Companies are often required by law to conduct regular inspections on safety equipment such as eyewashes, safety showers and fire extinguishers. The companies can fail if they are unable to identify the exact location of the equipment, regardless of how often the equipment is moved or how harsh the environment. CASE developed their RFID-enabled solution to make the inspection process quick and accurate, no matter how difficult the working conditions.

“We considered using bar codes but found they were are out of the question due to degradation and cost of replacing stickers when they became worn and/or unusable,” says Thomas McKane, CEO at CASE. “Outdoor use and use around mostly metal areas makes barcode stickers hard to place and use. RFID tags have proven to be far more versatile and don’t need ‘refreshing’ as they get dirty.”

The CASE solution deploys existing off-the-shelf hardware with custom written software. Tracient Technologies provided the handheld RFID readers, and the tablet PCs are from Motion 5F.