Application cases of RFID technology in the field of clothing anti-counterfeiting

RFID technology can effectively solve the increasingly rampant phenomenon of product anti-counterfeiting. In RFID anti-counterfeiting applications, clothing anti-counterfeiting is commonly used. Clothing manufacturers place their own unique RFID tags in cartons along with the garments, and each carton has its own unique ID code.

It is estimated that the global market affected by counterfeit products reaches 300 billion US dollars every year. This amount is quite staggering and accounts for 10% of the total world trade. While counterfeit products flood the market, they also cause the loss of a large number of jobs. It is estimated that 100,000 people in the EU have lost their jobs due to counterfeit products. Not to mention, the anti-defective products of some special products, such as aircraft parts and medicines, directly threaten people's lives.

The global market affected by counterfeit products reaches US$300 billion every year, accounting for 10% of the world's total trade.

For manufacturers, a major advantage of RFID technology is that it can be integrated directly into existing products, machines or equipment without making major changes to existing production equipment. The RFID tag itself has the function of reading and writing, can write the manufacturer's unique encrypted code, and can be easily integrated into various products.

An important factor in whether the RFID system can be used in business is that the same type of tags can be applied to different products, because this can lead to an expansion of the production scale of the tags and ultimately reduce the price of the tags to an acceptable range. However, for some expensive products, the size of the label is far more important than the price of the label.

For small and valuable products, a slightly larger label may affect the appearance of the product. In this case, the size of the label is required to be as small as possible so as not to cause obstacles to the user. From the perspective of tag storage data, read-only tags are generally one-time programmable and low-cost, but must have a backup database for effective tracking.

Tag data that can be read and written multiple times has a relatively large storage capacity and can generally Store all product information without the need for backup database support. This kind of tag is more expensive and larger than one-time programmable tags.

For manufacturers, the last thing they want to see is that the reading of RFID data slows down production. UHF tags have a longer reading distance and are generally more suitable for use on boxes or pallets; HF tags have a shorter reading distance and are suitable for fixed places such as shelves.

When using RFID tags, another factor that needs to be carefully considered is the material of the goods. This has a particularly great impact on products that are often in contact with water during use, or products where the label is affixed to metal. If it is the former case, the tag must be waterproof and use HF technology; because the longer wavelength of the HF system is not easily absorbed, high-frequency RF signals can easily penetrate water or other liquids. HF tags have been tested on textiles and clothing for many years and have proven to be resistant to liquids, pressure and large changes in temperature.

When the tag is attached to a metal surface, it will also have an impact on the RFID system. RF signals cannot pass through metal, so when the metal substance is relatively close to the HF antenna or UHF tag and reader, the reading and writing distance of the RFID system will be greatly affected. Another negative effect is absorption: metals can absorb RF signals, which also affects HF and UHF tags to varying degrees.

The reading and writing distance of HF tags is relatively short. When the UHF tag is far enough away from the metal surface, its reading and writing distance is relatively long; but if the tag is too far away from the metal surface, its abrupt part will affect the usability of the tag, so the ideal height is 5mm.

In RFID anti-counterfeiting applications, clothing anti-counterfeiting is commonly used

Clothing manufacturers place their own unique RFID read-write tags in cartons along with the produced garments, and each carton has its own unique ID code. When production is completed and shipped, each carton passes through an RFID tag reader, and the information on all cartons is read and transmitted to the PC. The PC software system compares the actual information read with the planned shipment of the carton and determines whether to release it. At the same time, if the carton is released, the ID number of the carton will be written into the memory of each label and locked. .

Manufacturers can also use handheld RFID devices to write corresponding information to other data blocks of the tag during QA inspection and other stages. In this way, the entire transportation of all garments from production to distribution centers to retail can be recorded.