The fourth session of the smart label American conference was held in Baltimore. Last year, as last year, more than 400 representatives and more than 20 exhibiting units took part in the meeting. The conference continued the last theme and joined a very important new topic on how to make smart tags. This topic was fully discussed at the conference. At present, most of the world is very clear (not all) tray and packing label to read and write in the UHF frequency, but the use frequency is not applicable to single item labels. The speaker have proposed different frequency 13.56MHz, UHF and 2.45GHz, the frequency of each are mainly based on field experiment.
Dr. Peter Harrop, from IDTechEx, an advisory firm that hosts smart label American conferences every year, started a forum on the scale of applications and market. In 2005, nearly half of the RFID smart cards are in the top position in the market. We are still not sure what the second largest markets in the world will be in terms of value. The label of animals and the label of individual items are the two major competitors in the second major markets. In a word, the current situation is really different from the industry forecast a year ago.
The main reason is that the EPC smart label for drugs, pallets and boxes is only one percent to 1/10 of the expected use compared to the expected level. He explained the problem of ultra high frequency problems, especially the difficulties that were chosen to be used for most pallets and boxes, and considered to be used for a single item label. He was optimistic that a large number of problems beyond what people had expected would be overcome. The supply of UHF labels is rising rapidly.
Military packaging
The Gerald Darsch of the United States military has made a pretty good review of all kinds of smart packaging and RFID applications and developments. Today, most of the military sectors RFID technology works at the 433MHz frequency. Long distance tags are usually induced, but currently, a higher capacity and simpler label is being developed. However, he reminded everyone that the non electronic smart tags have considerable potential. For example, some labels that control the storage of food.
Parcels of the United Parcel Service Company
Bob Nonneman from UPS introduces the application test of passive RFID on active and passive RFID and pallets on vehicles and packages, such as small packages. The 99% read is obtained on a small package - this is the same as the barcode read. Some people have such an impression of UPS: UPS is interested only in UHF and not very concerned about RFID, which is different from its rival DHL. DHL is bidding for one billion 13.56MHz HF tags.
The food and Drug Administration of the United States (FDA)
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Erik Henrikson vividly illustrates the packaging and bring people real terrible consequences of counterfeit drugs, and that although the RFID "pedigree" must and other technologies, including chemical analysis, its tracking capability is the best way to fake. Before 2007, FDA will continue to popularize RFID technology on drugs, and all eyes will focus on the entry into force of the Florida genealogical law before 2006. However, we note that in 2005 only a few drugs are labeled (currently only a powerful painkiller oxycodone hydrochloride Oxycontin), some of which are at the end of the year began, and in 2005 the world put into use billions of prescription drug packaging may be only twenty million by RFID label. As the number of invalid tags is quite large, FDA is concerned about the backup of RFID. Erik indicates that a two-dimensional bar code can also be a good backup. The problem of drug counterfeiting in the United States is small but has become increasingly serious.
Packaging drugs
Although many hospitals are eager to acquire RFID technology, it is a fact that Dr. IN.K.Mun of Aventura hospital and medical center still raises concerns about RFID. For example, the RFID field may change the molecules of large protein cancer drugs with a large number of unstable keys. MIT, HRI and PQRI are investigating the problem. He thinks the use of UHF RFID in hospitals is risky, potentially interfering with the work of cardiac pacemakers, and so on.
The Harvard Medical School is examining this statement. He suggested that health care is a special environment that requires reading a label at a time, which is more essential to a good backup of a failed RFID label. The requirements for health care for RFID are far higher than other areas.
However, 3 to 5 years of investment recovery is acceptable, and for other areas, it requires 1 to 2 years. The battery label must have a life span of at least 3 to 7 years. A dollar - worth patient wristband is a big improvement in a bar code band, but the project has been delayed because of infrastructure problems. The surgeons surgical tool label reads and writes from 125 to 135KHz because it can work under such a frequency band.
Dai Nippon Printing (DNP)
Hiroaki Kabamoto of DNP, Japan, introduced the work of the $12 billion print / electronics company. The company recently issued a metal - resistant 13.56MHz label and tested other labels on books that were stolen from the Japanese comic books.
Conservatively, the total output of DNPs RFID will soon reach one hundred and twenty million per year.
He said the challenge facing the supply chain in Japan is quite different from that in the West. For example, the damage is very low. Since UHF is unregulated in Japan, DNP has its main applications at other frequencies. But it tests the UHF at the Charlotte plant in the United States (Charlotte).
Air luggage