A Quick Tour of RFID in Manufacturing Dennis Carmichael, President
Introduction Cimulus, Inc. Data Collection and Management Focused on using technology for efficiency and accuracy Former member of EPCglobal, defining the EPC standard Me Electrical engineer, co-founder of Cimulus and ERT Systems Career in developing practical applications for technology Dennis Carmichael of Cimulus, Inc.
What is RF-ID? The Technology: Evolutionary Just another member of the Auto-ID family, alongside bar codes, OCR, image processing, thumbprint scanners, etc. Use-Cases: Revolutionary? No silver bullet, but offers some unique capabilities that open a few new doors Radio-Frequency Identification RFID is one of many Auto-ID Technologies
Applying RF-ID Comparison of RFID vs. Bar codes Extremely Cheap & Reliable Technically Simple Large Existing Infrastructure
Passive Read with No Line-of-Sight More Data, such as Serial Numbers Read/Write capability Physical & Data Security Extremely Cheap & Reliable Technically Simple Large Existing Infrastructure Applying RF-ID Comparison of RFID vs. Bar codes
Applications Locating and Tracking Dies, reusable containers, tools and inventory: watch them without expanding procedures Putting RFID to Practical use Pack/Ship Validation Portal readers to verify part type, quantity, and serial numbers, post-pack / pre-ship
Washable Tags for Textiles Rugged tags that can be read without careful positioning, auto-sorting at high speeds Liquid/Hazardous Chemicals Unwieldy & heavy containers, meeting tracking & reporting requirements without system integration Applications Putting RFID to Practical use
Read range & Interference Distance and orientation, materials, and “shadowing” Reliability & Costs “Off the roll” quality (<100%), damage in use, costs vary wildly EPCglobal, ISO, Local Standards Frequency band allocations, signal strengths, even privacy Industry Adoption 30+ years of semi-custom applications Challenges Think Win-Win… The Only Way It’ll Work
Thank You! Dennis Carmichael Cimulus, Inc. (734)