Anyone who has hiked, backpacked, or exercised knows that one well placed blister can put an end to any activity. It doesn’t matter how strong, tough, or rugged you are, that one small weakness will bring down the toughest. The same is true for technology products such as bar code scanning devices. These tools are expected to be tough and rugged. In fact, device manufacturers love to tell you how tough and rugged their devices are — IP Rating, Drops to Concrete, Temperature Range, etc.
But each of these devices has fragile contacts for charging the batteries. Over time, charging contacts become worn, dirty, corroded and damaged leading to poor charging or the prevention of charging. Without charged batteries these devices deliver zero benefit to the enterprise. When this happens, it doesn’t matter what the IP Rating is; how many Drops to Concrete it can withstand; or whether the device could function in an oven or freezer. The unit is dead.
This is not a problem unique to bar code scanners; mobile phones have experienced the same issue. While phones are not designed to be rugged devices most people will tell you that they are indispensable in their daily life. With millions of phones in use, manufacturers knew they needed to eliminate the one small weakness charging contacts were on phones. In 2011 Samsung released its first wireless charged Android™ phone. At that time there were over 92 million smartphone users in the United States. Now wireless charging is used by Samsung, Apple, Nokia, LG and many other manufacturers of consumer devices.
Wireless charging technology delivers many benefits beyond the elimination of charging contacts. It provides improved reliability, accelerated charging times, reduced device maintenance and much more.
Datalogic is the only bar code device manufacturer to offer wireless charging on its hand held bar code devices such as mobile computers and hand held scanners. Don’t let one small weakness bring you down.
