Netherlands based Stork Prints and German silver coating producer Spraylat have demonstrated the effectiveness of rotary screen printing for mass production of RFID circuits with speed and accuracy. Stork's 16in wide Rotary Screen Integration unit was used to print 150mm x 25mm di-pole antennae, at 30m/min, using a specially formulated conductive ink designed by Spraylat. This speed is said to be a significant improvement over previous productivity levels using screen printing.
The collaborative project - at Stork's Boxmeer Demo Centre - was specially commissioned by RAKO Security Label, of Witzhave, Germany, who had been chosen by the Metro retail group to supply 20,000 labels to trial the effectiveness of RFID in managing pallets and cases in its supply chain.
Stork printed the 20,000 batch of antennae in just two hours. RAKO carried out subsequent conversion processes at its Witzhave works, inserting the inlays with a 2,024-bit microchip on a Mühlbauer 'pick and place' Tag Module Assembler. The trial succeeded because the inlay designs could operate very effectively over a wide range of pallet contents, locations and angles.
Thorsten Wischnewski, head of the RFID-technology group at RAKO, comments: "To meet the high growth demand for RFID labels label industry players have to pool resources and explore ways of increasing productivity. The collaboration with Stork Prints and Spraylat makes us well placed to offer large volume RFID label orders with relatively short lead-times."
| Contacts |
| Stork Tel: +31 (0) 485 599 296 Spraylat Tel: +49 (0) 241 445210 0 RAKO Tel: +49 (0) 4104 693 132 |
