Impinj, the RAIN RFID solutions provider, has unveiled the Impinj R700 reader, which is expected to further enhance track-and-trace and asset management capabilities in logistics operations. RAIN RFID is a battery-free, wireless technology that can communicate with up to 1,000 items per second without line of sight.
Businesses leveraging RAIN RFID technology can connect relevant items within warehouses — like pallets, boxes, totes, clothing and perishable goods — to the Internet and gather real-time data about those things. Real-time insights into warehousing operations is critical for optimization, helping businesses take action at the right place and the right time.
The benefit of RFIDs is the way they can phase out several processes that today are handled manually. With RFIDs, goods and assets can be tracked as they move in and out of a facility, delivering visibility, creating confirmation or exception alerts, and initiating workflows — processes that are entirely automated.
Content verification is possible, with inventories being identified and validated during the packing or pallet build process, ensuring the content is in line with the documentation and alerts are sent out if there is a mix-up.
“The Impinj platform, comprised of RAIN endpoints ICs, connectivity and software, helps companies eliminate manual processes, increase efficiency and gain insight into every item in their supply chain,” Gaylene Meyer, vice president of global marketing and communications at Impinj, told FreightWaves.
The newly launched R700 reader is an extension of the Impinj platform, which has the largest installed base of fixed readers in the market right now. The R700 is built on the Impinj Speedway reader family and comes with an improved internal and external design, and increased capacity for on-reader applications.
Meyer explained that the R700 can read smaller and global RAIN RFID tags at high speed, allowing developers to deploy sophisticated on-reader tag-processing algorithms that leverage low-latency connectivity to enterprise internet of things (IoT) applications. Moreover, the reader also addresses the security needs of Impinj’s enterprise customers.
The pilot tests with Impinj’s early-access partners have been very positive. For instance, Smart Label Solutions, a company focused on automating and optimizing supply chains, has noted that the R700 reader helped it deliver superior performance by processing tags faster, while also improving product read accuracy.
“Both IoT developers and enterprise companies will benefit from the Impinj R700 readers. Enterprises that are deploying RAIN RFID at a large scale will benefit from the Impinj R700 reader’s increased performance, reliability, security and deployment simplicity,” Meyer said. “Developers looking to design IoT applications will appreciate the reader’s high performance, standard development tools and other features that simplify deployments.”
Impinj has future-proofed the R700 reader, designing it while keeping advanced RAIN RFID tags of the future in mind. Those tags are expected to be smaller and more global, and they might even be embedded in products, making them more challenging to read. “With the fast, accurate reading of small, global RAIN RFID tags, the Impinj R700 reader advances the performance of use cases, including threshold transitions, loss prevention and inventory management,” Meyer added.