RFID Tag Factory

Factory production capabilities

Proud Tek has run RFID production in Shenzhen since 2008. Today that means two factories, ten automated production lines and 305+ pieces of production and test equipment covering every step from inlay assembly to molded housings. The five stages below all happen in-house — which is why programs that mix form factors, say on-metal tags plus laundry chips plus UHF labels, can still ship against a single purchase order with one documentation pack.

• 100+Tag form factors
• 100M+Tags per month
• 4-8 wksCustom development
• AQL 0.65Critical defect level

1. 1. Inlay manufacturing

   Antenna etching, chip bonding (flip-chip and wire-bond) and lamination at volumes up to 100 million.

2. 2. Label converting

   Inlay insertion, printing, encoding, die-cutting and roll formatting on automated lines.

3. 3. Injection molding

   ABS, PPS, polycarbonate and silicone housings for hard tags and key fobs.

4. 4. Card lamination

   Multi-layer card production with chip embedding, printing and personalization.

5. 5. Assembly & QC

   Encoding verification, quality inspection, counting and custom packaging.

• Inlay manufacturing: antenna etching, chip bonding (flip-chip and wire-bond), and lamination for UHF and HF inlays at volumes from 10,000 to 100 million pieces.
• Injection molding: ABS, PPS, polycarbonate and silicone housings for hard tags, laundry tags, key fobs and wristband components produced on in-house molding machines.
• Label converting: inlay insertion, printing, encoding, die-cutting and roll formatting on automated lines producing up to 60 million labels per month.
• Card lamination: multi-layer PVC, PET and ABS card production with chip embedding, antenna lamination, offset printing, personalization and quality inspection.
• Assembly and packaging: chip programming, encoding verification, quality inspection, counting, labeling and custom packaging on automated finishing lines.

Hard and specialty tag families we build

The catalogue runs to 70+ industrial tag SKUs, but procurement teams usually shortlist from the families below. Each pairs a housing engineered for one environment with the chip families that environment allows, and all are produced on the same molding, lamination and encoding lines described above — so a mixed-family order does not mean mixed vendors.

• On-metal and anti-metal tags: ferrite-backed and PCB, ceramic or ABS-housed tags that maintain 3-8 m read range on steel and aluminum for IT asset, tool and equipment tracking.
• Laundry tags: PPS chips and textile tags qualified to 200+ industrial wash cycles at 95 °C and 30 bar extract pressure (IP69K) for hotel linen, uniform rental and hospital textile pools.
• High-temperature tags: ceramic-housed UHF tags rated to 250 °C for autoclave sterilization, paint-curing ovens and electronics processes.
• Animal identification: ISO 11784/11785 (FDX-B) 134.2 kHz ear tags and leg bands for cattle, sheep, goat and pig traceability, in LF-only and dual-frequency LF+UHF variants, plus glass capsule tags.
• Cable-tie and zip-tie tags: locking-body UHF tags for pipes, conduits, gas cylinders and returnable containers where adhesive mounting will not survive.
• Coin and token tags: ABS and epoxy disc tags for parking tokens, guard-tour checkpoints and tool-crib management, molded in-house.
• Seal and tamper tags: ISO 17712 bolt seals for container customs sealing, plus tamper seal, eyelet and screw-mount tags for fixed assets.

The UHF / EPC Gen2 tag line

Most new tag programs in 2026 default to UHF, and it is our largest line by volume. Every UHF tag we produce complies with ISO 18000-63 (RAIN RFID / EPC Gen2v2) and operates across the 860-960 MHz band, so tags interoperate with readers from Impinj, Zebra, Alien, ThingMagic and all other major UHF reader manufacturers. Form factors run from paper labels priced from $0.03 to ceramic hard tags, with antennas tuned per region and mounting surface.

• Read performance by form factor: UHF paper labels typically achieve 5-8 m, on-metal hard tags 3-8 m and laundry tags 1-3 m. We provide read-range test data for every product and can custom-tune antenna designs to your read-range requirement.
• Regional inlay tuning: regulatory bands differ — 865-868 MHz in Europe, 902-928 MHz in North America, 920-925 MHz in China — so antennas are tuned for the deployment region, or built broader-band for global programs at some cost in peak performance.
• Current-generation chips: Impinj M700 and M800 series, NXP UCODE 8 and NXP UCODE 9, and Alien Higgs-9 where applications need its large 448-bit user memory for on-tag maintenance or calibration data.
• Factory EPC encoding: SGTIN-96 for retail and SSCC-96 for logistics, or custom schemes — plus user-memory writes, access passwords and permalock configuration applied before shipment.
• Cost ladder: paper and synthetic UHF labels run $0.03-0.08 per tag at retail volumes; ruggedized on-metal, ceramic and laundry housings price by housing material and chip.
• Retail and specialty formats: apparel inlays in hang-tag and woven-label formats, tire tags, windshield stickers and race-timing tags for industry-specific deployments.

Quality systems and certifications

Certifications matter to tag buyers mostly at two gates — customs clearance and brand-owner intake — so we treat documentation as part of the product rather than an upcharge. Every shipment leaves with RoHS / REACH material declarations and radio-conformity documentation (FCC / CE as applicable), and the quality system behind production is audited regularly by third parties.

• ISO 9001:2015 quality management system covering every production stage from incoming raw materials to outgoing finished goods.
• ISO 14001:2015 environmental management ensuring responsible manufacturing practices and compliance with RoHS and REACH regulations.
• 100% inline testing: every tag is electrically tested for chip function, antenna coupling, read range and encoding accuracy during production.
• AQL inspection: final outgoing quality control using ISO 2859-1 (AQL 0.65 for critical defects, AQL 1.0 for major defects) ensures consistent batch quality.
• Third-party audit ready. Facility passes SGS, Bureau Veritas and customer-specific social compliance audits regularly.

From specification to first article — how tag programs run

Custom housings and antennas are this factory's specialty, but most programs start from a standard SKU and customize encoding, marking and packaging. Either way the path from inquiry to production follows the same gates, and you keep a single engineering contact from first sample through volume reorders.

• Scoping: send the application environment — mounting surface, temperature range, chemical exposure, mount method — plus target volume, and we reply within one business day (Monday-Friday, GMT+8) with a recommended SKU shortlist.
• Free samples with RF test data: encoded sample tags ship at no cost to qualified buyers so your team can validate read range against your own reader fleet before any production commitment.
• Custom development: where no standard tag fits, antenna design, housing molds and chip pairing run 4-8 weeks from specification to production-ready samples.
• Production QC: 100% inline electrical and read testing, then AQL 0.65 / 1.0 final inspection per ISO 2859-1, with batch test reports filed against the order.
• White-label supply: unbranded tags or your brand on product, packaging and documentation — we white-label for more than 100 brands worldwide.

FAQ