RFid Blog

China is on its way to become a major RFID hub of the world. The Asian superpower considers this technology as instrumental for economic development.

The Chinese government will adopt large-scale deployment of RFID tags and readers to bring significant results in the supply chain management and improve procurement activities.

In the eleventh five-year plan (2006-2010), China prepared a blueprint for the implementation of RFID technology by Chinese companies. The manufacturing and transportation industries will be the major purchaser of RFID technology during the 2005-2009 periods.

Meanwhile, Wal-Mart’s RFID campaign has a direct impact on the growth of RFID market in China. The retail giant has made it mandatory for its suppliers to place RFID tags on shipments. Coincidently, Wal-Mart has a strong base in China.

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Come December 14, you will find a very special family resort at Paramount’s Kings Island in Mason, Ohio. Inside the resort, you can get a perfect self-help service. You no need to wait for hotel men to come and show you the room and give you the room keys. At the same time, you would be allowed to make cashless payment options, automated arcade token dispensers and many more things. This is possible due to introduction of RFID technology.

The new Great Wolf Lodge at Paramount’s Kings Island in Mason, Ohio is all set to give a new definition to hospitality industry. The 402-suite north woods-themed family resort is introducing RFID wristbands and point-of-sale purchases of Precision Dynamics Corporation (PDC).

Jim Metzger, General Manager of Great Wolf Lodge comments,

The wristband system has been embraced by guests and employees at both the Pocono Mountains, Pennsylvania and Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada locations and we expect the same here at Mason.

The Smart Band wristband implanted with 13.56MHz RFID inlay enables guests to get into hotel rooms without unlocking the room with key and provides them cashless payment system. So, the guests do not need to take the hotel keys when they are out. The RFID wristbands ensure security to visitors’ cash by purging the possibility of money getting wet or lost while at the Water Park.

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Further strengthening its position as undisputed global leader in barcode printing, labeling and RFID solutions, SATO America has launched its new S84 Series OEM print engines that possess RFID capability.

Featuring 3G 32-bit RISC microprocessor with high-speed data processing, the latest S84 Series is a set of 4-inch wide print engines providing more user-friendly, application flexible and result oriented services to the customers.

Ensuring print speeds up to 16 inches per second for fast label output and 16 MB RAM for data intensive label formats, the SATO print engines find their best applications in the manufacturing, logistics, transportation, automotive and e-commerce units.

Bob Lanzendorf, the sales and marketing manger of SATO explained,

This print engine will be the new “industry workhorse” and was designed with that challenge in mind. Unique features such as the quick-change ribbon cassette, high-throughput data processing, and improved serviceability are clearly direct benefits to end users by maximizing uptime, making it easy to maintain, and satisfying production flow requirements.

A company website notes following additional features:

1.Multiple print resolution including 203 dpi, 305 dpi, or 609 dpi

2.Available with field configurable print resolution on all models

3.Additional ribbon capacity up to 1,000 meters

4.Large LCD display and icon-driven user interface

5.Unique tri-port, plug-in interface design and advanced communications interface slot

6.Swift change ribbon cassette option

7.SBPL programming language

8.Ribbon saver option and Bi-directional ribbon capability

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RFID technology finds its new application in the healthcare units, obviously not asset tracking what we say non-clinical tracking but saving the lives of patients. Plainly speaking RFID technology is now ready for patient’s treatment.

The National Stroke Association of USA has acknowledged the capability of implantable RFID microchip technology to improve stroke treatment by ensuring doctors with instant access to crucial health information of stroke-affected patients.

The National Stroke Association claims,

Personal Records, including implantable RFID microchips as VeriMed, could play a critical role in assisting medical professionals in delivering appropriate stroke treatment promptly, leading to better patient outcomes.

The VeriChip’s VeriMed chip in combination with a handheld RFID scanner provides vital information to medical professionals and prompts them for timely treatment of stroke patients.

National Stroke Association is the sole governmental organization of the USA that dedicates itself for creating a mass awareness towards stroke and develops new methods for curing stroke patients.

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The RFID printer market has a bright future. The demand for RFID printer-encoders would be sky-high due to the large-scale adoption of Gen2 RFID in supply chain applications.

According to research firm Frost & Sullivan, the market for RFID printer-encoder will touch $209.3 million in 2012 up from $10.7 million in 2005 maintaining a compound annual growth rate of 53 percent.

The RFID giants like Zebra, Printronix, Sato, Paxar, Datamax, Avery Dennison and Intermec would take the advantage of favorable market conditions, the report predicted.

The research firm also anticipates expansion of global RFID market in the coming years. Until now, the growth of RFID market is primarily concentrated in North America. As the applicability of this technology goes on increasing, the Asian countries would endorse the RFID market.

Malaysia is all set to put a leash on the vehicle thieves, most probably early next year. The road transport department is introducing RFID-supported e-plates in the country.

The e-plates would carry all sorts of necessary information about the vehicles like its model, year of purchase and its holder.

The new system will enable the transport department officers to find out the stolen vehicles by scanning the RFID plates at roadblocks.

According to available data, more than 30 cars including luxury vehicles are being stolen in Malaysia every day. In the wake of this grim situation, the proposed e-plate idea seems to be a clever move by the road transport department.

The transport department confirms the RFID plates will be implemented first with new cars, then running cars.

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Yakka Apparel, which clothes New Zealand defense forces, has discarded manually data entry system and welcomed RFID tags to speed up fitting process.

The clothing manufacturer is now embedding RFID tags in the garments to ensure accurate size and speed up the fitting of new recruits. For which, it has appointed Auckland IT consultancy Integral Technology Group.

Yakka Apparel Solutions, a subsidiary of Melbourne-based work wear supplier Yakka fits nearly 200 recruits every day and 1000 recruits for defense forces annually.

The decision to embed RFID tags has felt necessary following the manually error in the data entry that caused a serious problem in fitting.

As per new system, the clothing manufacture would attach RFID bracelets carrying the link with name. These bracelets would be given to recruiters and bracelets to be scanned with RFID tags. The data obtained through scanning would be sent to computer. In this way, Yakka would avoid error.

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Holland Casino, the authorized casino operator in the Netherlands has gone RFID way. It has decided to embed RFID tags in the casino currency making gaming chips secure against the duplicity and fraud.

The casino operator has ordered Gaming Partners International Corporation (GPI), the leading manufacturer and supplier of casino currency and other table game products to develop RFID 125KHz Hitag Vegas-S microchip embedded chips.

The price of the deal is around 1,850,000 euro for nearly 950,000 gaming chips with denominations ranging from 2euro to 500euro.

Amber C. Ho-a-Sjoe, VP Product Management Holland Casino stated,

With the new RFID chips Holland Casino feels very confident regarding security issues right now and in the near future. The cooperation between GPI and Holland Casino on this strategic matter was very important. With the implementation of the new chips we can say we succeeded very well.

The RFID embedded gaming chips or casino currency would be produced by Gaming Partners’ subsidiary, GPI SAS in Beaune, France.

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Tech Data Corporation, one of the leading IT products distributors of the world has opened a new technology centre to provide RFID-related solutions to the business enterprises.

Built in the Mississauga, the $500,000 Cisco Advanced Technology Centre has major stations for five SMB solutions including RFID, Call Manager Express, Unified Communications, Wireless and Security.

Ross Pellizzari, Channel Manager of Cisco Canada said,

This kind of facility will help resellers with their proof of concept projects in vertical markets such as healthcare, retail and manufacturing. There is no vertical you cannot do at this facility.

The Centre demonstrates specific networking systems and applications that provides Canadian resellers necessary technical knowledge and interactive experience about the latest technologies.

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AdvantaPure has developed a new tag, which is believed to be the first gamma-resistant tag of the RFID world. The tag can resist gamma radiation levels of up to 45-kilog rays ensuring temperatures between -20 degree Celsius to 85 degree Celsius.

The GammaTag is highly useful in the critical process industries such as pharmaceutical, bioprocess, biomedical, food and beverage and medical device by enabling reliable electronic identification and data storage of single-use disposable components.

The CEO of AdvantaPure, Ken Barker said,

RFID tags are used more and more in clean applications because of their many advantages over traditional paper records and log books.

With Gamma-resistant tag, the producers and processors can tag products at the starting point of the supply chain of a number of components including tubing and storage vessels by attached methods like silicone tape and pouches.

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