VERPACKEN-AKTUELL

Smart paper with embedded RFID tags opens up new business opportunities

Sappi and ISBC bring together digital and paper sectors

23. August 2021

An ISBC® RFID product being created. The antennas are clearly visible in the sandwich paper sheet.

Quelle: Sappi Europe

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An ISBC® RFID product being created. The antennas are clearly visible in the sandwich paper sheet.

Quelle: Sappi Europe

Print­ed elec­tron­ics are de­cid­ed­ly on the move. Ra­dio-frequency iden­ti­fi­ca­tion (RFID) is no longer a niche tech­nol­o­gy. It is al­ready be­ing used to great ef­fect in many ar­eas of every­day life: in our pass­ports, ID cards and trav­el cards, clothes, li­brary books, and much more. The vast scale and in­tri­ca­cy of the RFID mar­ket also of­fers new op­por­tu­ni­ties for the print­ing in­dus­try. With this in mind, ISBC has de­vel­oped and pre­sent­ed on the mar­ket an in­no­v­a­tive prod­uct: ISBC® RFID Pa­per. The prod­uct is sheet-fed and made with 100% fi­bre-based Swiss Matt pa­per sub­strate from spe­cial­ty pa­per man­u­fac­tur­er Sap­pi. RFID chips are em­bed­ded into the pa­per sheets caus­ing no ef­fect over the pa­per sur­face – it re­mains flat and smooth.

Sap­pi is a provider of sus­tain­able wood fi­bre prod­ucts and so­lu­tions. With its proven ex­per­tise in spe­cial­i­ty pa­pers, Sap­pi came up on the ISBC radar. The smart RFID Pa­per sup­pli­er was look­ing for an al­ter­na­tive to plas­tic for smart print­ing and Sap­pi’s Swiss Matt pa­per – used most­ly as an inkjet pa­per for large-format print­ing – was the per­fect choice due to its white sur­face, ex­cel­lent print re­sults, and out­stand­ing scratch- and wa­ter-resistance. Fur­ther­more, thanks to its ex­cep­tion­al sur­face qual­i­ty and silky feel, the pa­per proved to be the per­fect ma­te­r­i­al, of­fer­ing a first-class ex­pe­ri­ence to con­sumers. “It was clear from the very be­gin­ning that we would great­ly ben­e­fit from de­vel­op­ing our cus­tomer projects in di­rect col­lab­o­ra­tion with Sap­pi. The spe­cial­i­ty pa­per ex­pert’s strong ex­per­tise has en­abled us to take a big step for­ward,” says Niki­ta Kozhe­myakin, Busi­ness De­vel­op­ment Di­rec­tor of the ISBC Group.

Thinking out of the box with ISBC® RFID Paper

The paper-based RFID products from collaborative partners Sappi and ISBC are suitable for wide-ranging applications, like wristbands, lanyards or labels.

Quelle: Sappi Europe

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The paper-based RFID products from collaborative partners Sappi and ISBC are suitable for wide-ranging applications, like wristbands, lanyards or labels.

Quelle: Sappi Europe

With grow­ing de­mand and po­ten­tial ap­pli­ca­tions, the print­ing mar­ket is fac­ing the chal­lenge of en­hanc­ing ex­ist­ing prod­ucts and ser­vices in line with new tech­ni­cal pos­si­bil­i­ties. With the ground-breaking ISBC® RFID Pa­per, print­ing com­pa­nies can now ex­tend their port­fo­lio to in­clude print­ed elec­tron­ics. ISBC® RFID Pa­per in­cor­po­rates an RFID chip and is as easy to print as a reg­u­lar sheet of pa­per, mak­ing it a cost-efficient so­lu­tion for print­ing com­pa­nies. An­oth­er ad­van­tage of the ‘sand­wich prod­uct’ is that it can be print­ed with var­i­ous kinds of print­ing tech­niques and ma­chines – there­fore elim­i­nat­ing cost­ly in-house de­vel­op­ment work and avoid­ing in­vest­ments in new equip­ment, soft­ware and busi­ness process­es. The de­sired in­for­ma­tion can sim­ply be trans­ferred to the pa­per-embedded RFID chip: for the en­cod­ing process ISBC has de­vel­oped a spe­cial en­cod­ing ma­chine and train­ing ma­te­ri­als. ISBC® RFID Pa­per line made from Swiss Matt is used main­ly for busi­ness cards, post­cards, stick­ers, pro­mo­tion­al fly­ers, POS ma­te­ri­als, ac­cess & loy­al­ty cards, brand pro­tec­tion la­bels, diplo­mas among many oth­er ap­pli­ca­tions.

Why paper makes a difference

In terms of re­source con­ser­va­tion and en­vi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion, RFID Pa­per de­liv­ers sig­nif­i­cant ad­van­tages over con­ven­tion­al plas­tic tags. Ivan Demi­dov, ISBC Founder and in­ven­tor says: “Our patent­ed tech­nol­o­gy is unique on the mar­ket. It of­fers end-users a PVC-free, more sus­tain­able and fu­ture-proof op­tion.” Pa­per-based RFID tags re­duce waste both dur­ing pro­duc­tion and at the end of the prod­uct’s life­cy­cle. Print­ing process­es also con­sume less en­er­gy and re­sources, which leads to a re­duced car­bon foot­print for for­ward-looking, sus­tain­abil­i­ty-conscious B2B and B2C com­pa­nies.

How is the world shap­ing up to­day in terms of RFID, which could play a ma­jor role for the pa­per in­dus­try? ISBC® RFID Pa­per is suit­able for a wide range of ap­pli­ca­tions in nu­mer­ous in­dus­tries. It adds dig­i­tal val­ue to sim­ple prod­ucts – re­li­ably and at low cost. Specif­i­cal­ly, it can be used for con­tact­less tick­ets on bus­es, trains, trams and oth­er means of trans­porta­tion, as well as for pre­paid cards and gift cards, busi­ness cards and ac­cess con­trol, in­clud­ing key cards for ho­tel rooms, ski pass­es or ad­mis­sion wrist­bands for events and trade fairs. The pa­per-based sen­sors and la­bels can also be in­te­grat­ed into diplo­mas and oth­er cer­tifi­cates to ver­i­fy doc­u­ment au­then­tic­i­ty. Con­ven­tion­al post­cards can also be en­hanced by in­te­grat­ing an RFID tag with in­ter­ac­tive URLs.

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