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It’s a morning like so many others. You press a few buttons on your microwave’s keypad to heat a quick breakfast. Grab a steaming cup of joe from the coffee machine you programmed the night before to begin brewing a moment before you awoke. You check your smart phone for messages, then dash out the door, activating your home security system a moment before you hit the remote to unlock your car. You get behind the wheel and away you go.
You’re aware that newer technology makes much of your routine possible. To hear the experts, you might imagine that the vast wired and wireless world of devices, that communicate with themselves and with you, operates thanks solely to some combination of microchips, radio waves, and maybe a pinch of magic dust. But there’s a piece in this tech array that few notice and those who do, take for granted, though it’s essential to the operation and even the assembly of so many components.
And though this essential part of the technology still goes by the humble moniker of label, it’s about as far removed from what you can print out on your old inkjet as a rotary dial phone is from that miniature computer you now use to make calls.
Specialized labels called membrane switches, for example, comprised of a printed circuit layer and a front overlay, relay your keypad commands to the microprocessors inside devices such as your microwave, coffee machine, and home security system.
“By using conductive ink in our screen printing process,” explains Jack Kavanagh of System Label, in Roscommon, Ireland, “it is an effective way to create a man-machine interface with the end product. When we press the button, it joins the ink and feeds that message into the computer behind the membrane.”
Such small marvels of technology are so firmly embedded into our lives that we take them—and all they make possible—for granted.
What the Robot Reads
We’re hearing more and more about robotics taking over the roles that used to be filled by factory workers. What rarely gets mentioned is that precision labels of a different type are all important in this process. Before your smart phone, laptop, remote, and computer entered your life, minuscule labels guided the robotics at the facilities where they were assembled. The car you’re driving? Its assembly was driven, in large part, by the instructions printed on other precision labels and read by the robots.
“Labels will go onto components on a line,” says Jack Kavanagh. “A computer scans the bar code and registers to make sure that anything that has happened in the manufacturing process, previous to that, has worked perfectly.”
As Kavanagh explains, precision labels make it possible to automate many such processes. Directed by computer-readable labels, “The components used by car manufacturers or electronics manufacturers are actually machine-fed so they’re picked off by a machine and put into another line by a machine.”
When a label has to accomplish as much as these do, a great deal of technology goes into their manufacture. System Label utilizes an array of specialized inks, adhesives, and printed surfaces, depending on the function of the end product.
“For instance, we’re manufacturing a 3 millimeter by a 3 millimeter 2D matrix barcode for a customer that has to be machine-readable,” says Kavanagh.
Because that tiny (less than 1/8 inch) tag must carry and relay critical information inside a device under extreme conditions, “the material has to be chemical-resistant, heat-resistant, and the ink has to be exceptionally fine.”
Smart Labels Know Where They’re Going—And Where They’ve Been
While a great deal of intelligence goes into the entire System Labels’ product line, only certain labels get to be called smart. One example is the RFID label. It comes with its own tiny microchip—about the size of a grain of sand—complete with antenna, and can broadcast a remarkable amount of information about itself when activated by a suitable RFID reader. Unlike barcodes, RFIDs don’t require line of sight to transmit their information. “By placing an RFID tag on your materials, it would allow you to increase productivity over your materials management and logistics system,” says Kavanagh. “So, if you’re transferring something from one area to another you could put an RFID reader between those two areas and that will enable you to track your material.”
Near-field communications (NFC) smart labels, by contrast, need no specialized reader. These can establish radio communication with smartphones in close proximity, allowing for the exchange of all sorts information. “We supply smart tags on bus shelters right across the world, with over 100,000 units so far in use worldwide” explains Kavanagh, “so it enables the customer to scan the QR code that’s on the bus stop. That QR code directs them to a site with information about when the next bus is coming and details about offers in that area. Each bus stop had a unique printed code and the information displayed can be localized to that exact location. For example, a specific bus stop can be displaying advertisements about retail units within a 10 metre radius of that bus stop.”
Given how important the various types of labels are to automation—an error in one can back up an entire system—it’s not surprising that System Label’s quality control is exacting. “At every stage in the process our production is cross-checked by a team leader to ensure quality,” says Kavanagh. Audits are an important part of this, both from organizations that set the standards for production and the Company’s customers.
Among System Label’s customers are some of industry’s largest multinational corporations, but Kavanagh says that SMEs that need such exacting tech also rely on System Label. “We appeal to medium sized companies because of the vast range of our offering and competitive pricing. Companies like to be able to find one supplier who can manage all their labeling requirements. System Label has this ability and as we have Designers and Quality Engineers onsite this allows us to alter design and specifications to suit our customers’ requirements.”
| Product Model | Inside Diameter | Outside Diameter | Thickness |
| KRX18×40×46.5-4/3AS NTN | 18 | 40 | 21.5 |
| KRX16×35×44.5-3/3AS NTN | 16 | 35 | 19.5 |