How Would I Reduce Faulty Tags Found in the Mix During Production?

Is there better technology to rely on, or should I try to improve on human checks?

—Muneeb

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Muneeb, I talked to our friends at Atlas RFID about this challenge related to voided tags. These primarily occur when a tag's IC fails to properly attach to the antenna during tag production. There's an industry average of 1 percent or less void rate in a typical production run. If the percentage is higher than that, this would indicate a quality issue in production. (Sometimes, these voids can be concentrated in a roll of tags, however.)

If manufacturers detect voided tags, they often mark those with a black dot, line or dash, but in some cases they don't mark them at all. In that case, the best way to capture these faulty tags on your end, before the tag is applied to a product, is to run the tags through an RFID printer set up to mark voided tags. Additionally, a handheld or USB-connected reader can interrogate tags before they are applied to a product, though that is more time-consuming than a printer would be. Some companies, including Atlas RFID, offer printing and encoding services that can identify and remove faulty tags prior to shipping, so that is another option.

Claire Swedberg
Senior Editor
RFID Journal