Checkpoint Systems, Inc, the US supplier, has announced its new Zephyr 2 RFID label, certified by the University of Arkansas’ ARC Center for item-level tagging of all apparel categories in the US and Europe.
The RFID label has an integrated UCODE 7 chip from NXP Semiconductors, and comes with optimal read/write sensitivity for counting and encoding. With a range of apparel applications, it is the company says for retailers deploying large-scale. In an early indicator of the expected demand for Zephyr 2, pre-launch orders have already been placed for hundreds of thousands of these RFID labels to be tried by a large European retailer this year.
The Zephyr 2, offered with a label size of 54x34mm, is for use with all of Checkpoint’s RFID products, including its RFID EAS Overhead Solution, the EVOLVE Exclusive E10 pedestal. It has received certification from the University of Arkansas’ ARC Center for Categories A (denim), B (polybagged apparel), C (boxed items) and D (hanging apparel) for use in North America, and Categories I (apparel) and K (apparel) for European apparel items. This will allow our customers to use the same tag globally across many categories, streamlining their source tagging operations.
Justin Patton, RFID Research Center — Managing Director University of Arkansas, said: “As international item-level RFID adoption continues to grow, it is crucial for retailers and brand owners to have access to ‘global’ RFID tags that can perform equally well in retailers across the world in various frequency ranges. Checkpoint’s U7 Zephyr 2 is one of the first generation of these new global tagging solutions approved in multiple apparel and hardline categories for the US and Europe.”
According to Umesh Cooduvalli, Checkpoint’s senior director, RFID Consumables: “Major apparel retailers have expressed a strong interest in the capabilities that the Zephyr 2 offers, particularly those with broad apparel product lines with large-scale deployment needs. We’re excited that this product is already being used in RFID pilots and we look forward to scaling up supply for future deployments.”
