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As well all know, liquids and metals usually interfere with RFID tag operation. But a patent-pending product from Paxar Corporation looks like it might be the answer needed by the likes of Wal-Mart, Target, Tesco, Metro Group, and the US military.
While the marking of merchandise with RFID tags is rapidly being adopted by retailers and governments alike, the problem of tagging metal parts/containers and liquid-filled packages presents a distinct reliability problem: radio signals in the conventional UHF 866/868Mhz frequency range that carry the data traffic between the RFID chip and the reader suffer interference, meaning that metallic or liquid contents are usually considered unsuitable or at least critical for RFID labelling.
Paxar has come up with its own solution - if not entirely original in concept - to the problem, and its simplicity brings the potential for widespread adoption. The idea is to simply use air as a spacer between the tag and the item being tagged. Paxar calls its new product the SpaceTag, and has applied for the necessary patent.
Using RFID has been shown a number of previous examples of this general concept being applied in the past couple of years but, it seems, Paxar feels it has a potential IP claim on its specific version of the foam-backed tag. It must be noted that the patent application is, at the time of writing, exactly that: an application. If you would like to contact Paxar about this matter, click here.
How it works
A 3mm to 8mm layer of water-free foam material is sandwiched between the RFID adhesive label and the shipping unit, fixing a suitable air gap in place (the gap needed depends on the materials and environment involved). The air-padded RFID label can either be applied to the goods before or after the shrink-wrapping process, and is therefore ideal for use on pickup or sandwich pallets.
The SpaceTag is fixed to the pallet in two steps: first, the Paxar 9855 RFID printer produces a regular RFID adhesive label with barcode in a single process. Second, that label is attached to the foam layer either manually or using a labeller, and then fixed to the shipping unit.
The German company SRD Maschinenbau GmbH has also developed an automatic labeller for the SpaceTag and, together with Paxar, the company has applied for patent protection for the unit. The on-demand design of the labeller accommodates SpaceTags, regular RFID labels, and also barcode labels without RFID tags.
Space-friendly
What happens if space is tight in the hold? Well, the elasticised foam SpaceTag crushes easily when pressed but immediately resumes its original shape when more space is available (such as when the pallets are off-loaded at the distribution centre or warehouse).
Source: Paxar Corporation
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