中文For most label converters, the smart label market has looked like a club with a very high cover charge. Entering it has traditionally required significant capital investment, with production tied to specific presses or facilities equipped with specialized inlay insertion equipment. A converter could see the demand, watch retailers push item-level RFID, and still be unable to act, because the machinery investment and the expertise required to run it were simply out of reach. Avery Dennison has built a program designed to take that barrier down. The company has launched AD Fusion, powered by its SmartFace technology, which delivers customizable materials with pre-inserted RFID inlays, letting converters add RFID capability to their production without buying a single new machine.
The mechanics are elegant in their simplicity. AD Fusion delivers custom slit rolls that arrive ready to print and convert, with RFID inlays already embedded in the material. The converter’s existing press and finishing equipment handle the rolls exactly as they would handle any other label stock; no new machinery, no additional training, no specialized cleanroom, no capital outlay. The inlays themselves are ultra-thin, designed to maintain the look, feel and performance of standard labels, so the finished smart label is indistinguishable from a conventional one except for the chip hidden inside. For a converter evaluating the smart label opportunity, the program effectively turns RFID from a strategic gamble into an incremental product line.
The program addresses a real market frustration. RFID adoption has been growing for years, but the supply chain for smart labels has been complicated, with inlay suppliers, material converters and label printers each occupying a separate layer, and coordination between them rarely smooth. A converter wanting to offer RFID labels had to source inlays, invest in insertion equipment or partner with a specialized facility, manage yields and hope the economics worked. AD Fusion compresses that chain by putting the inlay insertion into the material supply itself. The converter simply orders rolls, prints and converts them, and ships smart labels that meet their customers’ specifications.
“AD Fusion represents a major step forward in making RFID more accessible and actionable for converters,” said Abby Monnot, vice president of marketing at Avery Dennison. “By combining SmartFace technology with a streamlined, production-ready format, we are bringing to market an innovative solution that helps customers accelerate adoption, unlock new opportunities, and compete more effectively in a rapidly evolving landscape.” The language of competition is deliberate: as retailers like Walmart and Amazon expand RFID mandates, converters who can supply compliant smart labels will capture business that their slower competitors cannot touch.
The timing of the launch is no accident. Loupe Americas 2026, where Avery Dennison will demonstrate AD Fusion at booth 119, comes as the label industry pivots from asking whether RFID will become mainstream to asking how fast it will happen. Inventory visibility, theft prevention, serialization and authentication are converging on a single technology, and brand owners are beginning to specify RFID in their packaging tenders as a matter of course. The converters who win those tenders will be the ones who can produce reliable smart labels at scale, and AD Fusion is designed to put that capability within reach of any converter with an existing press.
There are, of course, considerations that converters should weigh. RFID material carries a higher unit cost than conventional label stock, and the economics only work when the applications justify it, which is why the program’s focus on customizable, production-ready formats matters. The positioning also raises questions about value chain dynamics: as material suppliers embed inlays, some of the margin that once accrued to specialized insertion facilities shifts upstream. For the converter, however, the trade-off is clear: a lower-margin but attainable smart label business beats a high-margin business they cannot enter at all.
The deeper significance of AD Fusion is what it says about the maturation of the RFID industry. When a company of Avery Dennison’s scale starts embedding inlays at the material stage, it signals that RFID has moved from specialty to commodity infrastructure. The same pattern played out in barcodes decades ago, when printing a code became a routine step in label production, and in QR codes more recently. Smart labels are following the same arc, and programs like AD Fusion are accelerating it. For converters watching the RFID market from the sidelines, the decision framework is shifting from whether to enter to how quickly they can be ready, and AD Fusion gives them a way to test the waters without betting the plant. The message is straightforward: the machinery barrier that once kept converters out of the smart label market is being dismantled, and the only question left is whether they will be ready to print the rolls when the orders arrive.
Source: Labels & Labeling, August 20, 2026 — Avery Dennison launches AD Fusion
