EAS labels are not simple structures. Both types are layered with paper, adhesive, plastic, and metals.
AM labels have six or seven different components, and RF labels even have a silicon chip.
The move toward source tagging identified new issues that required the EAS label vendors to completely
revisit label design, manufacture, and formatting,thus changing the way they were supplied to the third
parties who would undertake the source tagging.
Checkpoint’s original RF label offerings were comparatively large in surface area and not designed for
high_speed auto_application. So, reengineering, in concert with improvements to system electronics,
allowed them to eventually reduce the size of the primary source_tagging label from 1.5 inches square to
about 1.3 inches square. This provided much greater breadth in tag placement options.
More importantly, however, was the requirement to provide label formats (roll sizes, widths) that manufacturers
and packagers could use in their high_speed operations.An unintended consequence of the high_speed
labeling was the effect that electrostatic discharge had on the RF EAS circuits. Static killed labels. By 1998
Checkpoint designed a release liner with properties that mitigated the static.
Finally, Checkpoint and the other RF EAS label manufacturers had to deal with the dreaded“Lazarus Effect”
in which a previously deactivated label come back to life_wreaking havoc at store entrances as they set off
unwanted, in_bound alarms.It took a long while, but continuous development efforts have succeeded in
minimizing this issue.
Sensormatic had similar issues. The original AM label was thick (2.5 mm) and capable only of deactivating
at about 4 inches off the surface of the pad. Customers were complaining, and management knew that they
needed to do something fast. Around 1995, Mark Krom headed a “SWAT team” comprised of materials and
manufacturing engineering talent, who spent the next nine months racing to reduce the label’s size and
improve deactivation height. The exercise led to changing most of the label's seven components and resulted
in a 50 percent decrease in both height and width. One of the changes resulted in an increase in deactivation
height to between 6 and 7 inches. Most customers deemed this height to be acceptable in the normal course
of POS activity.
Label formatting issues plagued Sensormatic, too. At first labels were produced on rectangular sheets that
are totally unsuitable to high_speed, auto_application methods. Checkpoint's experience proved that CPGs
and packagers needed rolls, so Sensormatic developed those formats and even designed robotic equipment
that placed the labels on the rolls. Another crisis averted.
These product development exercises were instrumental in the signing of marquee customers, such as
The Wiz,Circuit City, Rite Aid, Target, Home Depot, BJ's Wholesale Club, and Walmart, along with their manufacturing
and packaging partners. They demonstrated to the customer base that the EAS vendors were committed to
developing the product functionality that would ensure the long-range success of source tagging. It was fun to watch,
but difficult to live through if you were on the inside.
