How Can RFID Manage Weapons?

I am doing research on RFID for a weapons-tracking system. I found that I need to consider several factors that could affect RFID tags, which must survive under the following kinds of conditions: aggressive cleaning agents, severe vibration, blunt force and extreme temperatures. Most manufacturers of RFID write about using passive UHF RFID tags in weapons management. Does that mean any passive UHF tags could be attached to weapons? Could I use simple UHF passive tags, or there are other things need to be considered? For example, should readers be optimized for such tags? If you have any experience with that, could you share your thoughts, please?

—Darkhan

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Darkhan,

Good question. UHF RFID tags could work well to identify weapons under relatively extreme temperatures. However, if you intend to continue tracking the weapons throughout their lifetime, you might expect to need more specialized tags. In the past, there have been companies that provide specialized tags built to sustain the vibration and force you mention, including Advantech. With that said, most of the firearms-management systems we have written about, including those used by military agencies, police forces and private gun owners, have employed standard UHF RFID tags, and the results appear to have been good.

Claire Swedberg
Senior Editor
RFID Journal