Q&A of RFID for IT asset tracking

Q: Does Confidex manufacture tamper-proof RFID label?
A: Yes, we have long experience in providing tamper evident labels especially for automatic vehicle identification application where tamper evidency is a key requirement.

Q: Some metal surfaces are rough and the RFID label tends to drop off after a period of time. How to prevent this from happening?
A: Rough surfaces may be a challenge for some adhesive types. When tagging more uneven surface we recommend Silverline Blade and ESD On Metal Labels due to a bit thicker adhesive they use compared to other on metal labels in our portfolio. Also the surface cleaning is important for best adhesion. Typical cleaning solvents are heptane or acetone for oily surfaces.

Q: Will there be an webinar concerning your BLE solutions?
A: Yes, a new webinar regarding BLE technology and use cases is planned. You can also check all previous webinars from our content hub including latest BLE webinar.

Q: What is your most durable (strongest) adhesive offer for tags and/or labels?
A: There is no adhesive that would be strongest on all surfaces. There are ones that are optimized for high surface energy (metals) and adhesives that are better on low surface energy plastics. Please contact us and we will help with the adhesive selection.

Q: Acetone can smear the printing on the RFID labels especially in the laboratory. What can I use to strengthen the printing on labels? I’m using the full resin thermal transfer ribbon to print the RFID labels.
A: Acetone is a challenge indeed. We have 2 solutions for this. First is to use a specific face material combined with a specific ribbon type that together will withstand acetone. We already have a product solution available for this. Another option is to protect the printing with additional protective transparent layer. This is what we offer for our ESD On Metal Label but this would mean that printing is done during our production instead of customer’s premises.

Q: Do you maybe have some RFID tag that could go to higher temperature (asking for automotive industry)?
A: Yes, we have our Heatwave product family designed for high temp applications with heat resistance up to 250C. These tags are used in many automotive applications including paint shop cycles.

Q: Do you have an adhesive for fixing the labels to the polypropylene surface?
A: Yes. For fully plastic we recommend using our Carrier product family as the adhesive with those is optimized for low surface energy plastics. From on metal labels Silverline Blade and ESD On Metal Labels offer the best adhesion on PP.

Q: Could you compare ESD-On-Metal Label vs Silverline?
A: ESD On Metal Label is optimized for ESD plastics unlike Silverline. It still does perform well also on other surfaces including metal and has M4E IC which is more optimized for automotive standards, including VDA.

Q: Any RFID label for water substances?
A: Any liquid does effect the performance of RFID. For liquid containers we would recommend testing our ESD On Metal Label due to being less sensitive for the detuning effect of liquid.

Q: Do you have a quite durable cable tag option in the works? Entertainment industry use case.
A: Steelwave Micro II is currently used in industrial cable tagging applications.

Q: Can we have a Dual-freq Tag on a footprint of 2,5cm x 2,5cm ?
A: This would be possible through our DesignStudio service.

Q:If person is carrying laptop in backpack with RFID tag attached to it, what is the accuracy Level when a person is crossing Entry/Exit RFID gate readers?
A: Good question. There are many variable that will affect the accuracy and there are certainly situations when the tag will not be readable. The reader placement and setup plays big role in the accuracy of the reading.

Q: Where do you suggest to tag notebooks to be read with fixed readers?
A: On metal label on top of the notebook is certainly most convenient solution and used among our customers. Sides are generally too narrow for standard RFID tags and the bottom would require so thin label that the performance would be reduced significantly. Placing standard tag inside is also a good option but doesn’t work on all models (like metallic Apple laptops).

Q: Is there a rule of thumb on how much distance to metal parts is needed to use non-metal tags? For example on IT parts with plastic covers and metal inside.
A: Different RFID tags behave a bit differently close to the metal so there is no general answer here. Some labels are more sensitive than the others. To give some indication all labels are effected if they are 1cm from the metal. This is recommended to be tested in real application with our non-metal tags.

Q: I saw an article that RF CONTROL’s fixed wide area readers are used with Confidex’s tags for real time location system. How successful is this project?
A: Correct, RF Controls is using our Crosswave products in real time location system with good results. Crosswave is designed to be omni-directional and gives more consistent reading performance from different angles which improves the accuracy of the RTLS system.

Q: Question about labels for the rubber products such a tyres? What is your recommendations?
A: We have RFID TireTag designed to be embedded inside tire. Embedded tags are seen as the future of the TireTags instead of patch tag designs.