British company will develop metal container packaging with embedded RFID tags

QinetiQ, a UK-based defense and security specialist, announced that it has partnered with Crown Holdings to jointly develop metal packaging products with embedded EPCglobal Gen 2 UHF RFID tags, such as metal cans, which are mainly used in RF-affected environments. Crown Holdings is a provider of manufacturing capacity products and packaging products for the consumer industry with annual sales of up to $6.9 billion.

Container products with RFID tags embedded inside will use OinetiQ's "Omni-ID Chip" technology, which uses special principles to eliminate the effects of metals and liquids on RF. According to Tony Kington, the technical leader of QinetiQ, the technology is characterized by using the metal container itself to absorb RF energy and reflecting it back to the Omni-ID chip, which is somewhat similar to the reflection effect of natural light.

OinetiQ has sold approximately 70,000 of these labels for partners to test and use, including two retailers and a daily-use company. The purpose is to track the reusable assets. Tests have been read more than one million times. The acquisition rate reaches 100%, which proves the application stability and potential of this technology.

Both OinetiQ and Crown Holdings have conducted several RFID projects. OinetiQ once deployed an active RFID system for the maintenance of Harrier jets for the British Royal Air Force. Crown Holdings is helping some customers complete RFID projects.