Most consumers are well acquainted with the “razor-and-blade” model of loss leader sales, in which the durable good (the razor) is sold at cost or a loss so manufacturers can get recurring revenues for the consumables (the blades). And certainly, this revenue model applies to many kinds of goods and devices, including standard printers and ink, 3D printers and filaments, and welding equipment and wire. The stakes are especially high for higher-end devices and equipment, such as medical devices and large industrial machines that use expensive consumable supplies. If the equipment sold at a loss cannot uniquely match the consumables, this will cause considerable losses to the manufacturer.

The emergence of RFID technology has happened to solve the problem of machines being difficult to verify the authenticity of consumables.

RFID tags are attached to consumables, and suitable embedded RFID modules are installed in machines and other equipment to uniquely identify the consumables and read or write data to the transponders. This turns your consumables into mobile data carriers. Your machine not only knows whether a replacement part is genuine but also  information on shelf life can be recorded, thus increasing product safety.