Holland Nameplate Inc, a manufacturer of nameplates and durable radio frequency identification (RFID) products, envisions harsh-environment applications for materials handling equipment.

For asset tracking purposes, "materials handling is done through barcodes, but they do not work in all applications", says Jim Stradinger, co-owner and president of parent company Holland 1916 Inc in North Kansas City. "Durable RFID products allow us to take advantage of that in real-time warehouse systems."

Stradinger characterises the stereotype of RFID being too expensive as one of the "biggest misnomers". Those operating equipment in the harshest of environments - cold-storage freezer conditions or rugged oil-and-gas operations - know that a barcode may not perform properly or provide a useful read range.

As a conduit, RFID enables a forklift manufacturer's service technician visiting a customer to use a personal digital assistant to scan the tag, identify what work needs to be done that day and quickly provide a customer with the forklift's operational background to make a decision regarding the next step, possibly involving a lease or purchase.

Holland Nameplate works with oilfield services giant Halliburton Co of Houston, Texas using RFID to track the movement of equipment and is connecting with a major automotive manufacturer using RFID to electronically verify the existence of tools and moulds at Tier 1, 2 and 3 suppliers. The auto maker "must prove the assets are real", Stradinger reports. "We are in the process of saving them millions of dollars."

Meanwhile, Stradinger says that Holland Nameplate is in multiple stages of RFID-adoption processes with potential customers in the materials handling business.

Holland Nameplate says the standard manual recording method for preventive maintenance work leaves room for error and can fall short in the areas of traceability and accountability. In a typical RFID preventive maintenance monitoring system, the asset's entire repair and maintenance history is recorded automatically to the RFID tag. That tag can be affixed on a repair tag, attached to the asset or embedded within the product.

A service provider with a handheld reader can record all relevant information including service date and time, who performed the service, what happened and when the equipment should be serviced again.

To underscore the rugged nature of Holland's technology, the company welded its tags to the bumpers of a demolition derby car that went through multiple contacts. The tags were embedded with ultra-high-frequency Xerafy transponders and high-frequency transponders and, as shown in a 24 July YouTube video, came through unscathed.

In addition to the nameplate-RFID business, Holland, which was founded in 1916, has two other operating companies. Holland Interface Solutions Inc manufactures membrane and elastomeric switches, touchscreens, labels, overlays and castings. Holland Integrated Metal Solutions Inc makes operator cabs, consoles, enclosures, panels, metal fabrication and electro-mechanical assemblies.

Previously, Stradinger was with Raymond forklift dealership Malin Integrated Handling Solutions and Design, an operation of Malin Inc in Addison, Texas.