industrialpartners supported the company Rapitag from Munich on their way to become one of the most innovative manufacturers of digital-based self-checkout systems. We were responsible for the mechanical development of the revolutionary Spidertag and the production of a small series of 300 pieces for a test installation in a Saturn store in Munich!
The Munich-based developers Alexander Schneider and Sebastian Müller are behind the startup Rapitag. The two have a heart for customers under time pressure. That’s why they have developed an intelligent anti-theft device that gives consumers a new kind of shopping experience.
Namely, Rapitag allows customers to pay for their chosen product on the spot, directly at the shelf, using their smartphone. In a large German electronics chain in Munich, the technology has already found its way into the headphone department. Anyone who wants to buy new headphones here can enjoy the innovative payment technology. The buyer first downloads an app onto his smartphone in a very uncomplicated manner. After registering and paying for the desired headphones, the customer holds the phone up to the product’s anti-theft device. This is then automatically unlocked, remains in the store and the customer can leave the store with the goods.
The cumbersome queuing at the checkout is no longer necessary.
If you are thinking of the self-checkout systems of a large Swedish furniture store and some supermarkets when reading this article, you are not entirely wrong, but: the novelty and innovation of Rapitag is the added value for the customer. How exactly is that meant? Queuing is queuing. Whether a customer is standing in line at a central checkout or a self-checkout is actually relatively irrelevant. Both cost valuable time. That’s exactly what Rapitag wants to help customers save. Mobile payment also offers no real added value for customers – although they can pay with their smartphone, they still have to wait in line at the traditional checkout. This is where the new technology from the Munich-based company comes in. On the one hand, it aims to provide customers with a simple and convenient shopping experience, and on the other, it offers retailers security with its intelligent anti-theft system.
According to their own statement, the founders of the innovative technology are in negotiations with some large European and American fashion chains.
They see the advantage of their invention for retailers primarily in the fact that traditional retail with Rapitag can regain more influence in a market dominated by e-commerce.The introduction of the novel technology can help market their own business in the media as extremely innovative.Both retailers and customers under time pressure can therefore benefit from the Rapitag intelligent anti-theft system.
The innovative project was realized, among others, by the engineering and design office “industrialpartners”.The German company, with offices in Frankfurt am Main, Odenwald and the Chinese port city of Tianjin, accompanies its customers from the first bright idea to the development of the entire product.In the case of the intelligent anti-theft device, the creative minds of “industrialpartners” were responsible for the concept development of the housing solution for the actual tag, the subsequent mechanical development and the production of a small series of 300 of these tags.For the production of the small series, the team, which has won several awards for its design ideas, used the HP Multi Jet Fusion 4200 production system, which for the first time makes it possible to produce components with a density approaching 100 percent, surpassing laser-sintered parts in terms of strength and resilience and also being virtually isotropic. The advantages of high speed and low material costs, combined with extremely low turnaround times, make this rapid prototyping process one of the most cost-effective additive manufacturing processes available and can permanently replace the conventional plastic injection molding process for the production of small series on an industrial scale.
