If you have ever peeled the backing off a sticker and found a thin, slightly stiff film with a spiral of wire pressed inside, you have already held an inlay. An inlay is the working heart of any NFC label: the antenna and the chip, supplied before the finished layers that make it look like a sticker. Our circular wet inlays are supplied without face paper, a phrase worth unpacking because it tells you exactly who the product is for. This article explains what an inlay is, what "no face paper" really means, and why a thin inlay suits a laminator or a label press so well.
What an inlay actually is
An inlay is the part of an NFC tag that does the work. It is a thin film carrying an antenna - often an aluminium antenna - bonded to a chip. On its own it has no picture, no brand, and no finish; it is a component rather than a finished product. When you buy a printed sticker or a card, the inlay is already buried inside it, hidden under the face material and the print.
That separation is useful, because different buyers need different amounts of the finished thing. One wants something to peel and press onto a table. Another already runs a printing operation and only needs the electronic part, ready to be built into their own label.
What "no face paper" actually means
A wet inlay arrives with adhesive already applied, but without the printed face paper on top. The "wet" in the name refers to that live adhesive, and "no face paper" means you are receiving the tag minus its visible surface. What you add on top - a printed label, a brand logo, a shade of colour - becomes the face.
This is a feature rather than a shortfall. The tag arrives as a blank, so the artwork, the finish, and the final shape are entirely yours. If you want a transparent wet sticker or a circular tag carrying your own design, the inlay is the base layer that everything else sits on. You can see how we approach that kind of build on our customization page.
Why a thin inlay suits a laminator or a label press
The reason a wet inlay is thin is the same reason it fits a label press. A finished sticker carries extra layers - face material, print, sometimes a laminate - and all of that adds thickness. A bare inlay has none of it, so it can be fed through converting equipment that would struggle with a bulky, finished tag.
In a laminator, the thin film can be sealed between other layers and stay flat. On a label press, it can be printed and die-cut like any other stock, so a printer can produce finished NFC labels at their own scale without handling a pre-made sticker. For anyone already running that equipment, an inlay turns NFC into one more material rather than a new process.
Which chip lives inside the inlay
Our inlays follow the same standard as the rest of the range: 13.56 MHz, ISO/IEC 14443A, NFC Type 2, with a typical read distance of 2 to 5 cm. The chip choices are NTAG213 at 144 bytes, NTAG215 at 504 bytes, and NTAG216 at 888 bytes; one inlay in the range is supplied with a Fudan FM11RF08. The right choice depends on how much you want to store, not on how impressive the number looks, and our guide covers matching a chip to a job.
When a wet inlay beats a finished sticker
Choose a wet inlay when you control the printing and want to own the face of the tag. Choose a finished sticker when you want something ready to apply straight out of the box. Both live in the same range, and you can compare them side by side on our products page. Every product can be custom printed, every product can ship with a dynamic QR code, and every product has a 100 pcs minimum order quantity.
If you are not sure whether your process wants a bare inlay or a finished tag, describe your press or laminator and how the label will be finished, and we will tell you what fits. Message us on WhatsApp at +86 151 0247 7198 or email nina@cwtape.com and ask us anything about inlays.