Radio-frequency identification (RFID) labels are the hottest new product in narrow-web printing and converting today. A dramatic shift toward their use for packaging, shipping, warehousing and inventory is already taking place.

An RFID label is printed and manufactured in much the same way as a regular label. After an antenna has been designed, art files are created through PDF, MAC or CAD publishing software. Approvals are confirmed, films and screens are produced, and finally the antenna is ready for printing for either 13.56 MHz, 900 MHz or other applications. (13.56 MHz. is used for short-range labels and 900 MHz is for longer-read ranges.)

Who are your potential customers for RFID? We're talking to our current customers in the communications, medical, transportation, airline, OEM, consumer-electronic and industrial markets. Interestingly enough, we're also speaking with customers we previously had no experience with in the food, drug, retail and high-end luxury item areas. This technology is being reviewed and adopted just about everywhere.

Applications vary greatly from tracking and authenticating ethical drugs, to video rental, tracking luggage or even people at an amusement park, up to high-end security needs. Currently, most converters are concentrating on RFID tags and labels for the product case and pallet levels and not for the individual product-item level. Work within the product-level environment is a future opportunity as costs decline and manufacturers determine value models for such highly specific tracking.

At Graphic Solutions, antennas are made in two forms: Silver conductive inks printed on plastic (polyester), and silver conductive inks printed on paper supplied either one-wide, or multiple-wide, with delivery on a web or sheet. As you may guess, the antennae printed on plastic substrates are inherently more moisture-resistant than those printed on paper.

However, the final assembly packaging, as done by our customers, controls the long-term moisture characteristics of the final product. The temperature limitations of both substrates are also somewhat different, but the practical range for temperature extremes is usually limited to that temperature range of the chip-bonding adhesive, and sometimes even by the customers' final assembly processes.

Equipment required for copper-etched RFID tags and labels (another method to print antennae) includes PDF, MAC or CAD publishing software, film, screens, printing equipment for the etch-resist, chemical-etch bath for excess metal removal, and an environmentally mandated recycling system for excess metal and etchant.

Equipment needed for printed conductive ink RFID tags and labels: PDF, MAC or CAD publishing software, film, screens, web-based screen-printing equipment, and high-volume dryers.

Most testing and inspection of RFID antennae is done with ohmmeters and milliohmeters. In addition, GSI uses sophisticated RF network analyzers, spectrum analyzers, and impedance-measuring equipment.

For the converter, the time to enter this market is highly dependent upon your strategic plan and vision, the industries you serve, what your customers are requesting, and how willing you are to invest now for a potentially amazing return in the future. It's certainly not an easy decision—just as entering digital printing, the market for label applicators or any other "newfangled" idea was difficult when we all first learned about these opportunities.

Talk to your customers, salespeople, and customer-service staff. Consider joining the Smart Active Labels-Consortium (www.sal-c.org) or contact the Electronic Product Code Network (www.epcglobalinc.com) for more information on RFID.

No matter who you are, you should be keeping current on how this technology is evolving and how it might affect you and your business tomorrow, because I can assure you, RFIDs will affect all of us in some way, and very soon.

For an expanded version of this article, go to www.convertingmagazine.com