Steam Trap Sensor Provides Active RFID Without Battery

Battery-free wireless sensor technology startup PsiKick has released a product leveraging the energy of steam passing through steam traps—which capture condensation before releasing steam into the atmosphere—to power sensors that monitor the health of those same traps, then transmit that data to gateways and, ultimately, to cloud-based software via RFID technology. The resulting data helps manufacturing facilities and other companies identify how well steam traps are operating. Several hundred PsiKick sensors are now being piloted by approximately five companies, ranging from the University of Michigan—where David Wentzloff, PsiKick's co-founder and co-CTO, is an electrical engineering professor—to a consumer goods manufacturer and chemical refinery.