RFID Label Printing
RFID Label Printing
The need for RFID label printing has increased dramatically since early 2005, when the Department of Defense (DoD) issued a mandate requiring its suppliers to mark each item sold to the DoD with a passive RFID tag. The purpose of the mandate was to alleviate logistical challenges faced by the military supply chain, but now many small and medium sized businesses are adopting RFID technology in order to improve inventory management and asset visibility.
A cost effective way to mark assets and inventory is to invest in one or more RFID label printing devices, which allow you to quickly and easily encode RFID smart labels that can be attached to the items that you wish to track. RFID smart labels differ from RFID tags in that they incorporate both RFID and barcode technologies. They're made of an adhesive label embedded with an RFID tag inlay, and they may also feature a barcode and/or other printed information. Smart labels can be encoded and printed on-demand using desktop RFID label printers, whereas programming RFID tags is more time consuming and requires more advanced equipment.
There are two main types of printers used for printing RFID smart labels:
High Frequency (HF) Printers
If you need to encode High Frequency (13.56 MHz) smart labels, RFID HF printers are ideal. They can write data to RFID labels, query each label's unique ID number, and auto-calibrate the labels to reduce the number of labels that get wasted due to errors.
Ultra High Frequency (UHF) Printers
Printers that support the UHF band are ideal for organizations that must comply with DoD and/or retail mandates. They are also great for companies that are looking for an economical way to streamline operational processes. Like the HF printers, the UHF printers also have the ability to write data, query the labels' unique IDs, and auto-calibrate them.
If you have only modest RFID label printing requirements, investing in an RFID printer or two may be a viable option. Alternatively, you can use American Barcode and RFID's DoD Label Printing Service. For more information about the DoD mandate, visit: http://www.acq.osd.mil/log/rfid/supplierguide.htm
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