1,947 research outputs found

    UHF-RFID solutions for logistics units management in the food supply chain

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    The availability of systems for automatic and simultaneous identification of several items belonging to a logistics unit during production, warehousing and delivering can improve supply chain management and speed traceability controls. Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a powerful technique that potentially permits to reach this goal, but some aspects as, for instance, food product composition (e.g. moisture content, salt or sugar content) and some peculiarities of the production environment (high moisture, high/low temperatures, metallic structures) have prevented, so far, its application in food sector. In the food industry, composition and shape of items are much less regular than in other commodities sectors. In addition, a wide variety of packaging, composed by different materials, is employed. As material, size and shape of items to which the tag should be attached strongly influence the minimum power requested for tag functioning, performance improvements can be achieved only selecting suitable RF identifier for the specific combination of food product and packaging. When dealing with logistics units, the dynamic reading of a vast number of tags originates simultaneous broadcasting of signals (tag-to-tag collisions) that could affect reading rates and the overall reliability of the identification procedure. This paper reports the results of an extensive analysis of the reading performance of UHF RFID systems for multiple dynamic electronic identification of food packed products in controlled conditions. Products were considered singularly or arranged on a logistics pallet. The effects on reading rate and reading zone of different factors, among which the type of product, the number and position of antennas, the field polarization, the reader RF power output, the interrogation protocol configuration as well as the transit speed, the number of tags and their interactions were analysed and compared

    Radio frequency identification technologies for livestock management and meat supply chain traceability

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    Barge, P., Gay, P., Merlino, V. and Tortia, C. 2013. Radio frequency identification technologies for livestock management and meat supply chain traceability. Can. J. Anim. Sci. 93: 23–33. Animal electronic identification could be exploited by farmers as an interesting opportunity to increase the efficiency of herd management and traceability. Although radio frequency identification (RFID) solutions for animal identification have already been envisaged, the integration of a RFID traceability system at farm level has to be carried out carefully, considering different aspects (farm type, number and species of animals, barn structure). The tag persistence on the animal after application, the tag-to-tag collisions in the case of many animals contemporarily present in the reading area of the same antenna and the barn layout play determinant roles in system reliability. The goal of this paper is to evaluate the RFID identification system performance and determine the best practice to apply these devices in livestock management. RFID systems were tested both in laboratory, on the farm and in slaughterhouses for the implementation of a traceability system with automatic animal data capture. For this purpose a complete system for animal identification and tracking, accomplishing regulatory compliance as well as supply chain management requirements, has been developed and is described in the paper. Results were encouraging for identification of calves both in farms and slaughterhouses, while in swine breeding, identification was critical for small piglets. In this case, the design of a RFID gate where tag-to-tag collisions are avoided should be envisaged. </jats:p

    Plant layout and pick-and-place strategies for improving performances in secondary packaging plants of food products

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    The aim of secondary packaging plants is to pick food products from a conveyor belt and to place them into boxes. The typical configuration of these packaging plants consists of a set of sequential robot stations, performing pick and place cycles from one conveyor to another parallel one, which transport the products and the boxes to be filled. Depending on the relative movement of the two conveyors, the plant operates in co-current or counter-current flow configuration. Undesired perturbations in the product flow rate from its nominal value can lead to critical events, i.e. unpicked product at the end of the first conveyor or not-completely filled boxes. Even if the structures of co-current flow and of counter-current flow plants, are very similar, their behaviour in non-nominal or perturbed conditions can be significantly different. The aim of this paper is to deeply investigate the behaviour of these two kinds of secondary packaging lines, evaluating their performances in the case of different pick and place strategies, using discrete events simulation techniques. Results show to which extent the different proposed control strategies can improve the performances of both co-current and counter-currents plants and, in particular, how co-current plant layouts can achieve performances which are equivalent to, or perhaps even better than, those that can be obtained with a counter-current plant layout, that cannot be freely used since it has been patented. The simulation tool, control algorithms and results presented can help packaging plant designers for choosing the most appropriate solutions and for properly sizing the plant. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
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