Join our next webinar: How to choose the right RAIN RFID antenna? – Learn more and register

All blog posts

Using Tagging Performance Specifications to Secure 100% Readability of RFID Enabled Tires

Aug 17, 2017

中文版 Chinese version

Identification of tires has been one of the early use cases of RAIN RFID already back in 2005. It took almost ten years for the technology and value chain to mature to a state when this extremely challenging application became finally possible.

Million Reasons to Tag Tires

There are countless ways to utilize RFID enabled tires. Early deployments follow the use cases familiar in the generic retail business: improving the traceability in the supply chain and raising efficiency in warehouse inventory and management. Over time I bet we will also see use cases after distribution, such as tire fleet management, safety monitoring (pressure, wear, retreading), and eventually even in recycling.

Once tires are RFID enabled, it opens enormous possibilities for companies to streamline processes and even create new business models.

“Scrapping a Finished Tyre is Not an Option”

If an embedded RFID tag is defected, it cannot be replaced with a new one because of safety and practical reasons. At the same time, no manufacturer is willing to scrap a new baked tire because of a non-functional RFID tag. Is there a way to avoid such a situation?

A carefully implemented quality monitoring helps keep the tire manufacturing process lean and efficient. RFID is implemented in various ways within the tire industry. Thus, preparing the tagging specifications according to actual use cases of the complete value chain is a prerequisite. Read more of this framework:

What is the Framework of RFID Tagging in Tire Industry?

Learn how to prepare tagging specifications according to actual use cases of the complete value chain!

Embedding RFID UHF Tag into Rubber and RF Testing

Before embedding in rubber, the tire tags are tested in free-air conditions. UHF tire tags are typically over tuned to frequencies over 1 GHz. This makes RF testing a challenge because standard RFID readers operate at frequencies below 1 GHz.

Sensitivity of RAIN RFID UHF tag in different situations. The lower the graph, the higher the sensitivity and thus longer the read range.

From the manufacturing standpoint, additional requirements include:

  1. individual tag test should be wireless;
  2. test may be performed on trays with a large number of other tags in close proximity;
  3. the production flow cannot be slowed down.

The Voyantic solution is to utilize Tagsurance RFID tester together with the Snoop Pro near field coupling element. This enables accurate READ sensitivity tests for the complete dipole tag structure with excellent correlation to far-field performance.

RF testing used to be one of the bottlenecks in the tire tag production process. However, the sophisticated test features of the Tagsurance tester mean that the slowest processes are the mechanical ones.

Please read of our testing solution in more detail from our customer case study Michelin – Tire Tags with Consistent Quality!

Industry-Wide ISO Standards in the Horizon

The industry is currently waiting for the work group to finalize following standards, like

For an update on the ISO standards process, please stay tuned for an upcoming blog from Juho Partanen later this year.

If you’d like to hear how Voyantic can enable you to perform tire RFID testing in your facility, just drop us a line – it will be my pleasure to walk you through the process!

All blog posts
All blog posts

500th Voyantic RFID Test System Delivered to Datamars

Aug 09, 2017

Voyantic is the global leader in performance measurement solutions for RFID. The company started delivering Tagformance Laboratory measurement systems in 2007 and Tagsurance Production testers in 2011. Since then our systems have been delivered to 33 countries in 5 continents. Over the years the Voyantic offering has been extended from UHF to cover also HF/NFC frequencies and increased functionality for application testing, protocol analysis and encoding.

Voyantic is proud to announce that the company recently reached a remarkable milestone, when the 500th RFID test system produced by the company was delivered to Datamars SA. Datamars has made large use of both Voyantic lab equipment (Tagformance) and test production equipment (Tagsurance) since 2012.

During the last years, Datamars’ Laundrychips™ have continuously outperformed the market growth – especially after the introduction of UHF ones – thanks to constant innovation and systematic focus on quality that is widely recognized by the company’s customers. A fundamental contribution to Datamars transponders’ quality has been provided by Voyantic test equipment in both design and production phase (performance characterization and reliability tests).

“Thanks to the brilliant results we got, in the last years we kept on improving the performance of our tags and the reliability of our production lines, in order to face the new challenges coming from the market.” says Antonio Gallizzi, UHF Project Manager at Datamars. “Voyantic is a reference point in the RFID world and over the years they strengthened our ability to analyze both the tag design and the production quality control.”

During the design phase of Datamars products, Tagformance provided fundamental information (such as the transponder frequency response, both in single read and in bulk), thanks to which the company made right decisions regarding the new product up to the slightest detail. With Tagsurance systems Datamars can guarantee the electrical performances of 100% of its UHF products, with a clear advantage in terms of quality perception of the end user.

“We appreciate having had Datamars as our valued customer during the past 5 years. It has been a pleasure to see Datamars decisively investing in RFID quality and utilizing Voyantic solutions from tag design and performance verification all the way to high volume production testing” says Harri Tulimaa, Vice President of Sales at Voyantic.

The 500th Voyantic system was delivered to Datamars production facility in Thailand, where several Voyantic testers have been integrated in the production process. To celebrate this milestone, on June 27th 2017 Mr. Harri Tulimaa handed over a memento to the Datamars team in Lugano, Switzerland as a token of appreciation and dedication for RFID quality that both companies embrace and foster in their strategy and operations.

Fore more information about Datamars, please visit www.datamars.com.

All blog posts