INTERVIEW WITH CAEN RFID

CAEN RFID is a leading company in Automatic Identification (AutoID) and it has focused its activities on RAIN RFID technology (passive UHF RFID conforming to GS1 EPC Class1 Gen2 or ISO 18000-63 standards).

Interview with Stefano Coluccini, General Manger at CAEN RFID.

Easy Engineering: What are the main areas of activity of the company?

Stefano Coluccini: RAIN RFID is a wireless technology that connects billions of everyday items to the internet, enabling businesses and consumers to identify, locate, authenticate, and engage each item. Read/write operations on tagged items can occur without line-of-sight, at longer distance and faster speed compared to other passive technologies, thus allowing a cheaper and more efficient process automation.

CAEN RFID has developed its easy2read© and easy2log© product lines according to the RAIN RFID standards. Our team of engineers designs state-of-the-art devices and provides continuous support and feedback to customers. This provides our customers with a better understanding of RAIN RFID technology and our products, enabling their use in a more efficient and performing way.

The quality of our products, the consultancy service at the time of purchase and the after-sales support are among our top priority objectives.

Thanks to our detailed knowledge of all deployment aspects of a RAIN RFID installation, together with our large partners’ network, CAEN RFID is also the ideal contact point to plan and develop outstanding and highly performing RAIN RFID solutions.

The most promising fields in which RFID can provide a quick Return on Investment (ROI) span from Retail, to Pharma and Food, Waste Management, Security and Access Control, Industrial Manufacturing and Logistics. CAEN RFID provide the technology and the technical support to enable the development of best in class RAIN RFID solutions.

CAEN RFID was founded in 2006 as a private-owned Italian company, but its activities started in 2003 as the RFID division of CAEN SpA. It has been the first European company to design, produce and market an UHF RFID reader. It is a partner of the most important associations, including EPCglobal and ETSI, participating to the definition of the standards.

The Management, Technical and Commercial teams are young, dynamic and greatly experienced with everyday RFID applications. All our staff has been previously involved in the experience within CAEN SpA, world leader in electronic instrumentation for Nuclear and Particle Physics. CAEN electronics is always at the forefront of technology and has become a “de facto” standard in the most important Physics labs around the world.

In 2012 CAEN RFID obtained the ISO9001:2008 Quality Certification and in 2017 the transition to the ISO9001:2015 Quality Certification.

This award has driven CAEN RFID to supply products and services of great quality to our customers, who we consider our greatest asset.

In 2015 DATALOGIC became a shareholder of CAEN RFID through the acquisition of the 20% of the company with the purpose of company development and growth.

E.E: What’s the news about new products?

S.C: We recently updated our product offering with a wide family of RAIN RFID (UHF RFID) reader modules based on the newest chipsets on the market to reach the maximum performances in compact form factor.

E.E: What are the ranges of products?

S.C: We design and manufacture RAIN RFID (UHF RFID) readers and dataloggers.

Readers span from modules to be used as components to add the RFID technology to other devices like printers or handheld terminals, to fixed readers to build RFID gates for logistics, mobile readers for applications in mobility, and desktop readers. 

E.E: At what stage is the market where you are currently active?

S.C: RAIN RFID technology market is in the growth stage where big retailers are rolling out projects and other sectors are just starting. 

E.E: What can you tell us about market trends?

S.C: Retail market understood the potential of the technology and are implementing solutions steadily with a huge and fast ROI. Other markets like healthcare, transportation & logistic, manufacturing and others are also growing in adoption, but they are a step behind with respect to retail. 

E.E: What are the most innovative products marketed?

S.C: The skID, the smartphone add-on already mentioned above: 

The new RAIN RFID smartphone add-on is innovative because transform a standard smartphone in a RFID data acquisition terminal suitable for inventories in shop and many other applications.

Also, the newly released modules mentioned above are innovative since they are using the most recent chipset available in the market.

E.E: What estimations do you have for the rest of 2022?

S.C: Even if we are still struggling with the electronic component shortage that is afflicting all the electronic market, we are experiencing a good growth that is confirmed till the end of the year.