TPi July 2009

RFID users face obstacles to find a tag that is simultaneously well-performing, easily installable and cost-effective. Due to the traditional problem of RFID labels’ inability to function on metal surfaces, there have been challenges in those applications where on-metal hard tags cannot be used. With up to 10m (32ft) read range on metal surfaces, UHF Class 1 Generation 2 compliant Confidex SteelWING was designed to overcome the challenges of metal asset tagging. The key design targets were high performance, compact structure and cost-efficiency. The lightweight tag has an adhesive background and can be directly attached to a metal surface without any extra spacer material. The drawback of label solutions where the RFID label is lifted away from the metal surface is that when the antenna bends closer to metal and the distance to metal reduces, the RFID label performance decreases significantly. Instead of avoiding metal contact, contact between the metal and the antenna of SteelWING actually improves the operational performance. Wide-band Confidex SteelWING is equipped with NXP G2XM IC which has extended user memory, and Confidex can deliver the SteelWINGs with pre-encoding or customer specific data labels showing visually the encoded data in barcode or human readable form. SteelWING is often selected when the use of hard tags is not justifiable due to cost, and when there is no need for ultimate mechanical protection for the tag. The product therefore fills the gap in the market caused by the lack of suitable high-performance RFID labels for metal surfaces.

Confidex – Finland contact@confidex.fi www.confidex.fi On/off magnetic tube and pipe lifter

The new Magnetic Tube Lifter from Industrial Magnetics, Inc is designed to assist in stacking, destacking, loading and unloading for a variety of steel tube and pipe applications. The Magnetic Tube Lifter incorporates several powerful, rare earth permanent magnets, which can move many round, square or custom shaped tubes at once, reducing cycle times in tube handling applications. The design of the magnetic circuit prevents tubes from rolling or shifting during transport. In addition, the Magnetic Tube Lifter positively holds the load during transfer and only requires a short burst of shop air to release. This failsafe design requires no electricity or battery backup, and prevents the load from being dropped during a power outage or system air loss, ensuring safer working conditions. The Tube Lifter is suitable for destacking nested tubing, hydroforming, roll forming, packing, cutting or tube and pipe fabrication applications.

Industrial Magnetics, Inc – USA imi@magnetics.com www.magnetics.com

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July 2009 Tube Products International