Avery Dennison Smartrac launches Midas Flagtag

The AD Midas Flagtag EM4425 DF is claimed to be the first spacer-less tag on the market to offer dual-frequency capability (UHF and HF, ISO 18000-6c and ISO 15693) for on-metal applications, which will allow retailers, pharmaceutical companies, and other industries to track difficult-to-tag products, as well as offering the opportunity to engage with customers using NFC.

The tag’s high-performance tracking capabilities stem from the unique Midas Flagtag design characteristics: the tag uses the metallic surface to create a high-performance monopole antenna. According to Avery Dennison, this design ensures excellent performance in demanding physical environments while providing cost advantages over comparable alternative products on the market.

By enabling high-speed NFC encoding using the UHF infrastructure, it offers retailers and brands the ability to capture the benefits of consumer engagement. Creating the opportunity for an enhanced brand experience by linking consumers to product information, brand messaging, promotional material, product source and ingredient information, and more through an NFC enabled smartphone.

‘The worlds of logistics and consumer goods retail has found tagging metal items a challenge to date since on-metal tags like hard tags have generally been relatively expensive and unsuitable for smaller metallic items. AD Midas Flagtag EM4425 DF solves this problem with its small form factor and low cost,’ said the company in a statement.

AD Midas Flagtag EM4425 DF can be used on any metal item. Its NFC capability allows the end consumer to access assembly instructions, disclaimers, guarantee registration or spare parts orders with the touch of an NFC-enabled smartphone, vastly improving the customer experience and encouraging brand engagement and loyalty.

By combining previously available but separate product features within a single inlay, such as sharing memory between HF and UHF, robust on-metal performance and low cost, the new tag has opened up the benefits of on-metal tagging to areas of retail, logistics, and healthcare that previously struggled to find an affordable, unified technology to improve inventory management and enable consumer engagement.

Currently available as 51mm x 34.5mm PET-based tags with the EM4425 V12 IC, AD Midas Flagtag EM4425 DF tags are compliant with ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management and ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management, which ensure meeting a variety of application needs, especially in the retail environment.