Feb 15, 2017Vitamix, a blending equipment manufacturer based in Ohio, has integrated Near Field Communication (NFC) technology into its new ASCENT Series of blenders with the goal of improving customer convenience and safety. The company is installing NFC RFID readers into the bases of its machines and providing accompanying food containers with embedded tags, custom-made by Smartrac with air-coil wire antennas and NXP Semiconductors' NTAG216 NFC chips. The result is a feature that Vitamix calls SELF-DETECT.
When a user places a SELF-DETECT container on an ASCENT Series blender's base, the appliance reads the container's embedded NFC tag and can automatically change multiple operating parameters (as many as 140). The NFC solution can modify program settings, button functions, motor speeds, maximum time settings and other operating parameters, according to the company, making it easier to prepare hot soups, frozen sorbets, frosty smoothies and other fare.
In containers with exposed blades, such as the Smoothie Cup accessory, the NFC antenna circuit remains open until the blade base is properly enclosed with the cup. The open antenna circuit prevents the tag from being read, prohibiting the blender from operating. When the cup and blade base are properly coupled, the antenna circuit closes, allowing the NFC tag in the Smoothie Cup base to be read by the blender, which allows it to be operated.
The blender's operating parameters change accordingly once the container on the base is identified. Not only is this a convenient feature, the company notes, but it helps to reduce unsafe operating conditions as well. For example, unless an appropriate container is in place, the blender's soup program (which results in heat being generated from the friction of the blades, causing pressure to build up in the container) will be disabled.
"NFC was also chosen in a quest for optimum safety," says Dave Kolar, a senior engineering manager at Vitamix. His team headed the project to develop a wireless interlock system for the company's blender containers. With their history of being used reliably for secure applications, Kolar says, NFC tags were a natural fit for Vitamix, given their goal of delivering a safer blender.
Vitamix worked with Smartrac to develop the RFID tags and with its other partners to develop the software for the solution. Smartrac's embedded tag can undergo years of heat and vibration through use and potentially thousands of dishwasher cycles.
Initial concepts fell short of the Vitamix standard of quality, Kolar reports. "The systems were simple in concept, but we faced some technical challenges when it came to reliability," he says. "The team learned about the Smartrac air-coil technology during the development process and took this knowledge and created the first prototype. It worked more reliably and could be a potential game-changer for what we could do with the machine and our container system."
This new prototype led to the development of the ASCENT Series of blenders, which were launched on Dec. 26, 2016, and showcased at the 2017 CES convention, held last month in Las Vegas. The NFC-enabled blenders are FCC- and UL-certified, and meet the software safety requirements per technical safety standard UL/IEC 60730.
