Everything You Need to Know About EAS Tags
What’s an EAS?
Before we move on to the tags, let us first define what EAS means. EAS stands for electronic article surveillance. They are systems designed to help retailers and anyone else who needs to secure and keep track of merchandise and other assets do just that using various technologies like RF, magnetism, acoustics and even microwave.
What’s an EAS tag?
An EAS tag is one of the three basic components of an EAS system. It is essentially a security device that is attached to a product or any other similar asset to make it constantly visible to a reader and an antenna (the other two components of the system) and ultimately prevent theft.
In most cases, alarms are triggered whenever anyone tries to bring unpaid tagged merchandise out of a store or forcefully removes a tag from a product.
What kinds of EAS tags are available?
There are two basic categories of EAS tags: active and passive. Simply put, active tags have a built-in power source and are designed to withstand extreme conditions and possess over 100 meters of read range, while passive ones rely on readers and antennas for power to work and have a much smaller read range (up to six meters maximum).
In terms of physical design, however, a tag can come in so many different forms. It can be a hard tag, a sticker, a label, a cable, a hang tag or even a sewn-in piece of cloth. Some are small and practically invisible, while others are big enough to act as a deterrent for would-be shoplifters.
How do they work?
Active EAS tags constantly send out signals to the antennas and readers in fixed time intervals. Passive ones, on the other hand, wait until they receive a request from an antenna and a reader before they can send a signal back. They wouldn’t be able to function otherwise because they work by converting the electronic requests they receive the power that they need to generate and send out a signal of their own.
In either case, the signal the tags send out contain various types of information that the reader then interprets or sends to a data analytics software.
How much do they cost?
In general, active tags cost so much more than their passive counterparts. You can get them for anywhere between $20 and $100 per piece, while passive ones typically cost less than $1.
Why the big price difference? Well, active tags are designed to withstand much harsher working conditions and are able to transmit more information to a wider read zone than passive ones. This is why they are more popular in heavy industries like mining, logistics, gas and oil.
Does this mean you should count passive tags out? Of course not. While active tags may have the advantage in some industries, passive tags are still more cost-effective solution in industries like retail, payment processing and manufacturing.
So, which one should I use?
At the end of the day, it all depends on your needs and budget. But regardless of the option you go for, the bottom line is that EAS tags are a great way to secure your products and other similar assets.
