Rafsec to double RFID tag production at Jyv?skyl? factory

RFID tag and label manufacturer UPM Rafsec (it's name has changed slightly to make its link the UPM Corporation clearer) has announced that it's doubling production at its facility in the central Finnish city of Jyv?skyl?.

It said on making the announcement that it was responding to growing

The extra capacity will be in place before the end of the summer.

Speaking to Supply Chain Europe after the announcement, UPM Rafsec's president, Timo Lindstr?m, said his company was investing in extra machines based on existing technology as well as new, faster production lines.

He added that this extra investment did not mean UPM Rafsec had lost sight of customers'demand that manufacturers continue to cut the cost of RFID tags.

Lindstr?m said extra demand was coming from several different areas. A partnership with library solutions specialist Bibliotheca was pushing up production of 13.56 MHz applications, while ticketing solutions using high-frequency RFID tags were also on the rise.

But he singled out the ultra-high frequency EPC tags as the main reason for increased demand.

"The EPC market is really starting to consume some quite big volumes," he said. This is in spite of the fact that most companies in the retail industry are still at pilot stage on RFID.

UPM Rafsec has said its clients are looking for business continuity as well as cost-effectiveness. It seems strange then that so much of the debate on RFID still seems to centre on the cost of tags.

Lindstr?m agreed. He said you could trace this debate back to the early days of the Auto-ID Centre, which invented the EPC idea. A low-cost tag was a base element of the EPC concept, he explained.

"We have proven that the road-map for low-cost tags is viable," he said, "and, fortunately, more and more end-users have understood that quality and reliability are as important as cost."

Finally, he said that some industry observers seemed still to think that "something magical" was needed to deliver RFID tags that were of low cost and high quality at the same time.

"There is no magic," Lindstr?m concluded, "only hard, disciplined engineering."