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How to tag a Cardboard Box with RFID

Cardboard is one of the easiest, most reliable materials to tag with RFID. RFID is currently being used widely on cardboard for supply chain management. Practically every carton shipped to the Department of Defense, and every pallet shipped to WalMart, SAMS club, and Target is currently tagged with an RFID chip.

Absorption
Dry cardboard absorbs minimal RF and will allow an RFID reader to read a tag that is built directly into the cardboard, placed inside the cardboard container or placed directly on the outside of the cardboard container. 

Placement
The placement of a tag on cardboard is mostly superfluous as most RFID interrogation systems will be able to verify a tag that is placed almost anywhere on a cardboard container. You should however, take into account the direction your reader antennas are facing and try to place the tag in the same orientation as your antennas. The most important part of tagging cardboard is to consider what is inside the cardboard container.

Pro-Tips
  • If your cardboard contains:
    • Plastic bottles of liquids? Tag positioning should be altered to accommodate liquids.
    • Metal cans, or other metallic objects? Metal reflects radio frequency so it is best to give your tags some separation from metal objects. Use bubble-wrap or styrofoam to keep separation between your RFID tags and the metal objects inside your containers. 
  • Expected RFID Read Ranges
    • 4"x1" Gen2 RFID - 20' minimum, 40' average, 60'+ with optimization
  • Expected Costs of RFID Tag
    • Costs for a blank RFID tag for cardboard can range from $0.20 each to $0.30 each depending on the tag inlay and label material. Pre-programmed RFID tags range from $0.99 on quantity 1, to $0.59 for large quantities (5,000+). 
  • What RFID tag sizes are there?
    • Sizes for a complete RFID label designed for tagging cardboard can be as small as 4"x3/4" and as large as 4"x6" 
  • Adhesives will fail before the RFID tag

Tag Recommendations
The best tag to use for cardboard tagging is the NOX-1 4"x3/4" RFID tag. The NOX-1 includes a 4"x1" peel-off traveler label that can be placed on a document for record keeping. 
Other recommendations:

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