TECHNOLOGY'S EDGE

RFID Inventory Management System

CHARLOTTE, N.C.—Uptown Cycles, an independent retailer of high-performance cycling equipment, has deployed an RFID-enabled inventory management system from UPM Raflatac, Freedom Shopping, and Zebra Technologies at its store here. The FLiP system, designed by Freedom Shopping, integrates into Uptown Cycles' point-of-sale (POS) system, enabling the merchant to harness the power of item-level RFID tagging for electronic article surveillance (EAS) in order to increase inventory accuracy, reduce out-of-stocks, enhance customer experience, and improve store security.

The FLiP system includes fixed and handheld RFID scanners, a software bridge that syncs the RFID tag database with the POS system, a self-service payment kiosk, and an RFID-powered intelligent EAS system. To tag existing inventory or receive new shipments, employees use RFID handhelds to scan product bar codes; the system identifies goods in the POS system, queries for item quantities, and wirelessly sends information to a Zebra Technologies' RZ400 printer. The printer generates a master sales tag, which includes an item description, bar code, and encoded RFID tag.

Merchandise, including bicycles, apparel, safety gear, and food, is tagged with UPM Raflatac Web and ShortDipole UHF RFID tags. Item-level RFID streamlines the checkout process, enabling customers to use the self-service kiosk to check out independently or have a clerk scan all goods for payment simultaneously. The tag data from purchased items is flagged in the system during the payment process, eliminating false alarms associated with non-intelligent EAS systems. As a consequence, employees are able to instantly identify and prevent real instances of pending theft.

"The RFID system designed by Freedom Shopping, UPM Raflatac, and Zebra Technologies helped Uptown Cycles improve operational and customer-facing processes, while reducing shrinkage and theft," says Chris Sheehan, co-owner and manager, Uptown Cycles. "We are using RFID data to remove cost and waste from our processes, which is translating to higher productivity and increased revenue for our store."

IDTechEx Printed 
Electronics USA 
Award Winners

SAN JOSE, Calif.—IDTechEx's Printed Electronics USA conference held in December grew by almost 25 percent compared to 2008, with more than 850 attendees from 28 countries. One of the highlights of the event is the annual IDTechEx Printed Electronics USA Awards ceremony, aimed at recognizing outstanding achievement in the emerging fields of printed electronics.

The 2009 award winners are:

• Best Technical Development Materials Award—Hitachi Chemical, Japan, won this award for development of an inkjet printable low sintering temperature copper ink.

• Best Technical Development Manufacturing Award—Kent Displays won this award for its new roll-to-roll flexible LCD manufacturing line. The custom-designed, multi-million dollar roll-to-roll line is the first of its kind for manufacturing reflective, flexible LCDs.

• Best New Product Development Award—Milone Technologies won for its new eSensor fluid level strip, a fully printed, thin, lightweight, and flexible fluid sensor. The sensor consists of printed conductors on two substrates that are combined and separated by a thin membrane.

• Commercialization Award—FUJIFILM Dimatix won the Commercialization Award for its successful inkjet printer platform, the DMP-2800. The company has sold more than 450 of these printers to organizations around the world to develop printed electronics devices. FUJIFILM reports that sales of the unit have been fairly evenly split in Asia, the U.S., and Europe.

Global Brand Protection Market to Exceed 
$11.4 Billion by 2014

LEATHERHEAD, UK—Led by innovations in RFID, security printing, and 2D bar code technology, the global market for brand protection is expected to be $6.7 billion in 2009, according to a new study by Pira International. With a healthy CAGR of 11.1 percent, this market is projected to reach a value of more than $11.4 billion by 2014.

Based on primary research and expert analysis, "The Future of Anti-Counterfeiting, Brand Protection, and Security V" breaks down the market by technologies, end-use segments, and geographic markets, with five-year forecasts to 2014. The study explains the key drivers and trends shaping the brand protection market and also provides an up-to-date overview of the competitive landscape.

The brand protection market is essentially the incorporation of tamper-evident, anti-counterfeiting, anti-theft, or track-and-trace technology into a product or package to prevent or limit damage from brand attacks. Attacks occur through product counterfeiting, parallel trading, product tampering, and product theft.

The principal technologies used for brand protection are tamper-evident closures/seals, authentication devices, track-and-trace systems, and anti-theft devices. Tamper-evident closures and seals consist of film wrap, shrink wrap, stretch sleeves, blister packs, perforated labels and seals, tear-tapes, and super-strong adhesives and frangible films. Authentication devices include holograms, security inks, security threads and fibers, watermarks, and micro-printing. Track-and-trace systems incorporate linear and 2D bar codes, Datamatrix, sequential numbering, algorithmic codes, and encrypted data, while anti-theft devices include electronic article surveillance (EAS) tags, acoustic magnetic labels, radio frequency (RF) labels, and chip-based and ink-based RFID.

RFID is expected to lead the technology sectors with CAGR of 26.9 percent in the next five years. Other technologies including 2D bar codes are projected to have 13.7 percent growth. The CAGR for security printing is expected to be slightly higher at 14.6 percent. Together with substrates, inks, and coatings, this is expected to account for 60 percent of the total market. Witnessing a CAGR growth of 9.3 percent, holograms and diffractive optically variable image devices (DOVIDs) are predicted to make up the remaining 22 percent. pP