What is an inlay, and when do you buy one?
The bare tag: chip, antenna and a thin carrier, with nothing built around it. You buy inlays when you are manufacturing the finished object yourself, laminating or moulding them into a product. For any other purpose a finished tag is cheaper and easier.
What an inlay is
The chip and its antenna on a thin carrier film, and nothing else. No face sheet, no encapsulation, no printing.
Every finished tag is an inlay with something built around it. A sticker is an inlay with a face and an adhesive. A card is an inlay laminated between plastic sheets. A keyfob is an inlay in a moulded shell.
Buying inlays means buying the component and taking responsibility for the rest.
Wet and dry
A wet inlay comes with an adhesive layer already applied, ready to be stuck to something or converted into a label.
A dry inlay has no adhesive. It is intended to be laminated, moulded or otherwise embedded, where an adhesive layer would be in the way.
The terms are standard and worth using when ordering, because asking for "inlays" without specifying gets you whichever the supplier assumes.
When to buy them
When you manufacture the product the tag goes into. A card printer laminating its own cards, a furniture maker embedding tags in a panel, a packaging converter producing labels.
When the finished form you need does not exist. If no supplier sells a tag in the shape your product requires, building it from inlays is the route.
When volumes justify the setup. Inlays make sense at manufacturing quantities, and the conversion step has fixed costs that do not amortise over a small run.
Not for a deployment where you are applying tags to existing objects. Finished tags exist for that, they cost little more, and they arrive tested.
What to be careful about
Handling. A bare inlay is fragile, and the antenna is exposed. Creasing during conversion is a common source of loss.
Heat and pressure in your process. Lamination and moulding apply exactly the combination that breaks the chip bond, so the process has to be qualified rather than assumed.
The environment inside the finished product. An inlay embedded next to metal, or in a material that shifts the tuning, behaves differently from the same inlay in free air. Test the assembled product, not the component.
Yield. Expect to lose some in conversion and build that into the quantity ordered. A process that damages a small percentage is normal and needs to be measured rather than discovered.
And verify every finished unit by reading it back. Conversion damage is invisible from outside, which is exactly the failure a final read catches.
Frequently asked questions
Can I stick an inlay on directly?
A wet inlay has adhesive and will stick, and it has no face layer protecting it. For anything handled or exposed, a finished tag is the right product.
What minimum quantity are inlays sold in?
Usually manufacturing quantities, since they are components rather than products. Small requirements are better served by finished tags.
Does embedding an inlay change its performance?
It can. Nearby metal, dense materials and the mounting all shift the tuning, so the assembled product needs testing rather than the bare component.
Are inlays cheaper than finished tags?
Per unit yes, and the conversion adds cost, labour and losses. They win when you are already manufacturing the object.