Oct 21, 2015Harting Technology Group, a manufacturer of industrial connectors, cable assemblies, backplane assemblies, Ethernet switches and radio frequency identification solutions, is giving its U.S. and Canadian customers and distributors, as well as potential new customers, the opportunity to view its products in person, via the company's Roadshow Truck. The 33-foot-long vehicle is packed with RFID-enabled displays of Harting products.
The Harting Roadshow Truck began its tour in New York City last month, and will tour across the continent. The objective, says Steve Loyal, Harting North America's business-development manager, "is to demonstrate our core products, as well as new products," which include RFID solutions. Traditionally, he says, customers think of Harting as a provider of connectors, but its offerings, in fact, cross a variety of technologies. Bringing a truckload of those products to the customers for their perusal, Loyal adds, is a good way to educate new and existing customers regarding what the company offers.
Along one side of the truck are four stations, each focused on different product lines, according to Christina Chatfield, Harting North America's marketing director. At each of these stations, Harting has installed one of its Locfield ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID antennas, all wired to a single Harting RF-R500 UHF reader. Designed in the form of a bendable cable, the Locfield antennas can be installed along a surface to create a precise read zone (see Harting's Locfield Reader Antenna Promises Flexible Read Range).
Harting attached its Ha-VIS RFID FT 89 (NT) flexible UHF tags to 30 products at each station, including connectors, assemblies and Ethernet switches, as well as RFID readers and antennas. Each tag has a unique ID number encoded on it that is linked to the corresponding product's description in Harting's software, known as Knowledge Center App, residing on an onsite computer.
Signage in the truck instructs users to hold a product of interest near the reader antenna, which captures that item's ID number. A touchscreen then displays video, text and images related to that product. The visitor has the option of selecting that item to be placed in a digital shopping cart, and to then review other goods. Once finished, the user presses a prompt on the touchscreen and enters an e-mail address where the material can be sent. In that way, he or she can later look at the content in more detail.
According to Loyal, Harting opted to use the RFID solution to help visitors access data at the stations, not only to make the exhibits more interesting for them, and the collection of data more automatic, but also to showcase what the RFID products can do. One of the four RFID-enabled stations includes Harting's RFID products, and displays all of the company's tags, readers and antennas.
During the first few weeks on the road, Chatfield says, the truck stopped at 12 locations. Approximately 150 engineers visited the truck during these stops, about 100 of whom had their first in-person contact with Harting personnel and products.
Some of those customers, Loyal says, have been specifically interested in the RFID technology. Just how much interest they have in RFID, however, is difficult to gauge this early into the tour, he says, since they have not yet placed specific orders.
The original tour dates are being modified, Chatfield notes, as more requests for a visit from the truck come in from customers throughout the Northeast. Those requests are leading to a longer than intended visit to that region, and the remaining visits will be readjusted for scheduled stops.
"We hope the truck will help educate our customers and partners on our entire breadth and scope of solutions available today," Loyal states.
