New ‘In Motion’ UHF RFID reading systems to read clothes and linen in movement without loss of accuracy!

On its 30th anniversary, Datamars, the global suppliers of high performance laundry identification solutions, releases two innovative tracking systems which will provide greater efficiencies for large-scale laundry businesses and for laundries operated by hospitals, nursing homes and hotels.

• the new Ultra High Frequency (UHF) OPEN TUNNEL: a plug and play system compatible with virtually any conveyor belt. The tunnel reads stacks of folded textiles with unprecedented accuracy and is totally transparent to laundry operations.
• the new UHF PORTAL PLUS that represents a new approach to read moving trolleys with no compromise on reading accuracy or stray reads.

 
While UHF technology reads hundreds of tags per second and can deal with reading distances up to 8m, the technology is subject to signal reflection. Signal reflection can lead to stray tag readings which can result to incorrect billing, inventory or delivery. Usually the solution to the stray read problem is to use metal-shielding in order to confine the UHF field inside the reading system, like a UHF cabin or UHF closed tunnel. These systems are highly accurate but tend to slow down the laundry flow as they are adding an extra step to the process. The two new In Motion UHF systems overcomes this weakness by allowing the tunnel and portal to read tags while the trolley or the stack of laundry are moving, with no compromise to stray reads.

The new UHF Portal Plus combines the reading performances of a cabin with the ease of operation of a portal. Thanks to its capability to filter stray reads, Datamars UHF Portal Plus can be used to read carts packed with clean stacks of laundry. The UHF Portal Plus can read up to 500 pieces at regular walking speed. It is the perfect solution to read a large number of clean laundry but can also be used in any area were bulk reading is needed without slowing down the flow.

The new UHF Open Tunnel has been designed to work on virtually any laundry conveyor belt. It’s the perfect reading system to read clean packs of laundry.

As the tunnel is completely open it doesn’t interfere with the flow of linen and its operation is transparent to the laundry process. Stray reads are filtered out by software algorithms.

The tunnel also automatically adapts to different conveyor speeds. Built from lightweight aluminium and stainless steel, it resists the harshest laundry environments.

Datamars, this year also drastically improved its UHF Cabinets reading speed, halving the time required by previous generation Datamars UHF systems.

Now Datamars UHF cabinets take just 3.5 seconds on average to read a trolley containing 1,000 items, so a laundry utilising the UHF cabinets at full capacity, will gain almost 1 hour per shift making it more efficient. -

Thanks to these strategical launches, Datamars reading systems portfolio can be now considered the most extensive and encompasses different product categories to meet any customer need: portals (fast and reliable they are perfect for bulk scanning for both clean and soil linen), cabinets (to read 1000s of linen in a few seconds with an unsurpassed level of accuracy), tunnels (to read stacks of linen after folding), conveyor systems (to read hanging garments), table tops and combo systems UHF-HF-LF to support customers transitioning to newer technologies.

“Last year we released the FT401, our smallest UHF Laundry Chip ever, with the goal of making the tag completely unnoticeable when placed inside the textile. We are following the same approach with reading systems that we design so they can be smoothly integrated into the work flow, without interfering with the laundry process. We aim to make the technology as ‘invisible’ as possible to the user.” says Julien Buros, Product and Services Director at Datamars Textile ID.

“We know laundries work on a very tight schedule where every second counts. A few months ago, we announced the fastest UHF cabin which can read up to 1,000 tags in just 3.5 seconds. We are now going one step further with the release of the ‘In Motion’ reading systems that are able to accurately scan moving trolleys or stack of laundry.”.

Datamars Textile ID, leading global supplier of RFID-based identification solutions for industrial laundries, has officially announced its strategic partnership in the laundry market with Impinj, a leading provider of RAIN RFID solutions.

Datamars and Impinj will collaborate to bring the laundry market continuous progress and innovations. This partnership indeed combines Datamars’ unsurpassed expertise in the industrial laundry vertical segment with Impinj’s platform based on RAIN RFID and best-in-class know-how, to deliver new RAIN RFID-based solutions with a higher added value: the most advanced technological content deployed in ID solutions perfectly customized for the needs and features of the industrial laundry field.

In the last years, more and more laundries have been implementing RAIN RFID systems not only to reach higher productivity and to avoid linen losses, but also to offer to their end-customers new RAIN RFID-based commercial concepts and services, standing out their offer from competitors.

Thus, nowadays the competitive advantage for modern industrial laundries is granted by being equipped with the best-in-class laundry-applied RAIN RFID technology available on the market, choosing the right RAIN RFID- supplier that can grant them the easy and prompt access to the best solutions and most recent innovations. Being simply RAIN RFID-equipped, on the contrary, has shown not to be sufficient anymore.

This new partnership is particularly aimed to benefit industrial laundries by assuring a continuous and synergistic research and development between the two companies, releasing together new state-of-the-art products and innovative concepts for the laundry market.

Datamars’ last product launch, the new “LaundryChipTM 401”, that integrates Impinj’s state-of-the-art “Monza R6-P” tag chip, is the smart example of this close collaboration. Taking advantage of the Impinj Monza R6-P’s extremely high sensitivity, Datamars’ engineers succeeded in creating the most sensitive and robust LaundryChipTM in the smallest dimensions ever. The revolutionary automatic performance adjustment system embedded in the Impinj Monza R6-P guarantees that the LaundryChipTM 401 exhibits the highest reading performances throughout the whole laundry process.

Together with the transponders, another co-innovation focus area is the readers’ product line: Impinj’s best-in- class Speedway readers are the core of laundry-customized reading systems deployed by Datamars.

Furthermore, Datamars and Impinj have developed together a laundry-specific software layer, running on Impinj readers, which enables laundry managers to quickly deploy the RAIN RFID system, having a plug & play solution. This specific software layer named “Standalone” is enhanced with laundry-specific features that increase the reading reliability and allows Laundries using Low and High Frequency (LF and HF) RFID technology to smoothly transition to UHF technology, now referred to as RAIN RFID.

“As we enter a new era of RFID-centric processes, characterized by mature markets, companies must join their forces and different expertise to co-innovate and anticipate their customers’ needs. This close collaboration between our companies allows the prompt deployment of the last break-through technologies to the laundry field.” said Mr. Riccardo Mazzolini, Datamars Textile ID General Manager. “By combining Datamars’ laundry market expertise with Impinj’s technologic one, we can identify together new exciting business opportunities, creating innovative RAIN RFID-based concepts and services, with the guarantee, thanks to Impinj, to offer to our customers the best technology available on the market.”

“Automating processes, improving timeliness of services, and reducing inventory shrinkage help laundryfacilities maximize their profits and deliver quality service to customers,” said Larry Arnstein, VP of Solutions and Business Development at Impinj. “The Datamars and Impinj solution was developed for those customer needs and brings together the strength of the Impinj platform with Datamars’ excellence and expertise in industrial laundry.”

Unsurpassed reading performance in the slimmest LaundryChip ever!

Datamars, a leading global supplier of high performance unique-identification solutions specializing in RFID, announces the release of its new disruptive generation of UHF transponders.

The LaundryChip 401 is the latest addition to Datamars’ very successful LaundryChipTM family, the first transponder line specifically designed for the industrial laundry sector.

“Nowadays our customers – industrial laundries, textiles rental companies, hospitals and hospitality chains – need transponders not only able to endure the harshest industrial laundry conditions but also as small as possible in order to easily embed them in the finest flat linen and garment items” says Mr. Riccardo Mazzolini, Datamars Textile ID General Manager. “We have responded by introducing our slimmest UHF transponder ever, keeping, and even improving, the mechanical resistance and best-in-class electronic performance that characterizes our LaundryChip family.”

The new LaundryChip 401 is the culmination of Datamars’ 30-year expertise in RFID technology, meeting the extremely demanding requirements that an industrial laundry expects from a transponder. Compared to Datamars’ 301 UHF transponder line, the thickness has been halved and the width reduced by 33%. This makes the 401 the thinnest LaundryChip in the market, with no compromise on electrical performance. ISO 18000-6C compliant, resistant to high temperatures and tested in real-world laundries for over 200 cycles, Datamars’ new UHF LaundryChipTM 401 endures up to 60 bar of pressure and has guaranteed performance in laundries’ harshest conditions. With ultra-high density bulk reading of thousands of pieces and reading distances of up to six meters (or 19 feet), the new LaundryChipTM 401 features top-class electrical performances.

This new soft, flexible and slim transponder can be inserted in very small flat linen items such as pillowcases or napkins, as well as into the finest garments. Its small size enables a new set of applications from tracking of luxury linen to identification of private garments. The extraordinary no-wear feeling and unnoticeable look greatly improves the comfort of wearing a transponder.

To suit every customer’s needs, Datamars’ New UHF LaundryChip 401 is available in three versions, depending on the application method: 401 Source Tagging (to be inserted directly into a hem), 401 Patchable (heat-sealable) and 401 In Pouch, each very quick and easy to apply. Furthermore, the 401 is laser markable with the EPC code.

“The launch of this next generation transponder family is another important milestone for Datamars” concludes Julien Buros, Textile ID Product and Services Director at Datamars, “the 401 achieves a drastic reduction of physical dimensions while reading performance reaches new heights, especially in high density bulk. The 401 completes our high-performance UHF LaundryChip portfolio, widely enlarging its use in both the flat linen and the garment segments. Slimmer and stronger than ever, it can be embedded in every kind of textile and meets every kind of application requirement.”

The new UHF LaundryChip 401 will start shipping in May 2017.