Hot in here - RFID Tags in the autoclave
Posted by Patrick Sweeney on Sat, Jul 10, 2010
This week’s blog is from ODIN’s Harold Goldzung:
One of ODIN’s core verticals is RFID in healthcare. There’s been a lot of talk about the space heating up – I don’t mean a lot of new clients (which there are!) I mean autoclave sterilization. We’ve done more than 300 successful RFID projects, and the reason is we create Supremely Satisfied Clients™ that means we leave no technology stone unturned, or tag unheated for that matter. Several of our healthcare clients are interested in using RFID before an autoclave process. With the help of the world’s greatest RFID engineers in the ODIN lab we’ve found some interesting options.
RFID Tags Can Take the Heat and Survive Under Pressure
Over the past couple of months we have been working with some metal mount tags from RCD Technology. Those of you who know about ODIN’s benchmark series may find this fact wholly unremarkable. We regularly test the latest and greatest RFID technologies, including tags, for our independent benchmarks and our over 100 clients. However these tags are different. They have evolved to meet a specific niche, the healthcare industry. RCD has adapted tags from their Sentry M series tags to withstand harsh autoclave and chemical bath sterilization environments.
300 Degrees and Still Working
I have to tell you, the evolution is amazing. RCD has run these tags through hundreds of cycles of autoclave simulations at temperatures up to 300° F. With our guidance one of our healthcare clients has tested these RFID tags to stringent FDA standards for autoclave and chemical bath sterilization processes with no discernable performance degradation. This is remarkable considering how relatively new the concept of metal mount tags is, and then adding the autoclave requirement on top of it.
About two years ago, we designed an RFID asset tracking system for a US Army research laboratory and hospital. I wish we had these tags then. This facility has thousands of high dollar assets that require constant tracking. These assets are all subjected to intense sterilization procedures including autoclave and chemical baths. At that time, it was extremely difficult to locate any tag that would meet the challenges of that environment and continue to read. We couldn’t confidently recommend any tag that would meet their needs. Now two years later with the evolution exhibited by RCD and other metal mount tag manufacturers we could easily recommend a solution that would meet and exceed their needs. This is excellent news for anyone in research and the healthcare industry. Your high value microscopes and centrifuges can be tracked using the same RFID infrastructure as your laptops and mobile phones.
ODIN is due to issue another RFID tag benchmark in the near future. I believe it will include a section on autoclave ready RFID tags. Follow us and our founder Patrick Sweeney (PJSweeney) and Bret Kinsella (bretkinsella) on Twitter for the latest updates. Stay tuned…