The following are news announcements made during the week of May 8.
Avery Dennison, imobile Each Offer a DOD-Compliance Solution
Avery Dennison’s Retail Information Services (RIS) division is offering a means for suppliers to the Department of Defense (DOD) to meet the agency’s mandate to affix RFID labels containing unique identification codes to cartons and pallets of military consignments, and to issue advance shipment notices. The company’ new offering is called the RFID Military Compliance Solution. RIS provides suppliers with RFID labels, each pre-encoded with an Electronic Product Code (EPC) containing a header, the supplier’s Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) code and a serial number. Each label also has the EPC printed as a bar code and in human-readable characters. Suppliers can apply this label to cases and goods requiring RFID tags that already have DOD-compliant Military Shipping Labels (MSL) containing destination and other key shipping data. By scanning the bar code or keying in the EPC, suppliers can meet the DOD’s requirements to include each EPC in an advance shipping notice sent to the DOD depot. RIS is not releasing pricing information, but the solution is available now with minimum orders of 500 labels. Imobile Systems has rolled out a similar offering, through which suppliers can purchase pre-encoded RFID smart labels. Like the Avery labels, those from imobile are applied supplementarily to MSL labels on cases and pallets and include both a bar code and a human-readable text version of the EPC. The imobile labels, however, have three sections so that the bar-coded portions can be applied to shipping documentation. The imobile labels are available for 99 cents each, in minimum orders of 100. The Avery labels contain UHF EPC Gen 1 inlays, while the imobile labels use EPC Gen 2 inlays.
Industrial Portals Introduces Versatile Portal Structure
Industrial Portals, a division of the 100-year-old Jamison Door Co., based in Hagerstown, Md., has introduced a portal structure designed to accommodate RFID interrogators, antennas, light stacks and sensor devices such as photo-electric eyes. The structure provides a means for end users to erect RFID interrogation zones around portals or over conveyor systems through which tagged goods are regularly moved, without limiting them to using specific interrogator models. The structure accommodates brackets onto which any major brand of RFID interrogator or antenna can be mounted. With the brackets positioned on runner bars, the reader, antennas or any additional sensors mounted onto a bracket can be easily repositioned along either the horizontal bar at the top of the structure, or vertically along the two vertical bars. The portal can be made to a customer’s specifications for size and durability, though Industrial Portals says that 10- or 18-gauge steel is most often used. The product is available now. Basic pricing starts at $3,000, but is determined by the structure’s size and the steel gauge.
Tamper-Evident Inlay Design
RCD Technology, a startup based in Quakertown, Penn., has developed a tamper-evident RFID inlay design it says can be built into any of its stock or custom RFID inlays. If a finished smart label containing the inlay is removed from a package, product or asset, the linkage between the chip and antenna inside the inlay breaks, deactivating the tag. This prevents labels from being switched from one product to another, or being otherwise manipulated. RCD Technology makes ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) and high-frequency (HF) RFID inlays using patented copper antenna fabrication and proprietary tag assembly processes. The tamper-evident inlays are available now. Pricing has not been released.
Lowry Offering RFID Training
Lowry Computer Products, a provider of RFID and other automatic identification technology solutions, is offering a three-day RFID training class, “A System’s Approach to RFID Implementation,” at its Brighton, Mich., headquarters. Scheduled for June 13 to 15 and Aug. 8 to 10, the class has been developed and overseen by OTA Training, a Dallas-based RFID education service. Both three-day training sessions have an optional RFID+ Certification module, which will prepare students to take CompTIA’s RFID+ exam at the conclusion of the class. Developed by the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), this vendor-neutral professional certification validates a professional’s knowledge and skills in the areas of installation, maintenance, repair and upkeep of RFID systems. As a CompTIA Learning Associate (CLA) partner, OTA Training is able to offer RFID+ certification preparation training. More information and course registration is available at Lowry’s Web site , or by calling 800-733-0210 x312.
SAP-Certified Printronix Forms Module
RFID label printer-encoder provider Printronix reports that SAP has certified its Printronix XML Forms Module 1.0 for integration with SAP’s Auto-ID Infrastructure platform Release 2.1, and with SAP’s NetWeaver platform. The XML Forms Module 1.0, part of Printronix’s 5r Multi-Technology Thermal Printing Platform, provides users with templates for printing RFID smart labels. The Forms Module software is available only on Printronix RFID printer-encoders. Before awarding integration certificates, SAP tests integration links between its platforms and third-party products, such as Printronix’s Form Module. SAP conducts these tests and issues certifications to assure its customers that certified products can be successfully integrated with SAP platforms.