How to apply UHF tags

A tag in the wrong place is a tag the reader will miss. This guide is the field cheat-sheet for Trakora-supplied UHF tags across the most common asset types in Tanzanian businesses.

1. Tag types and what each is for

Clothing soft tag — woven Monza R6 inlay, washable to 60 °C, 200 wash cycles. For garments, towels, bedding.
Hard sticker — paper or PET label with adhesive. For cartons, books, low-value retail.
Metal-mount tag — anti-metal foam backing. For cylinders, ladders, metal cages, racking.
Pallet tag — large UHF inlay with hard plastic shell. Tied or screwed to the pallet.
Tamper tag — adhesive that destroys the antenna if peeled. For high-value retail (electronics, perfume).

2. Placement rules

Keep at least 2 cm clearance from metal — except metal-mount tags which sit directly on metal.
Avoid placing tags inside RF shadows (under aluminium foil, behind motors, inside fridges with thick metal walls).
Two tags on the same pallet help — one front, one back — for guaranteed reads in any orientation.
For cylinders place the tag on the collar, never near the burner port.

3. Adhesion

Clean the surface with isopropyl alcohol. Skip household soap — surfactants prevent adhesion.
Press firmly for 10 seconds. Full adhesion takes 24 hours.
For outdoor or wet environments use Trakora's marine-grade adhesive (UV-stable, salt-tolerant).

4. EPC encoding scheme

Trakora's default EPC scheme:

TRK . <tenant-id> . <asset-class> . <serial>

For example a Sinza Pharmacy vaccine fridge tag might read TRK.0431.FRG.000128. The full EPC is encoded as 96-bit GS1 SGTIN-compatible binary so the same tag works in third-party readers.

Encode tags at Admin → Tags → Encode with the desktop encoder (Chainway R6) or in batches with the C66 in encode mode.

5. Durability expectations

| Tag | Indoor | Outdoor | Wash cycles | |---|---|---|---| | Clothing soft | n/a | n/a | 200+ | | Hard sticker | 5+ years | 1–2 years | 0 | | Metal-mount | 7+ years | 5+ years | n/a | | Pallet | 5+ years | 3 years | n/a | | Tamper | 5+ years | 1 year | 0 |

Replace tags that fail to read within 30 cm of a calibrated reader — likely an antenna fracture.

Still stuck?

WhatsApp +255 759 702 766 or email support@trakora.co.tz.

How to apply UHF tags (clothing, cylinders, pallets)