NORTHERN APEX
NORTHERN APEX
Northern Apex designs, builds, and integrates complete RFID systems — custom software, readers, antennas, and tags — so you can track your people, materials, and equipment the moment they move.
From choosing the right tag for the material and environment, to antenna placement and read-rate tuning, to the enterprise software behind it — we own the entire read path.
Active or passive, low frequency to UHF, handheld to large-area portal: if it needs to be identified on the move, we've built it. We integrate RFID into your existing systems for a seamless solution, and we're experienced in linking to other technologies — GPS, BLE, biometrics, and more.
The chip your vet scans and the fob that unlocks your building — short range, works through skin and materials.
Every contactless card tap and hotel room key — a quick, secure read at a few centimeters.
Battery-powered tags like your toll pass — read at full speed from many meters away.
Hundreds of tags read at once, no batteries, from across a dock door — this is where we live, and where your ROI comes from.
A complete RFID solution provider — hardware, tags, software, and integration under one roof.
Our scalable, SQL-based RFID suite.
RF site survey, needs analysis, and full deployment.
Fixed, handheld, and large-area combo readers with antennas placed and tuned for reliable reads — even on items in motion.
The right tag for the job — metal-mount, embedded, and harsh-environment options matched to your material and read range.
As a complete solution provider, we engineer our own readers, writers, and portals so each system fits the application exactly.
A ruggedized NEMA 4 industrial RFID reader system — a central control and distribution hub supporting up to eight operator interfaces and their antennas.
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Antennas mounted to a rugged 80/20 frame, installed at doorways and choke points to automatically read every tagged item that passes through.
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Associates and disassociates tags at the desktop — plugs into your computer and feeds directly into POS or a Northern Apex software package.
Spec sheet →Alongside what we build, we pair every solution with proven, industry-leading devices — including Zebra readers and printers we deploy on nearly every project.
An all-in-one integrated handheld RFID reader — reads up to 1,300 tags per second with built-in 1D/2D barcode scanning and NFC, in a lightweight, all-touch Android device built for all-day use.
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An industrial printer that encodes and prints RFID labels inline — so items are tagged, verified, and ready to track the moment they enter your process.
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The flagship fixed RAIN RFID reader — best-in-class read sensitivity and on-reader processing for demanding, high-volume deployments.
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A proven, widely deployed fixed reader — connect multiple antennas to build a large, contiguous read zone with high read rates, even in RF-noisy environments.
Learn more →The same read path drives every operation — across production, warehousing, logistics, tool tracking, and personnel, all from one system.
Track parts, work-in-process, and finished goods through every step on the floor — with real-time visibility into cycle times, bottlenecks, and labor.
Keep inventory accurate without manual counts — automated cycle counting, put-away, and pick verification show what's on hand and exactly where it sits.
Read every tagged item as it crosses the dock — automated shipping and receiving, pallet tracking, and chain-of-custody from door to door.
A proven check-in/check-out solution that already meets the tracking, safety, and accountability requirements of one of the world's most strictly regulated industries — nuclear power. Every item is individually tagged, so you know exactly which tool came back, not just that something was returned. It handles multiple issuance zones, tools from many sources, and non-tagged items, and we regularly combine RFID with barcode and camera imaging for custom builds.
For more information, contact us — or if you're specifically interested in nuclear power generation, contact Alphasource or visit their website.
Track and identify your people — employees, contractors, vendors, and visitors — from the moment they badge in. Control who can enter which zones and when, and keep a real-time record of who's inside your facility right now, not just who scanned in this morning.
Labor tracking ties people to jobs and workcells automatically, so time reporting happens without the paperwork. And when it matters most, emergency mustering accounts for everyone in seconds — including the contractor who arrived an hour ago — instead of relying on clipboards at the rally point.
RFID is our core, but a complete solution often blends technologies. We bring the full Auto-ID toolkit so the system fits your facility — not the other way around.
Their software engineers are extremely smart and very responsive, and the service created real value for us. Northern Apex helped us develop affordable custom solutions that cut the time spent on complex administrative tasks in half. I'd definitely recommend them for results with tangible, quantifiable value.
The real-time screen monitoring of tools, combined with the printable forms, gave our monitors all the information they needed to control their work site.
The time savings using the Northern Apex ToolTrack® system were dramatic.
Practical reading on RFID, Auto-ID, and getting more value from your operational data.
Tell us what you need to track — your people, your materials, your equipment — and our engineers will design the RFID system around it.
Contact our team →Since 1998, Northern Apex has helped manufacturers and distributors identify, track, and manage the people, materials, and equipment that drive their business — with RFID at the center of what we do.
Northern Apex was established in 1998 as a strategic part of a Fort Wayne, Indiana engineering group founded in 1989. Our founding mission was to build a team focused on automating the tracking and delivery of the critical data needed to control and manage personnel, materials, and equipment.
Our team of engineers, technicians, project managers, and assembly specialists shares a single goal: making our clients more productive. We've delivered over 6,000 unique projects for customers across medical, automotive, electronics, energy, and distribution.
Since 1998, Northern Apex has built a reputation for innovation, customer focus, and affordability — recognized as a pioneer and leading integrator in information management and RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology.
We've fielded hundreds of multi-frequency active and passive RFID solutions, and our engineers are recognized subject-matter experts in the physics of RFID across asset management, retail, pharmaceutical, life sciences, RTLS, and manufacturing.
In November 2023, Northern Apex was acquired by HG Automation. Northern Apex is a division of Adaptek Systems LLC, an HG Automation company.
That relationship gives us real horsepower. Our clients get the same responsive Northern Apex team they've always worked with, now backed by significantly more engineering and software capability — and the capacity to take on larger, more complex projects and deliver them faster.
Our family of companies moves well past basic integration — across RFID and Auto-ID, electro-mechanical assembly, controls, and custom circuit boards.
Full turnkey integration spanning RFID and Auto-ID, electro-mechanical assemblies, controls, custom circuit boards, kiosks, and automated production handling.
Our engineers work with you from concept to prototype — drawings, schematics, and bills of materials with clear payback and ROI.
We analyze your critical systems and processes, then design solutions that increase productivity, reduce cost, and maximize what you already run.
RFID, barcode, RTLS, and related technologies applied to supply chain, manufacturing, WIP, warehousing, logistics, retail, and asset management.
A dedicated manufacturer of custom electronic controls — from simple to complex circuit board assemblies, plus the engineering to design them.
An extension of your production floor — assembly and packaging built to fit the enclosure that works best for your application.
To remain an innovative, focused industry leader — providing RFID-integrated components and engineered solutions, with the goal of producing complete turnkey systems for a world-class customer base.
Ask our experts →As a complete solution provider, we design and build our own software — so you get products that are already developed, tested, and deployed in the field, then configured by our engineers to fit how your operation actually runs.
Our software isn't a blank slate you pay to have built from scratch, and it isn't a rigid box you have to work around. These are established, field-proven products that ship ready to go, without the expensive ground-up development costs.
From there, our engineers customize each deployment to communicate directly with your corporate ERP systems and databases. The host application feeds data straight into your ERP and shop-floor database, with a simple control panel that updates your records using the data collected by our encoding and reader stations.
Each one is a working product today — and each one gets adapted to your facility, your processes, and your back-end systems.
Our flagship suite — scalable, flexible, and cost effective. Whether you need automated barcode input or a complete enterprise RFID solution, its SQL architecture delivers value immediately by communicating directly with SAP, Oracle, SQL, and other business systems.
Built specifically for cabinet manufacturers, and proven across doors, windows, furniture, laminates, and casegoods. It gives you insight into material flow from receipt through manufacturing to shipping the finished product.
A proven check-in/check-out solution for in-house tool and asset tracking — already meeting the safety and accountability requirements of the nuclear power industry, and adaptable to tool cribs, armories, item rental, and FME programs.
A turnkey product for detecting and tracking employees, vendors, suppliers, contractors, customers, and other visitors to your facility — supporting labor tracking, access control, zone restriction, and emergency mustering.
We map our data model to yours and write directly into SAP, Oracle, SQL, or whatever system of record you already run — no duplicate entry, no export-and-import shuffle.
Reader and encoding stations feed your production database in real time, so the floor and the front office are looking at the same numbers.
Operator interfaces, control panels, and menus configured around how your team actually works — including kiosks, carts, and touch-screen stations.
The reports your people need, in the format they expect, plus automated alerts on the exceptions that matter to your operation.
RFID, barcode, BLE, GPS, biometrics, or camera imaging — mixed as needed, all feeding one system.
Because we build the readers, portals, and encoding stations too, the software and the hardware are tuned to each other from day one.
Send us the systems you run and the data you're missing, and our engineers will show you which platform fits and what it takes to connect it.
Talk to our team →From readers and antennas to printers and tags, these are the components we select, build, and integrate into complete, working RFID systems — all backed by our own engineering team.
Always-on readers that watch a doorway, a cell, or a whole zone — built to run in rugged industrial environments.
Ruggedized NEMA 4 industrial RFID reader system — a central control and distribution hub supporting up to eight operator interfaces and their antennas.
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Ready-to-field NEMA 4 ruggedized reader with embedded Windows intelligence, display/keypad, and digital I/O for driving conveyors, actuators, and motors.
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Always-on, overhead RAIN RFID readers that automatically monitor a wide area, hands-free, with continuous connectivity.
Spec sheet →Mobile readers and scanners that put real-time identification in your team's hands, anywhere on the floor.
All-in-one integrated handheld RFID reader — reads up to 1,300 tags per second with built-in 1D/2D barcode scanning and NFC.
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High-efficiency handheld RFID reader that brings speed and accuracy to RFID applications.
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Unstoppable 1D barcode capture for the warehouse and manufacturing plant floor.
Spec sheet →Desktop and USB devices for associating, initializing, and verifying tags right at the workstation.
900 MHz UHF RAIN RFID read/write device — USB or PoE powered, with internal or external antenna.
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NFC / HF (ISO 15693), USB-powered device used to initialize and read 13.56 MHz tags.
The right antenna shapes the read zone — from a tight access point to a wide threshold or portal.
Short read-zone antenna that fits easily into small enclosures — ideal for access points.
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Very wide beam width for maximum zone coverage at boundary and threshold crossings.
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Ultra-low-profile circular-polarized flat panel antenna with up to 9 m of read range.
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902–928 MHz dual circular-polarization antenna built for wide temperature ranges.
Spec sheet →Encode and print smart labels inline, so items are tagged, verified, and ready to track from the start.
High-performance industrial RFID printers for demanding throughput.
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Best-in-class rugged mobile RFID printer for work outside your four walls.
Spec sheet →The right tag for the material and environment — our engineers match it to your read range and conditions.
Built to survive the manufacturing environment and keep reporting item location and key data.
Engineered to read on and around metal — perfect for tracking large metal components.
RFID embedded in plastic cards — combine with magnetic stripe for added functionality.
Combine RFID and barcode technologies when a hybrid approach fits the application.
For assets made from wood, plastic, glass, and most other materials.
Small, sturdy tags epoxied into a divot in a tool or device.
Our engineers help you choose the right readers, antennas, and tags for your environment — then integrate them into a complete solution.
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