Low-energy card reader provides sustainable solution

Challenge:
With our customers requiring ever-more sustainable door opening solutions, HID Global needed to offer an improved access control reader to replace its existing product.

Solution:
Using our Sustainability Compass as a guide, the HID Signo range of RFID readers is designed with material and energy reduction in mind – from cutting down on plastics and adhesives to significant energy savings in manufacturing and in its day to day power consumption.

The Signo reader is designed in a much smarter way than its predecessor. A ‘sandwich’ type approach makes manufacturing more straightforward because the parts are simply clipped together, while the drastic reduction in epoxy potting greatly simplifies the manufacturing process.

The reduction in epoxy potting, which is used to bind electronic components, makes recycling the electronics at the product’s end of life much more practical.

Result:
The improved manufacturing method significantly reduces the production steps from 44 to 30, saving energy used in production, including for cleaning and maintenance of equipment.

The Signo reader has an overall product mass 38% lower than its predecessor, reducing the product’s overall carbon footprint, including in its transportation.

Features such as low and high-frequency operation, Bluetooth and Open Supervised Device Protocol are in-built and thus do not need additional modules to enable them.

The Signo range also has lower day to day power consumption, due to improved power supply technology as well as its Intelligent Power Mode energy saving feature, reducing energy consumption when the reader is at rest. Maximum average power use of 0.96W equates to 210kWh over 25 years compared with 332kWh over 25 years for its predecessor.

Learn more about our sustainability work in the Sustainability Report.