ABS Group and Fujitsu Frontech to sign Memorandum of Understanding for UHF RFID Tags

ABS and Fujitsu Frontech will explore opportunities to expand UHF RFID market.

Tokyo, June 12, 2012 – ABS Belgium NV, a global leader in providing IT solutions to the laundry and textile rental industry since 1987, its subsidiary Textilligence bvba, and Fujitsu Frontech Ltd. provider of state-of-the-art RFID tags and solutions, and its subsidiary Fujitsu Frontech North America have signed a Memorandum of Understanding that will lead to distribution rights for Fujitsu's recently announced High Pressure Washable UHF RFID tag, the WT-A522, and to the exploration of opportunities to expand the UHF RFID market in Europe and the Middle East (EMEA region). The Memorandum was signed at the Belgium Economic Mission to Japan headed by Prince Philippe of Belgium.

Textilligence, which is located in Ravels Belgium, is an authorized distributor of Fujitsu's current WT-A511 laundry tag and will expand its offering to provide the new WT-A522 high pressure laundry tag to resellers, integrators and end-users in Europe and the Middle East as well as providing turnkey solutions that include software solutions, UHF readers, antennas, and Fujitsu UHF RFID tags.

The Fujitsu UHF RFID tag version WT-A511 has been proven to be very robust when applied to garments and linen products. The new WT-A522 tag targets very large laundries with high volume continuous batch washers with high pressure water extractors commonly found throughout Europe and the Middle East. In tests with continuous batch washers with high pressure extraction up to 60 bars, the WT-A522 has shown exceptional reliability and durability.

"This new technology will change the laundry and textile industry as well as the management of linen for the hospitality and healthcare sector", says Anne de Boer, CEO of the ABS Group. "Now with the High Pressure UHF tag from Fujitsu Frontech and our global leading position in providing solutions for the laundry and textile rental industry, we will have a great effect on the use of this new technology."

The new Fujitsu UHF tag has expanded reading capabilities which allows it to be read at 2 meters or more with very high accuracy. For hospitality areas this can open solutions that were impossible until now, such as the reading of tags applied in containers full of linen that arrive at a hotel or leave to an external laundry. Other solutions can be found in the healthcare sector where complete packs of linen can now be scanned-at-once and the number and description of all items are immediately available to the staff with discrepancies being communicated to supplier. This kind of immediate accountability will lead to lower operating costs for both the healthcare provider as well as the suppliers and laundries.

For industrial areas the Fujitsu UHF tags offer additional opportunities, such as the scanning of PPE -protective garments for firemen, factory workers, and emergency personnel. For example, every time the garments are returned from the external laundering, a scan that takes only seconds can determine the life of the garment and whether one of the items is within its useful life expectation. Using this technology may not only save lives but increase the efficiency of such expensive garments.

About ABS Belgium NV

The ABS Group, founded in 1987, is the global market leader in providing business specific software solutions to the laundry and textile rental industry. Close to 500 laundry operations worldwide are using the ABSSolute software as their 'mission critical application'.

ABS customers range for single plant operations to large multi-plant organizations offering their textile services to the healthcare sector, hospitality or the industrial market.

The ABSSolute application is constantly being updated to meet customer's high expectations and respond to the latest technological developments. Recent updates include full UHF RFID compliance.

For more information, please see: http://www.abslbs.com

About Fujitsu Frontech Limited

As part of the Fujitsu Group, Fujitsu Frontech Limited ties people and IT together through the development, manufacture and sale of front-end technology such as ATMs, banking terminals, POS and totalizator terminals, and public display devices. Fujitsu Frontech also delivers related software, system integration and outsourcing as part of its total solutions offerings. The company supports the security sector by offering products incorporating Fujitsu's latest palm vein authentication technology, and is actively involved in the development of key technologies in various fields, with a current focus on RFID systems.

For more information, please see: http://www.fujitsu.com/jp/frontech/en/