Talkin’ Things Verifies Tag Designs and Production Quality with Voyantic

Talkin’ Things is an EU-based IoT provider that designs and manufactures RFID and NFC tags and provides end-to-end solutions for smart products. With the in-house tag design and production located in Poland, Talkin’ Things ensures product quality exceeds customer expectations. The current production capacity of one billion units per year makes Talkin’ Things the biggest and fastest-growing RFID provider in the region. Talkin’ Things’ innovative products have gained recognition around the world – with deliveries to over 40 countries on six continents. Talkin’ Things tags are used by many leading RFID adopters.

Voyantic Systems Ensure High-Performance Design and High Production Quality

Talkin’ Things uses multiple Voyantic systems, both for R&D and for production quality control.

The Voyantic Tagformance Pro is an essential system in their R&D Lab and plays a vital role in the tag development process. The Voyantic Tagsurance HF and Voyantic Tagsurance UHF are also used in the lab.

At the production facility, Talkin’ Things uses multiple Voyantic Tagsurance systems for in-line RFID tag quality control at several steps of the process. Using the same family of test equipment also on the production lines provides full comparability of the parameters with the design phase, which is crucial for providing the best performance for the products.

“We have chosen the Voyantic systems for their reliability. The performance data provided by this equipment, the Theoretical Read Range Forward, and the Orientation Sensitivity data, are commonly considered a market standard in the RFID industry and the basic initial parameters to compare RFID inlays. There is also compatibility with ARC and TIPP test procedures, offering a comprehensive hardware and software set to test the certification compliance.” comments Mateusz Chamera, Lead of RFID Tag Development at Talkin’ Things.

Innovative Tag Designs

Talkin’ Things has developed proprietary procedures and methods for very swift RFID tag design and rapid RFID tag prototyping. When none of the readily available RFID antenna designs closely meet the client’s requirements for a tag performance on a given product, they can very quickly come up with a new tag design and deliver a small batch of optimized samples to the client for tests in a real-life environment. This would not be possible without Voyantic Tagformance Pro along with a range of supplementary Voyantic devices and reference materials which are the key to verifying if the RAIN RFID tag parameters predicted in the digital simulations are true.

“RAIN RFID tag design optimization is an iterative process but with proper test setup and a reliable measuring device, it can be vastly streamlined. Our record time is just 6 hours from getting the requirement list to working, optimized, and tested samples ready to be sent to the Client,” says Mr. Chamera.

When working on their innovative RFID products, Talkin’ Things relies on Voyantic systems to help ensure that the new designs are reliable and effective. Voyantic solutions enable automation of the testing process to a large extent which is a significant factor in reducing the overall development time. “A recent example is the Stork™ family of omnidirectional tags. With the Voyantic Tag Rotation System and set of reference surface materials we were able to confirm the expected angular sensitivity for those products at many stages of development and finally to present their unique qualities in the promotional material (see example),” Mr. Chamera elaborates.

Ensuring High Production Yield without Compromising Quality

The quality of the products is one of Talkin’ Things’ key values. They guarantee the roll yield to be at least 99%. The Voyantic Tagsurance setups on the bonding lines are the essential tools of the quality assurance process. The Voyantic quality testing systems have also enabled more efficient use of resources:

“The RFID industry is affected by the global semiconductor shortage. The clever use of Voyantic systems in our custom-built quality control equipment opened us an opportunity to make commercial use of the chip resources that otherwise would not be available. Unfortunately, the technical details of this project must remain confidential, but as a result, we were able to bring a high number of full-quality, highly sought-after products to market only due to the possibility of extensive and reliable testing,” explains Piotr Wolf, New Product Technology Development Manager at Talkin’ Things.

Talkin’ Things has also expanded their production testing capacity with the latest Voyantic Tagsurance 3 systems. “Tagsurance 3 as a state-of-the-art RFID testing system brings RFID production to a whole new level. With the immense support from the Voyantic team we were able to integrate this system with the Muehlbauer machine, thus pioneering the new standard in the industry. The ability to test the product online in multiple frequencies not only ensures the best quality of the final product but also provides us with instant feedback for process optimization. Moreover, the hardware is extremely flexible in terms of integration and the software delivered within is highly intuitive and easy to operate. Not without meaning is the level of support that is provided almost instantaneously. The Voyantic team is very open to customer suggestions, delivering significant solution improvements with each new software release.” says Mr. Wolf.

When we asked how Voyantic customer service is working for Talkin’ Things, this is what they had to say:

“We are very pleased with how well the Voyantic support works. We are always able to get solutions should any issue with the system occur, but also useful tips in the broader scope of RFID technology. This saved us a lot of time in multiple cases. The system documentation is very clear and there is a range of other helpful material available. We also find the virtual training possibility very helpful to get familiar with the system possibilities, and to develop basic system operation skills.” – Mateusz Chamera & Piotr Wolf

Future Plans

Talkin’ Things is constantly growing. Today they have almost 90 antennas in catalog and over 100 more custom and application-specific designs. To maintain the high quality of the products Talkin’ Things will be expanding its testing capacity.

“We are constantly developing new products and the close cooperation with Voyantic is very beneficial in the R&D field,” Mr. Chamera concludes.

Xindeco IOT – RFID Tag Quality Assurance with Tagformance and Tagsurance

中文版 Chinese version

Xindeco IOT Technology Ltd. is a leading RFID tag manufacturer based in Xiamen, China. Founded in 2005, Xindeco IOT has over 15 years of RFID tags design & manufacturing experience. As the pioneer of the Internet of Things industry, the company has nearly 50 RFID inlay production lines. The lines can produce over 2.5 billion pcs RFID inlays & tags annually. Xindeco IoT is the Top 3 RFID tag ODM & OEM supplier in the world.

Xindeco IOT uses Voyantic Tagformance and Tagsurance systems mainly for assuring the quality of the RFID tags. The systems are key components in Xindeco’s 100% quality assurance policy. RFID tags were checked before shipment to the customer. The systems are used for testing both UHF RFID and HF RFID tags in R&D, in production, and in the QC department.

Mr. Li Lin, General Manager of R&D department, explains: The Voyantic Tagformance systems with anechoic chambers are used in the design lab for evaluating the inlay designs. The Tagformance systems are also used in sample testing the tag performance and quality of manufactured tags. With the systems, we can verify all the essential parameters such as tag sensitivity.

The Voyantic systems are precise and easy to use. Their quality is excellent. We have had the Tagformance lite system for a long time already, and there have been no failures, it is still working very well. Mr. Li Lin tells.

Mr. Zhou Senmao, Manager of QC department, continues: The Voyantic Tagsurance systems are used in quality control during production, in-line at the production machines. In the quality testing, the tag performance is checked at a few critical frequencies, this procedure assures that each tag works as specified. The Tagsurance systems are also used in separate off-line QC tests.

Voyantic Tagsurance UHF systems have been used for verifying the consistency of the UHF tag quality. The systems are fast. They are used in manufacturing lines running at high speeds without any misjudgments. And all the data is saved in real-time.

The systems have helped to improve the quality inspection accuracy, and at the same time greatly improved the efficiency of the QC. Now our quality is excellent and also our production yields have increased. Mr. Zhou Senmao describes.

Xindeco IOT teams are continuously developing manufacturing and quality control activities. The latest developments include improvements in HF RFID quality testing, and combining Tagsurance based RF-testing with Automatic Optical Inspection (AOI) equipment.

We hope that in the future Voyantic would be even more involved in training us, and together we could find still new ways to improve our manufacturing and quality control. Mr. Li Lin visions the future.

Cooperation between Voyantic and Xindeco IOT will continue strongly.

RFCAMP Ltd

Since its establishment in 2004, RFCAMP Ltd. has been the leading Korean RFID specialty tag provider with a 50% market share in on-metal applications. The company has exported tags branded “Titan” to more than 40 countries.

“Annually, we are engaged in more than 200 RFID projects all over the world, and each project – or each customer – needs tags that are best fit for their environment. We, therefore, strongly feel that the specialty tag business is rather of service, not production” says Jerry Ryu, the Founder and CEO of RFCAMP. “In order to satisfy our clients, we must prove that the tag we suggest truly is best fit for the required environment, and we believe the use of Voyantic’s Tagsurance is the most reliable and persuasive way”.

“When we get a call from a customer concerning tag performance, we set up a similar environment internally, measure the tag sensitivity with the Tagsurance and send our report to our customer. At that time most customers become convinced.” “If the issue is more serious, we pack the Tagsurance and visit the RFID site to measure and test the tags in front of our customers, which has helped RFCAMP become a more reliable supplier”.

“For the tag business, Voyantic’s products are needed for the tag development and production. However, they are needed the most when interfacing with a customer” says Jerry Ryu.

SAG – Ensuring Efficiency in R&D and Quality in Production

During the past two decades, SAG has positioned itself from an RFID transponder manufacturer to the solution provider. “Back in 2017, we became an alliance member at RAIN RFID, which advocates UHF technology. Seeing the growing demand for RFID transponder targeting at the theme of IoT and Industry 4.0, we are proud to bring our know-how and expertise for customization and end-to-end production capability for realization. Our breakthroughs happen in many applications from different sectors. We came up with the hard tag which goes to the dense metal environment for industrial purpose. We introduced a label which ignores water interference for health care consumables. We brought card and wristband that sees no reading distance drop on the human body to realize hands-free applications for gateway passing. And we customized one tag for both metal and non-metal asset management to benefit the logistic world. We are capable of taking out the hiccups people face when they plan to implement RFID but the environmental challenges just don’t agree”, says Mr. Terry Chiang, General Manager.

“We use Tagformance during product development and Tagsurance for quality assurance in mass production because Voyantic is the most trusted and reliable equipment for RAIN RFID product inspection. Tagsurance is used to inspect the electric performance for HF and RAIN RFID product while Tagformance is to check the reading distance of RAIN RFID product.”

“Tagformance assists our antenna design job with great efficiency and this is very important for product development. On the other hand, Tagsurance plays an important role in quality assurance because it detects a tag’s electrical performance by providing multiple frequency points. This is different from the traditional Go/No-Go test which relies on a single frequency value. “, explains Mr. Terry Chiang, General Manager of SAG.

“We are happy with the excellent service such as onsite training and prompt response to our questions when we operate the systems. Voyantic system facilitates our product development and mass production. The obtained data has great value in guiding us to correct and improve a product’s performance so as to satisfy our customers”, continues Mr. Terry Chiang, General Manager of SAG.

SAG Technical Manager Mr. Kevin Kuo is happy about the efficiency improvement that Tagsurance HF has brought into SAG production line. He says:

“Tagsurance HF testing speed is much faster than normal commercial HF reader. The UPH has been increased over 200% after Tagsurance HF replaced the commercial reader in our converting line. Tagsurance HF can sort out those weak performance tags that a normal reader is unable to achieve. More importantly, Tagsurance can also record each tag minimum turn-on power which is very useful information for our engineers to adjust the machine manufacturing parameters and to enhance the tag quality control.”

Omnia Technologies Relies on Voyantic Solutions to Verify Tag Design and Production Quality

Indian RFID tag manufacturer, Omnia Technologies, based in Gurgaon has successfully entered the UHF tag business after adopting Voyantic measurement and testing solutions. Omnia started its RFID business by manufacturing LF and HF tags. In order to meet the customer requirements and to increase product profitability, they decided to add UHF hard tags into their product portfolio in 2014. Currently, Omnia is providing a full range of passive RFID hard tags, and 95% of its products are exported to overseas markets.

According to Rajesh Paul, R&D Manager of Omnia, Voyantic solutions are the key to driving Omnia’s UHF tag business growing.

“After three years of investment and hard work, currently about 50% of our company’s turnover comes from selling UHF hard tags. Our engineers first use the Voyantic Tagformance measurement system to verify the tag design based on the customer’s specifications. After that, we do the tag quality checking with Tagsurance in the production before shipment. Both Tagformance and Tagsurance systems have shortened our new product development time and enhanced our product quality control level tremendously.”, says Rajesh Paul.