RFID Laundry management System
There are four main components we
will be discussing in RFID Laundry management System, the first is the RFID
reader. Now, that is the brains of your hardware system, that's what is going
to communicate with your computer in a second part, with your back-end system.
So the reader needs to be connected through the antenna which is
the third part, which is the actual "RF" hardware, it is what allows
you to transmit radio frequency information. It has to be connected by a cable
to the antenna which then communicates to the fourth part, which is the tag.
Moreover are going to focus on UHF
RFID tags. There are three main components we would like to focus on pertaining
to (Ultra High Frequency) UHF RFID tags. The first is the integrated circuit of
your RFID tag. Now, that is again a small brain of your tag, that's where all
the information is saved, and the main thing that differentiates one integrated
circuit from another is the memory size.
Laundry Tracking System
What capacity does that chip have
to be stored and saved with unique information? If you need to save a lot of
unique information on the tag, then you're going to need more expensive, more
powerful IC. The second component is the antenna that is actually part of the
tag. In general, a bigger antenna is going to allow for a bigger reading range.
There are two environmental
settings that can cause problems for UHF RFID, and those are metal and water.
High metal settings and high water environments can cause interference or
dampening of RF waves that can affect your reading ranges and your readability,
whether one can read the tag or not?
Thirdly is the encasement, and
that could take a multitude of different form factors. The most basic is just
your inlay, and that's as simple as you can get with just an IC and the
antenna. And this is a good example of just an inlay. The second is you can
take that inlay and you can put a face on it and you can print on it and make a
label. These are not much more durable than inlays, they just have a face that
a human could read. The third and the most complicated is the hard tag setting.
Working of RFID CHIP:
Now, that's where you take the IC
and put it in plastic or a hard shell that can make it more durable,
impact-resistant, and temperature resistant. Here are some examples. This
tag happens to be very temperature resistant. Example is this on the ID tag.
Super durable, you could hit it with a hammer and it would be fine.
Other tags are designed to be
embedded in metal, where, like we talked about metal messing with the antenna,
some tags have backings that allow them to compensate for that and can still be
read in high metal or high water environments. That I'm pretty much wrapping it
up for RFID tag information.
We have seen and understood what
is RFID CHIP, but how does it even work? It is just a tiny chip like thing
embedded inside a card holder. Does it require a battery to
operate? Well, most chip call tags do not need a battery because
they draw power from whatever equipment happens to be reading them. Credit
cards and wristbands are classified as passive and only consist of a tiny
antenna and embedded CPU to process radio waves and a small amount of data
storage.
They are small and low-power,
enough to just grab energy from a powered chip reader making them convenient
enough to use just about anywhere.
To keep power consumption low enough and to keep costs down, they can be powered by radio waves. So it can be fixed everywhere. These tags hold only a few kilo bytes of data, which is fine because in today's connected world you don't need more than a few kilobytes for storage on the chip. It is an incredibly useful tool.
RFID CHIP
With it many useful
things that can be done with a few kilobytes, paperless ticketing for events
and Apple Pay which uses NFC (which we will discussed in another article) a
two-way short-range form of RFID comes to mind. Thanks to many card readers.
Like your cell phone for example having
their own network connections. RFIDs are often simply used as pointers to more
information or more complex functionality. Casinos have these chips in their
device to help people from pulling into Ocean's eleven and you can even have a
tag attached to your dog to find them, if he decides to run away because you
spent all night playing counter-strike and forgot to feed the poor soul.
Imagine bar-code tags replacing this tag on everything you purchase, you can
just walk out of the store with all your new stuff and an RFID scanner will
read your tags and credit card or debit cards to automatically bill, you know,
checkout lines require mind-blowing attention. This means there are an even
number of projects around where RFID automation can be used.
Advantages of RFID Technology:
RFID technology is similar to barcodes, but with a few
major advantages like:
Hundreds of
tags can be read at a time in seconds;
·
Alignment of sight is not needed to read tags;
·
These tags can be very durable.
·
These tags hold more data than any other type of tags or labels;
· Read
range for an RFID system that can be controlled as needed from 0 up to
150 meters;
· Tags
can be encrypted or arranged to get locked for security;
· Tag
memory can be rewritten and reused; and, lastly,
· RFID
systems vary in cost depending on functionality.
If you have ever used an access
card or fob to get into a building, passed through an automated toll collection
system on a highway, used the remote control to open your garage door, or use a
reusable phone-based transit pass, you have used RFID.
These tags have a wide range of
applications, including building access control; vehicle theft; timing for
races, like marathons and triathlons; tracking valuable assets; checking media
in libraries; tracking attendees at trade shows, concerts, and events; and
tracking inventory in industries like retail, health care, and construction.
Conclusion RFID:
Especially, large laundry projects, large corporations, hospitals where tons of linens are washed and delivered every day, it becomes manually difficult rather impossible to keep track of each and every linen coming out of the laundry section with 100% accuracy. Tracking the number of linens delivered at different departments, preventing the transit losses, has saved a huge amount of revenue otherwise required to appoint the number of laborers. It is used by the corporation to track the position of uniforms, whether they are washed or not in the laundry. Use of RFID has expedited production, pickup and delivery and the billing process, majorly in the laundry business. Thanks RFID for making automation in the laundry and many other such sectors. Laundry tags played a major role in automation.
