Grommet-Mount RFID
RFID Eyelet Tag
Grommet-Mount for Canvas & Leather
Quick answer
RFID eyelet tags pair a reinforced metal grommet (stainless, brass or nickel-plated steel) with a UHF EPC Gen2v2 or HF ISO 15693 inlay laminated between two sealed substrate layers. The grommet anchors the tag bolt-through, rivet-through or lace-through onto canvas tarps, leather goods, textile bags, sail-makers' goods, technical apparel, soft luggage, outdoor-industrial covers and linen-pool items where a pull-through eyelet is already part of the host design — so the tag lives in the same hole the original eyelet would have used, with no new piercing of the host material.
- Grommet-anchored attachment — Ø 5.0 / 6.35 / 8.0 mm sailmaker eyelet through a PVC+TPU laminate, 500-800 N pull-out per DIN 53351; survives industrial laundry and outdoor exposure without antenna delamination.
- Certified for 200+ ISO 6330 wash cycles at 40-75 °C and 720-h salt-fog + 500-h QUV for outdoor-industrial service.
- Single form factor covers healthcare linen, workwear leasing, marine / outdoor canvas, leather-goods authentication and hospitality soft-goods — re-used catalogue SKU instead of a bespoke tag per vertical.
Used in these industries
Deployments where this product is referenced on our industry landing pages.
At a glance
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Form factor
Oval or round laminated patch 50-90 mm long × 20-40 mm wide, 1.2-1.8 mm thick, mass 2-4 g. Central brass / nickel / stainless grommet Ø 5.0 / 6.35 / 8.0 mm (standard sai...
Air-interface envelope
UHF 860-960 MHz — ISO 18000-63 / GS1 EPC Gen2v2 (Impinj M730 / M750 / M830). HF 13.56 MHz — ISO 15693 (I-CODE SLIX2) or ISO 14443 (NTAG 424 DNA) for tap-authentication v...
Next step
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Quote RFID eyelet tags- Substrate + eyelet mechanics
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- PVC + TPU laminate sandwich with RF-welded seam; reinforced patch ring around the grommet keeps the hole from tearing.
- Grommet set with 500-800 N pull-out resistance per DIN 53351; antenna foil routed around the hole rather than through it.
- Wash / service envelope
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- Industrial laundry — ISO 6330 2A / 4N / 6N wash cycles at 40-75 °C, 200+ wash cycles without antenna delamination.
- Dimensional stability under AATCC 135; colour-fastness per ISO 105-C06 / ISO 105-X12 for the printed face of the patch.
- Outdoor / industrial envelope
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- IP67 per IEC 60529 after RF-seam weld; UV-stabilised TPU top-ply.
- -30 °C to +85 °C service; 500-hour QUV and 720-hour ISO 9227 salt-fog validated on the grommet-set edge.
- Textile attach tests
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- ISO 13934-1 tensile on the host fabric through the tag eyelet, with a minimum 500 N tear threshold to the host before the grommet yields.
- ASTM D751 coated-fabric breaking-strength test profile for technical textile and tarp hosts.
- Read range
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- UHF 1-3 m on canvas / fabric / leather; 0.5-1.5 m with on-metal spacer against steel container lashings.
- HF tap — 0-40 mm against phone / POS / laundry-conveyor reader head.
- Sustainability envelope
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- Higg MSI / Higg Index module compatibility — tag is a durable-attached component, not a consumable; single tag survives 200+ wash / 500+ outdoor-exposure cycles.
- ZDHC MRSL screen for adhesives, inks and encapsulant; REACH SVHC cleared; RoHS 3 compliant chip + grommet alloy.
- Linen / uniform / leasing use case
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- Healthcare linen pool — bed sheets, gowns, scrub sets, patient garments; UHF bulk-read 50-100 items per cart at the laundry-chute portal with ≥ 99.5 % inventory accuracy.
- Workwear and PPE leasing — each garment carries an EPC tied to the employee wearer, the employer contract and the next-due wash cycle.
- Outdoor and technical-goods use case
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- Marine sail-makers' goods, tarps, pool / beach covers, outdoor-event branded canopies; tag lives in the same eyelet path as the lashing rope or bungee.
- Leather-goods warranty and brand-protection — grommet under the product lining carries an NTAG 424 DNA SUN payload for 1-tap authenticity.
- Integration / encoding
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- Factory TID (ISO 18000-63) read-only; EPC / NDEF payload locked with lock / permalock after WMS / POS encode.
- EPCIS 2.0 commissioning event writes GRAI (reusable asset), SGTIN (trade item) or GIAI (individual asset) into ERP / laundry-pool system.
- Typical pricing
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USD 0.45–0.95 @ 1k · 0.28–0.55 @ 10k (typical FOB Shenzhen range) — firm quote in one business day.
Commercial terms
- MOQ
- Varies by SKU — stock items from 100 pcs; custom production typically 200-1,000 pcs
- Lead time
- Production 2-3 weeks after artwork and encoding sign-off; reorders on a 3-4 week cycle
- Samples
- Free samples and RF test report with every order; courier at customer cost
- Payment
- 50% T/T deposit, 50% before shipment; Net 30/60 for established accounts; LC for large orders
- Shipping
- FOB Shenzhen / Yantian; DHL, FedEx or EMS air freight; sea LCL / FCL for volume
- Response
- Itemized quote within one business day, Mon-Fri (UTC+8)
Why canvas, leather and textile assets demand a grommet-anchored tag
- Soft-goods hosts — canvas tarps, leather luggage, sail-makers' products, uniforms, hospitality linen — do not present a rigid mounting face, so clip-on, cable-tie and screw-mount tag geometries either fall off in service or tear the host material.
- The original pattern of the host usually already includes a reinforced eyelet for lashing, hanging or rope attachment. A grommet-mount RFID tag re-uses that same hole, keeping the tag inline with the existing piercing and minimising load concentration on the host.
- Industrial laundry runs ISO 6330 wash cycles at 40-75 °C, pH 8-11 chemistry and 50-100 G tumble agitation for 200+ cycles across the service life; any label-glue bond will fail — grommet-anchored attachment is the only option that survives.
- Marine and outdoor-industrial tarps see 500-1000 hours of UV, 720-hour salt-fog and mechanical abrasion; tags must be retained by physical grommet capture, not adhesive.
- For leather-goods and luxury authentication, a grommet sewn under the lining provides tamper-evident attachment — the grommet cannot be removed without leaving a visible scar on the host leather.
Sew-in, heat-seal, adhesive or grommet — why the eyelet wins on soft goods
Sewn-patch or heat-seal soft-goods tag
- 3-6 % per-cycle attachment failure rate in healthcare linen pools; manual re-sew needed.
- Heat-seal bond degrades above 75 °C wash or 80 °C iron; cannot be repaired in the field.
- Adhesive fails on leather oils, technical DWR finishes and rough-weave canvas.
- Tag puts a new piercing or bond into the host material, concentrating load and shortening host life.
RFID eyelet / grommet-mount tag
- 500-800 N DIN 53351 grommet pull-out; 200+ ISO 6330 wash cycles with < 0.5 % attachment-loss per cycle.
- Metal grommet tolerates 75 °C+ wash and 80 °C iron indefinitely; no adhesive bond to fail.
- Grommet captures leather, canvas, technical fabric, tarp and coated-fabric hosts through the same SKU.
- Tag lives in the same eyelet that already carried lashing rope / cord / carabiner — zero new piercings in the host.
- Sew-in patches depend on thread integrity; a single thread failure pulls the tag off. Repair-audit rate in healthcare linen pools typically sits at 3-6 % per cycle for sewn tags.
- Heat-seal patches bond to the host fabric through adhesive film; cycle life falls sharply above 75 °C wash or 80 °C ironing, and a failed bond cannot be re-applied in the field.
- Adhesive stick-on tags fail on leather (surface oils), on technical fabric DWR finishes (low surface energy) and on canvas (rough weave). They are a poor choice for durable attached-tag applications.
- Grommet-anchored eyelet tags put the retention load on a brass / stainless ring set through both the tag laminate and the host, with a 500-800 N DIN 53351 pull-out; the tag is retained for the service life of the host.
- The eyelet path also carries the lashing rope, hanging cord, zip-tie or carabiner; the RFID tag does not add a new piercing to the host — it lives in the hole already there.
Where RFID eyelet tags earn their place in the catalogue
- Healthcare linen pool — sheets, gowns, scrub sets, patient garments; UHF bulk-read 50-100 items per cart at the laundry-chute portal, feeding the uniform / linen management system with ≥ 99.5 % inventory accuracy and a CDC-aligned HAI-prevention audit trail.
- Workwear and PPE leasing — each leased garment carries an EPC linked to the wearer, the employer contract and the next-due wash; grommet survives the 200+ cycle life and feeds the billing system at each collection event.
- Marine sails, tarps, covers and canopies — tag replaces or supplements the existing lashing eyelet; EPC tied to asset-management records for rental fleets, event production and commercial marine inventories.
- Leather goods, handbags, technical luggage, camera / optics bags — grommet sewn under the lining or inside a quality-control tab carries an NTAG 424 DNA SUN payload for 1-tap authenticity and warranty.
- Hospitality soft-goods — pool-deck towels, branded canopies, chef whites, conference-venue drapes; tag stands up to 80 °C commercial wash, chlorine and outdoor UV without delamination.
- Outdoor-industrial — fire-hose covers, safety harness bags, tool-roll bags; grommet mounted through an existing lashing eyelet keeps the RFID as a non-intrusive audit tag.
How to roll out an RFID eyelet programme without compromising textile compliance
- Week 1 — host + grommet matrix
Cover every host SKU — linen, garment, tarp, leather good, harness bag — with a grommet size, substrate chemistry and chip choice; run a DIN 53351 pull-out + ISO 13934-1 tear sample on each.
- Weeks 2-3 — laundry / outdoor validation
Cycle samples through 200+ ISO 6330 wash cycles at 40-75 °C plus 720-hour salt-fog and 500-hour QUV; confirm attachment-loss < 0.5 % per cycle and read-range drift < 10 %.
- Weeks 4-6 — encoding workflow
Stand up the WMS / POS / laundry-pool encode bench that writes a locked EPC / NDEF, issues lock / permalock and commits an EPCIS commissioning event to ERP. Run a 100 % lock-rate check on the first 5,000 grommet tags.
- Weeks 7-10 — portal + tunnel-wash rollout
Deploy UHF chute / tunnel-wash portals; tune antenna power so each cart of 50-100 items reads with < 0.5 % miss rate and zero cross-read into the adjacent cart. For brand-protection, align NTAG 424 DNA SUN URL format with the brand-protection backend.
- Month 4+ — scale and audit
Sister-vertical playbooks include healthcare-linen and outdoor-canvas — each carries its own quarterly review pattern, refresh-window planning and supplier-vetting protocol. scale from pilot pool to 500,000 – 5,000,000 garments / tarps across multi-site laundries and rental fleets, with EPCIS event stream → ERP / rental-management / brand-protection analytics and a TRSA / Higg / ZDHC evidence pack on every quarter close.
- Size the grommet to the host: Ø 5.0 mm for light canvas / leather, Ø 6.35 mm for healthcare linen and standard soft-goods, Ø 8.0 mm for marine / outdoor tarps and heavy lashings — match the sailmaker eyelet size already in use on the host pattern.
- Choose the substrate chemistry for the service envelope: PVC + TPU for industrial laundry; halogen-free TPU for sustainability-audited textile hosts; reinforced silicone on outdoor / marine hosts.
- Lock the factory TID and permalock the EPC / NDEF payload after WMS / POS encode — an unlocked tag is the single biggest failure mode in brand-protection and healthcare-linen pilots.
- Bring chemical-compliance artefacts into the supplier pack: REACH SVHC screen, RoHS 3 DoC, ZDHC MRSL and Higg Index entry for the tag as a durable-attached component.
- Register the pool-tag in EPCIS 2.0 with a GRAI (reusable asset) identifier; consumer-facing trade items use SGTIN, while leather-goods authentication anchors carry NTAG 424 DNA SUN URLs under an NDEF permalock.
- For healthcare linen, align with TRSA Hygienically Clean Healthcare certification and CDC Environmental Infection Control Guidelines G.VII (linen and laundry) so the tag programme is part of the HAI-prevention evidence pack.
Inside the eyelet tag — a metal grommet through a sealed laminate
A soft-goods tag has one job that glue keeps failing at: staying attached. The eyelet tag solves it the way sailmakers solved it a century ago — a reinforced metal grommet set clean through the laminate and the host, so the tag hangs off the same hole the lashing already used. Everything else in the stack just protects the inlay long enough to matter. Its rigid-surface cousin is the RFID hang tag; the rest of the range lives in the RFID tag catalogue.
- Reinforced metal grommet — brass, nickel-plated or 316L stainless — Ø 5.0 / 6.35 / 8.0 mm, set through both the tag laminate and the host at 500-800 N pull-out per DIN 53351.
- Sealed PVC + TPU laminate with an RF-welded seam and a UV-stabilised TPU top-ply; IP67 per IEC 60529, rated -30 °C to +85 °C.
- UHF 860-960 MHz EPC Gen2v2 or HF 13.56 MHz inlay, with the antenna foil routed around the hole rather than through it, so the eyelet never cuts the antenna.
- A reinforced patch ring around the grommet keeps the eyelet from tearing out — the tag lives in the same eyelet path as the lashing rope, cord or carabiner.
- Four mount methods off one SKU — sewn through the eyelet, rivet or bolt-through, cable-tie, or hung from a lashing cord or carabiner.
Survives the wash, the sun and the salt that peel a glued-on tag
Adhesive is a fine way to attach a tag right up until the first hot wash, the first summer on a tarp, or the first season of sea spray — after which it is a fine way to lose one. The eyelet tag is retained by physical grommet capture, so the service envelope that strips a glued or sewn label barely registers. The small-format sibling for hard assets is the RFID coin tag; source-tagged garments carry the RFID garment source tag.
- Industrial laundry — 200+ ISO 6330 wash cycles at 40-75 °C with under 0.5 % attachment-loss per cycle, against a 3-6 % per-cycle failure rate for sewn patches.
- Heat-seal bonds degrade above 75 °C wash and 80 °C ironing and cannot be re-applied in the field; the metal grommet does not care.
- Outdoor and marine — 500 h QUV on the UV-stabilised top-ply and 720 h ISO 9227 salt-fog validated on the grommet-set edge in 316L stainless or brass.
- Adhesive fails on leather oils, low-surface-energy DWR fabric and rough-weave canvas; the grommet captures every one of those hosts through the same SKU.
- Read range is unaffected because the inlay never leaves the host — UHF 1-3 m on canvas / leather and an HF 0-40 mm tap at the conveyor or POS reader head.
RFID eyelet tag — the spec sheet
Chip, grommet, substrate, service ratings and commercial terms in one place — the specification a procurement team lifts straight into a datasheet comparison. For the retail hang-tag form of the same programme, see the RFID hang tag.
| Attribute | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| UHF chip options | Impinj M750 / M830 — UHF EPC Gen2v2 | ISO 18000-63 / GS1 EPC Gen2v2 at 860-960 MHz |
| HF chip options | I-CODE SLIX2 (ISO 15693) · NTAG 424 DNA (ISO 14443) | 13.56 MHz tap-authentication variants |
| Form factor | Oval or round patch 50-90 mm × 20-40 mm, 1.2-1.8 mm thick, 2-4 g | Laminated PVC + TPU sandwich, RF-welded seam |
| Grommet / eyelet | Ø 5.0 / 6.35 / 8.0 mm; brass, nickel-plated or 316L stainless | Sailmaker / canvas sizes; 500-800 N pull-out (DIN 53351) |
| Host materials | Canvas, leather, technical textile, tarp, coated fabric, linen | One SKU across all — grommet capture, no adhesive |
| Mount methods | Sew-in · rivet / bolt-through · cable-tie · lashing / hang | Tag re-uses the host's existing eyelet path |
| Wash / service | 200+ ISO 6330 cycles at 40-75 °C, pH 8-11; AATCC 135 stability | < 0.5 % attachment-loss per cycle |
| Outdoor / IP | IP67 per IEC 60529; 500 h QUV; 720 h ISO 9227 salt-fog | -30 °C to +85 °C; UV-stabilised TPU top-ply |
| Read range | UHF 1-3 m on canvas / leather; 0.5-1.5 m on-metal spacer; HF 0-40 mm tap | 860-960 MHz UHF; 13.56 MHz HF |
| Encoding | Factory TID read-only; EPC / NDEF locked or permalocked; EPCIS 2.0 commissioning | GRAI reusable asset · SGTIN trade item · GIAI individual asset |
| Compliance | REACH SVHC · RoHS 3 · ZDHC MRSL · Higg Index · TRSA Hygienically Clean | Durable-attached component, not a consumable |
| MOQ / lead time | Quoted on request | Grommet size, substrate chemistry and chip choice drive the build and lead time |
Useful next pages
Use these linked product, guide and comparison pages to keep the next click specific and practical.
Related textile, laundry and soft-goods RFID tags
Grommet, hang-tag, coin and anti-metal tag options for soft-goods, textile and leather-asset programmes.
FAQ
Will the grommet damage the host fabric or leather?
No — the grommet lives in the same sailmaker / canvas eyelet size that the host pattern already uses for lashing rope, hanging cord or carabiner, so there is no new piercing of the host. The grommet ring distributes the pull-out load across 500-800 N per DIN 53351, well above the normal wearer / handling load, and the reinforced patch ring around the hole keeps the host from tearing at the edge.
How many industrial-laundry cycles does an RFID eyelet tag actually survive?
The PVC + TPU laminate with an RF-welded seam and a brass or stainless grommet survives 200+ ISO 6330 cycles at 40-75 °C and pH 8-11 with less than 0.5 % per-cycle attachment-loss rate. The limiting factor is usually the host garment reaching end-of-life, not the tag — healthcare linen pools routinely report the tag outlasting 2-3 generations of sheets on the same grommet.
Can the same SKU be used for both outdoor marine and indoor leather-goods authentication?
Yes — the grommet-mount SKU family spans both envelopes. The outdoor-marine variant uses a UV-stabilised TPU top-ply and a 720-hour salt-fog + 500-hour QUV validation; the leather-goods authentication variant uses an HF NTAG 424 DNA chip with a SUN message payload. Grommet alloy (brass or 316L stainless) is the other key spec to dial in for salt-water exposure.
Which mount method should I use for each host material?
The RFID eyelet tag mounts four ways off one SKU, and the host material picks the method: sew-in or a lashing cord through the eyelet for healthcare linen, uniforms and hospitality soft-goods; rivet or bolt-through for canvas tarps, technical covers and heavy coated fabric; cable-tie or carabiner for marine sails, tool-roll bags and outdoor canopies that already carry a lashing eyelet; and a grommet sewn under the lining for leather goods and warranty tabs. In every case the tag re-uses the host's existing eyelet path, so it adds no new piercing and concentrates no new load on the host material.
What read range does an RFID eyelet tag deliver, and does HF or UHF suit my application?
An RFID eyelet tag reads at UHF 1-3 m on canvas, fabric and leather, dropping to 0.5-1.5 m with an on-metal spacer against steel container lashings, while the HF variant is a 0-40 mm tap against a phone, POS or laundry-conveyor reader head. Choose UHF 860-960 MHz EPC Gen2v2 for bulk portal and tunnel-wash reads of 50-100 items per cart; choose an HF 13.56 MHz I-CODE SLIX2 or NTAG 424 DNA inlay when the use case is a single deliberate tap — leather-goods authentication, warranty lookup or POS validation — rather than a bulk sweep.
What is the minimum order quantity and lead time for RFID eyelet tags?
MOQ and lead time for RFID eyelet tags are quoted per configuration: the grommet size (Ø 5.0 / 6.35 / 8.0 mm) and alloy, the substrate chemistry (PVC + TPU for industrial laundry, halogen-free TPU for sustainability-audited hosts, or reinforced silicone for marine service), and the chip choice all drive the build, and encode-and-lock services — factory TID left read-only, EPC or NDEF permalocked after WMS / POS encode — are configured per order.
Sources & references
Primary standards, OEM datasheets and regulatory documents cited by this article. All URLs were verified on the access date shown below.
- ISO 6330 — Textiles — Domestic washing and drying procedures for textile testing
Reference wash-cycle protocol (2A, 4N, 6N) used to validate RFID eyelet tags through 200+ industrial-laundry cycles.
- AATCC 135 — Dimensional Changes of Fabrics after Home Laundering
Dimensional-stability reference that the tag-host laminate has to respect so that the grommet does not open-up or crush under wash shrinkage.
- ISO 13934-1 — Textiles — Tensile properties of fabrics
Strip-tensile test basis for host-fabric pull-out through the eyelet.
- DIN 53351 — Testing of leather — Grommet pull-out strength
Classical pull-out test on a set grommet, used to benchmark the 500-800 N retention load of the RFID eyelet design.
- ISO 9227 — Corrosion tests in artificial atmospheres — Salt spray tests
- GS1 EPC Radio-Frequency Identity Protocols — Generation-2 UHF RFID (EPC Gen2v2)
UHF air-interface and lock / permalock behaviour used on the eyelet inlay.
- GS1 EPCIS 2.0 — Electronic Product Code Information Services
Event-stream spec for commissioning, wash-cycle, rental and retirement events on pool assets.
- CDC — Guidelines for Environmental Infection Control in Health-Care Facilities, Appendix G.VII Linen and Laundry
Healthcare linen-pool hygiene reference that TRSA and RFID-eyelet pool programmes align to.
- TRSA Hygienically Clean Healthcare Certification
Industry certification framework for healthcare linen with quantified audit-pass impact from durable RFID pool tagging.
- ZDHC Manufacturing Restricted Substances List (MRSL) v3.1
Restricted-substances list that the PVC + TPU laminate, ink and grommet-plating chemistry have to clear for textile-industry supplier acceptance.
Proud Tek is a Shenzhen-based RFID & NFC manufacturer supplying hotel chains, transit operators, event venues and retail brands worldwide. Every order includes free samples, RF testing and dedicated project support.
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