RFID to SEE in FME

RFID provides the ability to “see” by using the radio waves to detect objects that contain a tiny microchip.  Much of the news about RFID technology boasts the high speed of reading hundreds of tags a second.  The application discussed here is utilizing RFID to see what might not be seen with the human eye.

There is a critical business case in the power industry where RFID can increase safety for the plant and reduce outages relating to human error. The regulations enforce procedures for checking in and out items in restricted zones called FME (foreign material exclusion) areas.  The Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant is working with our PicoX tags to add redundancy to their human procedures by adding RFID to tools and equipment brought into the FME areas.  The return on investment case is pretty straightforward, if there is a tool left behind in a nuclear reactor than the damage is catastrophic.

The business case for the aviation industry to prevent foreign objects from damaging turbines is also straightforward.  At Lockheed Martin manufacturing sites, our partner, CribMaster, has installed five new systems for tool tracking that has brought not only an appreciable financial payback, but also an added measure of confidence in the safety of its products.

Typically, the maintenance crew can’t see the tools and objects that end up causing the damage the engine turbines, reactors, and generators. Tracking tools with RFID gives an extra level of security to detect a stray tool in power generation equipment or an aircraft engine that wouldn’t have been located otherwise.  The ideal scenario is to embed XERAFY RFID tags in tools and parts make foreign object detection more seamless and error resistant.

The topic is too important to sum up in a blog.  Check out our whitepaper focused on the FOD and FME application that includes case studies from our partners Access Solutions and CribMaster. 

XERAFY will exhibit at the 31st National Aerospace Foreign Object Damage (FOD) Prevention Conference in St. Louis, MO August 17-19th, 2010 and future blog about the show.