RF Tags, both in the UK and in South Africa, were spawned by Axicon UK. Axicon UK has been at the forefront of barcoding technology since the mid 70s. and, as such, a leading light in the Auto-ID industry. When Axicon started in the mid 1970’s the production of barcode readers was not nearly as easy as it is now due to the fact that the 2 key elements, namely Lasers and CCD devices, were not available (at least not to the non-military market).
Axicon, through a network of relationships built up all over the world, had access to Russian lens technology which sought to overcome some of the limiting patents on Laser technology. The Russians had developed a Light Collimating Lens which they named the “Axicon”. Light Collimation is one of the major attributes of laser light, although the “Axicon” lens did not make the light “Phase Coherent” as would be the case with a real laser. Despite the drawbacks, the “Axicon”, by virtue of its collimation capabilities, was very well suited to the needs of bar code reader manufacturers.
Then the miracle happened! As, so often, stated by Peter Hicks, the chairman (and chief character) of Axicon Auto-ID Ltd, “then GOD intervened and gave us the CD system”. This, of course, spawned all sorts of laser devices. Eventually, the camera industry delivered the CCD devices needed to provide top end bar-code equipment.
“What has this got to do with our logo?”, you may ask! The fact that we had been involved with Axicon for so many years left us with the very simple choice of adapting the Axicon logo as our logo. Examination of the original Axicon logo will show a 3 dimensional mechanical drawing of an “Axicon” lens. This clearly indicates Axicon’s links right back to its flirtation with Russian “Axicon” technology at a time when no other credible method of production existed for “low cost” bar code readers.
RF Tags SA (Pty) Ltd is proud to have adopted the original Axicon logo (slightly simplified) as its logo!