RFID Journal Staff asked 15 years ago Question: "I work for a power company in the United States, and I have an application I am interested in using RFID tags for. I am looking for an RFID tag that can measure temperatures in an electric substation environment. A major cause of power outages is the failure of surge arresters. In most cases, such failures are caused by moisture entering an arrester housing, which causes the arrester to begin heating up. If an RFID monitoring system could alert us that an arrester was heating, we could possibly replace it before it failed. What companies sell sensors that might work in our environment?"
—James, Alabama
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James,
There are a number of different temperature-monitoring solutions on the market. I've listed a few companies below, with articles we've run regarding their sensors. Some solutions use active (battery-powered) RFID, while others use battery-assisted (a battery powering the sensor, but not the tag) or passive (no battery) RFID.
The issues are what read range you need, and—once the tag senses a rise in temperature and communicates such to the reader a few feet or yards away—how you can get that information into the hands of someone who can then act on it. A good systems integrator could recommend the right solution based on your particular environment, but there aren't many that have experience with these types of specialized tags. The manufacturers might be the best place to start.
Altierre
Altierre Sees Opportunity for Temperature Tags
KSW-Microtec
New Low-cost Temperature Sensor
RadarFind
RFID News Roundup: RadarFind Offers Temperature-Sensing Tags
AeroScout
AeroScout Intros New Ultrasound and Sensor Wi-Fi RFID Tags
Sensitech
Sensitech's RFID Cold Chain Solution
Hothead Technologies
Georgia High School Football Teams Put RFID Into Play
Infratab
RFID Shelf-life Monitoring Helps Resolve Disputes
—Mark Roberti, Editor, RFID Journal
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