Smartrac Launches BLOCK ON-METAL NFC Tags with Excellent Performance on Metallic Objects

Amsterdam (The Netherlands), September 19, 2019 – Smartrac Technology Group, a global market leader in RFID products and IoT solutions, today announced the launch of its BLOCK ON-METAL tags. These flexible, ferrite-based NFC inlays and tags are suitable for multiple industrial, retail and B2C applications where items with metallic surfaces need to be identified or interacted with. 

In its new BLOCK ON-METAL tags, Smartrac combines a performance-optimized antenna design with a thin layer of flexible ferrite material, which isolates the magnetic field from the metal surface. Ferrite redirects the reader’s inductive field and prevents energy from being wasted as heat within the metallic surface.

Outstanding performance for many applications 

Due to their excellent quality, on-metal performance and read range, BLOCK ON-METAL tags are an ideal solution for a wide array of industrial, retail and consumer applications. These include but are not limited to enhanced customer engagement and loyalty, asset management, brand protection, secure product authentication, and payment. Due to its handy dimensions (die-cut size 50 x 50 mm / 1.96 x 1.96 in for the standard tag), the new product allows the identification and provision of a digital identity to many items - from metallic components to spare parts, signs, tools, even machines and domestic items. BLOCK ON-METAL tags are suitable for roll-to-roll manufacturing processes, which makes onward processing much easier and more cost-effective, and allows converters to overprint the inlays if required.

State-of-the-art IC 

BLOCK ON-METAL tags are equipped with the newest member of NXP’s SLIX product family, the ICODE SLIX2 IC. This chip complies with the NFC Forum Type 5 standard, is fully backward-compatible to SLIX, and offers an increased user memory size. It has other new features and performance enhancements, such as NXP originality signature, increased speed for inventory management, and increased read range due to superior resistance to detuning effects. Additional notable features of the ICODE SLIX2 IC are flexible user memory segmentation with separate access conditions, a password-protected on-chip service cycle counter, and a 2.5 Kbit user memory size.

“Our new BLOCK ON-METAL products are the answer to frequent customer requests and at the same time extend the application spectrum of NFC tags to previously hard-to-tag metal objects. In addition, they underpin Smartrac’s innovative strength and leading position in the global NFC market,” said Matti Tavilampi, Director Product Management at Smartrac.

BLOCK ON-METAL will become available in high volumes from Q4 2019.

About Smartrac:

Smartrac is a global market leader in RFID products and IoT solutions, providing both ready-made and 

customized offerings. We make products smart, and enable businesses to digitize, identify, authenticate, track 

and complement products and solutions. Our portfolio is used in a wide array of applications such as animal identification, automation, automotive, brand protection, customer experience, industry, library and media management, logistics, retail, supply chain management and many more. Leveraging our global Research & Development Centers, production and sales network, and IoT solutions platform Smart Cosmos^®, we embed intelligence into physical products, empowering the ecosystem of connected things. Smartrac received ARC Quality Certification from Auburn University’s RFID Lab for the design and manufacturing of its RFID inlays. Smartrac has its registered headquarters in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. For more information, visit www.smartrac-group.com, follow Smartrac on Twitter, Linkedin or sign up for a quarterly newsletter.