Not All RFID Tags Are the Same
When Quality Makes the Difference
In today’s increasingly connected world, RFID technology has become a cornerstone for efficiency, traceability, and automation across industries. From manufacturing and logistics to retail and healthcare, tags may look like simple components — but their role is anything but minor. Behind every reliable RFID system lies a critical choice: the quality of the tag itself. What may seem like identical products at first sight can, in reality, hide significant differences that impact performance, durability, and ultimately the success of your operations.
At first glance, two RFID tags may look identical. Same size, same shape, same color. It’s easy to assume they will also deliver the same performance and reliability. In reality, the differences can be profound — and often invisible to the naked eye.
A concrete example comes from one of our products: the Microty, an RFID tag designed to be applied to metallic surfaces, featuring compact dimensions and high mechanical resistance. Alongside this, we compared a copy that looked almost identical but was built with lower-quality materials. The difference is evident as soon as a slight amount of pressure is applied: the Microty remains intact and fully functional, while the non-original tag breaks, rendering it unusable even before being put into service. This case highlights a fundamental principle: when it comes to RFID tags, quality matters more than you might imagine.
It’s Not Just About Shape, But About Design
When discussing RFID, people often focus only on frequencies, reading distances, or technical standards. Yet an effective tag is also — and above all — one that ensures operational continuity over time, resistance to environmental conditions, and consistent performance. These characteristics depend on how each product has been designed and manufactured.
Low-quality materials, cheap plastics, untested adhesives, or imprecise soldering can seriously compromise reliability. Even if everything seems fine at first, problems show up over time and with daily use: intermittent readings, mechanical breakage, signal loss, or complete failure.
Using unreliable tags means exposing yourself to process interruptions, traceability errors, downtime, and unexpected maintenance costs. In many cases, they end up being replaced even before they can be used — or after just a few weeks or months — effectively canceling out any initial “savings.”
Low quality and broken Microty On-Metal Tag
High quality Microty On-Metal Tag
discover our RFID MICROTY ON-METAL tag
An Invisible Variable: Mold Design
A technical aspect often overlooked is the design of the mold used to manufacture the tag. In certain configurations, the cavities that shape the device’s body are connected to the injection point through channels of different lengths.
In molds with two cavities, for example, one may receive the plastic material through a shorter channel, while the other is fed through a much longer one. This difference directly affects filling quality: the tag with the shorter channel is properly filled and solidly welded, while the one with the longer channel may receive the material at lower temperature and pressure, risking improper compaction.
In practice, this means that in each production cycle, some tags may be mechanically weaker, despite looking exactly the same. And if the pieces are then mixed without distinction, it becomes impossible to know which ones are truly reliable.
Choosing Quality to Protect Your Investment
Choosing a high-quality RFID tag means investing in stability. It means having the certainty that each component has been tested, that the materials are suitable for the application environment, and that the supplier can guarantee repeatable and consistent performance over time. It is also a choice that protects your company’s reputation, because a reliable RFID system becomes an integral part of the production, logistics, or commercial process.
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