Element ID Uses Mercury M5e Module To Power Reader In Single Solution UHF RFID Appliance

By Element ID, Inc.

Element ID, Inc. designs, manufactures, and markets high performance readers and specialty industrial automation equipment/systems for the rapidly growing RFID market. The company targets the high performance, fixed position, RFID reader market with a total system solution that is unique in its automation approach. The company is headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Because of the company's heritage in the automatic identification technology market, Element ID recognized that companies wanted to leverage existing infrastructure when moving from barcodes and other auto ID technologies to RFID. It saw an opportunity to make a complete RFID system product, which it calls an appliance. The company's UHF Series Appliances consist of an RFID Reader Automation System Controller Embedded Linux PC in a single box. In providing this total solution, Element ID gives its customers all the benefits of RFID, but without asking them to spend extra money on new infrastructure while maintaining the benefits they are used to with barcodes and other auto ID equipment.

Element's ID's original RFID products were HF products designed from the ground up, but the company's customers also wanted to utilize the UHF standard. According to Jack Romaine, Element ID's CEO, in order to meet these needs quickly, Element ID decided to partner with a UHF RFID technology provider for the RFID reader portion of its UHF Series Appliances and build the rest of the system around that. Element ID evaluated all of the available UHF RFID reader modules on the market and determined that ThingMagic's Mercury M5e module was the best choice based upon its flexibility, reliability and performance. Element ID UHF Series Appliances are targeted at companies needing a cost-effective solution for the tracking of highvalue assets throughout a building, such as IT assets, or lab or hospital equipment.