RFID electronic tags applied to tracking of recyclable bent metals such as beverage barrels

Recyclable shipping items such as beverage kegs, gas cylinders and other bent metal have historically placed high and very specific demands on RFID tags. Together with Wilms Supply Chain Technologies, Smartrac provided a solution that met customer needs and delivered technological innovation.

Labeling on beverage kegs and curved metal surfaces is a challenging area of RFID technology. LF (low frequency) solutions provide reliable product identification, but lack range and flexibility for tracking applications. In contrast, existing UHF RFID solutions can provide sufficient range, but it is difficult to guarantee full reliability under batch read conditions. Another issue is that most kegs and cylinders are subject to harsh handling during production, distribution and maintenance such as cleaning and especially forklift handling.

Smartrac's new hard tags provide an excellent solution for identifying and tracking beverage kegs, gas cylinders and other bent metals under batch-reading conditions. The product range includes UHF and dual frequency (UHF and NFC) fully encapsulated labels for adhesive mounting on metal surfaces, as well as printed circuit board (PCB) labels for embedded polyurethane (PU) covers. The fully wrapped UHF dedicated hard tag and its dual frequency tag are permanently bonded to the inner surface of the bucket collar. There they are optimally protected, do not interfere with manual transport and allow the insertion of lifting bars.

This specific tag placement also contributes to excellent read characteristics, with 100% read rates even when pallets or trucks of up to 50 kegs are accessed through UHF lanes. The label add-on PCB labels are optimized to be embedded or plugged into the PU to act as a housing, and importantly it has another great advantage that they do not require soldering. The company has carefully optimized it for this environment and is on par with other products in its class in terms of its excellent read and write characteristics. So all of this applies to building new kegs as well as retrofitting existing ones.