Analysis of the characteristics of the hottest sma

Analysis of the characteristics of smart labels and the current situation of its printing technology

the wide application of traditional bar code labels in all walks of life, their convenient and fast function and certain anti-counterfeiting functions have become a consensus. However, with people's higher and more comprehensive information needs for the production, storage and transportation, quality assurance, anti-counterfeiting, management and many other aspects of commodities, the traditional bar code labels are obviously unable to meet their needs. It can not only provide the production of commodities Management and other information can not warn the temperature required for commodity quality assurance. In terms of anti-counterfeiting effect, it also gradually loses the anti-counterfeiting effect of commodities because of its single printing and easy imitation. With the progress of science and technology and its application in the field of label making, a new, multifunctional and good anti-counterfeiting smart label has been widely used, which will bring new vitality and vitality to label making and printing

I. characteristics and application of smart labels

smart labels are also known as radio frequency identification labels. They are high-tech products in the field of labels. Now they have played an important role in product packaging, gradually replacing traditional product labels and bar codes. Smart label is a rookie in the field of labels. It has the function of surpassing traditional labels. It is the crystallization of high and new technologies such as electronics and computers in label printing. Smart tags include radio frequency identification (RFID) electronic tags, hidden or public trademark protection indicators or sensors that indicate the status of products. The electronic tag is mainly composed of a chip and an antenna. The chip is mainly used to receive and transmit data, which is read through the radio frequency signal sent by the reader. The reader is connected with the antenna and the computer network to form an electronic module. The reader sends the special signal from its antenna to the electronic tag in a specific area, and then processes the feedback information and transmits it to the computer network, so that managers can get the special information of goods

smart tags can help manufacturers and consumers understand the inventory, circulation, quality and other conditions of goods in real time, and play a great role in monitoring the status and position of their products in the supply chain. For example, the packaging of many foods and drugs must be stored and transported under specific temperature and low pollution environment. General labels cannot understand and monitor the temperature and quality assurance of products, while smart labels can timely monitor the temperature of temperature sensitive and perishable products during the storage and transportation of products. It measures the temperature during storage and transportation with special chips, antennas, sensors, etc, Warn manufacturers to prevent the impact of temperature changes on products. In addition, for example, the warehouse keeper can use the smart tag to understand the product type and quantity information on the shelf, so as to check the product inventory data and judge the product sales. In addition, smart labels improve the anti-counterfeiting effect of traditional labels, especially in drug packaging, its anti-counterfeiting function has greatly exceeded the traditional bar code labels

the core of smart tag is the RF circuit and sensor containing IC chip, which is internally equipped with programmable integrated circuit and antenna. It can receive and transmit information through wireless RF signal and read-write device. It has many functions such as product identification, anti-counterfeiting, anti-theft, management and so on. It is a product that is currently widely used to upgrade and update the bar code tag of products. Smart tags have the advantages of small, thin and flexible (the thickness of the product can reach about 0.1mm, the size can be twisted and bent at will from a few millimeters to nearly 20 centimeters), as well as the characteristics of fast data reading, and can read ID numbers and some special information according to special orders

smart tags have collision proof read-write characteristics, and can read and write multiple electronic tags at the same time. It can carry data, read the data stored in its chip quickly in a wireless way through a special card reader, and rewrite its data very conveniently in the process of work. Smart tags can be used without wiring, power supply and contact, and can also make rich changes in RF frequency. In smart tags, the internal characteristics and readable functions of various materials can be implanted, which are widely used in the field of wireless identification, such as product identification, quality monitoring, ticket, asset management and providing a series of tracking management. Smart tags provide a variety of new tools for anti-counterfeiting and logistics management

products related to smart labels have broad application space in the fields of commodity production, storage and transportation, inventory management of sales, etc. in Japan, Hitachi, Fujitsu and letterpress printing Co., Ltd. have produced and sold smart labels on a large scale. Data shows that the smart tag and related services and software market in Japan will reach a level of more than 90000 yen in 2010. In the United States and Europe, major retailers, including Wal Mart, are also trying to promote the use of smart tags. In June 2004, Wal Mart requested that it start using RFID Technology to manage goods in 2005, and required its 100 major suppliers to use smart RFID tags before 2005, And require most suppliers to use standard smart tags within a year or two. It is reported that at present, the production of this kind of smart tag shows a trend of rapid growth. In Europe, the market has reached more than 5billion US dollars in 2005, and is growing at a rate of about 40% per year. It is expected that in 2008, the use of RFID tags around the world will reach more than 20billion. At that time, RFID smart tags will be widely used in the retail industry

II. Printing technology of smart labels

the printing of smart labels is very different from the printing of traditional labels. At present, the printing technology of traditional labels in China has reached a high level. There are many experienced enterprises in the trademark printing industry, and they also produce many products with exquisite design and high quality. However, some people think that smart labels are nothing special, As long as the ordinary label is covered with a beautiful coat, it is not difficult for the printing enterprises of high-quality labels, but the high added value of the smart label that simply adds a beautiful coat is worrying, otherwise it will cause important losses. Then, compared with traditional label printing, what are the characteristics of smart label printing

first, from the definition of smart tag, smart is a RF circuit composed of chips, antennas, etc; The label printing process makes the RF circuit have the appearance of commercialization. From the perspective of printing, the emergence of smart labels will bring higher gold content to traditional label printing. The chip layer of smart labels can be encapsulated and printed with paper, PE, pet and even textiles to make self-adhesive stickers, paper cards, hanging labels or other types of labels. Chip is the key of smart label, which is determined by its special structure and cannot bear the pressure of printing machine. Therefore, in addition to inkjet printing, the process of printing surface layer first, then compounding with chip layer and die cutting is generally adopted

(1) printing method. Silk printing is the first choice for printing, because the printing quality of silk printing in integrated circuit boards, film switches and other aspects is beyond the reach of other printing methods. In smart label printing, conductive ink should be used, and nickel foil perforation is the better wire for printing conductive ink. It is a kind of high-tech wire. It is not a wire woven from ordinary metal or nylon threads, but a foil made of nickel foil by drilling holes. The holes are hexagonal, and round holes can also be formed by electrolytic forming. The whole surface is flat and thin, which can greatly improve the stability and precision of imprinting. It can be used to print high-tech products such as conductive inks, chips and integrated circuits. It can distinguish circuit line spacing of 0.1mm, and the positioning accuracy can reach 0.01mm

(2) application of conductive ink. Conductive ink is a kind of special ink. It can add conductive carriers to UV ink, flexo water-based ink or special offset ink to make the ink conductive. Conductive inks are mainly composed of conductive fillers (including metal powders, metal oxides, non-metallic and other composite powders), bonding agents (mainly synthetic resins, photosensitive resins, low melting point plexiglass, etc.), additives (mainly including 460million of wet diaphragm shipments, dispersants, regulators, thickeners, plasticizers, lubricants, inhibitors, etc.), solvents (mainly aromatic hydrocarbons, alcohols, ketones, esters, alcohol ethers, etc.). The ink is a kind of functional ink. In printing, there are mainly conductive inks such as carbon paste and silver paste. Carbon paste ink is a liquid thermosetting ink, which can protect copper foil and conduct current after film forming and curing, and has good conductivity and low impedance; It is not easy to oxidize, has stable performance, and is resistant to acid, alkali and chemical solvents; It has the characteristics of strong wear resistance, wear resistance and good thermal shock resistance. All the disadvantages of silver paste aluminum are also that the ink is a liquid ink composed of ultra-fine silver powder and thermoplastic resin. It can be used on pet, Pt and PVC sheets. It has strong adhesion and covering power, can be cured at low temperature, and has controllable conductivity and low resistance. In addition, the conductive nano carbon ink can be added to the ink to make the conductive ink, and the metal powder (such as silver powder) in the conductive ink can also be made into nano silver powder to make the conductive ink. This kind of conductive ink not only prints thin, uniform and smooth film, excellent performance, but also saves a lot of materials

in smart tag printing, conductive ink is mainly used to print RFID antenna, replacing the traditional foil pressing method or corrosion method. It has two main advantages. First, the metal antenna made by the traditional foil pressing method or corrosion method has complex process and long production time of the finished product. The application of conductive ink to print the antenna is a high-speed printing method, which is efficient and fast. It is the first choice in printing antennas and circuits, which is both fast and cheap. Nowadays, conductive ink has begun to replace etched antennas in various frequency bands, such as ultra-high frequency band (860 ~ 950mhz) and microwave band (2450MHz). Antennas printed with conductive ink can be compared with traditional etched copper antennas. In addition, conductive ink is also used for printing sensors and circuit printing in smart labels. Secondly, the metal antenna made by traditional foil pressing method or corrosion method consumes and wastes metal materials, and the cost of raw materials of conductive ink is lower than that of traditional metal antenna, which is of great significance to reduce the production cost of smart tags

(3) unique process requirements. Smart label printing has its unique requirements for the production process, and the main attention should be paid to high yield, thick paper printing and composite processing

in terms of high yield, the value of smart labels is many times higher than that of ordinary printed labels, so it is particularly important to have a high yield of printed products while bringing high profits to enterprises. In particular, many products require multi-color UV ink printing, polishing and gluing. Most labels with large printing volume are also processed by roll to roll printing or no interface printing (through flower). Due to many processing procedures, it is also difficult to screen the finished products

for the paper printing with the experimental force applied by the thick imported ball screw, in the paper jam processing, it must be noted that the equipment must have good printing adaptability for the 350 gram thick paper jam. In the paper jam printing, the tension of the paper tape should be kept stable to ensure that the cumulative overprint error of printing is minimized. Therefore, if every picture is overprinted accurately, but the spacing between pictures has a large error, it will also give rise to the composite and mold of the smart label after printing