Accu-Sort partners with ThingMagic on RFID

As a leader in the auto ID market, Accu-Sort understands what it takes to integrate ThingMagic's Mercury4 reader technology into a system to solve the toughest of RFID supply chain challenges.

Accu-Sort specializes in developing over the conveyor (OTC) RFID tracking systems for providing enhanced non-line-of-sight asset visibility within the supply chain.

Accu-Sort has deployed these systems extensively, including an installation at one of the major retailer distribution centers, where every inbound RFID carton traveling over the conveyor passes through its RFID multi-protocol tracking systems.

These systems are the industry's first and only to singulate between boxes at high speeds, made possible through a combination of Accu-Sort patented software and antenna designs.

The partnership with ThingMagic will further enhance Accu-Sort's product portfolio for similar applications.

"We are pleased to partner with Accu-Sort Systems," said Larry Moore, vice president of Business Development at ThingMagic.

"As a leader in the auto ID market, with more than 30 years of material handling experience, Accu-Sort understands what it takes to integrate ThingMagic's Mercury4 reader technology into a system to solve the toughest of RFID supply chain challenges." Tags are the consumables of the RFID world, but the permanent infrastructure is composed of RFID readers, bought as capital equipment and installed and maintained at an ongoing additional expense, he said.

"Tags may come and go, but readers are forever.

To avoid painful obsolescence or costly retrofits, deployment-scale RFID readers must be able to read any tag, regardless of generation or vendor." ThingMagic's software defined radio (SDR) reader architecture can be easily upgraded to account for new tags, adapt to new protocols as they are released by the international standards body EPCglobal and accommodate changes to existing tags as tag vendors change silicon revisions.

"EPC readers must always be able to read at least three generations of tags - the current one, the previous one and the next one," Moore said.

"ThingMagic and Accu-Sort use SDR technology to accomplish this complex task to ensure interoperability among EPC generations." SDR is an advanced radio technology in which the modulation and demodulation of radio signals is performed exclusively by software.

In the RFID context, this means that new communication protocols can be added with straightforward software upgrades, and an SDR-based reader can easily handle multiple protocols simultaneously.

Accu-Sort has a number of deployments using the ThingMagic reader, including an ongoing effort to install more than 60 read points in one facility, tied together using the Accu-Sort software layer.

This application requires both reading and writing to RFID tags as they pass on a conveyor.

ThingMagic readers are FCC certified in conjunction with Accu-Sort's RFID application specific antennas.

"The strength of the ThingMagic reader along with Accu-Sort application specific antennas and software will strengthen our best-in-class integration offering," said Frank LaBarbera, Accu-Sort's director of RFID product management.

Using ThingMagic's SDR-based platform, Accu-Sort will enhance its leadership in offering OTC multi-protocol applications.

These solutions will be able to read Class 1, Class 0 and Generation 2 tags at the same time, LaBarbera said.

As a systems provider and integrator, Accu-Sort's real world experience with Generation 2 tags will create updates that deliver continually improving performance, he added.

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