Metalcraft Develops Metal UHF RFID tags
Industrial nameplate and label supplier Metalcraft has released a new metal UHF RFID tag Metal RFID Tag for use as a visual and digital ID board in harsh environments such as heavy equipment and vehicles. The label is made of anodized aluminum and can be mounted on metal and read over a distance of 15 to 20 feet. The RFID system uses the patented technology of TROI.
The label can be used in oil and gas drilling field equipment, outdoor vehicles or recyclable metal containers. Austin Elling, director of marketing and internal sales at Metalcraft, said that because traditional labels are often unable to withstand harsh environments, these environments often do not use RFID technology.
Metalcraft customers often use metal nameplates that can withstand chemicals, extreme temperatures and multiple washes for item identification. Elling said: "We are a manufacturer of durable nameplates. After years of development, we began to research RFID technology." In fact, Metalcraft began to find that more and more customers began to use RFID technology to identify equipment, vehicles or containers. However, traditional RFID tags cannot be used in harsh environments, Elling said.
In spite of this, Elling said, the demand for RFID products from customers has increased significantly in recent years. These applications include heavy equipment manufacturing and rental space, and vehicle tracking. Although Metalcraft can print data on polymer labels and standard RFID tags as vehicle tags, it can be destroyed in chemicals, detergents or UV environments. He said: "Customers always want a metal nameplate with an RFID tag."
Mark Maliszewski, the company's product development engineer, said that Metalcraft has been developing the solution for the past 18 months. In the end, the company developed a metal RFID tag. The tag features the Alien Technology Higgs-EC chip and Metalcraft's Universal Micro inlay, which is 1" x 3" aluminum. The metal tag can be attached to a metal or non-metal surface by other means of adhesive.
A reflector is built into the back of the label, and the metal surface acts as a reflector for the RF signal when the label is used in a metal environment. The tag's built-in reflector provides this functionality when the tag is used in a non-metallic environment.
The metal tag's reflector design extends the length of the inlay, which can be read 8-10 feet away from conventional tags. The label also comes with a barcode and an ID number that is readable by the naked eye. This ID number can be written to the RFID inlay along with the EPC code.
So far, the company has been testing tags internally, and boxed customers have provided thousands of tags for deployment. Maliszewski said the environment in the oil and gas sector is the most challenging, and the company expects the label to perform well in this environment. Metal tags can withstand temperatures from -40 to +180 degrees Fahrenheit.
