Aug 03, 2017The following are news announcements made during the past week by the following organizations:
IDTechEx;
Verigenics;
B.O.S. Better Online Solutions;
ZKAccess; and
Mobile Experts.
RFID Market to Reach $11.2 Billion This Year, Says IDTechEx
IDTechEx Research, in its new report, "RFID Forecasts, Players and Opportunities 2017-2027", finds that the total radio frequency identification market will be worth $11.2 billion this year, up from $10.52 billion in 2016 and $9.95 billion the year prior. This includes tags, readers, software and services for passive and active RFID labels, cards, fobs and other form factors.
In retail, RFID continues to be rolled out for apparel tagging predominately, according to the report—that application alone will demand 8.7 billion RFID labels in 2017, representing less than 20 percent penetration of the total addressable market for apparel. In other areas, RFID in the form of tickets used for transit will demand 825 million tags, while and the tagging of animals continues to be a legal requirement in many more territories, with 480 million tags being used for this sector this year.
In total, IDTechEx expects that 18.2 billion tags will be sold in 2017 versus 15.2 billion in 2016. Most of that growth is from passive UHF (RAIN) RFID labels. However, UHF RFID tag sales by value will be 25 percent of the value of HF tag sales, mainly because HF tags used for security have a higher price point versus the cheaper, typically disposable labels used for tagging items.
This report provides detailed data and analysis of the entire RFID sector, based on research that has included interviews with RFID adopters and solution providers in various applicational RFID markets. For UHF, HF and LF RFID, the data provided includes numbers of tags, average sales price and total tag value for 24 application categories. Interrogator forecasts are broken down by frequency, and the total RFID value is given for the eleven largest RFID markets.
RFID Company Verigenics Receives ISO 9001:2015 Certification
Following months of preparation, the Verigenics RFID division of NewAge Industries has received ISO 9001:2015 certification. Verigenics provides RFID technology that enables medical device makers, pharmaceutical manufacturers and other regulated companies to track and authenticate consumables, assets and equipment. The new certification also applies to the company's AdvantaPure high-purity products division, which produces silicone tubing, reinforced hoses, molded manifold assemblies and components for the pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical and clean-application industries.
"Previously, our Verigenics and AdvantaPure divisions held ISO 9001:2008 certification," said Mary Marcus, NewAge Industries' director of quality, in a prepared statement. "Our leadership team determined that we needed to update our certification promptly to show our customers that they can depend on receiving the same high quality products time and time again."
Differences between the ISO 9001:2008 requirements and those for ISO 9001:2015 include an increased focus on risk-based thinking and assessment, greater emphasis on leadership involvement and more focus on supply chain. ISO 9001:2015 also uses simplified language and updated terminology.
Team members at NewAge Industries initially met in mid-2016 to begin reviewing the new requirements. Once tasks were completed, a registrar's audit took place, resulting in receipt of the ISO 9001:2015 upgrade.
"This certification was a big undertaking," Marcus said in the prepared statement. "It involved dozens of team members, working individually and in groups, to understand the new requirements and then put plans and actions into place to ensure compliance."
B.O.S. Launches RFID System for Tracking Inventory at Produce Packing House
Better Online Solutions (B.O.S.), an Israeli provider of RFID and mobile solutions, as well as supply chain solutions for enterprises, has announced that its RFID and Mobile Division has launched an RFID-based system for tracking inventory at a produce packing house.
B.O.S. offers integration services and standalone products, including RFID and AIDC hardware and communications equipment, middleware and industry-specific software applications. Its supply chain division offers electronic components consolidation services to the aerospace, defense, medical and telecommunications industries, and to enterprise customers worldwide.
The RFID system enables the automatic tracking of fruit pallets from a sorting machine through various cold-storage rooms until truck loading. It continuously shows the locations of pallets at various stations within the packing house and interfaces with the facility's enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. The solution comprises RFID readers and tags, custom-made software from B.O.S. and the ERP interface.
ZKAccess Releases Multi-Biometric RFID-based Access-Control Device
ZKAccess, a provider of biometric, RFID and access-control solutions, has unveiled what it calls the security industry's first multi-biometric access-control device with SilkID technology.
The company's new ProBio-ID device connects directly to door locks or panels, similar to how a common keypad or RFID card reader would be installed. "ProBio-ID has the unique ability to read faces, fingerprints, RFID cards, PIN codes or any combination of these four credentials," said Larry Reed, ZKAccess' CEO in a prepared statement. The system's facial-recognition camera provides hands-free access control. The solution also includes ZKAccess' SilkID fingerprint sensor.
Mobile Experts Predicts Asset-Tracking IoT Device Market to Triple by 2022
Mobile Experts has released a new report analyzing asset-tracking devices for the Internet of Things (IoT), titled "Asset Tracking IoT Devices 2017." The study illustrates future trends in the transportation, health-care, agriculture, industrial, retail and consumer markets. Technologies for each case are evaluated in detail, including Bluetooth, ultra-wideband (UWB), Wi-Fi, 802.15.4, LPWA, 2G, LTE, NB-IoT, 5G, satellite, infrared, ultrasound, Near Field Communication (NFC) and RFID.
Throughout the past three years, the company reports, technology changes have started to transform the market, with unlicensed LPWA, LTE-M and NB-IoT technologies improving long-range communications with inexpensive modules that can run for years on a small battery. Other improvements in Bluetooth and UWB technology also improve precision and range for the indoor location of devices, the report indicates.
"Basic tracking technologies, like bar codes and RFID, are used heavily in retail and logistics areas today," said Joe Madden, a principal analyst at Mobile Experts, in a prepared statement. "Around 9.6 billion RFID tags were used in 2016, despite the limitations in range and lack of real-time tracking capability. This marks an important baseline in asset tracking because low-cost RFID or bar-code tracking represent indirect competition for investment in enterprise markets, and RFID cost is only $0.10 to $0.50 per tag."
According to the report, roughly 10 million NB-IoT bicycles will be deployed in China this year, while LoRa devices will be found on pallets, trucks, forklifts and other key assets. In addition, the study finds, hospitals that use Wi-Fi to track major assets will have new options for tracking medicines, organs and other highly critical items. Cattle ranchers can increase yield by as much as 10 to 20 percent, the researchers add, as well as prevent theft, injury or other problems with herds.
"Overall, we expect annual shipments of asset-tracking IoT devices to grow from 22 million to 70 million by 2022," Madden said in the prepared statement. "What's more, about half of these devices will send data through a cloud-based service provider, driving service revenue growth from $2.2 billion in 2016 to $7.5 billion in 2022."
