TOSHIBA TEC’s initiative for RFID technology.

Radio Frequency Identification, or RFID for short, is a strategic technology for the future of retail, allowing wireless transmission of information for product identification. This new technology delivers huge advantages to the retailer, including uninterrupted traceability of the merchandise within the supply chain, optimization of order management as well as enhanced product availability.

What is RFID?

It is a method of automatically identifying items using radio waves.  In the case of the B-SX series, the RFID module writes digital information to an RFID tag mounted inside adhesive labels or tag paper, while the printer is printing data on them. The actual RFID tag is a microchip attached to an antenna.  This integrated circuit provides data storage to record and store information.  While this microchip holds data, the antenna enables the tag in order for it to both send and receive data.  The tag absorbs some of the RF energy from the reader signal and then reflects the RF energy as a return radio signal containing information from its memory.  RFID offers a number of advantages over previous ID systems. For example, unlike barcodes, RFID tags don't require "Line of Sight" to the tag reader, while barcode scanners need to "See" to read the barcode. Standard barcodes only identify the manufacturer and product, not unique items, and RFID allows for individual items to have a unique identifier while identifying many items at once.

Toshiba TEC’s RFID Ready Printers

Toshiba TEC’s B-SX and B-SA4T range of printers can be easily updated using an RFID kit; data can be easily updated using an RFID kit; data can then be encoded to smart labels using RFID transponders of different standards and frequencies.  From the industrial product line, a new integrated feature of the B-SX 4 and B-SX 5 printer series is the ‘head-up’ function. This unique feature raises the printer head above the delicate microchip exactly at the moment when a message is being written on a RFID transponder label. This innovative design feature allows longer MTBF (Mean Time between Failures) of the printer, and zero-chance of damage to some of the thicker microchips in the marketplace embedded inside the label.