on cigarette packs have included laser holographic non-register stamping, holographic printing, holographic register printing, laser holographic register stamping and transparent holography and register hollowing. 

In particular, laser holographic register stamping is a leading solution utilized in the fight against counterfeiters, The manufacturers of several major cigarette brands, including Yunyan, Mount Hongtashan, the Great Red Eagle and the Hibiscus King have all used this approach. 

Holographic register hollowing is intended to engrave transparent lines, designs or words on designated parts of aluminum-plated holographic hot stamping foil, which are then stamped on cigarette packs. The colorful, light and dark holographic designs produced through application of this technology are very pleasing to the eye while making it very difficult for counterfeiters to make imitations.

Besides laser holography, there are other technologies available to manufacturers, including concave-convex stamping one-step molding technology used by Ningbo Cigarette Factory on its Great Red Eagle cigarettes, two-dimension embossing used by Qingdao Cigarette Factory to produce its One Pen brand and gravure line stamping technology which is applied by Chuxiong Cigarette Factory to produce its State Guests products.

Apart from the aforesaid technologies, manufacturers also apply high and new technologies to print cigarette packs, including the DNA anti-counterfeiting technology applied by Wuhan Tobacco Group to produce its Yellow Crane Tower 1916 cigarettes. 

Inside each packet of Jingjie-Yuxi cigarettes, there is a metal plug-in card which offers three specific ways to inquire about authenticity. Some manufacturers also apply a die-cutting technology. Each anti-counterfeiting label produced with this technology will bear a die-cut mark. When the label is lifted, the die-cut mark will instantly be damaged. As discussed earlier, Hongta Group applies the technology of printing two-track graphics, designed to show different images from different perspectives. Similarly, rectangle anti-counterfeiting marks are printed on packets of New Shijiazhuang cigarettes produced by Shijiazhuang Cigarette Factory in north China’s Shijiazhuang City, and on the inside of the hinge lid of the ninth-generation Three-Gorges cigarettes produced by the Three Gorges Cigarette Factory in central China’s Hubei province. 

Shanghai Tobacco Group applies the technology of thin paper partial hot oil soaking and convex forming in producing its soft-pack Giant Panda brand.

To sum up, while cigarette counterfeiting remains rampant, tobacco manufacturers have to keep applying advanced production technologies and new materials on their cigarette packs. Only by doing so can they succeed in designing cigarette packs that are not only shiny and beautiful but are also capable of deterring counterfeiters while maintaining market share in an increasingly competitive market place.