What Is RFID & How Will It Impact My Business?

Radio Frequency (RF) technology has been around since WWII, when the Allied Forces first used it to identify friendly aircraft. Today this technology is used for mobile phones, toll tags, fuel pump key fobs, animal tracking both wild and domestic as well as many other applications.

In this booklet we will discuss the use of RF in automatic identification systems, the most rapidly growing segment of today's automatic data collection (AIDC) industry. RFID (radio frequency identification) uses radio frequency signals to identify "tagged" items, cases and pallets as they move through the supply chain. This data is then collected and transmitted to a host system using an RF Reader.

A Basic RFID System

• RFID Device (transponder, tag, smart label, card, etc.) – contains data about the tagged item
• Antenna – transmits the RF signals between the reader and the RFID device
• Reader – receives RF transmissions from an RFID device and transmits to a host system for processing

Will RFID Replace Barcodes?

Most experts agree that RFID will coexist with traditional barcodes for many years to come. RFID is an extension of barcode data collection systems for enhanced tracking of items through the supply chain network.

New RFID label printers marry these two technologies for the best of both worlds. These printers are able to print barcodes, human-readable text, and graphics on the surface of a pressure sensitive label and then encode the RFID chip embedded as part of the label.