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Steelmaker
Perfects RFID Technology for Product Tracking on a Global Scale
Other Topics: RFID Solutions
Provider, RFID Productivity
June 6, 2007
ThyssenKrupp Steel, working with Accenture, developed a new radio
frequency identification (RFID) tag capable of enduring the rigors of
slab transport, from a greenfield steel mill in Brazil to rolling
mills in Europe and North America.
ThyssenKrupp Steel is making news with its ambitious plans for the
future — a $3.7-billion carbon and stainless steel mill in Mt. Vernon,
AL. Beyond the melting, casting, rolling, and strip-processing
equipment, one strategy for making the new plant a success involves a
technology that's already at work for ThyssenKrupp, because the
Alabama project is as much about product logistics as it is about
steelmaking and strip processing. |
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The Alabama
complex will produce stainless steel and process imported carbon steel
slabs. About 3 million metric tons/year of carbon slabs will arrive
there from Companhia Siderurgica do Atlantico, a greenfield mill now
under construction at Sepetiba, Brazil, near Rio de Janeiro.
For the new Brazilian steel mill, ThyssenKrupp has adopted a
radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology, in which microchips
attached to the slabs will make it possible to track them from Brazil
to Alabama. Or, to Germany, as ThyssenKrupp also plans to supply about
2 million metric tons/year of carbon steel slabs to its hot mills
there.
Earlier this year, ThyssenKrupp reported success in its pilot trials
of the transport and logistics system, in which 1,000 slabs purchased
in Brazil and marked with RFID tags were delivered to Germany.
According to the steelmaker, once the Brazilian plant is operational
in 2009, about 250,000 slabs each year will be transported from
Sepetiba, either to Germany or Alabama.
RFID technology is capable of collecting and tracking data over long
distances, without need for visual or physical contact, and
transferring the information to IT systems for processing. The
critical components of the system are radio tags ("transponders"), a
reading device with wireless capability, and a network interface.
ThyssenKrupp Steel's RFID configuration uses a microchip storing a
10-digit code that individuates every slab produced. The microchip and
an antenna device are embedded in a plastic label — an RFID tag —
which is encoded and attached to the side of each slab at the shipping
bay in Brazil.
Later, the slabs are "read" by an RFID reader, which emits a
high-frequency electromagnetic wave. Energy from the wave activates
the antenna coil in the tag and generates a current. The current
activates the microchip, which transmits its information back to the
reader. Then, the data is transferred from the reader to the network
managing slab traffic, where all the data is stored on steel grade,
slab dimensions, customer, and the product's destination.
Identification will take place several times between the slabs'
departure from Brazil and rolling at whatever location, and RFID makes
it possible to update the logistics record frequently, automatically,
and reliably. ThyssenKrupp says the test slabs unloaded in Europe took
less than three minutes per slab for unloading, reassignment, and
reloading to barges or railcars for delivery to the rolling mill site.
In the test, some of the steel was transported by rail to
ThyssenKrupp's hot mill in Bochum, Germany, while others were shipped
by barge to Duisburg-Walsum. At that point, again, only a few minutes
was allocated for each loading stage.
According to ThyssenKrupp, the advantage of the RFID system is its
range. In the ports, the system can identify slabs even as they are
suspended from gantry cranes — which have their own readers
permanently installed. In fractions of seconds, the crane operator
receives information indicating where to unload the slab. For the
final slab reading, just ahead of the hot mill reheat furnace, fixed
RFID readers are in place to ascertain that the right slabs is about
to be processed.
Prior to the RFID trials, tests were run to determine how durable the
RFID tags would be versus salt water, extreme temperatures, ice, and
rough handling during transport. The RFID technology remained viable
through it all, which gives it an edge over optical image recognition
systems. That technology is unreliable for the ThyssenKrupp plan,
because the readings are disrupted by dirt, scale, or snow/ice on the
slabs. In addition, with its ability to read data at a range of up to
10 meters, RFID technology has an advantage over barcode systems, in
which the scanners must be positioned much closer to the labels in
order to read the data.
According to ThyssenKrupp, slab logistics is a new application for
RFID. Reading data from metallic products has been possible using RFID
technology for only a bit more than two years. (Previously, there were
problems with electromagnetic waves being reflected from the metallic
surfaces.) Working with Accenture (www.accenture.com), the consulting
and technology services group, ThyssenKrupp solved the shortcoming
using "flag tags," which are offset from the product surface, for use
on steel slabs. Working with the manufacturer of the flag tags,
ThyssenKrupp Steel and Accenture developed a modified variant and
optimized it for the requirements of slab transportation and
logistics. |
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