William Frick & Company, one of the top US label, sign and RFID tag manufacturing companies recently announced the addition of 3D printing for prototyping to its extensive list of available products and services.
As the cost and difficulty drops more and more, traditional manufacturers are turning to 3D printing, not as a replacement for the high volume manufacturing that they are already doing, but to simplify and speed up the prototype process. Traditionally customers would bring ideas to manufacturers like Frick who would have to design a CAD drawing and send it out to be manufactured or machined, often at great expense and with a lengthy turnaround time. Fricks’s Product Development Manager John Poplawski explained that 3D printing is a natural addition to the prototyping process.
“Now, most designs created in CAD can be reviewed using the 3D printer, including complex shapes with small, intricate details. The process takes hours, not weeks—and at significantly lower costs. It’s a very exciting time for product development.”
They also believe that the new 3D printed prototypes will enhance and improve their successful RFID products and increase their use and innovation. The hurdle any new technology must overcome is that transition from great idea to achievable idea. 3D printing for prototyping applications is going to greatly reduce the costs associated with incorporating RFID into new products that may have simply been out of reach for smaller companies.
“Some of the more complex uses for RFID applications require tags with custom housing that maximizes mounting and performance options,” explains Frick President Jeff Brandt. “These applications may require tags to be hermetically sealed for use in a harsh environment, for example.”
Many traditional manufacturing companies have long dismissed 3D printing as a fad, or as an attempt to replace their businesses, but more and more of them are seeing the potential for incorporating the technology into their existing business models. And whenever two emergent technologies — RFID and 3D printing — are combined, things are bound to get interesting.
Is 3D printing of the housing what we are talking about or also incorporating the RFID antennae. In retail, the issue with mass use of RFID tags is the cost. Everyone expects that the antennae would be part of the price ticket. Could the tags possibly be created separately at a greatly reduced cost and therefore use both a price ticket and an RFID tag and still reduce the cost of RFID?