Page 12 - Logistics News June 2019

Thought Leadership

New RFID staple

tag for rough wood

By Claire Swedberg, courtesy RFID Journal

Utility Composites has created a tag that can be stapled directly into a tree, plank,
pallet, railroad tie or other wooden item, with a read range of 35 feet, and which
can be read through water.

WHILE THE forestry service provides a use
case for ultra-high frequency radio-frequency
identifi cation (UHF RFID) technology – tracking
each felled tree or each cut plank from forest
to retail – there hasn’t been an RFID tag that
is uniquely suited for this environment. Rough
wood doesn’t lend itself well to adhesives, so UHF
RFID labels could be knocked or blown off . Tags
screwed into the wood can create problems for
mills that use cutting equipment incompatible
with metal. They also require several minutes for
installation.
Utility Composites, a Texas-based fastener
company, has built its solution to this problem with
a passive UHF RFID-enabled plastic staple that can
be quickly embedded via a staple gun. Until now,
timber and forestry companies have been printing
stamped metal tags that show an ID number, and
that are then removed from the trees as they are section, and read each tag via a handheld UHF
shipped. Barcodes were the other alternative, RFID reader to add that log to the inventory. The
but these don’t withstand weather conditions or reader could be linked via Bluetooth to a mobile
the heat of the drying ovens at a sawmill. Often, device, and users could input data about the
as much as 10 percent of felled trees still end up wood. Each log is thereby assigned a value that is
missing – typically, they aren’t collected from the linked to the tag’s unique ID number.
forest fl oor, or they might roll to places where they When logs are delivered to the mill, they are
then remain undetected. offl oaded into a pile to be de-barked and cut into
Utility Composites’ plastic RFID staple tag can planks. During the debarking phase and before
be stapled directly into wood within a fraction of the planks are cut, the tags can be read again.
second. The tag is not only ruggedised to ensure Because the tags are made of plastic, they pose
it remains in the wood and functioning properly, no problems for the wood-cutting equipment, and
but comes with an extended antenna that enables thus do not need to be removed. Once the logs are
it to be read from a long distance. It has a built-in cut into lumber and stacked, the sawmill can use
Impinj UHF RFID chip. a new tag to track each time to the drying ovens,
The company makes three lines of fasteners: into dry inventory and on to the planer.
Raptor Nails, Black Magic Staples and the recently The SunDog staple tag has been tested
released SunDog RFID staples. The SunDog brand underwater and has been found to transmit data
resulted from forestry industry requests. To use the when submerged. Utility Composites is selling its
staples, lumbermen fi rst fell a tree, then cut it into product to systems integrators, as well as to end
sections, staple a SunDog tag to the end of each users. •

10 June 2019 | Logistics News