Pharmaceutical counterfeiting is perhaps the most insidious form of piracy. Fortunately, collaboration between pressmaker Heidelberg (www.heidelberg.com) and German converter PLM has created a folding carton that goes a long way toward helping to save lives via brand protection and security. Printed on a Speedmaster CD 102 sheetfed-offset press, the carton unites various printing and diecutting processes, hologram embossing, special colors and coatings, microlettering and reactive inks.

Reportedly being used for the first time is a new concealed-image technology from Saueressig Security International (www.ssi-tec.com). Using special software, specific moiré effects are produced on the cyan or magenta plate in prepress and, when printed, are invisible to the human eye. The hidden images are revealed only with a decoder (below) held at the correct angle. The cost-effective method can produce security features on packaging as part of a single manufacturing process, SSI says.

The plot thickens for Home Box Office, Inc.'s family funeral parlor series, “Six Feet Under,” with the launch of a clever DVD boxed set replicating a gravesite with headstone. Released in mid-November, “Six Feet Under: The Complete Series” DVD gift set from HBO Video is secondarily packaged in a carton produced and printed by New York City converter Ivy Hill (www.ivyhill-cinram.com) to look—on the top—like a burial plot, with the six feet of what's under comprising the body of the box (above).

The fittingly designed box holds 25 cased DVD discs, as well as two discs of series soundtracks and a guide that lists “obituaries” for the show's characters. The carton is converted from 8-pt chipboard covered with a laminated paperboard, both from proprietary suppliers, that is printed by Ivy Hill in four-color offset plus a water-based coating.

SanPan Design (www.sanpandesign.com), also of New York City, designed the box's earth and headstone graphics, which are overprinted with the epitaph, “Six Feet Under, The Complete Season, 2001-2005.” Surrounding the grey-marbled “headstone” on the top of the box is the pack's crowning glory—faux grass, supplied by a proprietary German manufacturer of lawns for model train sets.

Made almost entirely from recycled paper and water-based plastic resin, new REVO™ Rotary is reportedly the world's first recycled dieboard for steel-rule rotary cutting dies. Meant as an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional hardwood-plywood dieboards, the REVO Rotary (at right) is a joint development between Crystal Lake, IL-based PSC Global (www.pscwoodglobal.com) and Sonoco Industrial Products Div.

“We noticed the recent trend of shorter and shorter runs on our rotary presses in the US, essentially rendering a great amount of the steel-rule die tooling disposable,” says PSC Global president Mike Porter, “so we decided to create a 'greener' alternative dieboard.” Created initially for the short-run and POP-display markets as a roughly 50,000- to 75,000-impression tool, one of the first REVO dies has been run five times for more than 108,000 impressions, Porter adds.

The patent-pending REVO is made in a continuous process as a cylinder initially, and then split into dieboard at high speeds, achieving greater productivity and a slightly lower cost than hardwood. In the near future, PSC Global and Sonoco hope to reclaim REVO die tooling, keeping used dies out of dumpsters and landfills.