RFID (radio frequency identification) is used in almost every industry for tracking and tagging purposes. One of the main concerns regarding the use of RFID is information security. Anyone can read the information on tags.
Besides this, there are some more issues with RFID, such as standardisation issue, disruption, collisions, safety and protection of the contents
Despite these issues, would the RFID market will continue to grow.
RFID is basically a chip or tag which uses electromagnetic fields for tracking and identifying the installed tags. They do not need any physical interaction but can be traced depending on the types used.
There are three types of RFID chips: active, passive, and semi-passive. As the name suggests, active has its own local power source, while passive draws it from a nearby RFID reader. So active is the one which can work in a range of up to 100 meters.
RFID can be used in various sectors like automotive, manufacturing, supply chain, and warehousing.
In the automotive sector, it can be used in the tracking of various cars like tagging the car during the manufacturing process. It can then be traced throughout the manufacturing process, and the progress of the manufacturing can also be summarised from these tags.
In the supply chain, it can be used for tracking the product during its supply to the warehouse. Then in the warehouse, it can be used to track the specific product location.
According to various market research reports, the average size of the RFID market in 2018 was US$ 12 billion, and will reach in the range of US$ 35 billion to US$ 50 billion by 2025.
Some of the key players in the RFID market include Zebra, Impinj, Avery Dennison, Alien Technology, Smartrac, GlobeRanger, NXP, ThinkMagic, and Radiant RFID.
One of the latest developments was the launching of Retail Ideation Space (RIS) by SML RFID in November 2019, in Corby, UK.
The main purpose is to provide an opportunity for the customers of SML who is already using the SML’s Clarity technology, to get on hands experience of how to use RFID tags and software. These tags and software are the SML’s latest tags.