A potential US customer wants radio-frequency-identification (RFID) technology on its battery-powered forklifts and is evaluating possible competing commercial systems including one from M/A-COM technology solutions of Lowell.

While contract negotiations are under way, M/A-COM is viewing a wider market and has not priced its system.

"Our current plan is to launch the system at the ProMat show in January," Joe Doran, M/A-COM's RFID business development manager, tells Forkliftaction.com News.

For almost a year, M/A-COM has been designing and developing a sensor-based integrated RFID forklift system to meet the unidentified customer's demand, Doran notes. "We are addressing four use cases: slotting pallets in a rack-configured warehouse, receiving, shipping and cross-docking." M/A-COM intends to address the pick-use application later.

As designed, a user could retrofit the M/A-COM system to an existing electric forklift. The M/A-COM concept has gone "from scratch through a couple of generations" with a number of prototypes finding their way into field trials, Doran says in a telephone interview.

Further development may modify the system for propane-powered forklifts.

In working toward the customer's goal, M/A-COM set out to design a system to fit the uses rather than offering "components the end user would cobble together," Doran says.

For the system, M/A-COM designed ultra-high-frequency (UHF) antennas and a controller board to make the UHF sensors work together. The goal: "have something simple for the end user," Doran says.

Going forward, M/A-COM anticipates its biggest business segments will involve the sensor-based RFID forklift system and other technology for UHF portals for warehouse- and retailer backroom-related direction-of-travel detection. "On the portal side, we have sold 15,000 (units) already," Doran notes.

Cobham plc of Wimborne, England acquired M/A-COM in September from Tyco Electronics Ltd of Berwyn, Pennsylvania, United States and operates the commercial M/A-COM technology solutions business for possible spin off or resale. Cobham's defence systems division is absorbing the M/A-COM aerospace and defence business, which Cobham targeted in the deal.