Development Story of Development of UHF Washable Tag

Development Story of Development of UHF Washable Tag

※上記画像にクレジット（”Photo: Kinzo Takaba”）およびALT TAG

Fujitsu has launched a hHighly -Ddurable and Fflexible UHF Wwashable Ttag and that has attracted customers in the textile rental and laundry industriesy. Now, Shigeru Hashimoto, Senior Technical Director ofrom Fujitsu Frontech Limited,talked abouttells thedevelopment storyof the development of the world’s first UHF Wwashable Ttag.

Episode 1: Birth of the UHF Washable Tag

■CreatingeCcompetitiveDdifferentiation

In 2005, the textile rental and laundry industriesy wereas using coin-shaped tags with HF RFID technology with coin shaped tag to improve the efficiency of identification and inventory efficiencymanagement. Companies have that implemented HF RFID systems,gainedits efficiency on in item level management and loss prevention as well as achieving their ROI.

In order tTo meet demand and fulfill the needs with customer requirements, we began to think about a pioneering product, the ofUHF Wwashable Ttag. The UHF tag has a superior reading range, which is ideal for reading multiple items simultaneously. We believe theUHF Wwashable Ttag can offer customersmore cost-effective inventory management.

HF tag （紺B） → UHF tag （赤B）

■Digging into development challenges

One of the mMajor requirements cominges from customers iwas to improve uniform inventory management.

Therefore, we focused on developinga tag optimized tag for uniform the garment management market.

We faced on big problems,likethe chip destruction damage and antenna pattern crackscaused by bending and twisting in the laundry process.

■Repeated prototyping and evaluations

We have developed and evaluated hundreds of antenna patterns, and then made dozens of prototype tags for evaluation.During the 2two years before shipping, our engineers’ daily work was to attach prototype tags to various uniforms again and again by sewing and heat-sealing the tagsagain and again.We washed these uniforms in laundry and dry-cleaning facilities for whole 2the entire two years without a break. We continuously kept observed and checked the condition of each prototype conditions, and the data from thise analysis data was adopted asprovidedvaluable feedback for to developing new prototypes.

The fFirst- generation UHF Wwashable Ttag

■Birth of a “Bbutterfly- shapedTtag Pprotector”

During the evaluation tThe problems that we encountered when evaluating the prototypesfaced were chipdestruction damage or and disconnected antenna patterns disconnection. After two yearss the result of continuous trial and error for 2 years, we finally developed a “Bbutterfly- shaped Ttag Pprotector” to protect the chip and antenna pattern. The protector gives Fujitsu’s UHF Wwashable Ttag superior durability, enough to withstand twisting and bending in the laundry process.

Bending! Twisting! OK! （右上）

■Development of aSspecial EtestingvaluationMmachine

It will would take more than six months to do 200 washings,which is ascustomers’ requirement, in the a laundry facility. We think it spendsthat is too long much time to spend to get evaluation resultsfor an evaluation of ea singlech prototype tag, so we put a lot of effortsto in developingtags and also a special evaluation testing machine for evaluating the tags.

By using tThis machine, it can proceed thousands times of twisting and bending a tag thousands of times,ctions in only 1 daywhich equals to 200 washings, in just one day.

Twisting test withby testing evaluation machine

■The wWorld’s first UHF Wwashable Ttag

Overcomingamea great manyplenty of difficulties, we have launched the world’s first UHF WwashableTtag (the first- generation tag) in 2007.The UHF tag with features excellent features of durability and flexibility,grabbinged the international limespotlight.But In 2008, looking toin our seeking for provideingcustomers with more competitive products, we announced the enhanced second- generation washable tag (WT-A511) in 2008.

The WT-A511 provides improved performance as a low-cost, compact,-sized and heat-sealable tag into the booming RFID market.

Butterfly- shaped tag protector

Product information >

Photo: Kinzo Takaba

「第2部 様々な課題を乗り越えて」へ続く

Continue to Episode 2 (<coming soon) > Development of 2nd generation tag

After the successful launch of the world’s first UHF washable tag, the 2nd generation tag was produced in 2007.

The enhanced tag was developed through continuous improvement based on our customers demand. Now, it opens wide variety of uniform opportunities and offering reliable and secure* operation for effective asset management.

*文章の全体の流れを見て後で検討（当社タグのメリット、TAGSYSに勝るところ）

Enhance Customer Experience

The 2nd generation tag becomes to be attached to linens and other textile products by using a thermal adhesive sheet. The additional function was requested by customers to save attachment time and enable significant cost-reduction for the initial tag attachment cost by roughly 40%.

The greatest challenge for 2nd generation was to develop the best external rubber material having thermotolerance for*3 heat-sealing, while keeping existing laundry performance. After searching various materials* and prototyping, we conducted a big effort in washing and dry cleaning test. Finally we succeeded to find out the optimized material. Adding heat-sealing feature expands the range of customer choices for more variety of attaching method depends on each usage.

*数種類 all kinds of~, several types of~, various

*2もっとかっこよくしたい Not only sewing,

*3 Googleさん⇒having thermotolerance, having tolerance for~

Thermotolerance 熱耐性

Manufacturing Automation

In the 1st generation, there was no failure report*/ but it required hand work in a part of the manufacturing process. As such, manufacturing volume was limited due to that style of assembly line./ For overcoming this challenge, we designed and produced automation manufacturing machine and rethink our manufacturing process as well.

With the introduction of the automatic system, xxxxxxxxxxx

it obviously raises the percentage of good final products compared to manual procedures. We succeeded to speed up manufacturing operations, it has leaded us to achieve high volume orders and short-term delivery to our customers. The other positive result is to keep the product quality stable with automated process. Besides eliminating time and cost to assign skilled employees, the High-volume production with stable quality comes to lead lower cost than 1st generation tag.

歩留まり：生産されたすべての製品に対する、不良品でない製品の割合。

*表現検討

自社開発したmachine使って自動化の製造プロセスを可能にしました⇒その通り

Design and manufactureで製造自動化設備を作った ⇒その通り

Enhanced 2nd generation tag

In addition to above improvements, we focused on reducing tag dimensions for 40% less volume and 50% less weight than 1st generation. The smaller tag expands the application for such a small accessories. Besides the tag is designed with softer rubber material. When the downsized tag is sewn or heat sealed into garments, the small, flexible, unobtrusive tags are virtually unnoticeable and allow comfortable fitting. Furthermore, the tag is tuned for global frequency. It enables global operation over the whole region of frequencies in use worldwide, which is from 860 to 960 MHz.

Fujitsu UHF washable tag is to be durable enough to survive whole cleaning process repeatedly including washing, drying and ironing. This durability helps customers for proper asset tracking and accurate inventory control to manage textile products going through laundry process over again and again.

The 2nd generation is upgrading the specification keeping previous durability & performance.

1st generation (top) and 2nd generation (bottom)

<Size Comparison of 1st and 2nd generation tag>

2nd generation tag is 40% less volume and 50% less weight than 1st generation.

1st generation / 60 x 15xx1.6mm
2nd generation / 55 x 10 x 1.6mm

Product information

Continuous Innovation

Reliable and extremely durable Fujitsu UHF washable tag provides customers/markets with effective operation through accurate and quickly tracking of their inventory. Combining the efficiency of check-at-once inventory management with the UHF RFID system such as multiple reading in a seconds, customers can also significantly reduce the costs of replacing missing items in receiving, shipping, and tracking assets.

In this way, the brand new 2nd generation tag offers profound improvement for wide range of industries such as hotel, casino and amusement park, but also open new opportunities for hospital, clean room and textile rental industries;

• New Fujitsu UHF RFID Technology Implemented at Fairmont Pacific Rim Hot：el for Advanced Inventory Monitoring

Press release

• ImageFIRST Selects Fujitsu UHF RFID Tags and Positek RFID for Comprehensive Garment Tracking Solution

Press release

• Fujitsu Partners with Positek RFID to Help Reduce Costs of Managing Uniform, Linens and Textiles

Press release

• MSR-FSR Installs GIMS UHF-RFID Tracking System (from InvoTech Systems, Inc.)* *書き方相談：広報

Press release

⇒InvotechのPRと動画を貼りたい！と聞く

Fujitsu UHF washable tag has effectively contributed to reducing management cost for laundry. As a pioneer of UHF washable tag, we continue innovative development to fulfill the customer/market demands from growing laundry market.

Shigeru Hashimoto

Senior technical director