What it is — and what it does on your line
The Siemens 6GT2811-4AA00-1AA1 is a UHF RFID reader from the RF600 family, operating in the 902–928 MHz band — the standard North American ISM band for UHF RFID. It reads and writes EPCglobal Class 1 Gen 2 / ISO 18000-6C transponders at up to 6 m range, with the option to extend range further per the RF600 System Manual. Two external antennas connect via RP-TNC ports, with cable runs from 1 m up to 40 m each, giving you flexibility to position antennas around a conveyor or portal without the reader body in the hot zone. Multitag-capable reader handles multiple tags simultaneously. Typical read access per byte is 1 ms; write access is 6.3 ms per byte. The enclosure is rated IP65 — dust-tight and protected against low-pressure water jets. That means it survives washdown cycles on a packaging line or dusty conditions in a warehouse sortation system. The housing is silver/anthracite aluminum and ABS (GF20), and it's silicon-free, so it won't outgas contaminants in sensitive environments like clean-room packaging or electronics assembly.
Mounting and integration — what fits where
Mounts via four M6 screws directly to a panel, or on a VESA 100 pattern (100 mm square, 4x M4 screws). The footprint is 193 mm wide, 252 mm high, 52 mm deep — roughly A4 paper in profile, shallow enough to clear most enclosure doors. Communication is over RS-422 via an M12 8-pin connector, with cable runs up to 100 m from the host controller. Power is 24 VDC nominal (21.6–30 V range). At 24 V, typical draw is 0.395 A, max 0.47 A — light enough that you can share a 24 VDC supply with a small PLC or I/O bank without oversizing. Just watch the inrush; no spec given, but a Class 2 supply with 1 A headroom is safe practice.
Environmental limits and reliability
Operates from -25 °C to +55 °C ambient. Below -20 °C, warm-up time is at least 10 minutes. MTBF is 19 years under typical operating conditions.