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Intermec History: Over 40 Years of Technology Leadership
Intermec Inc. (NYSE:IN) develops, manufactures and integrates the most sophisticated tools for the fully coordinated supply chain. Our core technologies include RFID (radio frequency identification), mobile computing and data collection systems, bar code printers and label media. Intermec products and services are used by the leading companies of diverse industries worldwide to improve the productivity, quality and responsiveness of their business operations-—because investments in Intermec technology go straight to the bottom line.
Headquartered in Everett, WA, USA, the company is perhaps best known as the inventor of the world's most widely used bar code symbology and for its 154+ patents critical to the development and use of RFID technology.
Intermec patents and innovations also include such familiar devices as the “Smart Battery” technology now common in portable electronics such as camcorders, laptops, and handheld computers; the first computerized cash register; some of the world’s most widely used bar code symbologies; the first pen-based handheld computer running Microsoft Windows 3.1; and even the sort of wireless Personal Area Network that Bluetooth is now based on.
Recent Intermec developments include the first fuel-cell powered mobile computer and the first MEMS-based (micro-electromechanical systems) laser scanning system (see below for more). Fuel cells and MEMS are anticipated to be the future bases of battery and scanning technologies, respectively. And in 2006, Intermec achieved another breakthrough in the development of laser-scan engines—the EX25 scan engine—the first imager to read 1D and 2D bar codes at ranges of 6 inches to 50 feet.
Summary of Intermec Growth and Evolution
Interface Mechanisms was originally founded in 1966. The company adopted the familiar Intermec name in 1982. After 25 years of operations, the company was acquired by Litton Industries, Inc., in 1991. Three years later, Litton spun off its commercial businesses, which included Intermec, to form Western Atlas Inc. in 1994. In another three years, after nearly doubling its revenues, Western Atlas spun off UNOVA, Inc. as a new industrial technologies business.
On January 1, 2006 Intermec Inc. completed its name change from UNOVA, Inc. On January 3, 2006 the company's stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol IN, rather than UNA. The name change reflects the company's eight year transformation during 1997 to December 2005, from a manufacturing systems and technology company focused on the automotive and aerospace industries, to a global leader in mobile computing and automated data collection technology.
The restoration of the Intermec name to the corporation reflects the strength of the brand worldwide.
1966 – Interface Mechanisms formed
1982 – Company renamed Intermec Corporation
1991 – Acquired by Litton Industries, Inc. (NYSE:LIT)
1994 – Ownership transferred to Western Atlas Inc. (NYSE:WAI), a Litton spin-off
1997 – Ownership transferred to UNOVA, Inc. (NYSE:UNA), a Western Atlas spin-off
1997 – Acquired Norand and UBI (United Barcode Industries)
1997 – Acquired radio frequency identification (RFID) semiconductor technology from IBM, Inc.
1998 – Acquired Amtech Corporation's high-frequency RFID business, Amtech Transportation Systems
2006 – UNOVA, Inc. becomes Intermec, Inc., retaining Intermec Technologies as subsidiary
A History of Innovation
If you have browsed the web on a wireless mobile device or just used a laptop computer, then you’ve used Intermec technology. Intermec invented many of the revolutionary technologies that make it possible for businesses to track goods and services throughout their supply chains. Intermec also developed key technology integral to the current consumer and wireless revolution and continues to explore new automated data collection, mobile computing and RFID technologies for future retail, industrial and government applications
Today, Intermec is a leader in global supply chain solutions and in the development, manufacture and integration of wired and wireless automated data collection, RFID, mobile computing systems, bar code printers and label media. The company's products and services are used by customers in many industries worldwide to improve productivity, quality and responsiveness of business operations, from supply chain management and enterprise resource planning to field sales and service.
THE SIXTIES
The first years of the company marked its founding, and development of the Dual Image Tape technology—one of the earliest examples of bar coding on a commercial scale.
1966 – Interface Mechanism founded
1969 – Invented the first handheld order-entry terminal
THE SEVENTIES
The 1970s saw the birth of the pioneering technologies and symbologies of the Automatic Information Data Capture (AIDC) industry—most of which are still in use.
1971 – Invented the first on-demand bar code label printer
1972 – Invented the first computerized cash register
1972 – Invented the “Interleaved 2 of 5” symbology, the standard for marking cardboard boxes in supermarkets
1974 – Invented Code 39, the most widely used alphanumeric bar code symbology in the world
1978 – Devised Code 11, still widely used in the telecommunications industry
1979 – Pioneered the use of handheld computers and on-route invoice printing for wholesale route distributors
THE EIGHTIES
In the 1980s, the company was officially renamed Intermec, and focused on broadening the scope of AIDC technologies through linear imaging, WLAN and direct thermal printing.
1981 – Invented the first portable, non-contact, non-swipe linear imager
1981 – Introduced the first on-demand direct thermal bar code printer
1982 – Company name changed to Intermec Corporation
1982 – Invented now-ubiquitous “Smart Battery” technology
1983 – Formulated Interactive Reader Language (IRL), enabling a PC to edit bar code data entry and perform local prompting without a mainframe
1985 – Pioneered the first integrated-terminal wireless local area network (WLAN) and became a leading supplier of radio frequency systems for LANs
1987 – Developed Code 49, the first 2D stacked bar code symbology
1988 – Developed the first “switched” radio frequency communication backbone to interface seamlessly with an enterprise LAN
1988 – Introduced the first terminal-emulation software to interface with existing enterprise host systems and applications
THE NINETIES
Intermec introduced personal area networks, high-resolution bar code printing, fully automatic digital cameras, RFID and expanded the company through key acquisitions.
1990 – Produced the first spread-spectrum radio-frequency data communication technology approved for sale by the Federal Communications Commission
1991 – Invented the first personal area network (PAN), a precursor to Bluetooth
1993 – Introduced the first pen-based handheld computer running Microsoft Windows 3.1
1993 – Integrated Wide Area Network radios into pen-based mobile computers, thus inventing a new hybrid category of mobile wireless computers
1994 – Introduced the first fully automatic digital camera for non-contact image capture
1995 – Introduced 400-dpi printing technology
1995 – Invented the first handheld two-dimensional matrix-symbology scanner, and coined the term “Imager”
1996 – Developed first multi-radio access point capable of supporting two radio-networking technologies simultaneously
1997 – Acquired Norand and UBI
1997 – Acquired RFID semiconductor technology from IBM, Inc.
1998 – Acquired Amtech Corporation's high-frequency RFID business known as Amtech Transportation Systems
1999 – Established the first complete wireless LAN solution incorporating the IEEE 802.11 standard
1999 – Launched the company’s suite of RFID products and introduced the first combination bar code scanner and RFID reader/writer
THE NEW CENTURY
The pace of new product and technology development quickened as the company developed rugged handheld devices with multiple radios, as well as RFID, MEMS-based laser scanning, and the first near-far auto-focus area imager.
2001 – Developed the first wireless access point supporting the 802.11a standard
2001 – Introduced the first industrial-duty linear imager
2002 – Introduced the first rugged Pocket PC with Bluetooth connectivity
2002 – Pioneered 802.11b wireless bar-code printing
2002 – Introduced the first rugged three-radio device—the 700-series mobile computer
2002 – Introduced Vista-powered miniature linear scan engines, the first with bilinear CMOS sensors using active-pixel sensor technology
2003 – Developed the first fuel-cell-powered mobile computing system with MTI MicroFuel Cells (2004 Popular Science“Most Innovative Product”award)
2003 – Developed the first 802.11g dual-radio access points
2004 – Joined EPCglobal and co-chaired development of the Class-1 Generation-2 UHF standard for RFID
2004 – Chosen to provide RFID systems for the METRO Group’s RFID innovation center
2004 – Introduced the first RFID printer capable of managing multiple protocols—the PM4i industrial printer
2005 – Revolutionized retail mobile computing with the world’s first modular handheld computer—the CN30 mobile computer
2005 – Demonstrated the first EPCglobal Gen2 RFID tags and readers
2005 – Introduced the first two Windows Mobile 5.0 handheld computers
2005 – Introduced the first vehicle-mounted EPCglobal Generation-2 RFID reader—the IV7 vehicle-mounted RFID reader
2005 – Invented the first laser scan engines with MEMS technology (Micro Electrical Mechanical System)
2006 – Introduced the first rugged handheld computer with four radios (Bluetooth, WLAN, WWAN and GPS)—the CN3 mobile computer
2006 – Invented EX25, the first near-far auto-focus scan engine capable of reading 1D and 2D bar codes at distances ranging from 6 inches to 50 feet
