Xerafy tracks nuclear assets with RFID
SPIE Nucléaire is using passive UHF read-on-metal RFID tags from Xerafy as part of a new automated mobile asset management system at EDF Energy’s Centre Nucléaire de Production d’Electricité (CNPE) nuclear power plant in Fessenheim, France. Xerafy’s MicroX II rugged read-on-metal RFID tags with 10 meter (33 feet) read range are being permanently applied to portable containers that store maintenance equipment at the facility, which is in the Alsace region of France. The deployment was completed in Q3 2014 and the system will be extended to other nuclear power plants. The containers and their contents are subject to numerous internal and regulatory controls for safety and security. The facility operator must know the location of all materials at all times, track and record all container movements and provide regular audit reports. Records were previously kept by manual data collection and entry into spreadsheets. SPIE Nucléaire, which provides facilities management and maintenance services for EDF at the Fessenheim facility, began implementing RFID tracking as part of the NexCap® system for nuclear power plants provided by Nexess, an RFID integrator specialist for the energy and aerospace industries. The metal containers are used to store tools, supplies and equipment. They are moved by forklifts and are used both indoors and outside, so the RFID tags used to track them must be able to withstand the shock and vibration from forklift handling, exposure to weather and provide reliable RFID reads when attached directly to metal.
Real-time tracking system serves construction industry
Trimble® Tracker RFID System combines Trimble ThingMagic RFID technology, GPS, and telematics to offer complete, integrated solution for construction asset location tracking. Seamlessly connecting field and office, solution lets contractors locate and track assets in real-time and then access information in office via Web-based database application (Trimble Asset Manager). Wireless automatic updates to office enable equipment managers to find assets on site or in laydown yard for storage.
Aerospace manufacturer tracks waste for reduction with RFID
Plataine, an American technology firm, introduced its Total Product Optimization (TPO) software suite to eliminate manufacturing inefficiencies. The TPO suite consists of a planning pillar and a production pillar. The planning pillar uses optimizers—WoodOptimizer, FabricOptimizer and FoamOptimizer—that synthesize information about production orders and existing inventory, in order to determine the most efficient course of action. The RFID-based Material Asset Tracker (MAT) provides real-time production tracking of materials, tools or whatever else a user wishes to track. MAT feeds data back into the optimizer software, which updates the production plan accordingly. According to Plataine, a TPO/MAT customer that produces parts for Boeing’s 787 aircraft, as well as for several defense programs. The customer’s particular challenge involved working with temperature-sensitive rolls of composite material. The material must be thawed before being cut, but its usability expires if it remains out of the freezer for a certain duration of time. The company was manually tracking each composite roll’s temperature exposure on paper—and was losing $500,000 annually on expired material in the process. Moreover, the customer was cutting the same parts repeatedly, without regard to existing inventory. The TPO suite determines the optimal production pattern for a given day’s production run, based on existing inventory levels. It then matches that production pattern to the most suitable composite roll.
Speedy printing and testing for Checkpoint’s RFID
Checkpoint Systems has announced that its Check-Net print shops have implemented new printing capabilities enabling them to more quickly print, encode and test RFID labels for apparel retailers and manufacturers employing Checkpoint’s source-tagging capabilities. The company states its newly upgraded Check-Net system is eight times faster than industry-standard thermal transfer printers, and can print and encode one million RFID labels within 24 hours.The Check-Net service produces and delivers retailer-ordered bar-coded tags and RFID tags to item manufacturing sites worldwide, and also includes installation and maintenance services, to facilitate the complete ordering process and ensure that the correct products are delivered at the proper time. Along with the new printing systems, Check-Net offers new processes and quality controls, including individual re-serialization of Electronic Product Codes (EPCs). EPC testers are attached to printers, and Checkpoint follows strict manufacturing processes to ensure that the RFID labels not used are destroyed. In addition, Checkpoint says it uses anti-static packing to avoid RFID chips being damaged.