Australia develops integrated RFID forklift

A joint Australian project has resulted in the development of what is claimed to be the country's first fully-integrated RFID forklift.

Peacock Bros constructed the forklift, which is fully operational and pre-configured with intelligent data management programming.

The supplier coordinated with Intermec, Cascade and Alpha Warehouse Solutions to bring the vehicle-mounted RFID technology to market.

Backrest-mounted readers on the unit provide capture of RFID Gen 2 tagged boxes, pallets and products as they are handled by the forklift. This eliminates the need for the operator to get off the forklift to scan the barcodes manually or unpack pallets to read each carton.

Peacock Bros says preliminary tests suggest the system can process RFID tagged items three times faster than the conventional bar coded system.

The RFID readers and antennas are pre-mounted within the forklift backrest, hard-wired to a CV30 computer terminal within the forklift cabin. The terminal is also wirelessly connected to the central inventory management system, providing real-time data between the warehouse floor and the main office computer.

The complete set-up will be on display at this year's Wireless World exhibition in Sydney and Matex in Melbourne.