Industrial RFID partners go from tags to systems

KeyTone Technologies and Escort Memory Systems partnered to expand the breadth of radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies to industry. KeyTone provides the Work-In-Process (W.I.P) Solution to help enterprises extend manufacturing capabilities by benchmarking production and increasing throughput and yields. Those products use RFID technology from Escort Memory Systems for tags, readers, and connectivity.

The companies operate in many sectors including complex automation applications, such as automotive, electronics, and pharmaceutical. The companies previously worked together at customers’ requests. Wide-ranging applications require connectivity to industrial devices including programmable logic controllers (PLCs), human machine interface (HMIs), and operational controls that use RFID properties, such as writing to tag memory, large on-board memory, re-usability, and durability in harsh environments. KeyTone uses RFID specific capabilities “to provide complete solutions to industrial and commercial customers. Combined with Escort’s focus on rugged industrial tags, readers and industrial connectivity, the partnership brings a new level of capability to the industrial RFID customer,” the companies said in a joint statement.

—Edited by Mark T. Hoske , Control Engineering editor in chief