Q&A of RFID for IT asset tracking

Q: Wonder what is/are the Pros/Cons of using ISO 17364, could we use our own customized standard for our own assets?
A: For your own assets circulating in your own closed process you may use any kind of encoding schemes. ISO 17364 helps especially with larger scale supply chains where we have several parties involved. Encoding used has to be standardized in a way that everybody in the supply chain is able to read and understand the data encoded. The ISO standard also gives some recommendations for example on tag placement and printed human readable information.

Q: Could you also show antenna selection or deployment method?
A: Antenna selection is highly depending on the application. You need to specify if you need linear or circular polarized antenna. If you know the orientation of the tag and it is always the same, then linear antenna could provide a bit better performance. If you don’t then circular polarized antenna adds more safety for reading operation as is not so sensitive on tag orientation. Also the beam of antenna is important, do you want to read tags with wide angle or do you actually want to avoid reading tags that are moving close to antenna but not in front. Environment would also affect the needed robustness of the antenna mechanical structure. We recommend getting in touch with some of our channel partners or solution providers to find the most suitable antennas for your application.

Q: The picture with 90 and 50 percent read range on 45′ angle depending on tag orientation was an eye opener. Thanks!
A: Always happy to share our knowledge to support you with successful RFID implementations. There are a lot of small details to consider that might make the difference.

Q: Do you agree that it is important to test RFID tag performance with both filled and empty RTI for level 2 & 3 products (especially when high liquid or metal products are carried)?
A: When talking about plastic containers this is very important. Anything metallic or liquid content, such as fruits, close to the tag would effect the performance. Therefore it is very important to perform testing always in as final application as possible. With metallic containers this is not that important. It is still a metallic surface tag sees and is not affected by the content behind metal.

Q: How is the global chip supply challenges impacting supply of tags with Confidex?
A: We have been able to manage the supply with our trusted suppliers. We have also released alternative tag variants with chips that have better availability to be able to support our customers.

Q: What about RF performance with RFID tag on folded metal pallet?
A: With folded pallets it is important to find a location for the tag which would not be too much affected by the folding. If the tag is left between metallic structures after pallet is folded then you may find challenges reading it. For example these Goodpack containers are foldable and therefore they decided to place the tag to the very bottom of the container which stays the same no matter if folded or not.

Q: Can you please share the slides with me?
A: Once you leave your contact details on this page the slides will be available for download.

Q: Can I have UHF and NFC in same tag?
A: Yes we have products with a special EM chip that combines these two worlds, UHF and NFC. You will have a shared memory for both technologies so you can encode the label with UHF printer and read with you mobile phone though NFC.

Q: Are your washable labels compliant with RFID printers?
A: That is always our target and we do have strong relationship with main printer suppliers such as Zebra, Sato, Printronix and Toshiba to name few and we always test our products with all of them to ensure that they are compliant. We also have some preferred settings for certain printer models to help you with in case needed.