UPM Raflatac and Technology Solution Partners LLC have jointly developed a curved UHF RFID tag as part of a gas cylinder tracking and production solution called Trakaid CyTrack. The solution interfaces UPM Raflatac Belt RFID tags equipped with NXP's U-Code G2XM chips with a four-part application comprising tracking, interface, mobile and synchronization systems.

The solution seamlessly integrates the production, warehousing and distribution processes. Each gas cylinder is tagged, and data from the tags is automatically read and entered into the system. This leaves no room for data entry errors due to illegible handwriting, poor readability, transcription or transposition.

Trakaid CyTrack was first implemented at Kay Nitro, a manufacturer and supplier of industrial gases including medical oxygen and nitrogen in Maharashtra, India. The company uses the solution to manage cylinder movement during receipt, filling and issue in order to reduce operating costs and improve productivity by automating data entry.

This automation improves overall accuracy, allows an efficient use of assets, enables a faster turnaround of inventory, increases employee and customer safety, reduces cylinder loss and enhances the customer experience.

“The RFID solution helps Kay Nitro improve the visibility of the cylinders’ operational cycle and improve customer-facing processes while reducing untraceable assets,” says Yogendra Chaudhary, manager of Kay Nitro. “We use RFID technology to shorten the production and turnaround time for cylinders to remove costs and down time from our processes. This also results in improved safety, which shows directly on our bottom line.” Kay Nitro implemented the RFID solution into its normal operating processes without any disruptions.

The benefits of an RFID implementation to the gas cylinder industry are measurable. Cylinders represent a highly valuable investment, and productivity is closely tied to how well these assets are managed. Overall, the average increase in productivity from receiving to shipping is 30%.