When it comes to alcoholic beverages, Absolut Vodka is somewhat a household name amongst people over the age of eighteen (and possible some younger). Absolut is a fascinating brand, and with the embrace of popular culture working to its advantage it has presented itself to be the rockstar brand amongst clear spirits.

If you’ve ever held a bottle of Absolut in your hands, you might notice the thickness of the glass, and the fogging effect on select flavoured bottles. Absolut vodka with vanilla essence for example, has a thick foggy glass that not ever Superman himself could melt with his laser heat vision… Well, even Absolut bottles with super thick glass hides need to be marked. But how…??

When Absolut vodka consulted us, they required “absolute traceability”, forgive the pun, but it speaks the truth in a highly logical manner. The importance of traceability for Absolut was paramount for their branding. In order to maintain the prestige of their range, bottles would be marked with batch numbers in the most subtle manner possible – a marking underneath the bottle cap, and an intricate code marking just above the glass base of the bottle. Batch marking was essential to avoid counterfeiting with imitation vodka, as well as keeping track on the millions of bottles produced and exported to over 120 countries each year.

The thickness of each bottle of vodka meant that marking the bottles would prove to be inherently difficult – and when Absolut began producing fogged glass bottles, an acceptable standard of legibility was too hard to attain with their preceding technology. That’s where Markem-Imaje stepped in to save the day – we provided a Lightjet Vector coder to engrave high-definition traceability code directly on the bottle glass at a considerable speed, whilst maintaining a high level of quality. The end result? Before you lose your mind drinking the delicious translucent fluid produced by our friends at Absolut Sweden, scan the bottle for the marking – and when you find it, marvel at its intricacy like a work of art and think of the sheer power required to create a subtle, yet easily readable marking on glass that thick! Our 100W Lightjet vector lasers may not quite be able to melt through Adamantium (think mythical impenetrable metals and Wolverine from X-Men)… But we guarantee maximum legibility on any glass surface, and if you think we can’t, then we’re definitely up to the challenge.

To read more details of this case study, follow the link to our beverage traceability resources. If you require traceability solutions for your high-end products, then talk to the team at Markem-Imaje Australia.