Zebra, ThingMagic partner for portable RFID printer
27 April, 2009
category: RFID
RFID developer ThingMagic has teamed with Zebra Technologies, provider of auto-ID and printing solutions, to offer a new mobile RFID printer. The Zebra RP4T printer integrates ThingMagic’s M5e-Compact embedded RFID reader module with a lightweight printing device, enabling users to produce long-lasting RFID tags and labels for a variety of applications.
ThingMagic’s M5e-Compact was specifically designed for applications like the Zebra printer: mobile, portable and handheld RFID applications that require economy of power and space. It is based on ThingMagic’s Mercury5e embedded reader module, but consumes one third of the power and is half the size of the original, enabling a variety of uses that require a customizable, yet very small RFID reader solution. The M5e-Compact is EPCglobal Generation 2 DRM compliant, and is optimized for Generation 2 RFID tags.
Other features offered by the Zebra printer include Bluetooth 2.0 and 802.11g wireless connectivity options, accompanied by WPA2 security for enhanced data protection and user authentication. The device offers two printing method options, direct thermal and thermal transfer, to produce long-lasting, element-resistant thermal transfer labels, tags and receipts and RFID labels.
“Rising demand for point-of-application RFID print encoding has driven the development of the Zebra RP4T printer and we are confident that the M5e-Compact RFID reader module will enhance Zebra’s RIFD solution,” says Carolyn Ricci, senior product manager for RFID at Zebra Technologies.