Oregon-based Henningsen Cold Storage Co. opened its newest cold storage operation in Kent, Wash., a suburb of Seattle. The Kent facility offers both frozen and refrigerated storage space and service for customers. The fully racked facility has 14 truck doors with a refrigerated loading/unloading dock.

DDS Technologies USA Inc. in Boca Raton, Fla., was issued an U.S. patent for its dry disaggregation system (Micrometric Separator Technology) as of Feb. 1. In August, DDS announced it had acquired the patent ownership of its dry disaggregation system on a worldwide basis. Prior to the patent acquisition, DDS USA was the licensee with marketing rights in North and South America and Africa.

Switzerland-based, Sokymat, a world supplier of RFID transponders that recently acquired Cubit Electronics GmbH, will change that company’s name to Sokymat GmbH. The company hopes by combining the German organization under the Sokymat name that marketing of Cubit’s high-frequency products will become easier.

Ryder System Inc., Miami, a transportation and supply chain management solutions company, has expanded its relationship with Owens Corning, a building materials manufacturer, to now include Dedicated Contract Carriage (DCC) services. In addition to the existing full-service lease relationship, Ryder will provide Owens Corning with DCC services that include drivers for its vehicles, fleet management and vehicle maintenance services.

FKI Logistex, Louisville, signed a $24.7-million contract with the U.S. Postal Service last year, making it one of the largest material handling contracts awarded by the USPS in 2004. The agreement covers the design and implementation of a bulk- and tray-mail sorting and distribution system and an airline-receiving concourse at the JFK International Service Center in New York.

The Raymond Corp., Greene, N.Y., is supplying trucks for a working RFID warehouse, or “living lab,” in Alberta, Canada. The joint venture with three other North American companies is helping assess the value, productivity and return on investment of RFID in the materials handling world. RFID requires no physical contact between the pallet or case and the scanning device. That means lift truck operators do not have to dismount or otherwise expend effort and time to record the receipt, movement or placements of loads.

Florence, Ky.-based Blue Star brought together the leading RFID vendors and the channel’s top resellers and integrators for the first RFID Summit in January. At the three-day Summit, BlueStar’s partner SATO America offered full RFID certification training on SATO RFID products to qualified VAR attendees. The RFID Today Summit and SATO’s certification classes marked the first RFID training certification of its kind, making training and RFID products available to value-added resellers on a wide-scale basis.