David Savastano, Editor, Printed Electronics Now04.04.24
There are lots of approaches to tracking packages, including barcodes, RFID and other means. However, the ability to print Bluetooth-enabled labels is an ideal way to more easily track packages and other items.
Reelables has perfected this technology and is shipping millions of these smart labels. The London-based company invented a smart label that can be easily attached to objects and tracked automatically through a phone app. Initially working with CPI on the original concept using lithium, their smart label now allows a zinc coated battery to be fabricated directly alongside the wireless tracking circuit on a thin plastic film.
Reelables has been on a roll ever since, focusing on its key markets of logistics providers, cargo forwarders, and retailers.
“Today, millions of Reelables’ labels are being printed and deployed around the world tracking point-to-point visibility and giving businesses a single source of truth for where their cargo is that is consistent and reliable across different modes of transport and transportation providers,” says Brian Krejcarek, co-founder and CEO of Reelables. “Reelables’ key customers are large Fortune 500 companies. Customers are mainly logistics providers and cargo forwarders using our product for better visibility and accountability for the supply chain.”
Beginning in 2017, they began initial R&D around direct print batteries as a better way of powering ultra-low power devices, culminating in the InnovateUK Smart project with CPI.
The company initially launched as “Tile for the Enterprise” to help their B2B customers track inventory and tools, and then began focusing on tracking items that went on truck rolls. Krejcarek noted that they soon realized there was a big market opportunity and need that uniquely matched the form factor of the thin film, active Bluetooth labels they were making on reels.
They fine-tuned their technology to help logistics providers and cargo forwarders with Bluetooth and 5G labels to provide better visibility of items as they move throughout the supply chain, eliminating the need to manually scan barcodes or RFIDs.
“That form factor meant Reelables could make actual 4x6 shipping labels for cargo forwarders to better track their shipments, along with inventory for better logistic visibility,” Krejcarek observes. “Supply chains were getting stretched during the pandemic, and because of that a lot of mistakes were being made. Having good data about shipment location, dwell time, and enter and exit events is critical.”
Today, the company offers multiple sizes of their active beaconing Bluetooth labels, including their new 4”x 8” Shipping Label, the first tracking device now completely integrated into a standard shipping label that provides precise piece-level tracking of cargo worldwide.
Logistics providers, cargo forwarders, manufacturers, and retailers can print these 4”x 8” shipping labels with an integrated Bluetooth tracker and easily trace cargo through the supply chain without any extra software integration or need to match shipments to tracking devices. The activation and provisioning take place in standard, off-the-shelf thermal barcode printers.
In the printer driver itself, the tracking reference is extracted and linked in the cloud to the physical label. Cargo forwarders who print standard shipping labels throughout the day can for the first time instead now print smart trackable shipping labels to go on every piece of cargo without making any change to their workflow.
“The labels actively track the location of cargo, when it arrives and departs from a facility and minute-by-minute inventory audits,” comments Krejcarek. “Our solution can also show the location of cargo on trucks, and when individual pieces of a consignment or shipment split from each other. This new version of our Bluetooth label has consolidated the shipping label and tracking device into one standard 4” x 8” label that goes directly onto the cargo.”
What sets Reelables apart from others is the underlying technology is the reel-to-reel, thin-film manufacturing process that enables Reelables to make Bluetooth and 5G wireless circuits into smart labels.
It's also an industry-first in the field of printed electronics to fabricate an active LPWAN device with coated zinc batteries that share a common paper-thin wireless circuit. Reelables has achieved the ability to mass manufacture the smart label so thin and flexible that it can be printed in volume from off-the-shelf barcode printers, finally allowing precise piece-level tracking of billions of shipments.
“Reelables uniquely figured out how to integrate a coated zinc battery directly onto low-cost aluminized PET substrate and do it at scale,” states Krejcarek. “That enables the company to make active wireless devices with a communication range from 110m (Bluetooth) to kilometers in the case of their new 5G LPWAN labels.”
Krejcarek said that one of the key challenges Reelables overcame was the ability to create advanced wireless circuits on ordinary, low-cost aluminized PET, a material commonly used for making RFID, but not for Bluetooth, and certainly not for 5G-based circuit designs.
“Ordinarily, more than two layers of any substrate are needed to achieve proper impedance matching and complex routing for more advanced battery-powered, or active circuits – compared to passive RFID circuits,” he observes. “After several years of R&D, Reelables was able to uniquely leverage the geometry of this material to form printed capacitors and inductors, minimizing the BOM and circuit complexity and ultimately achieving the required RF performance. Integrating a direct coated zinc battery was also challenging given multi-layer laminate stacks and managing tension control on their R2R lines.”
Krejcarek noted that the shipping labels are currently available and being used by customers worldwide.
“There is no change to the customers’ workflow; instead, when they print shipping labels they are now Bluetooth-enabled and instantly trackable,” remarks Krejcarek. “The labels can actively track when cargo arrives and departs from a facility, what exact cargo is on a truck, and when individual pieces of a consignment or shipment split from each other.”
Unlike passive RFIDs, active-powered devices have memory and processing capabilities, which means the labels themselves can capture and store data like temperature, and automatically upload the information to the cloud.
“Reelables Active Bluetooth 4”x 8” Shipping Label is the first tracking device in the industry which is now completely integrated into a standard shipping label that provides precise piece-level tracking of cargo worldwide,” Krejcarek says. “For companies like logistics providers, such as cargo forwarders and 3PLs who control their infrastructure, Reelables Bluetooth smart label solution provides a low-cost, high-volume smart label solution.”
This story originally appeared in Printed Electronics Now.
Reelables has perfected this technology and is shipping millions of these smart labels. The London-based company invented a smart label that can be easily attached to objects and tracked automatically through a phone app. Initially working with CPI on the original concept using lithium, their smart label now allows a zinc coated battery to be fabricated directly alongside the wireless tracking circuit on a thin plastic film.
Reelables has been on a roll ever since, focusing on its key markets of logistics providers, cargo forwarders, and retailers.
“Today, millions of Reelables’ labels are being printed and deployed around the world tracking point-to-point visibility and giving businesses a single source of truth for where their cargo is that is consistent and reliable across different modes of transport and transportation providers,” says Brian Krejcarek, co-founder and CEO of Reelables. “Reelables’ key customers are large Fortune 500 companies. Customers are mainly logistics providers and cargo forwarders using our product for better visibility and accountability for the supply chain.”
History of Reelables
Reelables was founded in 2018 by Krejcarek and David Stanton. The duo initially met at Drayson Technologies, a previous start-up working on ambient RF energy harvesting R&D. There, they came to understand very significant physical challenges and use case limitations around RF energy harvesting technology. Reelables got its start in Silicon Valley after participating in Y Combinator.Beginning in 2017, they began initial R&D around direct print batteries as a better way of powering ultra-low power devices, culminating in the InnovateUK Smart project with CPI.
The company initially launched as “Tile for the Enterprise” to help their B2B customers track inventory and tools, and then began focusing on tracking items that went on truck rolls. Krejcarek noted that they soon realized there was a big market opportunity and need that uniquely matched the form factor of the thin film, active Bluetooth labels they were making on reels.
They fine-tuned their technology to help logistics providers and cargo forwarders with Bluetooth and 5G labels to provide better visibility of items as they move throughout the supply chain, eliminating the need to manually scan barcodes or RFIDs.
“That form factor meant Reelables could make actual 4x6 shipping labels for cargo forwarders to better track their shipments, along with inventory for better logistic visibility,” Krejcarek observes. “Supply chains were getting stretched during the pandemic, and because of that a lot of mistakes were being made. Having good data about shipment location, dwell time, and enter and exit events is critical.”
Reelables’ Bluetooth Shipping Labels
Reelables first launched its flagship Bluetooth label in 2019; it was the only print-to-activate Bluetooth label on the market.Today, the company offers multiple sizes of their active beaconing Bluetooth labels, including their new 4”x 8” Shipping Label, the first tracking device now completely integrated into a standard shipping label that provides precise piece-level tracking of cargo worldwide.
Logistics providers, cargo forwarders, manufacturers, and retailers can print these 4”x 8” shipping labels with an integrated Bluetooth tracker and easily trace cargo through the supply chain without any extra software integration or need to match shipments to tracking devices. The activation and provisioning take place in standard, off-the-shelf thermal barcode printers.
In the printer driver itself, the tracking reference is extracted and linked in the cloud to the physical label. Cargo forwarders who print standard shipping labels throughout the day can for the first time instead now print smart trackable shipping labels to go on every piece of cargo without making any change to their workflow.
“The labels actively track the location of cargo, when it arrives and departs from a facility and minute-by-minute inventory audits,” comments Krejcarek. “Our solution can also show the location of cargo on trucks, and when individual pieces of a consignment or shipment split from each other. This new version of our Bluetooth label has consolidated the shipping label and tracking device into one standard 4” x 8” label that goes directly onto the cargo.”
What sets Reelables apart from others is the underlying technology is the reel-to-reel, thin-film manufacturing process that enables Reelables to make Bluetooth and 5G wireless circuits into smart labels.
It's also an industry-first in the field of printed electronics to fabricate an active LPWAN device with coated zinc batteries that share a common paper-thin wireless circuit. Reelables has achieved the ability to mass manufacture the smart label so thin and flexible that it can be printed in volume from off-the-shelf barcode printers, finally allowing precise piece-level tracking of billions of shipments.
“Reelables uniquely figured out how to integrate a coated zinc battery directly onto low-cost aluminized PET substrate and do it at scale,” states Krejcarek. “That enables the company to make active wireless devices with a communication range from 110m (Bluetooth) to kilometers in the case of their new 5G LPWAN labels.”
Krejcarek said that one of the key challenges Reelables overcame was the ability to create advanced wireless circuits on ordinary, low-cost aluminized PET, a material commonly used for making RFID, but not for Bluetooth, and certainly not for 5G-based circuit designs.
“Ordinarily, more than two layers of any substrate are needed to achieve proper impedance matching and complex routing for more advanced battery-powered, or active circuits – compared to passive RFID circuits,” he observes. “After several years of R&D, Reelables was able to uniquely leverage the geometry of this material to form printed capacitors and inductors, minimizing the BOM and circuit complexity and ultimately achieving the required RF performance. Integrating a direct coated zinc battery was also challenging given multi-layer laminate stacks and managing tension control on their R2R lines.”
Krejcarek noted that the shipping labels are currently available and being used by customers worldwide.
“There is no change to the customers’ workflow; instead, when they print shipping labels they are now Bluetooth-enabled and instantly trackable,” remarks Krejcarek. “The labels can actively track when cargo arrives and departs from a facility, what exact cargo is on a truck, and when individual pieces of a consignment or shipment split from each other.”
Unlike passive RFIDs, active-powered devices have memory and processing capabilities, which means the labels themselves can capture and store data like temperature, and automatically upload the information to the cloud.
“Reelables Active Bluetooth 4”x 8” Shipping Label is the first tracking device in the industry which is now completely integrated into a standard shipping label that provides precise piece-level tracking of cargo worldwide,” Krejcarek says. “For companies like logistics providers, such as cargo forwarders and 3PLs who control their infrastructure, Reelables Bluetooth smart label solution provides a low-cost, high-volume smart label solution.”
This story originally appeared in Printed Electronics Now.