Siemens Simatic rugged RFID range

Siemens is strengthening its RFID range in the UHF range with a range of products including antennas, a mobile reader as well as heat-resistant, compact data carriers in the Smart Label format, suitable for harsh environments including logistics, material handling and, increasingly, in production.

The Simatic RF640A antenna operates using circular polarisation, while the Simatic RF642A uses linear polarisation - both with a dimension of 185 x 185 x 45 mm. Depending on the reader used, the range of these antennas can be up to four metres. Meeting the requirements of protection IP67 and designed for operating temperatures of -25 to +75°C, these antennas are suitable for indoor and outdoor applications.

The Simatic RF680M mobile RFID reader includes a colour display with VGA resolution (640x480 pixels) and an ergonomic keypad. With improved readability and single-handed operability due to the rearrangement of keys, the reader has an increased transmit power (500 mW ERP), an improved CPU performance (624 MHz) and expanded memory (1 GB Flash and 256 MB RAM). The programming interfaces allow the customer to create their own RFID applications for the mobile reader, and can easily be integrated into existing IT networks and infrastructures using the standard Windows CE operating system.

The Simatic RF680L Smart Label RFID data carrier can tolerate one hour at temperatures of up to 220°C or six hours at temperatures of up to 200°C, suitable for demanding industrial applications such as painting lines and other high-temperature applications.