Sep 18, 2002Sept. 18, 2002 -- Intermec Technologies Corp., an Everett, Wash.-based unit of UNOVA Inc. (NYSE: UNA), has unveiled a new Intellitag fixed reader that is available in both the 915 MHz and 2.45 GHz frequency bands. The reader has four addressable antenna ports and RS232 and RS422 serial ports. The company says these were features users were asking for.
"We started writing the market requirements for this new reader even before we announced our first generation reader," says Jim Evans, Intermec's vice president for Intellitag business development. "The new features, such as the serial ports, are not things engineer or marketers thought would be good. They are things users told us they wanted."
The ITRF reader is designed for rugged industrial applications. It comes packaged in a sturdy extruded aluminum case with a power supply. Original equipment manufacturers can purchase the reader without the case and power supply for integration into other systems.
The antenna ports allow for flexible, economical integration with existing wireless local area networks. The serial ports make it easy to connect the reader to plant equipment, such as a conveyor belt PLC, to identify and control the movement of work-in-process items, containers, totes, pallets and other similar objects based on information stored in an RFID tag.
The freestanding reader can be used in a wide variety of applications, but is designed particularly for industrial environments and integration into supply chain management for commercial operations, industrial manufacturing and logistics applications. The readers can read many tags virtually simultaneously, have read-write capabilities and a read range of up to three meters.
The reader is FCC Part-15 approved, which means it can be used in the United States without a license. Users can also program the radio frequency power output and duty cycle for the ITRF's four antenna ports, so it can be configured to meet regulatory requirements governing the use of RF bandwidth and to meet specific user requirements, such as coexistence with an installed wireless LAN.
Intermec's Intellitag tags and readers are compatible with existing and emerging RFID industry standards, including ISO 18000 for item identification, EAN-UCC GTag for supply chain applications, ANSI MH10.8.4 for reusable container tracking and ANSI AIAG B-1l for tire and wheel identification.
The manufacturer's suggested retail price for the ITRF reader is $2,100. The readers are available immediately.
