Injection moulding of devices such as cable retainers containing integrated radio frequency tagging foils

Abstract

To provide a method and device for simplifying and accelerating a manufacturing process of the device including an integrated wireless tag or a label.SOLUTION: There is provided a method for injection-molding a cable tie with an integrated wireless tag, comprising: a step of putting a tagging foil 5 with main surfaces 9a and 9b into a mold cavity 12 of an open mold 11, where the tagging foil 5 is held in a predetermined position by a supporting device 13; a step of closing the mold 11; and a step of simultaneously and symmetrically injecting an injection material 21 into mold cavity parts 14a and 14b adjoining the two main surfaces 9a and 9b of the tagging foil 5 with respect to a main extension plane of the tagging foil 5, where the main extension plane is parallel to the two main surfaces 9a and 9b of the tagging foil 5.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 5

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a foil overmolding process, in particular an RFID foil or optical foil overmolding process, for devices such as cable retainers that include an integrated radio frequency tag. [Background technology]

[0002] For products and processes that are growing in size and complexity, labeling or tagging components involved in the process and / or product become more and more essential. As a result, more and more components in the respective products and / or processes, especially very small components, need to be labeled or tagged. This can be done by radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, for example an RFID chip integrated into the respective labels. An alternative could be optical tags, for example a bar code or a company logo integrated into the respective labels. Such labels should be small, particularly flat, robust and easy to manufacture. One possibility to address this problem is to mold an RFID glass transponder into the label, which can have the form of a cable tie.

[0003] However, forming glass transponders into flat devices such as cable ties is a relatively complex and time-consuming process involving multiple process steps, and forming them into other devices such as chip cards (compare FR2882680B1) or gain tokens (see DE69613341T1) is produced using relatively time-consuming processes. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] FR2882680B1 [Patent Document 2] DE69613341T1 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] Therefore, the technical problem targeted to be solved by the present invention is to simplify and speed up the manufacturing process of devices that include integrated radio frequency tags or labels. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] This problem is solved by the subject matter of the independent claims. Advantageous embodiments emerge from the dependent claims, the description and the figures.

[0007] One embodiment relates to a method for injection molding a device including an integrated wireless tag. In particular, the device including an integrated wireless tag can be a cable tie including an integrated wireless tag. The wireless tag can be an electrical tag, such as an RFID tag for wireless radiofrequency tagging, or an optical tag, such as a barcode or the like for optical tagging. The method includes a number of method steps.

[0008] The first method step is to place a tagging foil comprising two (parallel) main surfaces separated by an outer edge as a radio tag into a mould cavity of an open mould (open casting mould), the tagging foil being held in place by a support device. The support device may be at least partially part of the mould. The foil may have a thickness of less than 1 mm, preferably less than 0.4 mm, preferably less than 0.2 mm or less than 0.15 mm. In particular, the foil may have a sandwich structure, comprising one tagging-related layer, e.g. a chip-and-antenna layer, between two outer layers. Typically, in order to protect the tagging-related layer, the outer layer may be larger and thicker than the tagging-related layer and forms a protective border area or frame around the tagging-related layer, i.e. the tagging-related area. In said border area, the two outer layers are directly attached to each other, whereas in the area protected by the border area, the tagging-related layer, and therefore the sensitive layer, separates the two outer layers.

[0009] The next step is to close the mould or injection mould. This step is followed by a step of injecting the injection material, preferably a thermoplast, into the mould cavity parts adjacent to the two main surfaces of the tagging foil simultaneously and symmetrically with respect to the main extension plane of the tagging foil. The main extension plane of the tagging foil is parallel to the two main surfaces of the tagging foil. The mould cavity parts are parts or parts of the mould cavity, i.e. the mould is a mould comprising various parts, in particular a one-piece mould. Some of these parts form the aforementioned cavity part. The device comprising the integrated radio tag can then be released from the mould. The method steps described above are preferably carried out in the order described. In particular, as will be described in more detail below, no additional injection steps, i.e. additional steps comprising the injection of material into the mould, are carried out.

[0010] The simultaneous injection of the injected material into the mould cavity parts adjacent to the two surfaces of the tagging foil and symmetrical with respect to the main extension of the tagging foil has the effect that the forces acting on the tagging foil on the sides of the opposing surfaces, i.e. for example the front side and the back side of the foil, are balanced. The foil is therefore not significantly deformed in a direction perpendicular to its main extension and therefore is not damaged in the moulding process. Also, devices including an integrated radio tag, i.e. devices with a tagging foil, can be made very thin, since the risk of exposure of the foil, especially the tagging-relevant areas of the foil to the ambient environment, is significantly reduced. The tagging foil can therefore be over-molded without a prior step of stabilising the foil by layer-by-layer moulding as known from the prior art. The described method therefore saves time and resources.

[0011] In an advantageous embodiment, the injection of the injection step described above is performed using an inlet for the injection material into said hole portion adjacent to the two main surfaces of the tagging foil, said inlet being arranged in such a way that the injected material forced through said inlet contacts the edge of the tagging foil as the first part of the tagging foil and then flows symmetrically along the two main surfaces of the tagging foil and with respect to the main extension plane of the tagging foil. This can be achieved, for example, by an inlet formed as a slit extending parallel to the edge. In other words, the material is injected from a lateral side of the tagging foil into the mould cavity portion adjacent to the two main surfaces of the tagging foil, where the lateral side is a side different from the front and back sides of the foil corresponding to the two main surfaces of the tagging foil. Here, the terms "upper" and "lower" are arbitrarily chosen in order to distinguish the two different sides in an intuitive way, i.e. independently of the spatial orientation of the tagging foil. The inlets to said hole portions are therefore oriented perpendicular to a major surface of the tagging foil, the orientation of the inlets being determined by the direction of material flow through the inlets when the material is injected and / or the normal vector of the inlets' cross section.

[0012] This offers the advantage that simultaneous and symmetric injection of the injection material into the mould cavity parts adjacent the two main surfaces, and therefore balancing of the forces on the front and back sides of the foil, can be achieved very reliably, especially more reliably than for example using two separate inlets on opposite sides of the tagging foil, e.g. the front and back sides, and therefore the process can be speeded up.

[0013] It is therefore particularly advantageous if the injection material is injected into said cavity section and even into the entire mould cavity via said single inlet only. It is therefore particularly advantageous if the inlet is a single inlet, i.e. the only inlet for injection material into said cavity section adjacent to the two main surfaces of the tagging foil and even into the entire mould cavity. This brings the advantage that the process is more controllable and can therefore be carried out at increased speed.

[0014] In another advantageous embodiment, the injection step described above comprises forcing a flow of injected material through the inlet into said hole portion, the flow being divided by the edge of the tagging foil into two equally sized sub-flows flowing along the two main surfaces of the tagging foil. So, considering the cross section of the inlet perpendicular to the orientation of the inlet, the perpendicular projection of the edge of the tagging foil on the area of ​​the inlet divides the cross section of the inlet into two areas of equal size. Here, the part of the flow that flows along the edge of the tagging foil and does not flow "above and below" the foil, i.e. that cannot be projected on the foil by the perpendicular projection and therefore does not exert any force in a direction perpendicular to the main plane of the foil, can be neglected. The orientation of the inlet is preferably perpendicular to the orientation of the main plane of the tagging foil, i.e., in the context of the present disclosure, since the orientation of a plane is determined by its normal vector, the orientation of the inlet (which may be the orientation of its cross-section and / or the average direction of flow of injected material through the inlet during injection) may be parallel to the main plane of the tagging foil.

[0015] This offers the advantage that the balance of the forces on the two opposite sides, i.e. the front and back sides corresponding to the two main surfaces of the tagging foil, can be achieved with increased reliability and in particular flapping of the foil can be avoided. The process can therefore be further accelerated.

[0016] In another particularly advantageous embodiment, the device including an integrated radio tag is formed in a single injection step, i.e., by a so-called “single shot” injection of the injection material into the mold, which is carried out only once during the production process of the device.

[0017] This provides the advantage that the device manufacturing process is more controllable and takes less time.

[0018] In another advantageous embodiment, when the tagging foil is held in place by the support device, the support device comes into mechanical contact with the tagging foil only in one or more areas of the tagging foil that have a minimum distance of >0 mm, in particular >0.3 mm, preferably >0.6 mm, from the tagging-relevant area of ​​the tagging foil. This distance is measured in the main plane of the tagging foil. The tagging-relevant area of ​​the tagging foil may be an area of ​​the RFID foil, for example an area where the chip and antenna are located. The tagging-relevant area may therefore be the chip-antenna area of ​​the tagging foil if the tagging foil comprises or is a chip-antenna foil for radio frequency tagging, such as RFID tagging. The tagging-relevant area therefore does not come into mechanical contact with the support device and / or the mould. In other words, the tagging-relevant area is free floating in the hole, held in place only by the foil frame. Alternatively or in addition to the tagging relevant area being, for example, a chip-antenna area of ​​a chip-antenna foil, in particular a chip-antenna area of ​​an RFID tagging foil, the tagging relevant area may also be an optical code area, such as an area in which a bar code, matrix code or the like of an optical tagging foil is located.

[0019] This provides the advantage that the tagging relevant areas of the tagging foil are protected by the injected material from environmental influences, increasing the reliability of the operation of the radio tag. Furthermore, the support device is less likely to damage the tagging relevant areas of the tagging foil during the production process. Also, the force exerted on the foil is increased, resulting in a stable and accurate fixation of the foil during the injection of the injected material, again allowing for faster process speeds.

[0020] In another advantageous embodiment, the step of placing the tagging foil described above comprises holding the tagging foil in place by vacuum and / or locating pins, and accordingly the support device comprises a vacuum and / or pinning device for holding the tagging foil in a defined position.

[0021] This offers the advantage mentioned above in addition that a particularly accurate positioning of the tagging foil is made possible, which further increases the accuracy of the balance of the forces applied to different sides of the tagging foil.

[0022] In a further advantageous embodiment, the above-described step of closing the mould comprises clamping or capturing the tagging foil between at least one pair of opposing surfaces of the support device, preferably a set of an even number of pairs, such as at least 6, at least 8, at least 10 or at least 12, of matching surfaces. Each opposing surface may be formed by an independently movable mould part, for example one surface of each pair of opposing surfaces in the injection mould, i.e. the A-plate, and the other surface of each pair of opposing surfaces in the ejection mould, i.e. the B-plate. These opposing surfaces are pressed towards each other during the closing of the mould, thus fixing the tagging foil in a given position, i.e. in its initial position. Alternatively or in addition, the support device may comprise additional elements, such as spring elements and / or hydraulic elements, in which case at least one surface of each pair of surfaces is pressed towards the other surface by said spring elements and / or hydraulic elements. The support device may thus (also) function as a clamping or clamping device. The tagging foil is preferably pinched at its edges, meaning that the opposing surfaces of each pair of opposing surfaces partially contact each other when the mould is closed. The opposing surfaces preferably contact the tagging foil only outside the abovementioned tagging relevant areas, i.e. only at the borders.

[0023] This offers the advantage that the tagging foil is particularly securely held in its position, which ensures particularly good balancing of the forces on the opposing sides of the foil and allows injection moulding at high speeds whilst maintaining a reliable operation of the tagging foil and thus of the radio frequency tagging.

[0024] In a further advantageous embodiment, the tagging foil is or comprises a chip-antenna foil for radio frequency tagging, in particular a radio frequency identification (RFID) foil for radio frequency identification, preferably for passive tag radio frequency identification. Additionally or alternatively, the tagging foil is or comprises an optical foil for optical tagging, in particular an optical barcode foil for optical barcode identification and / or an optical matrix foil for optical matrix code identification and / or an optical logo or optical image foil for optical logo or image identification. In the case of radio frequency tagging, the ejected material is preferably transparent to the radio frequency signals used during the identification of the tag or label. This is common for thermoplastics. In the case of radio optical tagging, the ejected material is preferably transparent to optical signals, i.e. to light in the visible spectrum or to a given sub-spectrum of the visible spectrum.

[0025] The proposed method is particularly advantageous for chip-antenna foils, especially RFID foils, since these foils are very sensitive and therefore are conventionally processed in injection molding using several injection steps. Thus, with the proposed method, devices including integrated radio frequency tags, especially RFID tags, can be produced reliably and quickly. With regard to optical tagging or labeling, the proposed method avoids deformation of the foil during the molding process, provides improved readability (ease of reading) and, especially in the case of company logos or images, provides a clear and unambiguous presentation of the logo or image.

[0026] In yet another advantageous embodiment, the device with the integrated radio tag can be a cable holder, or a token, specifically a gaming coin, or a smart / chip card, or an intermediate product for another device.Specifically, the device with the integrated radio tag can be a flat device, i.e. a device whose main extension in the main extension direction is much larger than the extension of the device in the smallest extension direction.For example, the length can be at least 4 times, preferably at least 10 times, or even at least 15 times larger than its thickness.

[0027] This offers the advantage that the foil is particularly suitable for inclusion in devices, and as such devices are typically produced in large quantities, a speedy production process would be particularly beneficial.

[0028] Another aspect relates to a molding device for injection molding devices, particularly cable ties, including an integrated radio frequency tag, according to the above described method.

[0029] An additional aspect relates to devices, particularly cable ties, that include an integrated radio frequency tag, formed by injection molding according to any of the described methods.

[0030] The advantages and advantageous embodiments of the molding device and the device including an integrated radio tag correspond to the advantages and advantageous embodiments of the described method.

[0031] The features and combinations of features described above, as well as the features and combinations of features disclosed in the description of the figures, or the figures alone, may not only be used alone or in the combinations described, but may also be used in combination with other features or without some of the disclosed features, without departing from the scope of the present invention. Thus, embodiments that are not clearly shown and described by the figures, but can be created by separately combining the individual features disclosed in the figures, are also part of the present invention. Thus, embodiments and combinations of features that do not include all the features of the originally formulated independent claims should be considered as disclosed. Moreover, due to the dependency of the claims, embodiments and combinations of features that are different from or deviate from the combinations of features described should be considered as disclosed.

[0032] Exemplary embodiments are further explained by the following schematic drawings, in which: [Brief description of the drawings]

[0033] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an exemplary embodiment of a device including an integrated wireless tag, here a cable tie. [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an exemplary embodiment of a tagging foil. [Diagram 3] FIG. 3 is a perspective view of an exemplary embodiment of an open type including the tagging foil of FIG. 2. [Figure 4] FIG. 4 is a top view of the open version of FIG. 3. [Diagram 5] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a 3D view of an exemplary injection of material into an exemplary embodiment of a closed mold. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0034] In the figures, identical or functionally identical elements have the same reference symbols.

[0035] 1 shows a perspective view of an exemplary embodiment of a device 1 including an integrated radio tag 2. In this example, the device 1 is a cable tie, with the radio tag 2 located between a head 3 and a tail 4 of the cable tie 1. The radio tag 2 is or includes a tagging foil 5, which in this example is a chip-antenna foil for RFID, or RFID foil for short.

[0036] The tagging foil 5 is shown in more detail in Figure 2. The tagging foil 5 has a tagging-relevant area 6 in the centre of the tagging foil 5, which is here surrounded by a protective margin or frame 7. In this example, the tagging foil 5 also has two holes 8a, 8b at opposite ends in the z-direction for adjusting the tagging foil 5 exactly in its predetermined position. In this example of the tagging foil as an RFID foil, the tagging-relevant area is the antenna-chip-area, where the antenna and the chip required for the RFID function of the tagging foil 5 are located. The tagging-relevant area 6 is therefore more susceptible to damage than the frame 7.

[0037] In Fig. 2, a view of one of the two main surfaces 9a, 9b of the tagging foil 5 is provided. Here, for the sake of illustration, the illustrated main surface may be called the front main surface 9a, without delimiting the characteristics, since its orientation in space is arbitrary. The front main surface 9a and the back main surface 9b (not visible here) are separated from each other by an outer edge 10.

[0038] 3 shows a perspective view of an exemplary embodiment of a mold 11 for injection molding a device 1 including an integrated radio tag 2, in this example a cable tie. Here, for exemplary illustration purposes, the tagging foil 5 of FIG. 2 is placed into the mold cavity, the tagging foil 5 being held in place by a support device 13, which will be described in more detail below in connection with FIG. 4.

[0039] The tagging foil 5 is held in place by a support device 13 such that the mould cavity part 14 containing the tagging foil 5 is separated into two mould cavity parts 14a, 14b adjacent to the two main surfaces 9a, 9b. Advantageously, the two mould cavity parts 14a, 14b are of equal volume. It is noted that for illustration purposes only one half of the mould 11 is shown, which may be considered as the lower half of the mould 11.

[0040] The edge 10 of the tagging foil 5 is therefore fixed in a position such that the flow of injected material injected into the mould cavity 12 located at the top left of the figure, i.e. flowing from the injection site 15 (here corresponding to the head 3 of the cable tie) through the mould cavity 12 in the x-direction via the inlet 16 into the mould cavity part 14, is divided by the edge 10 into two sub-flows of equal size flowing along the two main surfaces 9a, 9b of the tagging foil 5 (see Fig. 5). In this example, the inlet 16 is therefore arranged in such a way that the injected material comes into contact with the edge 10 of the tagging foil 5 and then flows along the two main surfaces 9a, 9b of the tagging foil 5 when it is injected into the closed mould 11 (see Fig. 5). The edge 10 may be considered as being located in the vertical centre of the inlet 16 resulting in a horizontal division of the flow of injected material 21 (Figure 5) corresponding to two sub-flows of equal size, the perpendicular projection of which on the diametric area of ​​the inlet 16 divides it into two areas of equal size. Here, as is also evident from Figure 4, the orientation of the inlet 16 and therefore the direction of the flow of injected material into the injection step runs parallel to the main surfaces 9a, 9b, i.e. parallel to the main extension plane, xz-plane, of the tagging foil 5.

[0041] Figure 4 shows a top view of the mould 11 of Figure 3. The support device 13 includes a plurality of pairs of opposing surfaces 17a, 17b, 18a, 18b, 19a, 19b, where only one of the opposing surfaces of each pair is shown as the second half of mould 11 including the (preferably symmetrical) second half of mould cavity portion 14, mould cavity portion 14a (Figure 3) is not shown here.

[0042] When the tagging foil 5 is placed in the mould 11, it is placed on the aforementioned surfaces 17a-19b by the frame 7 in order to avoid mechanical interference between the support device 13 and the tagging relevant area 6, specifically the chip and antenna of the RFID foil. The tagging relevant area of ​​the tagging foil 5 is therefore free floating within the mould cavity 12. As shown in Fig. 4, the surfaces 17a, 17b, 18a, 18b, 19a, 19b preferably contact the tagging foil 5 at its edge 10 such that when the mould 11 is closed, the tagging foil 5 is sandwiched between several of the opposing surfaces 17a, 17b, 18a, 18b, preferably but not necessarily between all of the opposing surfaces 17a-19b. When pinched at the edge, this provides stiffening of the edge 10 which promotes simultaneous and symmetrical flow of injected material 21 into the mold cavity portions 14a, 14b adjacent the two major surfaces 9a, 9b of the tagging foil 5 (Figure 5) and balance of the forces applied to the tagging foil 5 on the front and back sides thereof.

[0043] In this example, the pairs of opposing surfaces 17a-19b are arranged symmetrically with respect to the main extension of the tagging foil 5, both with respect to the main flow direction of the injected material 21, here the x-direction, and with respect to a line perpendicular to the flow direction (i.e. a line in the z-direction). That is, in the present example, for each pair of opposing surfaces 17a, 18a arranged upstream in the flow direction (left side of the figure), there is a corresponding symmetrical counterpart 17b, 18b arranged downstream in the flow direction (right side of the figure). In this example, the two central pairs of opposing surfaces 17a, 17b closest to the inlet 16 have a smaller area than the outer pairs of opposing surfaces 18a, 18b, 19a, 19b further from the inlet 16. This allows a more secure retention of the tagging foil 5, while minimizing the interference of the support device 13 with the flow of injected material through the mould cavity 12. In this example, the central pair of upstream opposing surfaces 17a vertically divides the stream of injected material flowing through the inlet 16 into two equal sized sub-streams, which corresponds to the horizontal division by the edge 10 described above.

[0044] In this example, the pair of outermost opposing surfaces 19a, 19b, located at the ends of the tagging foil 5 at the greatest distance, act as a vacuum device. For that reason, in this example, at least one of the respective surfaces has a hole 20, which, when connected to a vacuum, allows the tagging foil 5 to be held in place by the vacuum. Correspondingly, said outermost opposing surfaces 19a, 19b do not contact the edge 10 here. The said pair of outermost opposing surfaces 19a, 19b also has the greatest area in this example, since they are the furthest from each other, and therefore the tensions appearing between the pair of opposing surfaces 19a, 19b are greater than those appearing between pairs of opposing surfaces that are closer to each other, such as the pair of opposing surfaces 17a, 17b.

[0045] Figure 5 shows the flow of injected material 21 at different times t1, t2, t3 for an exemplary mould 11 as shown in figures 3 and 4. The injected material 21 follows an injection direction D, which here runs parallel to the x-direction, and at time t1 enters the mould cavity 12 at the injection site 15 (figures 3, 4). At time t2, when the injected material 21 fills the mould cavity 12, it starts to enter the mould cavity area 14 containing the tagging foil 5 through the inlet 16. At a subsequent third time t3, the injected material 21 moves simultaneously and symmetrically with respect to the main extension plane of the tagging foil 5 into the mould cavity parts 14a, 14b adjacent to the two main surfaces 9a, 9b of the tagging foil 5, as is evident by the edges 21a and 21b of the injected material 21. Therefore, the lateral injection of the injected material 21 advantageously results in a balanced normal force (normal with respect to the y direction in FIG. 5) being exerted on the tagging foil 5 .

[0046] This has the advantage that the tagging foil 5 remains intact and is well protected by the injected material 21, allowing the production of injection moulded devices including an integrated radio tag in a single injection step. [Explanation of symbols]

[0047] 1 Device, Cable Tie 2. Integrated wireless tag 3 head 4 tail 5. Tagging foil 6 Tagging related areas 7 slots 8a, 8b holes 9a Front main surface 9b Back main surface 10 Outer edge 11-inch 12 mold hole 13 Supporting Devices 14 Mold hole part 14a, 14b Mold cavity part, mold cavity area 15 Injection site 16 Introduction 17a, 17b, 18a, 18b, 19a, 19b surface 20 holes 21 Injection materials 21a, 21b edges At times t1, t2, and t3

Claims

1. A method for injection molding a device (1) including an integrated radio tag (2), comprising: a) placing a tagging foil (5) comprising two main surfaces (9a, 9b) separated by an edge (10) into a mould cavity (12) of an open mould (11), said tagging foil (5) being held in place by a support device (13); b) closing said mould (11); c) injecting injected material (21) simultaneously and symmetrically with respect to a main extension plane of the tagging foil (5) into mould cavity portions (14a, 14b) which are portions of the mould cavity (12) adjacent to the two main surfaces (9a, 9b) of the tagging foil (5), said main extension plane being parallel to the two main surfaces (9a, 9b) of the tagging foil (5); A method comprising:

2. 2. The method of claim 1 , The injection of the injecting step c) is performed using an inlet (16) into the hole portion (14a, 14b), the inlet (16) being arranged such that the injected material (21) forced through the inlet (16) contacts the edge (10) of the tagging foil (5) as a first part of the tagging foil (5) and subsequently flows along the two main surfaces (9a, 9b) of the tagging foil (5). A method comprising:

3. 3. The method of claim 2, The injecting step c) comprises forcing a stream of injected material (21) through the inlet (16) into the hole portions (14a, 14b), said stream being divided by the edge (10) of the tagging foil (5) into two equally sized sub-streams flowing along the two main surfaces (9a, 9b) of the tagging foil (5). A method comprising:

4. 4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, The device (1) including the integrated radio tag (2) is formed by a single injection step. A method comprising:

5. 5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, When the tagging foil (5) is held in place by the support device (13), the support device (13) contacts the tagging foil (5) only in one or more areas of the tagging foil (5) that have a minimum distance of >0 mm from the tagging relevant area (6) of the tagging foil (5), the distance being measured in the main extension plane of the tagging foil (5). A method comprising:

6. 6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, The placing step a) includes holding the tagging foil (5) in place by vacuum and / or locating pins. A method comprising:

7. 7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, The closing step b) comprises sandwiching the tagging foil (5) between at least one pair of opposing surfaces (17a, 17b, 18a, 18b, 19a, 19b) of the support device (13). A method comprising:

8. 8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, The tagging foil (5) is a chip-antenna foil for radio frequency tagging. A method comprising:

9. 9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, The tagging foil (5) is or comprises an optical foil for optical tagging. A method comprising:

10. 10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, The method, wherein the device containing the integrated radio tag (2) is a cable tie, a cable retainer, or a token.

11. A molding device for injection molding a device including an integrated radio tag (2), comprising: a support device (13) configured to hold a tagging foil (5) having two main surfaces (9a, 9b) separated by an edge (10) in place in the mould cavity (12); - mould cavity portions (14a, 14b) that are part of the mould cavity (12) arranged adjacent to the two main surfaces (9a, 9b) of the tagging foil (5); an inlet (16) configured to inject an injection material (21) into the mould cavity portions (14a, 14b) simultaneously and symmetrically with respect to a main extension plane of the tagging foil (5), the main extension plane being parallel to the two main surfaces (9a, 9b) of the tagging foil (5); A molding device comprising:

Images