identytag® is one of the leading companies for RFID labelling products in Europe. With almost 100 years of experience in the production of labelling products for industrial and commercial applications as well as the latest know-how in RFID technology, identytag® offers a unique combination. Member of the inotec group since July 1st, 2020.
Easy Engineering: What are the main areas of activity of the company?
IDENTYTAG: Simply Smart
identytag® masters it perfectly to integrate state-of-the-art transponder technology into products that meet customer needs. All RFID labelling products are available for example as roll, continuous, single or sheet fabric solution and are technically and creatively available in a wide range of different form factors. The solution portfolio of identytag® naturally includes individualized products, for example with an electronic product code (EPC), continuous coding or numbering. In front of the end user we normally do the business together with resellers and systems integrators.
E.E: What’s the news for 2020 about new products?
IDENTYTAG: It is mainly our OnMetal Label with outstanding reading performance and a small form factor. This was developed together with the RFID inlay partner smartrac, today part of Avery Dennison.
E.E: What are the ranges of traded products?
IDENTYTAG: The Range of Solutions:
- Smart Label – for shipping and product labelling.
- Smart Tag – for production companies and the clothing industry.
- Asset Tag/Label – for asset goods and reusable transport containers.
- Hightemp Tag – for the automotive, commercial vehicle or electrical industries.
- Windshield Label – for access control and fee settlement.
- Sports Tag – for time recording at sporting events.
- Textile Tag – for the furniture and clothing industry.
- OnMetal Label – for the metallic environment.
- NFC Tag – for marketing and POS activities.
E.E: At what stage is the market where you are currently active?
IDENTYTAG: The status is pre-mature to mature, depending on the application and markets. RFID is a so-called cross-sectional technology. If you have a look on the range of solutions it is obvious that industries adapt RFID as a well-established technology, but still there are “fantasy” requirements around. This is showing us that there is still the need to train and educate potential customers and partners. On the other hand, there are many applications around using RFID for 30 years. The RFID technology NFC is showing us that this technology is getting closer to many private users because of payment applications and the possibility to combine different RFID technologies into one label for different use. Maybe UHF for production and warehouse management and NFC for customer friendly providing of information around the product itself.
E.E: What can you tell us about market trends?
IDENTYTAG: In general, if a market is getting more and more mature, prices of consumables like RFID labels and tags will drop down but will be used in higher quantities as well. The combination of different use of one label will be pushed (see 6.) and therefore RFID technology will be widely accepted as proven technology. Within different industries as well for private use. Because of environmental issues reusable or long lifetime tags and ecological components of the complete labels will be more and more important.
Also, there might be a little trend that smaller companies combine their expertise through mergers to be able to offer a wider range of products and services. To get a more stable basis and to be in the position to offer the customer a more complete solution. Everything or at least a lot from one source for end user convenience. So, it was done with identytag, now member of the inotec group (see 1.).
E.E: What are the most innovative products marketed?
IDENTYTAG: This is hard to say. From our point of view our OnMetal Label.
E.E: What estimations do you have for 2020?
IDENTYTAG: 2020 is and will be a very tough year for all participants, because of the corona pandemic. Many projects are on hold and reduced business in the middle of the year significantly. But the good start of the last quarter this year is promising. We are getting more and more orders for 2021 already, which will bring us a promising start into the next year. Furthermore, the requests, even by completely new contacts, increasing recently. If additionally, all postponed projects will be restarted in 2021, it will be a very good year. To summarize we look forward in a positive way.