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Cost-effective RFID
installation launched
November 16, 2004
Two IT solutions providers have formed an alliance in
order to offer customers with a flexible and cost-effective method of
linking bar coding and Radio Frequency Identification.
Both Domino Printing Sciences and Omron Electronics believe that the
partnership will provide both suppliers and manufacturers with a
cost-effective means of meeting retailer mandates on both sides of the
Atlantic.
The new Product Traceability System (PTS) from the Domino and Omron
alliance takes a customer-audit approach to the needs of individual
customers in order to provide customised features. This, claims the
partnership, creates a total solution for factory management that
offers real cost savings and in provides a ‘comfort zone’ for
customers.
“The solution will provide payback; it is not just an on-cost for
customers,” said Simon King, outer case coding director at Domino.
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“Every customer is different and we will provide custom-made systems
that create real flexibility and options in deploying RFID that can be
linked to quality, productivity, automation, and track and tracing
systems throughout the factory. For example the system assures 100 per
cent product compliance through the elimination of bad RF tag and
barcode reads.”
The non-contact RF tag apply and in-line digital print system ensures
integrity of the bar code and the RFID tag by offering in-line human
readable, bar coding and RFID in combination. But it is the separation
of the RF tag from the bar coded data and the human readable
information, combined with non-contact application, which both Domino
and Omron believe sets the concept apart.
The RFID tag is not embedded in the bar coded label, which means that
both can be read independently and the tag placed in the position of
choice. The separate RF tag application ensures absolute flexibility
in placement, an essential feature for automated systems to ensure tag
readability for different types of products.
“Contact systems may cause degradation of the RFID tag or thermal
print face used to apply the bar code and human readable data,” said
King. “The PTS avoids such issues and, because the system is a modular
design, customers can start quickly with the cost benefits of in-line
digital printing of bar codes and add RFID capability retrospectively
when required.
“There is no need to change print engines or deal with large,
potentially expensive labels with embedded RF tags.”
Additionally problems associated with reading RF tags successfully
when in close proximity to certain materials (metal, liquids) mean
that manufacturers need to build in flexibility for the placement of
the tag on the product. The Domino and Omron system is claimed to
accomplish this by separating the tag and print aspects thus ensuring
the tag is placed in the optimum read position and does not interfere
with the location of the bar code or human readable information.
The system is easily integrated into existing lines to provide bar
coding and RFID encoding and validation in just over one metre of
conveyor length.
Another important advantage of the PTS is that although the RFID tags
and each bar code are validated as part of the coding process it is
possible to provide different levels of information in each. This
means that the different requirements of the bar coding standard
governed by Coding Standard EAN UCC and the information required by
the RFID Mandate being introduced by major retailers are met.
“Recent mandates by larger retailers requiring EPC-compliant RFID
coding of shipments have created a demand for equipment that can apply
and verify those RFID tags,” said Paul Witt, Omron’s strategic sales
manager.
“For many companies, that has meant an additional investment and
higher production costs with no way to recoup them and no off-setting
benefits. The Omron and Domino strategic alliance will help change
that.
The offering goes far beyond these requirements and takes customers
into the ‘comfort zone’ by providing programmable systems for tracking
and tracing that are able to ensure that codes applied at each section
of the factory production are correct.”
Domino Printing Sciences is a leader in ink jet and laser technologies
offering total coding and printing solutions. In 2003 the company had
a turnover in excess of US$295m.
Omron Electronics is a manufacturer and provider of industrial
automation products and solutions. It is the Americas subsidiary of
Omron Corporation, a $5 billion global leading supplier of advanced
electronics and control system components. |
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