Aug 18, 2016The following are news announcements made during the past week by the following organizations:
SML RFID; U Grok It, tagMonkey; Trimble, ThingMagic; Confidex, Impinj; and L'Oréal.
SML RFID Announces Seven New RFID Inlays for Retail Inventory
RFID technology and brand identification solution provider SML RFID has announced seven new RFID inlays designed for managing goods in the retail supply chain. The new inlays have been customized to fit the size, performance and requirements for use on small cosmetics, polybagged apparel and accessories, as well as other types of merchandise, according to SML RFID.
Three of the new inlays are certified by the Auburn University RFID Lab’s ARC testing program. The other four inlays are developed for a variety of special use cases, including cosmetics, wine bottles, books, furniture and apparel, SML RFID says.
The GB9R6, made with an Impinj Monza R6 chip, measures 95 millimeters by 8 millimeters and is designed for difficult-to-tag or high-detuning materials such as cardboard and plastics. It has passed all ARC spec categories, as set by GS1, according to SML RFID. The Maze U7, made with NXP Semiconductors’ Ucode 7 chip, measures 68 millimeters by 14 millimeters and was upgraded for enhanced performance and meets ARC spec’s A, B, D, F, G, K, N and Q categories for use throughout the supply chain, SML RFID says. GB4MuU7, also made with a Ucode 7 chip, measures 43 millimeters by 16 millimeters, meets ARC spec’s A, B, D, G, M and Q for tagging of multiple apparel items, and was designed with a smaller form factor to be used on apparel items ranging from denim to ladies’ undergarments.
The GB14R6 inlay, made with an Impinj Monza R6 chip, measures 76 millimeters by 6 millimeters, and is designed for dense population environments, covering a variety of supply chain categories including cosmetics, wine bottles, books, furniture and apparel. The GB6, GB11uU7 and GB8H4 are all specifically designed to fit cosmetic products such as eye liner and lipsticks. The GB11uU7, made with a Ucode 7 chip, measures 14 millimeters by 14 millimeters. The GB6, available with a Monza R6 chip or a Ucode 7 chip, measures 30 millimeters by 15 millimeters, and the GB8H4, containing Alien Technology’s Higgs 4 chip, measures 64 millimeters by 6 millimeters.
SML can incorporate the new RFID inlays into all types of labels and hangtags, including SML’s multicolor, high-resolution RFID integrated hangtags, the company says. These are offset printed and digitally imprinted RFID hangtags that can be delivered within 10 business days from any of SML’s 17 globally located service bureaus, with the RFID inlay embedded inside. The inlays also will be offered in less expensive flexographic and thermal print labels and hangtags, the company says. In addition, the inlays can be also incorporated into SML’s sewn-in fabric labels.
SML’s suite of RFID technology includes software, professional services, RFID tags and labels. With its global network of service bureau locations worldwide, SML says it can deliver a variety of printed and encoded RFID tags and labels to meet brand owners’ specifications, and do so close to the manufacturing source to improve speed to market.
U Grok It, tagMonkey Offer Joint RFID Solution for Small, Midsize Companies
U Grok It and RFID cloud-services provider tagMonkey have announced a partnership aimed at delivering an ultra-high frequency (UHF) RAIN RFID platform that helps businesses of any size to locate, manage and perform inventory on assets. TagMonkey’s app development tool and cloud services—combined with U Grok It’s UHF RFID reader—will help customers get a RAIN RFID solution up and running quickly, the two companies say.
U Grok It’s battery-powered RFID reader, compliant with the EPC Gen 2 standard, plugs into the audio port of a smartphone or tablet. The tagMonkey app development tool and cloud-based RFID service now includes integration with QuickBooks and Square POS, so small and midsize businesses can use RFID for simple inventory, tracking and asset management and to locate misplaced items for all assets managed in their QuickBooks or Square databases.
“U Grok It is the smartphone RFID platform that brings the power of RFID to organizations of any size. Simple enough for small to medium sized businesses, and powerful enough for enterprise organizations,” U Grok It CEO Carrie Requist said in a prepared statement. “With the tagMonkey partnership, U Grok It customers now have the ability to create apps specific to their business needs.”
“The tagMonkey–U Grok It integration with Square and QuickBooks fills a critical need for many small businesses by enabling systems they already have to work with the U Grok It RFID reader/writer; and the tagMonkey development tool allows organizations to access all the information they need as they easily put together their custom app,” tagMonkey CEO Patrick McLain added in the statement.
U Grok It customers can receive a free six-month subscription to tagMonkey’s cloud control panel and developer tools by going to http://tagmonkey.io/html/ugrokit_promo.html, according to the two companies. Customers must sign up by Sept. 15, 2016, and can cancel at any time.
Trimble’s ThingMagic Sargas Low-Profile RFID Reader Now Shipping
Trimble has announced it is now shipping its new ThingMagic Sargas, a two-antenna-port, ultra-high frequency (UHF) RAIN RFID reader housed in a low-profile enclosure measuring 87 millimeters by 80 millimeters by 23.8 millimeters (3.4 inches by 3.15 inches by 0.94 inch). Built around the ThingMagic Micro reader module, the device can read more than 750 tags per second at distances over 9 meters (30 feet) when configured with appropriate antennas, according to the company. It features an onboard processor, memory and removable flash storage, and is designed for enterprise applications including retail, warehouse inventory, cold chain food management and health care.
First announced at the RFID Journal LIVE! 2016 conference and exhibition in Orlando, Fla. (see Trimble Unveils ThingMagic Sargas RFID Reader), the reader is designed to enable systems integrators and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to speed up the development of RFID solutions in order to reduce time-to-market with less overhead than typical projects.
The Sargas is preconfigured for most regions in the world including the Americas (FCC/IC rules) Europe (ETSI) India (TRAI) Korea (KCC) Australia (ACMA) China (SRRC-MII) and Japan (MIC). The reader also has a customizable option to accommodate other areas and research applications.
The reader supports the EPC Gen 2 and ISO 18000-6C specifications with anticollision and DRM. The two antenna ports have RP-SMA connections, and there are Ethernet, micro SD and 2-USB (host and client) ports. An HDMI port enables easy display integration by allowing an integrator to add a display directly to the reader without external hardware, reducing cost and time-to-market, according to Trimble. It has a 1 GHz ARM 8 Cortex processor, 512 megabytes of DDR memory and 4 gigabytes of flash memory. Custom applications may be loaded. The reader comes with Trimble’s ThingMagic Reader Assistant software and applications development tools and works in an operating temperature range of -20 to +60 degrees Celsius. A full software development kit (SDK) is available that supports Java, Dot-Net and C environments, together with test tools such as the Universal Reader Assistant. The Sargas is priced at $695.
Confidex Intros Bolt-On UHF RFID Tag With Impinj Chip
Confidex has introduced the X-Bolt, an ultra-high frequency (UHF) RFID tag designed with high chemical resistance and 360 degrees reading performance for heavy industry manufacturing control applications. The X-Bolt has an X-shaped double-dipole antenna with circular polarization and supports the EPC Gen 2 and ISO 18000-6C specifications. It measures 19 millimeters in diameter, weighs 21 grams, and has a maximum read range of 2 meters (6.5 feet), the company says.
The tag is in the form of a coated steel alloy bolt with an M8 metric screw thread and manufactured according to the ISO 2768 Class C standard. Its embedded ceramic RFID inlay, protected with epoxy adhesive, is made with an Impinj Monza 4QT chip (upon special request, the X-Bolt can be made with the Impinj Monza 4E chip). It has an IP68 rating, resistant to water and chemicals including salt water (salinity 10 percent), motor oil, cutting and grinding fluids, siloxane-based antifoam agents and acetone. Under normal operating conditions, it has a life expectancy of 10 years, the company says.
Options include pre-encoding of EPC or user memory that’s locked permanently or with a password, as well as customized laser engraving.
According to Confidex, the X-Bolt was designed after one of its customers was having reliability issues with its engine block manufacturing control. Confidex says it designed the tag to be able to withstand the numerous chemicals an engine block must go through. Confidex says it soaked the prototypes for weeks in the most commonly used chemicals in machining and cleaning to see how they’d react. The customer (which declined to be identified) was pleased with the product development results and started to use the product on their engine blocks, according to Confidex.
L'Oréal RFID-enabled UV Skin Sensor Now Available
La Roche-Posay, one of L'Oréal Group's skin-care brands, announced the availability of its My UV Patch, a stretchable skin sensor that uses Near Field Communication (NFC) RFID and photosensitive dye to help people track their exposure to the sun's ultraviolet (UV) radiation. L'Oréal launched a beta version of its My UV Patch earlier this year (see Skin-thin NFC Patch Goes to Market).
My UV Patch is 50 micrometers thick—half the thickness of an average strand of hair, according to La Roche-Posay. It stretches and adheres directly to the skin and factors in skin tone to measure exposure to the sun. The sensor works with the My UV Patch mobile app (available both on iOS and Android) that helps people track UV exposure and informs them of their level of sun exposure. My UV Patch will be available free of charge via La Roche-Posay's website and from key physicians (listed on the company’s website) this summer.
My UV Patch is water- and sweat-resistant and can be used up to three days during all outdoor activities, including swimming, the company says. The patch is designed with photosensitive dyes, and once exposed to UV rays, the patch will begin to change colors, indicating the various levels of sun exposure. The My UV Patch app will be able to track results and provide a personalized report on the UV exposure received once the consumer uploads an image of his or her patch. It analyzes the varying shades of the photosensitive dye and determines the amount of exposure the individual has received since the moment it was put on, according to La Roche-Posay. The analysis takes into consideration not only the information registered by the patch, but also skin type, if sunscreen was applied or not, and the UV index in the user's location, according to the company.
