Identifying the best RFID tags for a particular application is a critical step toward making an RFID Asset Tracking system work efficiently. But, filtering through the sea of tag options can be quite daunting. There are hundreds of different types of RFID tags all with unique attributes that make them suitable for different applications. Choosing an RFID tag for your organization can be quite complicated. Here are our top factors to consider when you’re going through a tag selection process.
It’s not always difficult. There are situations when selecting the appropriate RFID tag is pretty straightforward. If you find yourself needing to track items in an enclosed office environment consider yourself lucky. But, if you are looking to implement an RFID project to track large, metal items that are moving on and off of trucks it’s going to take longer to find a good performing RFID tag.
Establish your RFID System Goals
When you’re looking to implement an RFID Asset Tracking System it’s a good idea to get with your team early in the process in order to establish your goals. Having a clear set of objectives and agreement from your team on those objectives, will make the entire process much smoother.
Get into the details and document all of the data that you hope your RFID System will be able to capture. Make sure to carefully think through the entire process and all of the workflows. Then your team should prioritize the goals and agree on which of the objectives are nice to have and which are absolutely critical to the success of the project. Sitting down with the stakeholders early in the process to document these goals and priorities will set boundaries and save time in the long run.
When to select RFID tags
It’s not unusual for people to want to see the RFID tags for their new system early on and try to bring that selection process to the forefront. It seems only natural that people would want something tangible that they can have on their desk and share with their colleagues that represents a component of this exciting new project.
But, it’s important to realize that selecting RFID tags is usually not a quick, simple decision. There are a number of factors to consider and elements of your RFID system that need to be established before you can decide upon an appropriate tag.
Selecting the final RFID tags might not be the last step in the implementation process — but it’s certainly not the first step. There are some important decisions that your team will need to make in order to intelligently choose an appropriate RFID label. This is when working with an experienced integrator will be worth it’s weight in gold and be able to lead you through this decision making process efficiently.
Finding a Partner
RFID technology is moving at lightning speed. New RFID equipment, readers, tags and software applications are exploding onto the market. Just trying to keep up with the latest RFID tags and testing them on different substrates and in different environments could keep you very busy. Finding a partner, like A2B Tracking, who has a track record of successful implementations and is already on top of the marketplace can save you a ton of time and potential headaches.
Factors to Consider when Choosing an RFID Tag
Returning to the fact that your stakeholders have already established your goals and priorities for this RFID project, you will be able to work from that document. Hopefully, you will have identified a list of specific assets that want to be tracked and established the locations and workflows that these assets travel throughout their lifecycle.
Environmental Conditions
The first thing to point out is that there are environmental conditions that have the ability to wreak havoc on an RFID system. If you have large electronic equipment or equipment that could cause Radio Frequency interference in your facility, these can very likely affect your RFID read range.
Other elements that can affect your RFID system are large amounts of metal and water. Metal reflects UHF RFID energy and when there is a significant amount of metal in the area, the radio frequency transmission becomes unpredictable. Water, on the other hand, absorbs RFID energy and makes it very difficult to transmit effectively.
Asset Substrate
Make sure that you consider each of the assets that you are tracking and, in particular, the substrate of those assets. If your asset is composed of metal, you are probably going to need an on-metal tag to be able to achieve the read range that you are looking for.
It’s also important to consider how you will affix the tag to your asset. Most RFID tags are attached with an adhesive; but there are also ways to mechanically fasten or ways to use a cable tie type of an application.
While we are discussing the asset being tagged it’s important to consider the exact placement or location of the tag. It’s not unusual for an RFID tag to perform differently depending on where on the asset the tag is affixed.
Another consideration is the size of the asset being tracked. Some assets are so small that getting an RFID tag on them is nearly impossible. Let’s be clear, there are some very small RFID tags — and it seems as though they are getting smaller everyday — but, understand that smaller tags mean smaller antennas and this usually equates to a smaller read range.
RFID Tag Read Range
There are a lot of factors that can affect the read range of your RFID tag. In order to develop a successful system it’s important to establish what your read range requirements are. Drawing a line in the sand and establishing that you need to have a read range of x is critical to choosing the appropriate RFID tag.
Mobile RFID and Fixed RFID Readers
The final consideration in our list here is related to the specific RFID readers. It’s not uncommon to find asset tags that will work well for a Mobile RFID reader but not for a Fixed RFID reader (and vice versa). That is all to say that you can not assume that if a specific tag works well with one reader that it will work well with another. Unfortunately, it is not that easy. As always, testing is the best way to decrease the potential for problems in situations like this.
RFID Tag Testing
RFID Tag technology has come a long way in recent years. The tags are improving with better read ranges and smaller sizes — but what comes along with that is that many of the tags are designed for specific applications. Using the correct tag in the appropriate situation is a home run but deviating from that can be a challenge.
At A2B Tracking we are constantly testing RFID tags. Testing and evaluation is a necessary part of the implementation process. There are so many factors that can affect the read range of your RFID tags that it’s essential to test a number of tags before making a final decision. Of course, you can try to take all of the factors into consideration beforehand – but, until you get the tag attached to an asset and try to read that tag in a realistic location – you will never know for sure.
Watch the Video
We recently hosted a webinar on RFID Tag Selection. To take a deeper dive on this topic of choosing an RFID Tag, take a look at this video segment that we took from that on-demand webinar recording.
