Jul 23, 2015The following are news announcements made during the past week by the following organizations:
Thinfilm, G World Group;
Smartrac;
Haldor Advanced Technologies;
Teijin;
the Tire Industry Association, The Safety Institute, Families for Safer Recalls; and
NeWave Sensor Solutions.
Thinfilm, G World Introduce Smart Wine Bottle Solution
Thin Film Electronics (Thinfilm), a Norwegian provider of printed electronics and smart systems, and the G World Group, a research and development firm, have created a smart wine bottle solution, using printed electronics technology that features Thinfilm's patent-pending Near Field Communication (NFC) OpenSense tags and G World's globally patented SAMSCAN anti-counterfeiting process.
OpenSense is a product designed for use on bottles, to authenticate a bottle's contents or to indicate (when the tag is read) if its seal has been broken (see Thinfilm Launches OpenSense Printed NFC Sensor Label for Bottles). The OpenSense tag adheres to the side of a bottle (containing a beverage, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, perfume or some other product) and extends to the cap, such that any effort to break the cap's seal would also damage the tag. In that event, the tag would still respond to interrogation from an NFC reader, but would also transmit data indicating that the seal had been broken.
Thinfilm reports that the two companies will execute a live field trial of their smart wine bottle solution, beginning in the fourth quarter of this year, in collaboration with Ferngrove Wine Group, a Chinese-owned Western Australian premium wine company. Ferngrove is a supplier of five-star red wine to the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, according to Thinfilm, and exports more than 600,000 bottles annually to China alone. G World has placed a seven-figure unit order for NFC OpenSense tags as part of the agreement with Thinfilm and in conjunction with the planned Ferngrove field trial.
Ferngrove is working with G World Group to build a complete electronic pedigree (e-pedigree) solution for the agricultural industry, focusing on the specific wine supply chain and exports from Australia to China, according to the project's description on G World's website.
According to Thinfilm, counterfeit wine, particularly in Asia, is a pervasive problem. Recent reports claim that 50 to 70 percent of all wine sold in China could be fake, with the percentage climbing even higher for premium brands. G World's SAMSCAN, combined with OpenSense, will facilitate the authentication of individual bottles throughout the supply chain, the company says, ensuring that they are packaged, shipped, stocked and purchased in their original factory-sealed state. G World is also providing protocols for authorized devices (those equipped with a Ferngrove or G World app enabling the label's interrogation) for data and logistics control.
Smartrac Releases DogBone, ShortDipole Tags Based on Monza R6 Chip
Smartrac has expanded its product portfolio with the addition of new DogBone and ShortDipole inlays and tags based on the Impinj Monza R6 chip. The new inlays and tags join previously released versions of Smartrac's Belt and MiniWeb tags made with the Monza R6 chip (see RFID News Roundup: Smartrac Launches New RFID Inlays for Retail Based on Impinj Monza R6).
DogBone inlays and tags are designed for global supply chain, industrial, reusable transport item (RTI) and sports-timing applications, Smartrac reports, and perform well in demanding environments and on various difficult-to-tag materials. ShortDipole inlays and tags are designed for global retail, industry and supply chain applications, the company adds, and can meet a range of performance requirements, including those of lower detuning materials like cardboard, plastics, corrugated boxes and RTIs.
The DogBone R6 and ShortDipole R6 are optimized for converted labels measuring 10 centimeters (4 inches) in width, and are also available in dry, wet and paper tag delivery formats.
In accordance with the specifications of Impinj's Monza R6 chip, DogBone and ShortDipole inlays and tags are available in operating frequencies from 860 MHz to 960 MHz, and comply with the EPC Gen 2 and ISO 18000-6C international standards.
The Monza R6, unveiled in April 2014 (see New Impinj Chip Promises Higher Sensitivity, Read Range and Flexibility), is optimized for item-level tagging and comes with 96 bits of Electronic Product Code (EPC) memory. The chip is designed to make tags more sensitive than those employing other chips, with a longer read range and new features aimed at increasing the yield of properly functioning tags during manufacturing and encoding processes. According to Smartrac, it offers features like AutoTune technology for automatic environmental detuning compensation, Enduro technology for better consistency of tag performance, and Integra technology to increase an RFID system's data integrity and reliability.
Canada's University Health Network to Use Haldor RFID System to Manage Surgical Instruments
Haldor Advanced Technologies has announced that its ORLocate System, a comprehensive RFID-enabled surgical instrument and sponge life-cycle management and visibility platform, will be installed in the University Health Network (UHN)'s medical device reprocessing centers. The UHN, one of Canada's largest health-care providers, operates four hospitals in Toronto, and will use the ORLocate system to improve infection control, reduce the cost of ownership for surgical instruments, provide workflow visibility and optimize the utilization of surgical sets, according to Haldor Advanced Technologies.
The ORLocate system is an automated RFID-based solution designed to help hospitals improve patient safety, reduce costs and increase operational efficiency in operating rooms and sterile processing departments, Haldor Advanced Technologies explains. The solution monitors and tracks surgical instruments and consumables, including sponges, on an individual basis before, during and at the conclusion of a surgical procedure.
The deployment began in mid-July, and is expected to be taken live during the fourth quarter of this year, according to Ram Alt, Haldor Advanced Technologies' VP of products. The ORLocate Sterile Processing Department (SPD) module, Alt says, will be installed at UHN's two large sterilization-processing sites that serve three hospitals and several clinics and research facilities. Haldor Advanced Technologies will install the ORLocate SPD module and ORLocate View, a new reporting and analytics module designed to provide on-demand data mining and on-the-fly reporting to support a continuous improvement cycle. The company will also deploy its proprietary RFID antennas and newly developed RFID set tag that has been optimized for this use case (which, Alt says, will be made commercially available soon). The system will utilize RFID to monitor more than 7,000 surgical sets. "In the second stage of the project," he states, "UHN may expand it for intraoperative item management, leverage RFID to reduce 'never events', and further improve their ability to measure instrument level utilization, reduce total cost of ownership and additional benefits."
Teijin Develops New Medical-device Management RFID Solutions
Teijin Ltd., a Japanese chemical and pharmaceutical company, has announced that it has developed three types of RFID solutions for medical-device management that use Cell Form, the firm's RFID-enabled sheets that work like reader antennas, and its Recopick RFID information-management system designed to facilitate information gathering, including presence and location, for thousands of communications or items in real time. Recopick propagates ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) radio waves on two-dimensional surfaces, such as shelves, with minimum effect on other medical devices.
First unveiled in 2010, Cell Form employs a technology that confines electromagnetic waves to a cell within and around a special thin, flat sheet. It incorporates @CELL data communication technology developed by Cellcross Co., Ltd., a spinoff venture company from the University of Tokyo, and specialized materials and manufacturing know-how developed by Teijin. Teijin first used Cell Form for managing library books, as an alternative to conventional electronic book management in libraries that use bar codes or high-frequency (HF) 13.56 MHz RFID tags attached to books.
Instead, Teijin's system utilized Cell Form, Teijin's two-dimensional communication sheet, and UHF-band RFID tags; an RFID tag attached to each book sends a signal via the UHF band, which enables the stable transmission of signals to a distance of roughly several meters. Special sensors at library entry and exit gates, as well as Cell Form sheets attached to each bookshelf, detect the book's RFID signal and then transmit the information for secure book-processing. According to Teijin, the system extended the read range of HF RFID systems, allowing electronic-detection gates, conventionally 90 centimeters (35.4 inches) in width, to be made much wider for easier access.
In 2011, Teijin added to its portfolio a digital smart shelf-management system incorporating Cell Form, which comprised up to eight antenna-equipped Cell Form smart sheets, a read-write module, software and the RFID tags (see RFID Sheet Antennas Enable Unique Shelf-Management Systems).
The three new Cell Form solutions include a medical device management system designed to help hospitals reduce excessive inventory levels, monitor usage and eliminate device misplacements. According to the company, the system is expected to be introduced at Tokyo's St. Luke's International Hospital within the current fiscal year ending in March 2016. The solution is capable of identifying the real-time locations of all infusion pumps and syringe pumps within the system, Teijin reports, including equipment storage, shelves and patients rooms across all 22 wards of the hospital.
The second Cell Form solution is a smart cabinet system that manages medical supply inventories and automatically orders replacements when disposable items are used. The system performs automatic stock checking, reduces excessive inventory and maintains inventory on a real-time basis. And the third new Cell Form solution is a smart-sensing board that automatically reads RFID tags attached to disposable medical items stored within a bin. The board, which is designed to be placed on the top of the bin so that it can record usage by monitoring the RFID tags on each device, can record the number of items used, as well as when they were used, in order to support precise fee calculation, Teijin explains.
Industry Groups Promote RFID to Reform, Automate and Accelerate Tire Recalls
The Tire Industry Association (TIA), an industry group representing businesses that manufacture, repair, recycle, sell or service new or retreaded tires, and nonprofit advocacy groups The Safety Institute and Families for Safer Recalls have jointly called on Congress and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to support meaningful tire recall and recovery reform, including the use of RFID and other technologies to electronically scan tires to ensure successful recall campaigns.
U.S. Department of Transportation regulations require that each tire's sidewall be embossed with a tire identification number (TIN)—a unique, black-on-black, alpha-numeric code (11 or 12 characters in length) that identifies the tire's manufacturing location and size, along with the manufacturer's specifications and the week and year in which it was made. The TIN can be used to identify recalled tires, but the process is prone to error and labor-intensive. What's more, a tire's TIN is not a unique serial number. All similar tires made by at that factory during that week have the same TIN. In the event of a recall, the groups explain, no one has tools that can quickly, easily and accurately determine whether tires are part of a recall so they can be recovered. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) estimates that no more than 20 percent of recalled tires are recovered, the groups add.
While the NTSB is investigating the current system's adequacy and developing recommendations for improvements, the three groups report, legislators have authored a bill supported by the Rubber Manufacturers Association that only makes minor adjustments to the existing manual system. Instead, the coalition is asking policymakers to require a viable automated solution. Technological solutions range from RFID tags to laser-etched QR codes that would enable service professionals to identify a recalled tire with a quick scan, even if the tires have changed hands or have been resold.
"Tire dealers aren't objecting to tire registration," said Roy Littlefield, TIA's executive VP, in a prepared statement. "The problem is that the latest proposals put all of the burden on dealers and provide no realistic methods for service providers to do the job efficiently. In order for any tire recall and recovery system to work, we must automate tire registration and the retrieval of the TIN. The proposed legislation is centered on improving registration rates when the real focus should be to improve the recovery rate of recalled tires. At the end of the day, the only way that consumers are going to benefit is when recalled tires can be identified electronically."
Rich Newsome, counsel to Families for Safer Recalls, added in the statement that the current legislative proposal doesn't achieve that outcome, and that the tire-recall system needs to be significantly reformed. According to Sean Kane, the founder and president of The Safety Institute's board of directors, consumers and service professionals deserve a 21st-century solution to a long-broken system. "The only way the system works to ensure that tires are easily identified in recalls is when they can be electronically scanned," Kane said in the statement.
NeWave's Wave RFID Antenna Evolved from New Horizons Technology
The images of Pluto that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)'s New Horizons spacecraft is relaying back to Earth are being transmitted via antennas based on technology that led to the development of NeWave Sensor Solutions' RFID antennas.
New Horizons' high-gain dish antenna was partially enhanced, tested and calibrated by researchers a decade ago at the Ohio State University (OSU) ElectroScience Laboratory, which at the time was directed by Den Burnside, now NeWave's CTO and the inventor of the company's Wave RFID antenna.
"The knowledge and experience used in developing the New Horizons satellite was also used to develop our unique Wave antenna that is designed specifically for RFID item level applications," Burnside said in a prepared statement. "This antenna is also incorporated in our portal, Smart Shelf and SIMS products. So many of today's RFID antennas are oriented to long distance reading and we sensed a real need as RFID item-level applications expanded."
High-gain antennas provide focused and narrow radio wave beam widths, allowing for more precise targeting of radio signals. Unlike a patch antenna that radiates a single beam in a given direction, the company explains, NeWave's antennas are designed to uniformly illuminate a volume of space (see NeWave Sensor Solutions Unveils Smart Shelf to Track High-Volume, Fast-Moving Consumer Goods).
