Data on UK trains automated with RFID

Alstom Transport announced it has deployed Coriel Electronics’ UHF RFID-based automatic vehicle identification solution to track rolling stock on railways. Coriel Electronics, a U.K.-based provider of embedded electronics, has been developing a solution that employs passive ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID tags and sensors to capture and transmit data regarding train carriages, such as their location, and to indicate their identity in a system used for condition monitoring. Throughout that time, the company’s products have been used by its customers to identify railcars and components on those cars requiring maintenance. Once such customer is Alstom Transport, a France-based manufacturer (with global operations) that produces railroad infrastructure and rolling stock, and also provides maintenance services to the rail sector. Beginning this spring, several rail-infrastructure owners will begin undertaking pilots intended to determine if RFID technology can help manage the conditions of cars using their tracks, as well as monitor the speed of a train as it passes readers installed on those tracks. Coriel’s rail automatic vehicle identification (AVI) solution consists of the firm’s DcTrak software, which manages read data, as well as its TrakStar RFID readers, installed at key locations within rail yards or adjacent to rail tracks, and linked to system sensors, such as axle counters and speed-detection systems. The technology is being used, in some cases, to capture the history of conditions related to a specific railcar, or a particular axle on that car, as it passes the reader and sensors.

Fujitsu wins RFID integrated Airbus traceability project

Fujitsu has announced that it has been selected by Airbus S.A.S as its RFID solution provider for the Airbus RFID Integrated Labels project. This project will individually label major aircraft components with an RFID label from the manufacturing stage of all Airbus planes, allowing individual components to be tracked and enabling accurate traceability. This arrangement will enable Airbus and its parts suppliers to accurately trace a component from manufacture to maintenance, to enhance supply chain transparency and visibility of their aircraft parts. As a single aircraft may contain several million separate components, thorough component management is critical in the aircraft industry. Traceability is required for every process that the component is involved in over its several-decade lifecycle, from design and manufacturing to servicing and disposal. Making this an even more complex challenge is the fact that the aircraft industry encompasses parts suppliers, airframe manufacturers, airlines, and MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Over hole), so the tracking process needs to cover multiple companies and even multiple countries, often resulting in waste such as excess parts in inventory. Furthermore, ensuring that each of the numerous components is replaced with the correct article during maintenance is a time-consuming task for technicians. Moreover, while there is an urgent need in the airline industry to reduce costs in order to compete with other forms of transportation, there is also a need to ensure that component-tracking and maintenance is performed safely and securely. To enhance transparency and visibility in its parts supply chain, in 2009 Airbus began using RFID labels on components for its state-of-the-art mid-sized A350 XWB, and expanded their use to all Airbus planes in October 2012. In January 2013, the company decided to move forward on its ‘Airbus RFID Integrated Label’ project, which aims to replace the nameplates that had been used to display component information with highly traceable RFID labels.

Texas engineers IoT connectivity

A new microcontroller from Texas Instruments is enabling engineers to prototype Internet of Things connectivity ranging from sensor gateways to control networks. To help manufacturers of all sizes make use of the Internet of Things in terms of how it can apply to their operations, Texas Instruments has released it newest LaunchPad microcontroller—the Tiva C Series Connected LaunchPad. According to Texas Instruments, this MCU enables engineers to prototype a range of cloud-enabled applications, bringing expansive connectivity to any new or existing LaunchPad-based application. The peripherals on this MCU platform can reportedly run multiple communication stacks simultaneously, allowing engineers to develop network gateways that can connect multiple endpoints to the cloud. Example applications include sensor gateways, industrial communication/control networks and cloud-enabled devices, as well as home automation controllers—in case you want to experiment with this at home before bringing it into the plant. Features of the Tiva C Series Connected LaunchPad include:
• Onboard 10/100 Ethernet MAC+PHY with advanced-line diagnostics for smart identification of cabling issues. Integrated CAN and USB provide high-speed connectivity for the creation of gateway applications.
• The ability to control outputs and manage multiple events, such as sensing, motion, display and switching, using sensor aggregation capabilities with 10 I2C ports, two 12-bit analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), two quadrature encoder inputs, three on-chip comparators, external peripheral interface and advanced pulse-width modulation (PWM) outputs.

GE integrates data collection and analytics

Availability of an integrated software package that combines PTC’s Windchill and GE’s Proficy for Manufacturing Discrete has been announced by GE Intelligent Platforms. According to the two companies, the combined software packages provides a PLM-MES connection that can manage a closed loop of product information between engineering, manufacturing and production. GE is now positioned in the Industrial Internet with respect to its software packages, operator interfaces and alliances with companies such as PTC. Following shortly after the announcement of that combined software package, GE Intelligent Platforms released its Proficy Historian IPC (industrial PC) that reportedly uses the Industrial Internet to connect machines and turn masses of raw data into actionable information. The Proficy Historian IPC integrates PACSystems RXi XP (GE Intelligent Platforms’ most recent high-performance IPC release) and Proficy Historian 5.5. This release marks the beginning of what GE calls a “new high-performance breed of combined hardware and software” products to be released by the company. According to GE Intelligent Platforms, this IPC, which can be installed in harsh manufacturing environments, enables numerous data collection tags managed by Proficy Historian’s patented compression algorithms. These algorithms, according to GE, allow for greater volumes of data to be stored on this IPC’s hard drive than competitive data historians, without impacting the data’s integrity.