Does anybody ELSE manufacture an RFID tag with this spec?
March 4, 2014 4:20 PM Subscribe
I am looking for a very small, passive UHF RFID tag that works when affixed to containers of liquids.
I have spent a long time carefully researching my requirements and I am certain that:
- it has to be UHF, not HF and not NFC.
- it has to be passive.
- it has to be small (the other ones I've found are 14-20cm long which is completely unfit for my purpose).
- it HAS to be functional when affixed to containers of liquids.
I found a tag with the perfect spec: the Avery Dennison AD-110m5.
Now all I have to do is get them to sell it to me. THIS IS THE HARD PART.
I have filled in their sample request form. No response. I followed that up with emails. No response. I made phone calls and got nothing but voice mail. Some of the voice mail messages had phone numbers, I called those numbers and even managed to speak to a person. They gave me two email addresses to send my request to. No response.
I'd give up, but I haven't found any other product with a similar spec and it's pretty important to my project.
This afternoon, I called head office, and they suggested filling in the contact form or phoning the number on the website. I already had - it was on voicemail. The guy gave me another number and it was hard for them to figure out who to put me through to but I finally got to talk to someone.
He said he would find out who deals with sending samples to England and he would call me right, straight back. I'm sure you know how that ended up.
I'll wait until tomorrow to conclude that I'm being ignored again, but I know they're going to ignore me. I've made numerous, very expensive Transatlantic phone calls in increasingly desperate attempts to buy a product Avery Dennison purports to sell, but for whatever reason, they can't or won't sell it to me.
So, my PREFERRED answer is this: does anybody know of any company that manufactures a small (not more than 1 inch by 1 inch) passive UHF RFID tag that can be attached to containers of liquids? If so, can you provide a link to the exact product spec?
My FALLBACK answer is this: if the above is impossible, does anybody know of any possible way I can get Avery Dennison to fork over the product that they purport to sell? Has anyone successfully bought these particular things from this particular company? How? Is it a matter of "who you know" or just being able to name a name or dial a specific extension number? Is it just that they won't sell to England? Product doesn't really exist? Do I have to say an incantation in the presence of a black cat under the light of the full moon? What?
I have filled in their sample request form. No response. I followed that up with emails. No response. I made phone calls and got nothing but voice mail. Some of the voice mail messages had phone numbers, I called those numbers and even managed to speak to a person. They gave me two email addresses to send my request to. No response.
I'd give up, but I haven't found any other product with a similar spec and it's pretty important to my project.
This afternoon, I called head office, and they suggested filling in the contact form or phoning the number on the website. I already had - it was on voicemail. The guy gave me another number and it was hard for them to figure out who to put me through to but I finally got to talk to someone.
He said he would find out who deals with sending samples to England and he would call me right, straight back. I'm sure you know how that ended up.
I'll wait until tomorrow to conclude that I'm being ignored again, but I know they're going to ignore me. I've made numerous, very expensive Transatlantic phone calls in increasingly desperate attempts to buy a product Avery Dennison purports to sell, but for whatever reason, they can't or won't sell it to me.
So, my PREFERRED answer is this: does anybody know of any company that manufactures a small (not more than 1 inch by 1 inch) passive UHF RFID tag that can be attached to containers of liquids? If so, can you provide a link to the exact product spec?
My FALLBACK answer is this: if the above is impossible, does anybody know of any possible way I can get Avery Dennison to fork over the product that they purport to sell? Has anyone successfully bought these particular things from this particular company? How? Is it a matter of "who you know" or just being able to name a name or dial a specific extension number? Is it just that they won't sell to England? Product doesn't really exist? Do I have to say an incantation in the presence of a black cat under the light of the full moon? What?
Best answer: A product like this might only be sold through an authorized distributor, one that makes a final product out of this type of tag and preps for the packaging equipment spec'd by customers. This is probably why your calls have fallen short, nobody at Avery is set up to handle your request.
posted by JoeZydeco at 6:26 PM on March 4, 2014
posted by JoeZydeco at 6:26 PM on March 4, 2014
Call Dean A. Scarborough, the CEO. Corporate office is in CA, website lists phone number as (626) 304-2000, is this the number you tried? You could also try tweeting this and posting this to their FB.
posted by Sophont at 6:44 PM on March 4, 2014
posted by Sophont at 6:44 PM on March 4, 2014
Best answer: Have you tried the UK Numbers and emails for the Avery Dennison divisions listed at the Avery UK website? The Avery Dennison Label and Packaging Materials in Northumberland seems promising... Looks like Avery UK (the consumer facing part)was spun off, but the business-to-business part is still active in the UK, and that's the part that you would be working with for this kind of RFID tag anyways.
posted by rockindata at 6:50 PM on March 4, 2014
posted by rockindata at 6:50 PM on March 4, 2014
Best answer: I think you have to buy from a converter. They are listed here, including ones in Europe:
http://rfid.averydennison.com/about-us/alliances/
posted by Dansaman at 9:29 PM on March 4, 2014
http://rfid.averydennison.com/about-us/alliances/
posted by Dansaman at 9:29 PM on March 4, 2014
Response by poster: In case anyone is still reading this: I did finally get some sample tags, both from Avery Dennison and from one of their UK converters.
It was difficult to get the tags to be readable from a distance of more than an inch or so and/or when affixed to the substrates we needed. But I can't say if the fault was the tags or our readers.
For the sake of time, we went with a non-tagging solution.
posted by tel3path at 1:31 PM on September 9, 2014
It was difficult to get the tags to be readable from a distance of more than an inch or so and/or when affixed to the substrates we needed. But I can't say if the fault was the tags or our readers.
For the sake of time, we went with a non-tagging solution.
posted by tel3path at 1:31 PM on September 9, 2014
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by SpookyFish at 5:25 PM on March 4, 2014