Forklift News - Fully integrated RFID forklift now on sale

The fully integrated RFID forklift will be on show at the Wireless World exhibition in Sydney this month.

Peacock Bros, Intermec Inc, Alpha Warehouse Solutions and Cascade Australia have completed construction of what the partners say is Australia’s first fully integrated radio frequency identification (RFID) forklift.

Intermec supplied the RFID equipment; Peacock Bros was responsible for installation, software, customisation and assembly; Alpha provided the forklift; and Cascade supplied the backrests.

Craig McKenzie, Peacock Bros marketing coordinator, said the RFID units would retail for about AUD20,000, including programming, and could be fitted to new forklifts pre-delivery or to "any normal forklift".

"It is based on a prototype developed by Intermec Inc (Forkliftaction.com News http://www.forkliftaction.com/news/newsdisplay.asp?nwid=3850). It has wireless internet and Bluetooth capabilities or data can be uploaded through batching; a physical update," he said.

The RFID readers and antennas were pre-mounted in backrests and hard-wired to CV30 computer terminals in forklift cabins. The readers captured information on RFID Gen 2-tagged boxes, pallets and products.

The computer terminal was wirelessly connected to central inventory and management systems to enable data sharing between warehouse floors and main office computers.

McKenzie said preliminary tests showed the system could process RFID-tagged items three times faster than conventional barcoded systems.

The fully integrated RFID forklift was "the missing link" in RFID technology because it meant drivers did not have to leave forklift cabins to scan boxes by hand.

"You don’t even need to have line of sight with the barcodes. It can read codes even if they are hidden in a stack of boxes and can identify multiple tags. The beam you get on a hand-held scanner is nothing like the beam you get on this unit," he said.

Middleware software meant the RFID units could translate forklifts’ native computer language to warehouse systems, so it was not necessary to upgrade full computer systems.

The RFID forklift will be on show at the Wireless World exhibition in Sydney this month and the Matex exhibition, in Melbourne, in May.

McKenzie said Peacock Bros had several major transport companies interested in the technology, but no sales had been made yet.

Discuss Forkliftaction.com News stories in the Discussion Forums!