Consultancy

BB Systems is dedicated to helping our clients achieve implementation of RFID systems to fully meet their expectations.

Assistance in the following areas can be offered:

      • Suitability of RFID for the proposed project

      • Choice of Reader/Tag combination

      • Integration into current applications/databases

      • Development of bespoke software



Case Studies

Machine Workshop Maintenance Recording

An engineering workshop approached BB Systems with a requirement to streamline the recording of safety and maintenance checks on powered and lifting equipment to comply with current safety legislation.

A paper based system was already in place, but this was proving to be an increasingly time consuming method. A spreadsheet based system was considered, but this would still be prone to error. For example, records for similar pieces of equipment could be confused with one another. Noting the unique manufacturer's serial number on the equipment and then searching for it within the spreadsheet would solve the identification problem, but could be time consuming. The identification label could be covered in grease and dust in the workshop environment and might be difficult to find or clean sufficiently to read. Similar problems would arise if bar codes were used as part of a rapid identification system, they would soon become unreadable in such a harsh environment. Hence electronic tagging was proposed.

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Two tagged pieces of equipment within the workshop



Each piece of equipment had an RFID tag attached giving it a unique machine readable identification. A low cost RFID reader was sufficient to perform the reading of the tags and this reader was attached to a laptop running BB Systems ArbTag product. To update the maintenance database, the laptop is wheeled around the shop floor and at each machine the tag is scanned and the record for that machine is updated by the operator.

The new system proved to have the following advantages:

  • Significant savings in time in performing maintenance record updates

  • Encrypted database cannot be accidentally or maliciously modified

  • Records stamped with date, time and user for audit trail

  • Photograph associated with each piece of equipment useful in case of theft/fire for proof of ownership

  • RFID tags would prove ownership should an item be stolen and subsequently recovered

  • Data can be exported to a file suitable for reading into an Excel spreadsheet etc.



Liquid reservoir identification and monitoring

A chemical company had a computer controlled machine for dispensing a variety of liquids. The liquids were stored in plastic reservoirs that were manually placed in the dispenser. It was required that the remaining volume in the reservoir, the type of liquid and its use by date be determined before processing commenced.

One solution would be to bar code the reservoirs to enable determination of the liquid type use by date and have a liquid level monitoring system to record the volume. However, the inclusion of a bar code reader and a liquid level monitoring system within the confines of the dispensing unit would be both difficult and expensive.

The use of RFID tagging proved to be a cost effective and elegant solution.

The reservoirs had RFID labels attached that had read/write capability enabling data to be stored on the tag itself. At the station where the reservoirs were filled, the reservoir volume, liquid type and use by date are written to the tag. At the dispensing machine, when liquid was required from the reservoir, a small RFID reader interrogated the tag on the reservoir to determine that sufficient volume of the correct liquid was present in the reservoir. If conditions were met, the dispenser would extract an accurate volume of liquid from the reservoir. As dispensing of the liquid was so accurate, the computer attached to the dispenser could determine the volume of liquid left in the reservoir and update the data on the RFID tag attached to the reservoir accordingly.

  • Accurate identification of liquid within the reservoir avoiding human input at the dispenser

  • Automatic checking of liquid use by date

  • Current volume within reservoir updated to writeable tag attached to reservoir

  • Significant cost savings against a bar coding system with direct volume measurement







RFID enabled dice




A gaming company came up with the idea of developing the sort of gambling machine that you might find on a pier, in this instance, to tumble a pair of dice with the user of the machine placing bets as to the numbers on the dice when the machine came to rest. The company had tried various methods of achieving this, but with limited success. They approached BB Systems with the idea of somehow incorporating RFID tags into dice in order to determine the orientation of the dice, and hence the numbers showing on the top.

With a combination of ideas from both parties, this difficult problem was solved.